There are plenty of good anime adaptations out there, even if every single one comes with a fan of the manga who has a problem with it. The issue is that manga can spend time on small details while anime needs to maintain an appropriate pace to fit in the entire story or simply to keep the pace of the storytelling going.
And then there are some series that take jarring left turns.
Some anime series don’t really have a good excuse. They just wanted to do things differently. Sometimes the creation of the anime overtakes the source material. Sometimes some creator of the anime just wanted to be different.
Anime That is Different From The Source Material
Fuuka
For 3/4ths of the Fuuka anime, it is a fine adaptation. Then at episode 8, a thing happens. A thing that goes wildly different in the manga, making it adopt a wildly different tone and plot for the rest of it. Without that thing, the anime ends up in a much different place. I can’t say I like it more, but certainly there are some that may prefer it.
Elfen Lied
The Elfen Lied anime has a pretty common problem that happens in some of these series. It starts fine enough, then it starts skipping moments and characters that become important to the story later. It essentially shoots themselves in the foot and makes you wonder if they even planned a second season in the first place. Regardless, if you finished the anime, there is still over half a story paved over by an alternate ending.
The Promised Neverland
In the most recent of upsets, everyone from The Promised Neverland manga was looking forward to season two after a stunning first season. Then in the first few episodes it becomes clear that they are waving goodbye to the manga plot and going to do their own thing. Why? Can’t say. There are tons of fans of The Promised Neverland that used to hype the anime, and now they are just so upset at it.
Black Butler
Fans tolerated the first season of Black Butler having the occasional filler episode because that is a familiar beast when it comes to anime. However, the filler near the end and the wholly filler second season are reasons for riot. It was silly, completely unrelated, wholly unnecessary, and not well received. Once all the original fans of the manga were put off, they brought it back around to the source material with Book of Circus.
Claymore
Up until that final arc of the anime, fan were pretty pleased with Claymore. Their biggest gripe was leaving out some of the finer details of Teresa. However, at the Northern Campaign, they make it pretty clear the anime wasn’t getting a season two by giving it an ending that is abrupt and disliked. Shame because there was still so much suffering ahead.
Akame ga Kill
I think the problem with Akame ga Kill is ultimately the creators of the anime got caught up in their own hype. I remember when it was airing and everyone was so into the “nobody has plot armor and can die” sort of story it created. It is weird that it ended the way it did considering that hype, I’ll just say that. The canon ending goes a different way.
Soul Eater
Soul Eater hooks you by being interesting visually and then just starts breaking your heart. It, again, starts off canon, and then eventually decides to just do its own thing. The deviations start off innocent enough, but before you know it, they have big implications on the plot. The big cherry on top of the shit cake is the ending that really completely disregards the entire theme of the series where, instead of relying on your weapon, you just use some sort of fist of friendship to finish the fight. There is a much more cohesive story being told in the manga.
Trigun
The Trigun anime series is one of those anime series that you can – and many do – just watch and feel satisfied with the ending. However, there is much more to the story in the manga, which had problems of its own. The original manga ended abruptly due to publication issues, and it reappeared as Trigun Maximum. You can skip the original manga if you watched the anime, but Trigun Maximum really shakes things up. Characters live longer, events happen differently, and the story ends up being much longer than in the anime.
Tokyo Ghoul
Tokyo Ghoul season one is good enough, but it became a real suffering from success tale with season two. It often felt like they were just pressured to continue with a second season, so you got Root A which is often confused with being just filler, but mostly is just alternate story line that does grasp at some parts of the manga in different context. Their anime original story in Root A is… Well, less. Just less than what fans had come to enjoy. It then turns back to canon with :Re and flounders with it as if their confidence had been wholly shaken.
Rosario + Vampire
“If its panty shots or fan service, it’s anime only” – That’s it. That’s the Rosario + Vampire rule. The manga tells a romantic supernatural action story, but it isn’t ecchi. It disappoints anime fans immensely, but the story does actually get pretty good.
Love, Chunibyou, and Other Delusions
Bet you probably didn’t know that Chu-2 is based off a light novel. That’s probably because it only roughly adapts the first novel of a four novel series. Furthermore, because KyoAni deemed there wasn’t enough material to adapt, they created characters like Kumin and Dekomori to fill out shenanigans. The novels end up being much different because of it.
Mekakucity Actors
This is perhaps a special case. The Mekakucity Actors anime is actually a part of a larger multimedia project called the Kagerou Project. It started as Vocaloid songs that told the story of the characters with eye powers. It then became more popular in which sprouted up a light novel and anime series. This results in people watching the anime and having very little idea what is happening since it skips some nuance to the characters and is meant to add to the Kagerou Project rather than introduce to it.
Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles
Like the original Full Metal Alchemist, Bleach, and Naruto on occasion, the Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles anime adaptation outpaced the release of the manga and started diving into filler. This upset the authors of CLAMP so much that they took the right away from the original animation studio and gave it to another. It means much of the anime is filler that defies the rules of the world.
Excel Saga
There’s an old saying about Excel Saga that if you liked the anime, you won’t like the manga – and vise versa. The manga is actually a serious affair with a focus on plot. The anime is a parody and satire for much of anime with a hard to grasp plot somewhere underneath.
Deadman Wonderland
Deadman Wonderland started out okay, and it adopted a pretty nice pace for adapting the source material. However, what you don’t realize is that all the while they are taking a rather lackadaisical approach to some characters and straight up leaving out characters that would otherwise be important to the plot later.
Now that you know that these series are different from their source material, you should check out my new website, Where Does The Anime Leave Off? This shameless plug, I mean, new website reconciles my vast anime knowledge with my occasional enjoyment of manga and light novels. Most of these series and where you can pick up in the source material after the anime are already on there.
Now that I’ve finished with that, if you know more series that deviate from the source material, let fans know in the comments section below.
