anime where the manga is better

16 Anime Shows Where You Should Read The Manga Instead

manga is still a niche thing comparatively.

Most of our favourite anime are adapted from the manga. And while these anime do satisfy our needs, sometimes anime adaptations don’t do justice to their respective manga.

Furthermore, some anime adaptations are so bad that they are borderline unwatchable.

Today we’ve rounded up 15+ anime where it would be better to just read the manga.

 

1. The Seven Deadly Sins

Season 1 & 2 of the Seven Deadly Sins anime did justice to its manga.

It didn’t deviate from the manga’s story and had a good production value.

But from season 3 the series went downhill.

Season 3 of the Seven Deadly Sins is one of the worst animated shows of this decade.

The show was supposed to be one of the mainstream modern shounen but season 3 almost killed the show’s popularity.

While season 4’s animation has gotten better it still doesn’t live up to the modern-day animation standards.

It’s advisable to ditch the anime & just read its manga.

 

2. Junji Ito Collection

Junji Ito is considered one of the best horror manga artists in the industry.

As you would expect from a horror manga, his art while being phenomenal, is creepy & bizarre.

As a result, fans had doubts about an anime adaptation for his work from the day the anime adaptation was announced.

Unfortunately, the fans were right & the anime turned out to be atrocious.

So if you are craving some horror entertainment, go pick up Junji Ito’s manga.

Relevant: Top 30 Countries Where Manga Is Popular

 

3. Blue Exorcist

Blue Exorcist’s anime started fine. It even gained decent popularity but for some reason, the second half of the show deviated from the manga.

As you would expect it sucked.

The other problem is that it didn’t cover the later parts of the manga which make Blue Exorcist an above-average shounen,

The people who only watch its anime are unable to taste peak Blue Exorcist. So if you didn’t complete its manga after the anime, definitely give it a chance.

Relevant: 9 Anime Shows Like Blood+ With Vampires And Demons

 

4. Deadman Wonderland

Deadman Wonderland is a sci-fi horror anime that rushed its plot leaving out important details.

This gave a bad reputation to Deadman Wonderland as a whole but if you ask anyone who has read its manga, they will tell you the brilliance of this story.

The anime also didn’t have a completion since the series was cancelled after season 2.

 

5. Flowers of Evil

While the anime does follow the main plot of Flowers of Evil manga, it takes liberty with many details. And changes character motives, side plots and things like that.

One of the major turn-offs from the anime is the major change in character art style.

For some reason the anime studio decided to change the brilliant character designs from the manga doing it a disservice.

 

6. Tokyo Ghoul

Season 1 of Tokyo Ghoul made the series one of the most popular anime of the last decade.

It was a huge success but everything was destroyed since season 2 went an anime original route.

While it did take plot points from the manga, it changed the plot completely.

What made the franchise even worse is the seasons following season 2 didn’t even stick to the anime original story.

They tried to go back to the manga plot again, making the series confusing and chaotic.

At least this gives you a reason to check out the brilliant artwork of Sui Ishida by reading Tokyo Ghoul manga.

 

7. Bleach

Bleach’s anime adaptation is nowhere near as bad as Tokyo Ghoul, but it doesn’t do justice to the manga.

The anime is filled with a cluster of fillers, which admittedly you can skip but the problem is some of the filler elements stay even in the canon story.

One example, some filler characters from the Bount arc stay in the canon Arrancar arc.

The production quality of the show is below average (the soundtrack is the only above-average part about it).

The animation doesn’t do justice to Kubo’s art & the series feels dragged out because of fillers.

 

8. Akame ga Kill

Akame ga Kill is a story that follows Tatsumi, a young villager who travels to the Capital to raise money for his home.

He then discovers strong corruption in the area.

The assassin group known as Night Raid recruits him to help them in their fight against the corrupt Empire.

As you might be able to tell from the synopsis, Akame ga Kill is fascinating, but its anime cuts off important information from the manga.

It also has an anime original ending.

And obviously, the anime original story doesn’t live up to the manga, so reading the manga for Akame ga Kill would be a better choice.

 

9. Btoom!

Btoom!’s anime adaptation basically feels like an advertisement for its manga, because of its incomplete ending.

Btooom! follows the adventures of Ryōta Sakamoto, an unemployed and isolated young man who is one of the world’s top players within the titular game.

After Ryōta is nominated to participate within the real-life version of the sport, he becomes trapped inside it and meets his love interest Himiko, who was his in-game wife.

 

10. Berserk

Berserk is considered one of the best seinen mangas of all time. Unfortunately, the anime adaptation doesn’t come close to the quality of the manga in any aspect.

Berserk has two anime series adaptations & three anime movies.

The first adaptation was done in 1997 and it was pretty decent. For some reason though, the anime didn’t adopt all of the manga and discontinued… until 2016.

A new berserk series aired in 2016 following the 1997 anime’s story but it turned out to be one of the worst, if not the worst anime adaptation of all time.

From horrible CGI to anime original plotlines, 2016 anime did everything wrong (except soundtracks)

The movie trilogy is a retelling of 1997 anime and is actually alright, but reading Berserk’s manga is the most optimal decision.

 

11. Gangsta

Despite having a somewhat decent anime adaptation, the studio that produced the show went bankrupt.

Obviously resulting in the cancellation of further adaptation of the manga.

If you want to get into this action-drama series, it’ll be advisable to read the manga.

This is not to say you have to ditch the anime completely, as I said earlier Gangsta did have a faithful adaptation.

Still, you will notice the drop in quality towards the second half of the series (probably because of budget issues.

You can check out the anime first and then read the manga.

 

12. One Piece

The best selling manga of all time & the manga soon to dethrone Batman for the no.2 best selling comic book series of all time.

Yep, that’s One Piece.

When a series is highly loved by its fans even after more than 20 years of continuous publication, you know it’s amazing.

And for a series this popular it obviously has a long anime adaptation. But it still doesn’t do justice to the manga at all.

While One Piece doesn’t have a huge amount of filler arcs compared to its counterparts, the problem is that they stretch the manga’s content in anime.

One example being adapting only half a chapter in an episode most of the times, making the anime slow-paced.

Despite all this, the anime does do justice to peak manga moments. Most one piece fans do watch the anime, but after reading the manga.

 

13. Claymore

The world of Claymore has monsters who feed on humans and live among them in disguise.

Humanity’s last hope may be a new breed of warriors referred to as Claymores. They are condemned to fight because of their savage impulses.

Claymore’s manga is highly regarded by manga fans. It is also considered to have one of the best female casts in all of the manga.

But its anime like many other anime on this list suffers from having excessive filler and has an anime original ending because the anime was made before the manga could finish.

 

14. Slam Dunk

Slam Dunk is a basketball manga written & illustrated by one of the most renowned mangakas of all time: Takehiko Inoue (also the mangaka of Vagabond).

Slam Dunk is considered to be one of the best sports manga of all time.

Despite being more than 20 years old it is beloved by many.

Slam Dunk anime suffers the same problem as the One Piece anime (terrible pacing) and has excessive fillers/

Its animation doesn’t do justice to the artwork of Takehiko Inoue either, apart from that it has an anime original ending.

Consuming Slam Dunk in the manga form is a must.

Related: 20+ Of The Best Anime Shows From The 1990’s Worth Watching

 

15. Rosario + Vampire

Rosario + Vampire is infamous for its fan service. Some people like it and others hate the anime for it.

Whatever your opinion on the anime, the manga is a better choice for both kinds of people.

The reason is the manga, while having non-excessive fan service, also has a quality story and characters.

The anime didn’t do a justifiable adaptation to the manga.

It didn’t follow the main themes of Rosario + Vampire for some reason and just reduced it to a romantic comedy.

Relevant: The Difference Between Good Vs Bad Fanservice

 

16. The Promised Neverland

YouTube video

The most recent addition to the list of bad anime adaptations… Saying The Promised Neverland season 2 was bad is an understatement.

The anime skipped what was considered to be the best arc of the manga (Goldy Pond) and crammed the whole manga into an 11 episode horrible anime original.

Season 1 of the show is held in high regard by everyone who has watched it. This made it suck even more because a big studio like CloverWorks wasn’t able to do the same with season 2.

So if you enjoyed season 1 of the anime or just want to get into a good horror series, Promised Neverland is a must-read.

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