Since the introduction of visual media, there has been a battle for the majority between what can be read and what can be watched. Out of all the mediums that exist, none are more directly related than anime and manga.
And from that stems the question; which one is better? Obviously this is all based on opinon but the general consensus of people that enjoy both tend to side with manga. I find this interesting for a number of reasons. In this age of short attention spans, you would think a fully visual medium would overtake one that lies in between the world of books and television. I, for example, am not a reader. I cannot stand reading novels and anything that doesn't have pictures bores me. Call me close minded or imagination impaired (weird since I'm a writer) but books are not my thing.
I would personally side with anime. Seeing something in motion is much cooler than seeing it stationary. Not only that but sometimes scenes can be confusing when not seen in motion. I can't count how many times I've had to re-read a page just because I couldn't figure out what the hell was going on. When the scene is animated, I have a much easier time figuring things out and it doesn't break the mood like it does in manga. Then of course we got voice acting and color and the unmoving scene comes to life. Yes, I'd say anime is infinitely better than manga.
If only it were that simple. Anime adaptations rarely stay true to the source material, which causes inconsistencies and maybe even a premature ending. Outside of the big series, an anime will almost always end before the manga finishes, giving us an incomplete story. This is very annoying and forces the person to seek out the manga. To this day, there are many scenes I dream of being animated. The way I see it, if the anime is just going to be cancelled, don't show it in the first place. No reason to give everyone blue balls.
Then of course we have filler. When an anime gets too close to the manga, they have to stall so the manga can get further ahead. For long running series like those that exist in shonen, fillers are pretty much guaranteed. While I will say that not all filler is bad, most of it is. After all, the animation studio has to make stuff up with no direction from the actual mangaka (except in rare cases). Sometimes plot holes will arise that just end up being ignored later.
As the original medium, manga will always have an advantage. With almost all anime being adaptations of manga, manga will always be the dominant one, requiring the anime to abide by its will. While there are some VERY GOOD exceptions that started out as anime (Gurren Lagann, Cowboy Bebop), it is still too early to say anime can get by without manga.
What I really want is a long running anime series that is not based on a manga. I mean one that ends up being like shonen length. Something that goes on for multiple years. When something like that happens, I think we can safely say anime can hold its own against manga (if this has already happened, someone tell me so I don't look like a total tool).
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment