Anime vs Manga

Do you ever see me do any manga reviews on Blue Yoshi? The truth is, I like anime better than manga. For my own set of reasons. But today we're gonna take an unbiased look at anime and manga and try to evaluate each based on their pros and cons.

Well, before I do that, I'll explain why I like anime better.

No actually, it would be easier to do pros and cons first.

LoL I'm arguing with myself.

Anime
Anime, as we probably all know by now, is a Japanese animation style that is not only popular in Japan, but in various other parts of the world. It produces series that many of us become attached to. But already, there are some problems. Being that this is comes from Japan, the anime itself is going to be in Japanese. If you speak Japanese, great. For the rest of us, we're screwed. There are only two options available to us now: we can either watch the English dub or the English sub. Let's talk about subs and dubs for a second. Dub means that the anime is now taken over by another company that has to redo the anime with English-speaking voice actors and editing some other minor things. English subbed anime is not done by big companies, but instead, groups of fans that are fluent in Japanese and English translate the anime and put subtitles. This way, the anime is left as it would be in Japan, just with English subtitles. Most people prefer to watch subs rather than dubs. And the general agreement is this: English voice actors suck balls. I also side with this argument, but to be fair, there are some people that like the dubs. Some series have pretty decent dubs. Ok back to anime in general. Anime has a lot of things that manga doesn't have to offer. For one thing, anime is able to make use of music, because after all, it's an animation. Also, while most mangas are in black and white, anime has color. Which may be appealing to some people. Uh oh, I'm not supposed to be comparing yet....shoot. I'm too lazy to go take that out, so just pretend that you didn't see it.

Manga
Manga is the equivalent of a comic book. It's just as popular as anime, and it also originated in Japan. It's a book with pictures and speech bubbles. We do have access to manga as well, but it has it's own problems. The mangas that are processed by other companies and get official translations come by way too slowly. The series may be at chapter 100 in Japan, but what we get in the US as the latest release is chapter 50. But there is an alternative, however, and many people will agree that this is the better option. Online, people scan fan-translated copies of manga and post them on the internet. It doesn't give you that book reading experience, but at least it keeps you up to date with the latest releases. I have read some manga online and I do think that the fans have done a terrific job translating. Not only do they translate, but they explain certain customs and plays on words in Japan that we wouldn't understand in the US. I'm not entirely sure if the US versions of manga have this.


Ok, now it's comparison time. Manga vs Anime. Anime vs Manga.

Mangas sometimes have corresponding series in the anime variety. For example, there is a Naruto manga and a Naruto anime. However, the stories may differ between the two. I remember watching a series, anime style. And later, I decided to revisit the series in it's manga form. When I first started, I was very surprised how differently they started off. Not only are the stories different, but just...how do I explain this? Well, let's take a series for example...Negima. Mahou Sensei Negima is both an anime and a manga. If you do a bit of research, you will find that the anime is 26 episodes long. If you do a little more research, you'll find that the manga is ongoing. WTF? The anime stopped, but the manga still has more to offer. Mangas are like...soap operas then. No wait, I take that back. Don't compare mangas to soap operas. Please. Like I said before, anime has color and sound effects/music to go along with the animation. So if you are a visual person, you'd probably prefer anime. Manga is just black and white, and you have to create your own music and sound effects. Just kidding. If you really do that, you're weird.

Manga and anime are so different. But it's the special things about each one that attracts people. Certain people will like anime and certain people will like manga. It's not really one is better than the other, it's just a matter of opinion.

So the bottom line is this. If you keep moving from series to series and you're a visual person, anime is probably best for you. If you stay loyal to a couple series, then manga is for you.