For those who read the manga first, what do you think of the anime adaptations?

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DBZAOTA482
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For those who read the manga first, what do you think of the anime adaptations?

Post by DBZAOTA482 » Thu Nov 18, 2021 11:18 am

I like so many others started off watching the anime so I may have a bias for it. The anime adaptations are infamous for the high amount of padding to keep from overtaking the manga particularly DBZ and the inconsistencies in filler moments.

As someone's whose read the manga, I think Toei overall did a good job. The music is on point (rest in power Shunsuke Kikuchi), the art/animation is pretty good for its time, and the voice acting is legendary. The anime even exceeds the manga at several points with more character development and extended fight scenes for one's that needed it (SSJ2 Goku vs. Majin Vegeta comes to mind).
fadeddreams5 wrote:
DBZGTKOSDH wrote:... Haven't we already gotten these in GT? Goku dies, the DBs go away, and the Namekian DBs most likely won't be used again because of the Evil Dragons.
Goku didn't die in GT. The show sucked him off so much, it was impossible to keep him in the world of the living, so he ascended beyond mortality.
jjgp1112 wrote: Sat Jul 18, 2020 6:31 am I'm just about done with the concept of reboots and making shows that were products of their time and impactful "new and sexy" and in line with modern tastes and sensibilities. Let stuff stay in their era and give today's kids their own shit to watch.

I always side eye the people who say "Now my kids/today's kids can experience what I did as a child!" Nigga, who gives a fuck about your childhood? You're an adult now and it was at least 15 years ago. Let the kids have their own experience instead of picking at a corpse.

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Re: For those who read the manga first, what do you think of the anime adaptations?

Post by Koitsukai » Thu Nov 18, 2021 11:30 am

There's a lot of filler, and dumb stuff Toei came up with, but overall it's a pretty faithful adaptation. Other animes just crap all over the manga and change so much stuff you end up like DBS manga and DBS anime, where both products are barely the same, or are 80% filler (Meitantei Conan, looking at you).

Some filler helps explain stuff like the Bulma-Vegeta-Z senshi relationship post Namek.

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Re: For those who read the manga first, what do you think of the anime adaptations?

Post by Demon Prince Piccolo » Thu Nov 18, 2021 3:55 pm

I didn't read the manga first, but overall I do think Dragon Ball is a great adaptation. The original series in particular had mostly solid to really good filler, with the occasional not-so-good filler. Where the anime is able to shine as its own product is when it can take moments that are relegated to only a single panel and add tension and music to them to make them more dramatic, ie. Goku's original SSJ transformation. Or when it adds small little moments that do a lot for the characters and story, like the aftermath of the 22nd Budokai leading into the King Piccolo arc (Tenshinhan and Goku being lifted by the crowd, Goku watching Krillin running back to get the 4-star ball). Or the Ultra Divine Water filler with makes that power-up a LOT more satisfying.

I love the manga's brisk pace, but there are several moments I really appreciate the anime for fleshing out and adding more feeling to. What the manga has over the anime is more consistency with the artwork (although Toriyama's art-style change over time, and to some was overall weaker in the Boo arc). But there's not that same jarring transition from excellent art design to crappy design like what sometimes happens in the anime.
The story of DRAGON BALL starts from the moment Goku met Bulma. I don't really mind the Z, so long as it's understood that it's not the true beginning of the story.

I actually prefer the Goku vs Tenshinhan and Goku vs Piccolo Jr. rivalries to the Goku vs Vegeta rivalry.

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Re: For those who read the manga first, what do you think of the anime adaptations?

Post by KBABZ » Thu Nov 18, 2021 5:29 pm

I'm in the unique position of being most familiar with Kai than anything else, which is itself different from Z. But I have read almost the entire manga front-to-back thanks to the Rewatch trivia, and I own all the English Full Colors.

Both have their pros and cons. The manga is ultimately far more accessible and brisk to get into compared to the anime, is cheaper, and 98% of the time the artwork is far better as well. It's also nice to just get Toriyama straight up, rather than Toei's interpretation of it, which is more romantic than Toriyama's more straight and stark approach.

The anime's advantage is the sheer presentation and atmosphere, thanks to the voices, music, and just seeing stuff play out in real-time. It can dwell on moments when it needs to and really add some extra impact to the proceedings. The downside of course is that by nature of how it was produced, it often has to stall with ultimately useless storylines because they don't have the time to properly flesh them out. There are standouts of course, but moments like Videl's Ki training or Boo killing the Dragon Team sideliners at the Lookout are very rare. And outside of Gohan fighting Boo, it's extremely rare for the anime's art to outshine the manga, but it does get quite close in the Boo Arc overall thanks to Yamamuro and co.

The sheer amount of filler in the anime, even in The Final Chapters, makes it very difficult to get into because it can take hours to get through a good chunk of it. The manga meanwhile is a lot faster, but ultimately less immersive. Plus people hate reading, that's a big barrier. Ultimately, I prefer to read the manga in most cases because the artwork is almost always better, the story is just the essentials, and I overall find that ViZ hews a bit closer to the original text (although they certainly aren't without sin). I do have a huge fondness for the anime too, but it's mostly the original anime because that's what I grew up on.

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Re: For those who read the manga first, what do you think of the anime adaptations?

Post by nhienphan2808 » Fri Nov 19, 2021 6:43 am

DB and Z is ok in actually adapting what's actually in the manga, but it's ruined by things that are not manga like : too slow in pace, too much filler that made little sense in which characterizations are off, sometime wildly, and some arts were wonky. The music are ok, too dramatic at places. It's saved only by voice acting talents and i rewatch for the likes of Nakao, Nozawa and Horikawa.
ShadowWolf87 wrote:Freeza beat Goku, beat Vegeta, and destroyed the Earth. Even if no one else knows it, who does? Goku.
Who gets told it's his fault for being so careless? Goku.
Who has to live with that similar to how he wanted to make Freeza live with the fact he'd been beaten by what he considered trash, and have to live with that shame? Goku.
Freeza got the perfect revenge.

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