Whether you prefer watching anime or reading manga, the fact is that there is typically more attention paid to one of these mediums. Sometimes, a studio gets behind an anime and is willing to pump more resource into it than the manga, purely because it has a better chance of becoming an international success. But more often than not, the manga is the original form of a story, and therefore it retains the pure essence while the anime loses it.
There’s no denying that anime is an important artform that must be preserved and appreciated. But the manga industry must also thrive to give birth to new and exciting anime. And because the manga typically comes first and is not restricted by time or audience guidelines, it has more freedom to capture the true message of the story. And that’s why manga often ends up being better than the anime counterpart.
With so many things competing for our time, most of us only have enough time to invest in either a manga or an anime. So if you’re interested in a story, it’s important to pick the best medium to experience it. With that being said, here’s the list…
5 Manga that is better than the Anime.
Tokyo Ghoul
While the anime version of Tokyo Ghoul does look stunning, the fact is that that the anime version deviates far from the original story depicted in the manga. Without spoiling anything, the second season of Tokyo Ghoul sees Ken Kaneki joining an entity, while in the manga he actually opposes them.
Changes like this are a big deal, and sometimes they actually pay off and make the anime superior to the manga. But in this case, the anime begins to lose substance as it focuses more on cool action scenes than story development. Therefore, if you want to experience Tokyo Ghoul in its true glory, you should stick to the manga.
Death Note
Death Note is a series I hold close to my heart. Its unique twist of Sherlock Holmes-like physiological mind games is crack to me. I love it so much that after reading the entire manga, I relived the story through the anime twice.
To Death Note‘s credit, the anime is almost a 1-to-1 telling of the manga version, with not many deviations from the original story. However, the ending of the series is the major difference. In my personal opinion, the ending in the manga is much darker and twisted than the anime version. The anime chooses to grant a softer ending to the evil mastermind, while the manga doesn’t hold back on dishing out the punishment.
Ultimately, I feel like the manga’s ending does a better job of showing the brutal consequences to the chain of events that led to that moment. And within that uncomfortable ending is a valuable lesson about what happens when you abuse power. Therefore, the Death Note manga will always be superior in my eyes. But I do also recommend the anime if it’s what you prefer.
Berserk
Not only is it confusing to piece together the anime versions of Berserk—with there being one in the 1990s and another in 2016—but there’s also a chunk of story missing from them. That means you’ll only get the full history of this story from the manga, which isn’t a bad thing considering it’s an incredible piece of art.
On top of the missing story content, the 2016 anime was also ripped to shreds for having very questionable looking animations, which is another strike against the anime.
Definitely stick with the manga on this one. But also be warned that Berserk is a brutally dark manga series that is not for the faint-hearted.
Akame Ga Kill
There are some notable differences between the Akame Ga Kill anime and manga that have left many fans split over which is better. I’ll avoid some of the notable differences due to spoilers, but let’s just say that the anime misses entire story arcs from the manga, as well as interesting characters. There’s also a difference between some of the deaths in the story, and the ending is vastly different, with the manga expanding on the end much more than the anime.
The anime also leaves out the Wild Hunt story, and without this, viewers never get the full context of Run’s story.
I’ll also add that I found the anime difficult to take seriously, but whenever I read the manga it was able to catch my interest in a way that left me longing for more. Certain stories I feel translate to the manga format much better than on the screen, and Akame Ga Kill is one of them.
Gangsta
Gangsta is a story with great depth, and a ton of nuance. Both the main manga series and the prequel—Gangsta: Cursed—do a great job of worldbuilding. But the anime misses out on some of the nuance. It also sets up a lot of story threads that never get tied up.
It’s important to note that the studio who worked on the anime went bankrupt, and these complications could certainly have been a factor in how it turned out in comparison to the manga.
If you want to experience this deep and meaningful story, make sure you priorities the manga version.
In the future, we’ll also look at some anime series’ that ended up being way better than the manga source material. For now, drop some of your thoughts on this list in the comments, and also share some manga series you feel outperform their anime.
