| about
trismugistus.com
and digital-bondage.net
are my web sites.
trismugistus.com
is where I upload my anime, manga and tv&film reviews,
and also where I occasionally post short stories and longer
works I've written.
digital-bondage.net
is my wallpaper site and provides anime, manga and other
desktop wallpapers in a variety of resolutions. I also
have some psds for you to download.
I also run a site called scan-city.org,
which provides some scans for you to download and use
in your wallpapers.
You can also read my blog here
or check out my anime list here.
I also have pages on devart here
and urbis here. |
|
|
|
| details |
The Genre: Romantic Comedy / fan-service |
| The Format: 10 manga volumes from Tokyopop |
| 
|
| The plot: Boy meets girl. Boy breaks out in
hives. Boy stumbles onto alien planet full of girls...
Meet Yukinari Sasaki, an average high school boy
who has extreme girl-phobia--and an allergic reaction
when girls touch him. One day he befriends an alien
named Miharu, who comes from a planet that houses
only women. Remarkably, Yukinari is able to touch
Miharu without breaking into a sweat. Accompanied
by Miharu, he returns to his own world, but shortly
thereafter, other girls follow them to his world...
and his life turns into one big mess!
|
|
| back
to top |
|
| opinion |
| Occasionally, as an anime fan, you get people
asking you whether you prefer anime or manga. Personally,
I come down very much on the side of manga. This
is true of me generally--I'll always prefer the
written version over the visual version, I'm just
that sort of person.
So I prefer comics to their cartoon/film adaptations
and I prefer books over their film/TV adaptations.
This isn't to say I don't like films or TV--just
the opposite--it's just that I like books and reading
more.
|
In the case of anime, at least 80% is adapted
from manga so this question becomes even more
pertinent and what it often leads to is "do
you prefer the original manga or the anime
adaptation?".
Sometimes this can be a tough call--manga
action scenes are generally nowhere near as
well drawn as their western contemporaries.
It's just something that western comic artists
do far better than their eastern contemporaries.
That means action manga is very difficult
to slice--for ropey manga action, animation
is always going to add to it. But for non-action
manga, I don't normally hesitate in plumping
for the manga version.
Until now.
|
 |
|
Quite a while ago I reviewed the Girls Bravo
anime and, to copy-paste, I gave it 4/5 with the
summary "Pretty much does exactly what it says
on the tin, and does it with enough gusto and commitment
to make a good job of it."
Is that a normal thing to do? Referring back to
one of my own reviews? It feels a little odd and
is definitely kinda self-important... anyway; the
point is that I liked the Girls Bravo anime quite
a lot.
I didn't like the manga as much.
But why not?
|
 |
Well, the biggest reason is that the manga just
seems to drift aimlessly along, whereas the anime
has a more structured, er... structure.
The initial set-up of the two is identical--Gorgeous
alien girl (Miharu) opens a bath/portal thing and
a nerdy, wimpy guy (Yukinari) with an allergy to
all girls pops through--all girls except her, that
is.
And the basic formula is the same too, being a
harem show. So, a whole plethora of girls end up
either living with Yukinari or secretly in love
with him or proclaiming their intent to marry him,
etc.
|
 |
Heck, the anime even has the same cast
of characters, with everyone who's in the
manga also appearing in the anime and via
similar plotlines too.
So why is the anime better? Well, it all
feels less arbitrary and random in the anime.
It feels like there's a central plot in the
anime, that we're actually going somewhere
and that there's an ultimate goal to the show.
In the manga it just feels like the author
is making it up as he goes along. It's like
he introduces the new characters just because
he wants to have yet another sexy chick to
draw, or for Yukinari to stumble across while
they're half naked.
The anime also has a more climactic ending,
with a sensible and more rounded conclusion.
In the manga it just feels like the author
decided he wasn't going to bother doing it
any more, so it ends.
|
|
The anime is also more consistent. For example,
Yukinari always breaks out in hives when he's touched
by a girl in the anime, but in the manga this only
happens when the author remembers.
Also, back stories are properly explained in the
anime. In the manga most characters just say where
they came from or how they appeared. In the anime
we get to see some of these in more detail.
|
 |
Something else about the manga is it feels a
lot more like the characters are being added in
order to tick boxes. It's like you can almost hear
the author thinking that he needs a girl who ticks
such-and-such a box, so he adds her. In the anime
I had less of that feeling. The characters feel
like they're added more for plot-based reasons.
The one area where the manga does truly shine compared
to the anime is in the sheer volume of fan-service,
which is saying something considering the volume
of fan-service in the anime. I'm pretty sure that
every story chapter has at least one flash of panties
or bras or naked flesh, if not more.
|
And let's not beat about the bush here--it's
good fan-service, I'm not complaining about
the fan-service, although even here the anime
version seems better. The problem is that
in the manga it seems more like every chapter
is designed specifically with getting to that
fan-service in mind, whereas in the anime
it feels more like it's just part of it.
The only last point I'd make is about the
character designs, and it's why (along with
the fan-service) this gets two out of five,
rather than just one. The character designs
and the artwork in general are lovely. In
the anime the characters are a bit chunkier,
and that isn't to say I don't like a chunky
woman, it's just things are a bit more delicately
rendered in the manga and I preferred that
style.
It really sounds like I'm ragging on the
manga, huh?
|
 |
|
And I guess I am. Perhaps if I'd read the manga
first, my opinion would be slightly less strong,
but I must say I really did prefer the anime version.
I guess at least now I have my definitive example
of where an anime has genuinely improved on a source
manga :/. |
|
| back
to top |
|
| summary |
| The Summary: I guess if you really love fan-service
then it may do something for you, but the anime
version is way better. |
| The Score: 2/5 |
| The Pictures:
(click for larger versions) |
| |
|
| back
to top |
|
home
| reviews | manga |
|
|
