A Question About Reviewing Anime

Originally this thread was about the 4 new Eva Movies but that apparently was old news ><, my bad! However instead of asking for this thread to be deleted I will just change the topic (since I had been thinking about posting this topic for a while now anyways).
On that note.....

I, like many of you who visit this site, enjoy watching anime. And while I do enjoy just watching anime making sense of a series and furthermore trying to give each series a unique review is something I also take enjoyment in (well nothing serious like writing a paper or article or anything but you know like at the end of a series I will just basically grade the anime on a personally developed scale if that makes any sense). You may be thinking at this moment "well so what?" Well while I don't really care what anyone else thinks of an anime I have seen, or whether or not they agree with my opinion of the anime, I have found that when other people review anime they more often than not tend to compare the anime to its manga counterpart. Im not really big on the whole manga thing but after reading reviews by other people I started wondering if I am missing out on something by not being able to say "well such and such the anime was pretty good but the manga was way better". Personally I don't think its right to judge the anime in comparison to the manga because well quite frankly its not the manga its the anime but aside from that if you are quick to compare the anime to the manga and think that the manga was better then you might not really be giving a chance to the anime and thats not really fair now right? At any rate my question to you all is when your making your opinion about an anime (whether it be your opinion at the end of the series or your first impressions) do you compare it to its manga counterpart or not?

i dont cuz manga is pretty goodm but then it doesnt have the action
take the big-O manga u see all the details very true but then no music no sounds no evil laughs so is good to see the anime also

Interesting topic and interesting point of view there, Ace378.

I think when people who watch anime are "rating" and "judging" them and base those ratings of theirs on the manga of the same series, they do it because then they have something to compare it with. For most cases, the anime is based off the manga. Such as FullMetal Alchemist, Trigun, InuYasha, and Hellsing just to name a quick few. Since the material from the anime is adapted from an existing source already (the manga), people tend to see if the copy holds its own against the original.

Like movies sometimes. When people look at works of film that have been adapted from a book to the movie, such as Schindler's List, A Clockwork Orange, The Godfather, and Million Dollar Baby (just, again, to name a fast few), they generally like to see if the movie is just as good as the original or in this case, the book that the movie was adapted from.

As far as I go and with anime and manga, I myself like to compare the series counterparts of anime and manga. But I don't like to trash one for being not as good or weaker than the other. For example, I like both versions of FMA, the anime and the manga that it was adapted from. If I had to pick which one was better in my opinion, I would have to say the manga. But that doesn't mean that the anime sucks hard and the manga is all that. Because I really like the anime, I just think overall as far as a much better structured storyline and better direction as well, the manga is better.

Also, you can look at the same thing as manga that are adapted from anime series such as Cowboy Bebop and Neon Genesis Evangelion. If I had to compare them to each other and judge which is better, I have to say that the anime version of Bebop is better than the manga (which actually isn't too bad in its own right) and the manga version of Evangelion is better than the anime.

But just becasue one version is better than the other doesn't really mean that the other isn't getting its own justice and its own due.
Peace.

Schindler's List?!!!
damn thats an old movie
a good 1 too

I'm a super-fan of anime, which is why it's odd that I just don't find manga all that appealing. And I've tried, though I could probably read a few more (Trigun and Big O are the only two I've ever read extensively).

It also may be that I grew up with American comics and am used to that "style."

That said, I usually don't care much for the manga. It's like you have to read/watch two versions of the story, and I just don't have time for that.

With American super-heroes and such, I always find the comic books to be the "true" story as compared to the cartoon/movie; but with anime/manga, I view the anime version as the true source, which it isn't all the time. But it does seem to be growing - how properties begin as anime first, then have manga.

But yes, I do like to grade anime shows when I'm done watching them. And the anime is all I base my grade on, since I'm left in the dark when it comes to the manga.

Example Grades:

A's: Big O, Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, Last Exile, Gundam 08th MS Team, Read or Die: OVA, RahXephon, Robotech Macross, Voices of a Distant Star

B's: Wolf's Rain, With Hunter Robin, .hack//SIGN, FLCL, InuYasha, Samurai Champloo, FullMetal Alchemist

C's: Evangelion, ROD: TV Series, Escaflowne, Dragonball Z, Gundam Wing, Ghost in the Shell

D's: Paranoia Agent, Record of Lodoss War

F's: Dragonball GT, S-Cry-Ed, Gundam SEED


I have reasons for all of these ratings. And some have +/- designations. I'm sure everyone has their own rating system and personal favorites. There's no real system to mine, except that I enjoy characters I can care about, quality animation and artistic style, excellent music, and at least a smidgeon of humor to show they don't take themselves too seriously.

S-Cry-Ed, Gundam SEED and Gundam Wing are good only in anime manga is kinda dull

all gundam is good in anime


i got a question
why did the creators of S-Cry-Ed named it that way?

While I'm a huge anime fan, sometimes Manga is better, for example Berserk. Berserk is an amazingly well though out manga, more so than it's anime rendition.