Intro: Manga and anime are both forms of Japanese art that have taken the world by storm. While many people enjoy watching anime, not everyone knows that manga is the source material for many popular anime series. While there are some great anime adaptations, many mangas are also better than their anime counterparts. Here is a list of the top four manga better than their anime adaptations.
Berserk:
Berserk is set in a medieval Europe-inspired dark fantasy world where adventurers, mercenaries, and bandits make living hunting monsters. Guts is an orphaned mercenary who joins the ‘Band of Hawk’ to fight for the King of Midland. After he helps win the battle against an army of rebels known as the Tudors, he is promoted to captain and recruits a young thief named Puck as his company’s mascot. But Guts begins to question the motives of the coldhearted king he serves. Created by Kentaro Miura, Berserk has been serialized in Young Animal Magazine since 1989, with over 40 million copies sold thus far! The manga series is dark with lots of gore, nudity, and sexual content; very mature. But you can watch the anime up to a certain point and then read the manga henceforth.
Fullmetal Alchemist: brotherhood:
The protagonist of this story is a teenage boy named Edward Elric. The Elric brothers have been searching for a way to bring their mother back from the dead. They find a clue in their father’s abandoned research notes and believe they have discovered the key to doing so – a legendary stone known as the Philosopher’s Stone. Enlisting the help of a family friend, they embark on an audacious journey to find the fabled stone. Ed and Al’s recklessness soon attracts the attention of the military – including the sadistic Colonel Roy Mustang, who tries to help them get their bodies back. You can either watch Fullmetal alchemist, independent of the manga, or Fullmetal alchemist: brotherhood, which is made entirely of manga. You can watch either of them by downloading it from thepirateproxybay.com, it only consists of 64 episodes, or you can read the manga, which is a piece of art.
Tokyo Ghoul:
A psychological horror manga that tells the story of Ken Kaneki, a shy and kind-hearted college student who is attacked on the way home one night. He is almost killed but manages to survive at the cost of being partially transformed into a ghoul. Ghouls are characters that have mutated their bodies to feed on human flesh, which has given them heightened senses and supernatural abilities.
This forces Ken to join the ghoul detention center to protect humans from ghouls, who he is now one of. The anime was a bit difficult to get into, but it did an adequate job conveying the horror aspect of this story. However, there were some problems with pacing, and towards the end, it started to become more monster of the week than continuing the main storyline, which was disappointing. On the other hand, the manga is way better in terms of character development, total immersion into Ken’s situation, and, lastly, tension building that leads to a rather explosive conclusion. It’s certainly not perfect, but it does deserve some credit for improving upon its anime counterpart.
A Silent Voice:
This is a real tear-jerker of a manga. The story follows Shoya Ishida, a cruel bully who gravitates to the bottom of the social ladder after transferring schools. After a fight with a deaf classmate, Shoko Nishimiya, he feels great regret and tries to make amends for his behavior as she moves away from the school. It’s a powerful story that tackles the themes of bullying, friendship, and forgiveness.
The anime adaptation changes things up for some reason (which is odd because the studio has done such a fantastic job on other adaptations) and shifts focus to Shoya’s current-day struggles as he deals with his guilt. While it’s still a great watch, the manga does a better job covering the hardships and redemption that Shoya goes through. While the art style in A Silent Voice is decent, it isn’t anything to write home about. On the other hand, the anime isn’t even comparable to its manga counterpart due to its horrific animation quality that makes everyone look like they are covered in jagged edges and have no color or substance whatsoever. While this adaptation was trying hard to be an emotional masterpiece, it couldn’t accomplish this due to its lousy art style.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, manga is the original content that the artists create from their blood and sweat, while anime sometimes takes that content and makes its twists or changes to appeal to a different audience. The art style of the adaptation is usually never as good as the original artist’s style, but there are exceptions. It is important to remember that if you enjoy an anime series, looking into its manga counterpart will probably also please you immensely.
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