Anime/Manga Subtle Changes

[Drayenko]

So in an effort to bring our universe's level up, I wanted to create a fun thread.

I am currently rewatching the whole series, starting with Dragon Ball, of course. As I continued through me fun journey, I started noticing things that were changed in the anime, for whatever reason.

Now, I'm not talking about filler. Those are not changes but additions. So let's not meddle with that - things such as SSJ2 Goku fighting Kid Buu or base Vegetto against Buu are not what I mean.

I mean to look upon little minuscule things that don't really change anything on the global scale, but maybe can be discussed. Maybe there is a reason behind those changes. As silly as it may sound. Huh?

I'll give some examples of what I mean:

-While in the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai: Chapter 28 of the manga, when Roshi is playing his Drunk Master role. Goku goes and stars acting like a savage dog. Instead, in the anime, he acts as a monkey.
-While Goku is flying over the Muscle Tower Territory: The airplane he's flying on doesn't have a ceiling in the manga, while it does in the anime.
-During Goku's fight with Metallicon: In the manga Metallicon loses one arm while in the anime he loses both.

Hopefully, I get the idea across, and there isn't a topic like this already! At least I didn't see one...
I would love to post pictures, but hell. I could never figure that one out.

And please, don't talk about power levels. I'm sure there will be differences between Gohan vs Dabura in the manga and anime, but let's keep the topic topical.
And one last thing, no Dragon Ball Super. The Anime doesn't follow the manga and that kills the purpose of this.

If it becomes interesting I'll start adding what other member's post to this post itself.
Bye-cha.

[Bansho64]

One thing I've noticed thanks to a YouTube comment and checking the manga is that, while the Kaioken X20 scene is a whole lot different in the anime compared to the manga, there's a bit of a subtle change in it. When Goku flies at Freeza in the manga, there's one hit he lands, one he misses, and then the KameHame Ha. The anime has this, but it kinda makes it seem as if he lands both hits and the KameHame Ha thanks to the animation and the sound effects added. I always thought he landed both because of this.

[Drayenko]

I know what you mean! That second hit always weirded me out.

[andrewtuell1991]

In other words, minor alterations that don't affect too much of the story, and not filler or major alternations (Goku's quest for the Super God Water and the Great Saiyaman's reveal being the biggest two alterations from manga to anime)? Gotcha.

-There's Cargo's killer being changed from Freeza (manga) to Dodoria (anime).
-There's Bulma not knowing about Piccolo, and therefore the Dragon Balls, being dead when she and the others arrive to pick up Goku and the others after the fight with Vegeta. The change happened thanks to filler scenes of Bulma and co. watching the fight on TV and later Baba's crystal ball.
-Ghurd death is changed from Vegeta karate-chopping his head off (manga) to lasering it off (anime).
-16's head is show graphically crushed in the manga whereas the anime cut away real quick then showed his chip dying out.
-Then of course there's sort of changes with colors, be it the original rare-treat colored pages or the new fully colorized manga (and there are differences between the two). One that always stuck out to me was the second Piccolo wearing his father's clothing minus the "ma" symbol, dark navy blue gi with a purple sash. This was seen in Chapters 178 and 205 so at least wore it til a bit after his fight with Raditz. I personally would've had him wear it from the 23rd T.B. to the fight with Nappa and Vegeta when he would've switch to his more popular purple gi with red sash (blue in the anime) as a subtle way of showing off his character development.

There are definitely others, but I can't think of them right now.

[Khin]

The most intriguing change, perhaps, is the fingers of Piccolo (and by extension, all other Namekians), Imperfect Cell, and Majin Boo. I’m sure many people here already knows this, but Piccolo have 4 fingers in the manga, while Imperfect Cell and Boo have 3 on their hands. For some reason, the hands of such characters were changed to the standard five digit in the anime.

There’s several theories for this change. A popular one is that it was simply changed as it is much easier for the animation process to have the standard five fingers, and another one is that Japan (apparently) has a rule against Japanese based shows and movies depicting human or humanoid characters with less than five digit on their hands. There’s no such rule in printed forms like manga, but doing so in a TV series or movies would result in fines, so characters like Piccolo were changed in the animated version.

[Cipher]

Zarbon not telling Vegeta about Freeza's transformations in the anime is a rather infamous change, and I can't fathom the reasons for its omission.

Gaffer Tape actually called my attention to this via his Dragon Ball Dissection series, but Yamcha's fight with Mummy-kun in the anime is also altered so that Yamcha doesn't give up until he's nearly killed, whereas he quits a bit earlier in the manga. That might go under typical filler/extended material, but more so than usual, I think it's just a case of the ending of the fight being written very differently in the adaptation.

[DHM211]

In the anime when Freeza survives the spirit bomb, he first tries to kill Goku, but piccolo pushes him out of the way and takes the blast. In the Manga/RoF Future Trunks Tv Special, Frieza shoots piccolo from the start instead of Goku.

[Bansho64]

In the anime when Freeza survives the spirit bomb, he first tries to kill Goku, but piccolo pushes him out of the way and takes the blast. In the Manga/RoF Future Trunks Tv Special, Frieza shoots piccolo from the start instead of Goku.

I actually really like this change. It really adds onto Piccolo's development as a character.

[Gog]

In the anime Cell could regenerate from any one of his cells, while in the manga he could only regenerate if a small cluster of cells in his head were intact.

[Jinzoningen MULE]

In the anime Cell could regenerate from any one of his cells, while in the manga he could only regenerate if a small cluster of cells in his head were intact.

The anime gave the "head nucleus" explanation as well.

[Gog]

In the anime Cell could regenerate from any one of his cells, while in the manga he could only regenerate if a small cluster of cells in his head were intact.

The anime gave the "head nucleus" explanation as well.

I apologize, I should have specified the English Dub of the anime.

[Jinzoningen MULE]

In the anime Cell could regenerate from any one of his cells, while in the manga he could only regenerate if a small cluster of cells in his head were intact.

The anime gave the "head nucleus" explanation as well.

Sorry, I should have specified the English Dub of the anime.

I don't think that's really what this thread is about.

[Puto]

During the punching machine stuff in the Boo arc's tournament, where Mr Satan got 137 points and then all of the Dragon Team get much higher scores, in the manga Videl comments that in a previous year, Mr Satan had managed 139, which had been the record until now. The anime changes that to the 137 he got earlier being the record.

This was corrected in Kai, by the way.

[Gaffer Tape]

Gaffer Tape actually called my attention to this via his Dragon Ball Dissection series, but Yamcha's fight with Mummy-kun in the anime is also altered so that Yamcha doesn't give up until he's nearly killed, whereas he quits a bit earlier in the manga. That might go under typical filler/extended material, but more so than usual, I think it's just a case of the ending of the fight being written very differently in the adaptation.

Actually, to clarify, Yamucha doesn't surrender AT ALL in the anime. In the manga, Mummy-kun holds him over the tongues and threatens to drop him into the acid if he doesn't surrender, at which point he surrenders. In the anime, Mummy-kun DOES throw Yamucha into the acid, but Goku uses his Nyoi-bo to stop Yamucha from falling in, at which point Uranai Baba disqualifies him for receiving outside help.

-While in the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai: Chapter 28 of the manga, when Roshi is playing his Drunk Master role. Goku goes and stars acting like a savage dog. Instead, in the anime, he acts as a monkey.

Maybe this what you mean, and if so, ignore this. But it's not that the manga does one and the anime does another. In the manga, he starts doing the savage dog thing, and then, at the beginning of the following chapter, goes into the monkey thing. The anime skips the dog thing, most likely due to its kanji joke, and goes straight into the monkey thing. So it is a change, one of omission, but it doesn't flat-out alter something.

[Doctor.]

In the Boo arc, when Gohan is leaving to fight Boo, him and Goku mutually hug. In the anime, Goku just stands and takes the hug without reciprocating.

[Bansho64]

In the Boo arc, when Gohan is leaving to fight Boo, him and Goku mutually hug. In the anime, Goku just stands and takes the hug without reciprocating.

Yup, and to this day, I still don't think this scene has been done entirely correct yet. I think both the FUNi dubbed and Ultimate Tenkaichi versions got extremely close (especially the latter), but the lack of Goku hugging back really kinda dragged it down.

[DHM211]

In the anime, after Full power Frieza knocks Goku into the water, Gohan comes to stall for time by fighting Frieza. In the manga, Goku simply comes out of the water a few seconds later and fights Frieza.

It should be noted Kai kept this scene in.

[Cure Dragon 255]

That's filler I think so its not a subtle change.

[Drayenko]

Yes. That would be completely filler.

[DHM211]

In the manga when Goku fights Kid Buu on Kioshins planet the ground remains flat, however when they fight in the anime the ground is very broken and has a lot of mountains.