Ask John: Must Anime Be Faithful To Its Source To Be Good?

Question:
I recently watched and loved the series Gantz. I went in anime chat rooms and Gantz was brought up. Someone asked for a reccommendation, and it got a thumbs down because apparently the manga is much more graphic. The show is graphic enough and it gets played on Fuji TV (if that’s correct). So if an anime based on a manga is not as graphic and mature as it’s source material, does that really take so much away from the anime?

Answer:
I’m personally a much bigger fan of anime than manga, so I typically don’t compare manga and anime to each other. Even when an anime is a direct adaptation of a manga, the two formats are produced by different artists with different perspectives on the story. And both may have attributes missing from the other. Manga works under fewer constraints than anime, allowing manga to develop slower and contain more graphic content than television anime which must adhere to television broadcast standards and usually a pre-determined length. Anime offers motion and sound and music, which manga cannot. Anime is able to convey a sense of speed and is able to control pacing. Manga can only suggest a vague sense of speed and motion. And the pacing of manga is controlled entirely by the reader’s imagination, so the pacing of a manga is different for every reader. So even in the case of a title like Gantz or Dragonball, in which the manga and anime are virtually shot for shot identical, the two mediums are still tremendously different.

I must admit that I didn’t like the Gantz anime, so I haven’t watched very much of it. But I have read the Gantz manga through its first 17 volumes. I personally prefer the Gantz manga because I think its art design is better than its anime counterpart; I feel that the personalities of the characters in the original manga are more natural and less annoying than they are in the anime; and I think that the manga is more subtle and skilled in presenting its themes than the blunt and heavy handed anime. Furthermore, I think that especially the early episodes of the anime have poor animation quality and poorly integrated 2D foreground and 3D background animation. Gantz is certainly a graphically extreme story- containing both intense, gruesome violence and graphic sex, but I don’t believe that the manga is significantly more intense than the anime. The first half of the Gantz television series was heavily censored when it was broadcast on Japan’s Fuji TV network, but its second series, broadcast on the premium AT-X network, was aired uncensored. The American DVD release of the entire series is its uncensored version. I don’t think that the anime is inferior to the original manga because it’s less graphic. In fact, I don’t believe that the Gantz anime is less graphic than the original manga. I don’t personally consider Gantz an outstanding series because I find it much too superficial and pointless- with plot holes and aimlessness misinterpreted as mystery and tension. I don’t consider the anime inferior to the manga because the manga is more graphic. I consider the anime inferior to the manga for the reasons I’ve already mention before.

An anime being not as mature or graphic as its source can be disappointing, but I believe such shortcomings may be more to blame on the viewer than on the anime. A viewer that complains about an anime adaptation not living up to its manga source is obviously comparing the anime to its manga source- not critiquing the anime on the basis of its own qualities. I think that manga and anime may be compared, but should be critiqued independently. When an anime falls short of expectation because it’s not graphic enough or not mature or intelligent enough, such criticisms should be levied because the anime doesn’t successfully convey a sense of believability to its viewers; not because it fails to live up to its manga. The Noir anime, for example, is a compelling, fascinating, and addictive action series even though it’s virtually bloodless. It doesn’t need gratuitous bloodshed because its characterizations, atmosphere, style, and story are strong enough to carry the show. On the other hand, Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid is much more graphic and mature than the first Full Metal Panic series. As a result, The Second Raid is far superior to the first series because the addition of graphic, bloody violence, sexuality and nudity add a dramatic tension that was largely missing from the first series.

It’s perfectly fine, and probably unavoidable, for consumers familiar with the manga and anime iterations of a story to compare the two. But ultimately a manga and anime are individual works that have to be consumed independently. One doesn’t read manga and watch anime simultaneously; and many consumers will view one medium but not the other. So an anime has to stand on its own and succeed or fail based on its own ability to entertain viewers, regardless of the content or quality of the manga it’s based on. An anime adaptation like Tenjho Tenge isn’t as graphic as the manga it’s based on, but ultimately that shouldn’t matter because if the anime is still good, than it’s good regardless of how exactingly faithful it is or isn’t to its source. Viewers who are preoccupied with comparing an anime to its manga source risk overlooking the innate, unique qualities of the anime. If an anime suffers because it’s not mature or graphic enough, the problem isn’t that it’s toned down from its manga source. The problem is that the anime just isn’t adequately convincing or effective. It’s fair to say that a disappointing anime isn’t as satisfying or entertaining as its manga source, but ultimately the problem isn’t that the anime doesn’t live up to the manga. The problem is that the anime itself just underachieves. Since the anime was created by different artists than those who created the original manga; theoretically the anime had the potential to be creative, original, and at least as satisfying as its manga source, if not more so. Anime series like Risky Safety and Full Metal Alchemist, which are tremendously different from their manga source material, are evidence that anime can be exceptional even if they’re not identical to their manga source.