I know I’ve done that. I simply cannot believe a studio ruined a perfectly good manga. First off, how could they mess up the anime when the script is already written and storyboarded right there in black and white? Isn’t it a simple thing to draw the character designs and panels and make them move? It’s not as if there’s actual story or character development needed; it’s already done. How can they botch something so seemingly simple?

I think many things contribute to the failure of a manga-to-anime series. A major factor is the timing, as in the manga is as yet incomplete when the anime is being produced. Why oh why studios even bother to create a series from an incomplete manga makes no sense from a fan’s perspective but probably makes perfect $ense to the marketing department. Too often a studio is left to their own devices when devising further story to pick up where the manga is stalling at. They’ll rush through some “story” and tack it on. Sometimes, it might work, but oftentimes, it blows.

Another contributing factor is mass marketability. Studios think, how can we make this manga more appealing to a more diverse audience? Should we add romance, action or fanservice? Why not all three?! Then a horror manga becomes a tragic, romantic comedy with the meddling of marketing and bad decisions. Why? How did the mangaka let this happen?

Then, there’s the omissions which bring about failing marks. It’s one thing to add things to a manga-to-anime series it’s another thing to completely leave out necessary story arcs and background stories. Whoopsie.

I’ve seen far too many anime which were bad beyond belief yet were based off terrific manga. Spiral, which is supposedly phenomenal, is one which springs to mind as does Trinity Blood, although Trinity Blood was a series of light novels as opposed to manga.

I know there are nigh uncountable amounts of fans out there who have a beef with a studio for mistranslating a manga into an anime. Which manga do you feel was given the shaft in terms of production or story? Is there a manga that deserved better? Which manga do you think was horribly translated into an anime?