Forum - View topicAnime that transcends its own source material?
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nobahn
 Subscriber Posts: 5146 |
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So I just got finished watching Ga-Rei-Zero (great show – lousy dub by Funimation) and the comments about the manga (see here, here & here) made me realize that I wanna start a thread on this topic. I haven't read the manga, so instead I'm gonna write about another anime.....
King of Thorn I just loved the movie – I rated it 11/11 – and so I was very curious about the manga. I was startled by just how disappointed I was by the ending* – it was no Raiders of the Lost Ark – and I am invariably influenced by how something ends. So: Have you ever come across any anime that transcended its own source material? *Particularly the last panel; personally, I think that that the manga-ka wrote himself into a corner. In the comments to the movie, the director commented that that he had to submit something like 6-7 drafts before the project was green-lit. |
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Vaisaga
 Posts: 13239 |
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Well I suppose a current example would be Tales of Zestiria the X. The original game has certain issues the anime is going out of its way to rectify.
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11586 |
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Rage of Bahamut Genesis was born of a trading card battle game I think, but you'd never know it. I think (don't quote me) that the characters were mostly anime original.
Gungrave was a videogame, which I never played, so I don't really know how it stacks up, but it never felt like a game to me, as so many other ports do. I'm not really qualified to speak to this question. 
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NearEasternerJ1
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Gundam Unicorn. The animation and visuals alone put it above the original books.
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phia_one
Posts: 1661 Location: Pennsylvania |
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I liked the anime for Emma A Victorian Romance better than the manga. I liked how it added more Hans/Emma teasing, but I felt the ending was better. spoiler[Given what we know about Viscount Campbell, I thought it was more believable that he would try to run the Jones' business/way of life into the ground instead of forcing Emma to run away.]
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lesterf1020
 Subscriber Posts: 295 Location: Trinidad and Tobago |
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There are a handful of anime that I liked better than the manga source.
Kurozuka. The manga is a confused mess of ideas and plot twists. Characters are inconsistent and some characters are introduced, given lengthy story arcs and then suddenly killed off leaving no impact on any of the plot. It pretty much ambles along until it gets a sudden ending. The anime is a lot more focused and streamlined and the characters quite consistent. It also has gorgeous art design and animation and a head scratcher for an ending. Eden's Bowy. The manga is a battle shounen filled with all the usual cliches. There is no moral ambiguity. The good guys are good and the bad guys are irredeemably sadistic and evil. They are so evil that they frequently harm their own interests just to be mean. The anime is a star-crossed lovers story. Everyone both good and bad have understandable reasons for their actions and there is a lot of moral grey. They are almost two completely different stories that share the same characters, setting and a few plot points. Pupipo! The manga is great but I found the anime short to be a lot more funny and touching. Manyuu Hikenchou Basically the manga takes itself way too seriously. The anime realizes this is all silly nonsense with large boobs and just has fun with it. |
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zawa113
 Posts: 7358 |
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As someone who reads a lot of manga, the first one that came to mind for me was Mushishi. The anime slowed down the manga's pacing quite a bit, but the anime is the one with the better pacing. When you have something heavily dependent on atmosphere, slowing down the pacing (but to a realistic degree, each story fit in an episode, after all) helps it seep out more for the audience to enjoy. Add with this the fantastic visuals (please re-release this on bluray?) and the soothing music, and the manga is actually easily inferior by comparison. It's also the sort of series where anime original episodes would fit in very well, since there's no overarching story (though the first anime series only used stories from the manga).
I can also think of two anime that don't necessarily exceed its source, but definitely add to it in a way that you really need to experience both. First, Planetes, the manga was more focused on plot and just the two leads (Hachimaki and Ai). But the anime added more characters and actually gave the whole thing a more human sense to it that I really enjoyed. It made the trash collection team a lot more fun to be around. I feel like they both fulfill a good purpose for the overall story, so I would recommend them both (though the manga is easier to get at this point, thanks to Dark Horse). And the other is Cromartie High School. More people are familiar with the anime (and Discotek got it more recently), but they often can tell the same jokes differently, using their mediums to their advantage. The manga has panel and page-perfect timing. One example in the manga is when the guys are trying to help Takenouchi get over his transportation sickness. So they start with easy things, like a bike. But then, you turn to the last page and BAM! spoiler[they're on a damn roller coaster!] but the way the pages were used, the punchline delivery was spot on perfect. But the anime knows perfectly how to waste 11 minutes with seeing idiots attempt to play baseball out in the middle of the deep woods too. Add to that the most perfect comedy dub in existence (seriously, if you have not heard this dub, you are missing out!) and the anime comedy is just as superb. Of course, you also need the manga because the anime will directly tell you that it's leaving things out that are in the manga (like ep 1's "terrible thing Kamiyama did", that is in the manga). Also, the manga is 19 volumes long (12 were released in English, I'd love to see those last ones released!) and has a lot more material to it (know how that guy hits the pillow in the anime's OP? That a manga only event), including teachers! Yes, there are teachers at Cromartie High School (I don't think they show up until vol 11 or something. If you want to know what they do: spoiler[they talk about stupid stuff while pretending it's deep, just like the students do, except they do it in the teacher's lounge instead of the classroom]). Of course, the anime also has the anime only spoof of the gender swap episode, so that's very well worth seeing. The anime also does a lot of bizarre visual gags too. They're both really worth your time, for both similar and dissimilar reasons. Still, I usually stick with the manga most of the times. A faster pace works better for me on things like shonen and romance, while for things you want to think on and enjoy the atmosphere, those are where the anime is likely to be better than the manga, imo. If the anime and manga take different sides of the same coin, then you get some really good stuff. I'm still waiting to experience the Rose of Versailles manga (dammit, Udon, hurry up with that! I thought I'd b e reading volume 2 by now!), but I also enjoyed the Dear, Brother anime a lot, and that was based on 3 volumes of manga, so sometimes, expanding the drama can be a good thing too (I think it's why so many people prefer the 90s Sailor Moon over the manga, it takes time to establish the characters better) |
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Gatherum
 Posts: 773 Location: Aurora CO |
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I think most everybody knows this one, but the original anime adaptation of Fullmetal Alchemist stood on its own as a solid rendition during an era when a lot of anime were either deviating from their source material, or plagued with excessive filler. I guess it was good enough for Funimation to release a big, expensive limited edition Blu-ray box for it, which I found surprising, considering it was essentially superseded by Brotherhood.
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Heishi
 Posts: 1346 |
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For me, definitely Kannazuki no Miko.
For everything the manga got wrong, the anime got RIGHT! FMA. I would go as far as to say that I liked the 2003 series better than the original source material. and funnily enough DBZ. Yes, I know there are filler episodes. Yes, but some of them are a hoot to watch. Like the puzzle solving episode with General Tao. Special mention also goes to Ghost in the Shell. |
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Woomy
 Posts: 110 |
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While it's not technically an anime adaption, and just one particular part I'm talking about here, I think the ending of the live action Death Note films were better than the original anime/manga without a doubt.
I mean, overall the films in general are just decent and not much to write home about, (the only truly great anime adaption I've seen is the Rurouni Kenshin trilogy) but it should have always ended between Light and L, and the films take liberties with the plot to actually craft a rather ingenious way to make it so. It's a lot more satisfying. I even like the whole aspect of Light's dad actually discovering his son was the one they were hunting all along instead of dying before all that. Does this technically count as something transcending the source material? At least to an extent because like I said, it's just the way they ended it that's actually superior. But to answer the question more literally, the only one I can think of is maybe Elfen Lied. I understand not many would agree since the show's short 13 episode run doesn't dive in to the tons of story within the original manga series, but I guess I dig it because it's so open ended. It's a contained tale that doesn't drag on longer than it should with a bittersweet ending that's left up to interpretation. Kind of fitting I guess. But that's just me. I don't feel like I need to have everything explained or all things wrapped up with a nice little bow with Elfen Lied. It does depend on the show though because I get pretty annoyed with anime shows that start coming out with episodes long before one is even complete so they usually just succumb to very anti-climatic, and rather poor conclusions. But I guess that's the only one I can actually think of off the top of my head at the moment. |
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Issac Sarrowtail
Posts: 100 |
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Believe it or not, I feel that Sailor Moon is one of these.
I know there are quite a few fans that live by the manga, me? It's the 90's anime. There was more comedy, there was more interaction with characters, they gave us some out right memorable moments that can't be found in the manga (The death of Nephrite, The situation with the Spectre Sisters and their redemption) and to this day we still laugh at the stupidity of it's failures (Really? Kissing Cousins? Of all the things... or the joke of "Talent" among the fans). Sailor Moon was never prefect, but one of the the biggest thing that made it enjoyable was the changed made to it. Partly due to the format, partly to skirt censors, and partly just because. It's been almost 20 years, and it just sticks in the mind... part of me was hoping that Crystal would amalgamate the two some how, but that is too much to ask. Maybe some time latter, we will get something that address the gulf that remains between the 90's anime and the Manga, because between the two of them is a story that will likely last. |
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Jose Cruz
 Posts: 1796 Location: South America |
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K-On! Exceptional slice of life series adapted from a mediocre manga. The show has a lot of great stuff that wasn't in the Manga while excluding the bad stuff from the manga. Perhaps one of the best examples of adaptations surpassing the source material.
Already mentioned Ghost in the Shell, Mamoru Oshii's movie is amazing and indeed can be regarded as superior to the manga which is a classic by itself. One thing is that I usually don't have the habit of reading the original source material for most of the stuff I watch so it's hard for me to compare. For example, From the New World is a really great show but I haven't read the novel so I cannot compare it. Same with FMA, Clannad: After Story, Re-Zero, HxH 2012 and other great Anime shows. Last edited by Jose Cruz on Sat Mar 25, 2017 12:13 am; edited 2 times in total |
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yuna49
 Posts: 3804 |
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I've obviously never seen Nakashima Kazuki's stage play that was adapted into Oh! Edo Rocket, but I doubt it could have been as effective as the anime. The adaptation by Aikawa Shou and Mizushima Seiji takes full advantage of the ability of animators to portray just about anything their fertile minds can imagine. I was frankly surprised to learn Rocket was originally written for the stage since there are so many sequences in the anime that would be nearly impossible to portray as effectively in a theater.
The adaptation does harken back to its theatrical roots from time to time. One example is in episode seventeen when Torii, the South Edo Magistrate, ascends on a platform out of a chimney and is lit from above by a spot. The anime version of Bartender has these types of theatrical effects as well; I don't know if they are in the original manga or not. |
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louis6578
 Posts: 1875 |
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In general, I'd say any manga where music is a huge factor (Your Lie in April, BECK, and even things where dialogue is important) will inevitably have a better anime than manga.
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mbanu
 Posts: 160 |
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1. Bunny Drop. Kanta Kamei and Taku Kishimoto's transformation of a kinda creepy loli-incest manga into a completely clean and touching slice-of-life about the struggles of being a single parent is nothing short of miraculous.
2. One Punch Man. Go read the original webcomic, and be amazed. 
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