anime vs. manga

[RoastedTwinkies]

Which do you prefer? Why?

I'd say that I prefer manga because it's small, and portable- you can take it anywhere with you- on a plane, on the road in a car, a library, wherever! The nice thing is that you can see/read a series as it was originally intended and you don't need expensive laptops or portable DVD players to read them. Lastly, I prefer them because they last much longer than DVDs or VHS tapes. I believe that mangas that are well cared for can hold up to 150 years.

Not many people know this, but the downside with DVDs (also CDs, VCDs, anything that that type of disc format) is that they only have about a 20 year life span. No matter how well cared for your DVDs are, they will rot from the inside out. This happens even faster in heat or humid areas. I did not know this until recently, through an article on msn.ca. I cannot remember the link at the moment ^^

So which do you prefer? Manga or anime?

[Tiff]

Hrm..I'd have to go with anime. I do love manga, but I love the music, sounds, voices, and animation of movements that comes with anime. Also, a lot of times some manga are far too wordy, and end up becoming confusing, or sometimes it's so wordy it makes me lose interest.

Sometimes certain things cannot be conveyed as well without some sort of animated action...such as crying and pleading with a loved one, or the humor of a character spinning around, going "ILLA ILLA ILLA ILLA PALLA PALLA PALL PALLA...ZZOOO!", or the magic of a battle in sailor moon.

[Dinozore]

Manga. Anime messes stuff up too much and often omits portions of the manga's story (sometimes small ones, sometimes huge ones...).

[DreamEmpress]

This is tough. I love both. Anime is really cool in the fact that you can sit back and watch and experience everything. However, I do love manga more. it's not so much the portable thing as it is the story. So many of the manga I've read are really indepth in story and it's just so easy to get caught up in. The art is beautiful and the stories are complex and even side stories are neat.

That and I feel the endings are better. Like in CCS when Sakura and Li-kun are saying goodbye and he gets a winged teddy bear from her. He's asking if he can name it after her and she asks if she can do the same for hers. Then you see in the next scene them older and reunited. It's just so beautiful. I liked the ending in the anime, but it just didn't seem as emotional...even in the 2nd movie. This is actually my same complaint about Sailor Moon's ending. I love the wedding scene, but they don't go there in the anime. I guess you can't have it all.

Anyway, I guess I'm just a reader at heart.

[ParaKiss_Groupie]

I'd have to go with manga. Though I do love me some anime, the artwork and story of manga overpowers it to me. I just prefer manga. And the fact that it's about $20 cheaper doesn't hurt either. ^^;;

[Starscream]

It's not easy for me to choose between these two. On the one hand, most manga have a LOT better art than the corresponding anime, has a good, compact story with little to no garbage filler, is a lot more portable, and overall tends to be a lot cheaper than the cartoon version. On the other hand, as many have pointed out, the anime has a wonderful musical score, dynamic animation (duh) of dramatic scenes, and voice-acting that elicits a lot more emotion than reading can tend to. In the end, it depends on the series, I think. I like the Sailormoon manga over the anime, for example, but the Yuu Yuu Hakusho cartoon is better than the comic.

[LadyFlameSniper]

Let's see usually I prefer the manga stories. for example BSSM's manga story and art are far better than the anime's IMO. but I like watching anime more because I'm not a fan of reading generally. The only things I do read are manga and some magazines (not anime ones). Anyway as Tiff said anime comes to life more with the voices, music, and animation etc. So I end up watching anime more than reading manga.

[Sailorasteroid]

I've honestly never read manga, outside of the first two volumes of Sailormoon. I'll read the rest when and only when I can find them all together, instead of having to hunt for #12 here and #20 there (hint, hint for anyone who wants to provide a link ).

But I much prefer anime or cartoons to the American comics I've read. I guess I've never appreciated the artwork of the comic book form. I have trouble appreciating visual art in any form--I'm not a visually minded person, and I'm terribly color-blind (which is irrelevant for manga, but not for general visual art). I do like the strict conventions they hold to in the comic style, the kind of things Samuel L. Jackson talks about in Unbreakable--having the hero and villain be friends, having a soldier-villain and a thinking-villain, etc. I appreciate the message if not the medium. If I'm going to read, I'm going to read a "straight" book, for all the reasons already stated; portability, freedom of imagination. One of my favorite things is to go into a restaurant alone with a book; it's a wonderful form of stress relief.

Television in general and anime in particular I've always found to be particularly convenient, more so than the print media. TV comes straight into your home, you can tape off it, you can digitize tapes. A book or comic you have to go out and buy, and then you have to keep it in relatively pristine condition if you want to reuse it often.

As to the short life span of discs, if they haven't been rendered obsolete by the time they're ready to collapse, they can be backed up onto blanks, which should be darn cheap by then.

[RoastedTwinkies]

I'd have to agree with what most of you guys have said. The art in the manga is far more superior to that of the anime, although I do love both.

[MonkeyDLuffy]

I love manga more. It is easier to view anywhere I go (like school ) and the art is always neat to see in black and white. I hated that at first, but now I can't get enough of it XD I mean, anime is okay, but I can never really enjoy that much of the story more in anime than manga form. (some exceptions apply)

[FoxFire]

I guess I'll have to go against the majority and say anime. I love them both a lot, but I'm just by nature a more visual person, and I prefer to see the story moved by moving pictures.

I don't like to compare whether the anime or manga of any particular title is better, because I see them as two very different mediums, and different things work better for them. There are some cases where the anime totally bungles the manga, and other cases where the anime improves on the story in the manga, but they should both be assessed individually.

[Cardcaptor Takato]

Which do you prefer? Why?



Not many people know this, but the downside with DVDs (also CDs, VCDs, anything that that type of disc format) is that they only have about a 20 year life span. No matter how well cared for your DVDs are, they will rot from the inside out. This happens even faster in heat or humid areas. I did not know this until recently, through an article on msn.ca. I cannot remember the link at the moment ^^

So which do you prefer? Manga or anime?

This is off-topic, but how can they tell if DVDs will only last for 20 years when they've only been around since the mid to late '90s? I don't think there's a DVD that's 20 years old yet, is there? Anyway, I usually prefer the story of the manga over the anime's, but given a choice between the two, I'd have to go with anime. The main reason is because it's difficult to get me to pick up any book and read (aka I'm lazy). ^^;;;

I've had volume one of Planet Ladder for almost three months now and I've only read the first chapter of it. It's easier for me to pick up the remote and turn on the tv, pop in a DVD, and start watching it, once again the lazy factor comes into play. I also prefer being able to see the characters in action as opposed to still figures in a manga, but I do like to imagine voices for the characters in manga and then see if my imagination matches the anime producer's decision.

[DistantMemory]

While I've read more manga than I've seen anime, I'll have tp admit they both have their good points. There are some manga that are superior to anime in every way possible , but it can also be the other way around.

It's impossible for me choose. They're just that good! >.<;

[Lady of the Light]

I prefer manga, because I can read it whenever I wish, which is one of the most important things. In my household, I have two younger brothers, and our DVD player is hooked up to the tv downstairs, the place where my brothers reign supreme. Now, even when I would be able to fight for control of the tv, I wouldn't be able to watch my anime in peace. ((My brothers have been infamous for disturbing me, they once had a sock fight when I was trying to do a homework report...)) I get the weird 'Oh my good Lord, what is she watching?" stares from my parents, so I only like watching anime at night. With manga, it's portable, small, and I can read it in the comfort of my room. Manga is easier for me to enjoy.

[RoastedTwinkies]

Which do you prefer? Why?



Not many people know this, but the downside with DVDs (also CDs, VCDs, anything that that type of disc format) is that they only have about a 20 year life span. No matter how well cared for your DVDs are, they will rot from the inside out. This happens even faster in heat or humid areas. I did not know this until recently, through an article on msn.ca. I cannot remember the link at the moment ^^

So which do you prefer? Manga or anime?

This is off-topic, but how can they tell if DVDs will only last for 20 years when they've only been around since the mid to late '90s? I don't think there's a DVD that's 20 years old yet, is there?

You're quite mistaken. CDs first started coming out in the late 70s, but they didn't gain major popularity until the early 1980s. I've grown up with CDs since I was just a little kid in the late 1980s.
They know this about DVDs because they are the same type of physical format, they're just coded differently.

According to the MSN article, this guy was looking at his old CDs that he bought in the 80's and noticed brown, black and green spots covering his CD collection. He took it to the people who wrote the article and they did the research on it.

[Neo Dead Moon]

Anime. Not only do you get movement, and voices, and music, but you get what, in my opinion, the best thing about anime...COLOR! Lots of colors, though the color quality varies from anime to anime (Excel Saga and Super GALS! would be good examples of using color, while Naruto would be a BAD usage of color).