Manga: The Bible to Any Series

Hi there, mahou shoujo sophisticates and newbies. I hope you all are enjoying the spring weather! I love the spring. It usually means summers around the corner and I absolutely love the summer! Sand, surf, no school, and best of all: monthly raves! Ah, can't get enough of those!

Speaking of which, you know what else I can't get enough of? Manga! Magical girl manga to be exact. Beautiful art always pulls me in and a wonderful plot line keeps flipping through those pages. When I'm not saving the world from evil or dancing to a good groove, my nose is nostril deep in one of those cliff-hangers! Not only are they entertaining, but they give me combat education. I need to stay in tip-top shape, even when there are no baddies to be fought! (At least, that's the excuse I'm gonna stick too. *nod*)

You'd be surprise what kind of work goes into constructing a manga; scripting, planning, drafting- it's loads of hard work (Not that I'd know first hand). It's also a of work to adjust from series to watching the actual anime*.
It's super exciting to see your favorite characters move and interact on screen. It's also fun to hear their voices and go "That's totally how she sounded to me in my head!" Yet, there is a super important thing that oldies and newbies should understand: an anime is never ever supposed to be exactly like the manga. While it is irksome to see minor (or major) plot change, one must remember that it's an adaption of the story based on the manga. I'm sure there's tons of copyright laws that go into that reason as well as wanting to change some things in order to fit them into time slots, but understand that there are reasons for some changes, unless...

They're completely, totally outrageous changes that change the plotline altogether. Yeah, I'm sure you know the kind: The Starlight Hermaphrodite Fiasco as well as the Sailor Cousins/Lovers argument usually pops up in the mind of most mahou shoujo lovers (namely Moonies). When that happens, the anime ceases to be based on the manga and becomes an absolute monstrosity of the producer and everyone else who is involved with the projects. While some manga-ka do not mind the changes, some are actually very disheartened by the change (Takeuchi-san was very annoyed by the Starlight's change in... er... gender *ahem*)

"What is the point to this?" is what your faces are telling me. The point is, if you watch and love a particular manga series, do the manga-ka a favor and by the manga. They worked hard on those characters and they want you to love them as they were meant to be. Not to mention you'd find a whole lot of super awesome stuff that the anime may haver never delved into. This info may better explain some sort of tidbit you were wondering about but ended up getting lost in the manga because they never really covered it. My rule: The bible to all anime series is the manga they were based upon, if they were based upon a manga.

Thanks for reading and give you comments on why you would agree, or disagree, with the reasoning. Be sure to try and shout a henshin (transformation phrase) today; you may be a magical girl (or boy. they exist you know ^_~)

~DJ Melody




*(For those who don't know anime (ah-nee-may) is the animated stuff you watch and the manga (mon-gah) is the stuff you read. Some manga get popular enough to get there own series, though not all anime series come from manga. Some manga get so popular that they start making the anime right in the middle of the manga's series, cool huh?)