Manga / Anime thread of GREAT JUSTICE - Spring '10 Edition!

[GaimeGuy]

so yeah, damn you arakawa ;_;

[Frong]

Daaaahhh... They'd better philosopher's stone the crap out of this or something before the story is over. That's just evil.

[GaimeGuy]

seriously. my fave character, didn't even open the gate of his own free will, and he pays the worst toll of them all. Yes, worse than Al's, IMO.

[Frong]

Spoiler:

Well, at least Al can still freakin' see. It'd drive me nuts never being able to sleep like that, but I'd still rather be a soul in a suit of armor than go blind. Seriously.

Used the spoiler tag cause I dunno if Nakor's read it yet.

[Nakor]

Haven't... really never intended to read the manga at all though lol. I only got through half the anime or so and just plain lost interest.

[GaimeGuy]

I assume you mean the first anime.

Watch brotherhood and read the manga. It's the real FMA.

[Nakor]

Yes, it was the first anime. To be honest though, I'm not sure it's the kind of series that I'd be too interested in, even if the manga was much better than the anime. I may check it out if I find myself poking around any scanlation sites, I guess. The only character I much liked out of the entire series was Winry.

[GaimeGuy]

Well you'll be glad since she's quite important during the Briggs arc of the manga (basically, chapters 65-90ish)

Also, a lot of the characters have different personalities. Mustang, Scar, and Kimblee are all quite different. Even Ed and Al are different.

[Nakor]

Like I said, if I bother checking out any scanlation sites in the next while I'll look at it. I haven't looked at scanlation sites in ages.

In other news, it turns out that Katanagatari, which was first a TV series, then an OAV, is now a 10 episode OAV series with each episode weighing in at about one hour in length. The episodes will be released a month apart from each other, meaning the entire thing will take most of 2010 to eventually come out. Hopefully this means a lot of effort is going into the quality of this series.

[GaimeGuy]

*directs Nakor to onemanga so he can experience FMA awesomeness*

[Frong]

I just checked the official Japanese Katanagatari site. Apparently, it's kind of a weird OVA, in that it's got 12 episodes, but it'll only be released one episode per month. Guess that's not really any worse than having to wait a month for some manga releases, anyway.

Said that already. Pay attention, 5p00n3j.

But anyway, FMA really is a better manga than anime, even as good as the new anime version is, because a few things here and there are left out of the anime due to time constraints. I dunno what kind of manga you usually read, but what's good is good, and I'm willing to read almost anything if it's good enough.

[Nakor]

Apparently I somehow missed that post.

I tend to have rather random interests. I collect Negima, Hayate, School Rumble, Skip Beat, Fairy Tail and Pumpkin Scissors, and have complete sets of Ranma, Maison Ikkoku, Magic Knight Rayearth, Slayers and Gestalt, the last three of which are in Japanese.

I also read most of the manga that Tanis buys, from which, off the top of my head, my top picks would be Gunsmith Cats, Sunshine Sketch, Black Lagoon, Doujin Work and Bamboo Blade, not necessarily in that order.

[Frong]

Well, let's see here...

Negima - Manga = yes. Very yes. Anime = not so much. I wish they'd had an ongoing series instead of a 26 episode one, so they could have followed the story better.
Hayate - Never bothered with the manga, appears to have kinda simplistic art quality; stuck to the anime instead.
School Rumble - Never even seen the manga. Anime = win, though.
Skip Beat - Already explained this one.
Fairy Tail - Also very yes. Watching the anime, too, just for the hell of it.
Pumpkin Scissors - Anime was good, never read the manga. Looks like the first four volumes have been scanlated, gonna have to take a look at some point.
Ranma - Never read the manga, only saw the first three seasons of the anime. Should I bother?
Maison Ikkoku - Never read it or watched it.
Rayearth - Never read it, only seen maybe the first 2 or 3 eps of the anime.
Slayers - Anime = duy, manga = only read a tiny bit here and there. Which of the manga adaptations is the best one, you think?
Gestalt - Never read it or watched it.

Gunsmith Cats - OVA was good, only seen a tiny bit of the manga.
Hidamari Sketch - Never read it or watched it. Isn't it a 4-koma in manga form?
Black Lagoon - Very yes on all counts. Have to wait until January for them to release the next volume, though. El blargfa.
Doujin Work - Anime was hilarious, never read the manga. Is it worth it, having seen the show already?
Bamboo Blade - Anime was good, so is the manga. Kinda stopped reading it for no particular reason, though, gonna have to get back up to speed again.

So anyway, where's One Piece on this list, huh?

[Nakor]

Never checked out the One Piece manga, and haven't really kept up with the anime of late either.

Hayate - Never bothered with the manga, appears to have kinda simplistic art quality; stuck to the anime instead.

Not a bad decision really; the anime is just as good, but the manga has a totally different list of random references.

Ranma - Never read the manga, only saw the first three seasons of the anime. Should I bother?

The art isn't spectacular, but the story is much better than the anime. One prime example is that Akane slowly develops in the manga, instead of remaining her tsun-tsun anime self. Of course, it is 36 volumes long, and doesn't really have a proper ending.

Maison Ikkoku - Never read it or watched it.

Take the humour and style of Ranma, but remove all the martial arts. Sprinkle lightly with a taste of Love Hina, though not as harem-y, and you wind up with this. Less than half as long as Ranma.

Slayers - Anime = duy, manga = only read a tiny bit here and there. Which of the manga adaptations is the best one, you think?

The manga is decent enough, but the anime is by far its better. I still think that you should give the light novels a shot, though, as they are also superior to the manga, and IMO as good as the anime.

Doujin Work - Anime was hilarious, never read the manga. Is it worth it, having seen the show already?

The manga is four-koma style, and has a bit material they probably couldn't get into the anime due to it being on TV and all. Besides, that series was more than win enough for a second look at anyway.

Hidamari Sketch - Never read it or watched it. Isn't it a 4-koma in manga form?

Yes. It's what you get when you cross G.A. Geijutsuka Art Design Class with Azumanga Daioh. Much win.

Gestalt - Never read it or watched it.

The anime is an OAV that only covers the very first bit of the story. It took me months to find the last volume of the manga; to some extent it was difficult to determine an 8th volume existed -- many places I checked at the time stated there were in fact only 7. It's a sort of fantasy adventure, with humour mixed in though I wouldn't say it's very similar to Slayers at all.

[Frong]

I get the feeling that a lot of Takahashi's manga are too similar to each other, especially with some of the major character archetypes. It kinda ruins my motivation to read any of them, you know?

So which is better, then, the Hidamari Sketch anime or the manga? G.A. was funny and exceedingly random, though I liked it, anyway. The initial season of Hidamari only has an average rating on AniDB, but the second one is rated really highly. Maybe I'll check it out to help fill the inevitable void of good shows that will exist this upcoming winter season.