Ah yes, the age-old debate of manga vs anime. There has been discussion in the anime community for years but which medium is actually superior?
What is anime and manga?
Anime refers to a specific style of cartoon produced or inspired by Japanese animation. Manga is the term given to Japanese comic books and graphic novels. In most cases the anime is based on the manga with a few being based on light novels or the anime is original.
I've noticed that most new anime fans gravitate to anime without being aware of the existence of manga.
So in this post, you will obtain valuable information about both mediums and by experimenting you can choose which one is right for you.
Advantages of watching anime:
1. Voice Acting
When watching anime you have the comfort of actually hearing the characters'.
voices through voice acting. Whether you prefer dubbed or subbed voice acting will bring your favorite characters to life.
The emotions through voices can make your favorite emotional moments hit ten times harder.
2. Animation and Visuals
I mean this one should be pretty obvious right? flashy visuals and stunning animation are bound to grab your attention.
Manga is off-putting to some because they find the monochrome tone of manga to be dry and boring. Well, it's the total opposite for anime! The colors really add to the scenery and overall atmosphere of the world.
On the flip side if the animation quality is poor most watchers wouldn't give the story a try in the first place. Anime like fate, mob psycho, and demon slayer are places to start if you want to experience phenomenal visuals and animation.
3. You can multitask
It's overlooked but watching anime does give you the ability to multitask especially if you don't have to read subtitles. You can play a game, eat snacks or even workout.
Multitasking while watching subbed is a different story, you blink twice and you're watching a whole different anime.
Though if an anime can't keep your attention in the first place should you even be watching it?
4. Clarity for confusing manga panels
We all at some point read the panels and skipped the page like we understood knowing damn well we didn't understand anything. This is especially prevalent in manga where fighting is the main focus.
Thankfully some manga have colored variations but most times the anime has the best adaptation for fight scenes.
If fights are important to you anime might be the best option as it's easier to understand the flow and sequence of fights through animation rather than still images.
5. Soundtrack
Personally, the soundtrack is my favorite part of an anime. Whether it be the opening, outro, or ost's in between. Anime soundtracks are really what make an anime memorable to me.
It can add tension, add hype or make you feel how a certain character is feeling at that moment.
5 Advantages of reading manga
1. Detailed art and expressions
There's a reason why anime fans don't want certain manga to be adapted. That is, they think the anime won't do justice to the original artwork.
This is a bit subjective but I think manga does a way better job with details in facial expressions and scenery. The stillness and black and white color scheme of manga seem to highlight these small details even more.
2. Leaves more room for imagination
I can't begin to tell you the number of times I've imagined a character with a specific color scheme and a colored panel proved me wrong.
With manga, you have the freedom to imagine characters' voices, color schemes, and osts playing in your head. You have the ability to go at your own pace.
You can imagine the atmosphere and fill in fight scenes for yourself through panels. With anime, all of these are given to you but with manga, you can be a little creative. It makes you more engaged in the overall experience.
3. Less time consuming
Reading manga is faster than watching anime even if you are a slow reader. On average, an anime episode is based on 2 chapters and it would take about 2-3 minutes to finish a chapter.
You can do the math based on your reading speed. If you want the option that takes the least time manga would be the best option.
4. No filler
Yup! there's no need to read chapters wondering if it's relevant to the story. No need to look up filler guides and waste time.
Manga is completely filler because it's the raw source material. Anime has to add filler because it doesn't want to catch up to the manga. Basically, it's used to widen the gap between the manga and the anime.
Unlike anime, nothing is cut out of the manga so you can get the full experience of the author's vision.
5. The manga is always ahead
This is the reason why many anime only's found out about manga in the first place. Manga fans have a bad reputation of spoiling what happens to anime only's. In reality, it's just a few bad apples that make all of us look bad.
When people catch up to their favorite anime they end up wanting more content and they can't wait till the next season. Due to their impatience, they start reading the manga which is always a couple steps ahead. This is because the manga is a manuscript for the anime. The anime is pretty much a means to spread it to the masses and boost manga sales.
At the end of the day, it's what works for you. If one medium works better for you then keep using it but I advise everyone to give both a try.
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