7 Problems that Modern Manga Lovers Can’t Avoid

Feb 20, 2015

Manga-lovers have it tough. While we might love anime and all things related just as much as the next netizen, we must be resigned to the fact that we fall within the minority of the anime community. This can be especially frustrating when we see problems in an anime adaptation that others couldn’t care less about. For example…

1. Each Alteration to the Story Becomes Unforgivable

You try to ignore it. You really do, but it burns. Each misplaced word and filler character moment feels wrong. Unnatural, even. You’ve already seen the story, and that’s not how it goes. You rush to tell your friends the horror. They’re watching the series now. They need to know the truth!

… But they don’t care. It’s only a little filler, right?

2. You Already Know the Plot.

Sometimes seeing the manga you love appear on-screen can be gratifying. Your characters have movement, fluidity, and becoming an anime means more people will find out about the manga, too! It also means you lose the surprise. You can listen to other people’s shock as each plot twist unfolds, but for you, it’s gone. You can’t even share it with your anime-watching companions, as you know what each plot twist means, as well as the next surprise… and the next…

3. People Avoid You (No spoilers, please!).

In truly dire situations, people will avoid you as soon as the topic of an anime adaptation comes up. They’re on to you and your manga-reading ways, and now, you must face the threat of banishment. They know you know the plot. You know they know you know the plot. Instead of sharing, however, you are resigned to a life of silence, keeping quiet as a series plays out. How can they trust someone who might spoil everything, after all? No, no, it’s impossible. They can’t.

4. Voice Actors Are Wildly Different from Expectations.

This one doesn’t necessarily happen often (thankfully). Every once in awhile, however, you decide to sit down and take a break, watch a new series based on a favorite manga, and it happens. A voice sounds wrong. Not exactly bad, but it doesn’t match. Where once you had a clear image in mind of a character’s sound and attitude, you’re now left with a distortion each time you read. You try to imagine the character the same you always have, but in the background, it’s always lurking: The grating sound you first heard when you tuned into the anime adaptation for the first time.

5. Alternate Endings

Sometimes a necessity when an anime ends well before the manga, but also one of the greatest frustrations that can occur in a series’ adaptation. For those who haven’t read the manga, it may not matter, but when a manga you love is changed to fit a new anime ending, it can be immensely irritating. The new ending could be a good one, but let’s be honest… There’s only one true ending.

6. It Never Finishes

Yet another point of misery for lovers of a series, it is sometimes the case that an anime adaptation doesn’t even finish what it started. What if you happened to really like the anime version of your manga series? Well too bad, because that’s all you’re going to get. Maybe the premise was too off-putting for some people, or maybe the story was too slow. Whatever the case, some manga don’t make the transition to anime quite as well, even when the story was intact. When that happens, it can be hard for people who haven’t read the source material to really get pulled into the anime series. It’s a shame, but it also means the anime may never get continued past a first season, leaving long-time fans dreaming sadly of what could have been.

7. It Doesn’t Match the Manga’s Quality

Bland animation, altered pacing, isn’t it disappointing? Sometimes the anime version of a manga simply doesn’t get the attention it deserves. What could’ve been a masterpiece on screen can just as easily appear generic or sloppy at first glance when low production values or an unnecessarily long or short runtime is given to a series that didn’t need it. We may know how good the series is, but how to convince those who won’t give it a chance?

There are many different factors that come into play when dictating how an anime adaptation of a manga will be received. Whatever the case, for people who were already fans of the manga, it’s inevitable that they will compare the series much more sharply to its predecessor than those who started after. The anime adaptation may even be seen as good by most, but that doesn’t mean manga fans still won’t find certain aspects of it jarring. Are there any that stick out to you?