This week's poll was suggested by icassop. It deals with whether you'd watch anime or read the manga. Lots of options here!

You can submit poll ideas here
http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=3903

Previous Poll Results:
Question: Do you prefer episodic series or ones with a clear, continuous plot?
Choices:
Episodic - votes: 257 (11.9%)
Clear, continuous plot - votes: 1903 (88.1%)
There were 2160 total votes.
The poll ended: October 7th, 2023 2:40pm PDT

I personally agree with the majority here

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A just ruler amongst tyrants

Read manga to the end, then watch the anime but the manga needs to be a 7/10 for me to stick with it and then watch the anime, unless it does something unique. Even then, I would need to hand out at least a 6/10 to stick with it and I most likely won´t bother with the anime. Spy x Family is such an example. A C to C+ manga that is way too simplistic for its own good, outside of almost giving up on plot progression early on, but seeing a Japanese author handling 70s (pseudo) Germany and the Cold War is just interesting enough on its own. I lasted 1 ep with the anime just to see how all this would look in action.

I currently keep myself off the ledge from watching Jujutsu Kaisen past ep 2 and the film as I gave up on the 5/10 manga twice. The second time was to check back if I was off base after I saw clips from S2 and marveled at how it looked. Nah, it´s still mid-as-hell and highly derivative but the OVA-quality animation on a TV budget is tempting. I might put on the dub in the background and if I do that then it will be a first for me. The manga is dead to me. Committing to a near 30-vol adaptation when the manga ends in a few months or so is still a lot. Hm.

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I also read EU/US comics and am a librarian.
Manga-Masters, My ANN-Lists + Imdb

I'm too fucking old and lack patience to sit through 24 minutes of anime. And I've been burnt out by so many subpar adaptations to the point it became a chore to watch.

I only watch the anime if I've read the manga beforehand, and the trailer impresses me. (And in the case it doesn't or I've missed it; it gets rave reviews from anime-obly watchers).

So for me it's

If I've read the manga -> anime gets announced -> check out the impressions, discussion threads, reviews -> if it's overwhelming positive, give it a chance.

If I've never read the manga -> don't even bother in the first place

Read the manga and maaaybe watch the anime if I liked the manga enough and think I'd like seeing it a second time. Although, most of the series that I do this to are cute girls series.

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The early bird may have caught the early worm, but the late worm survived!!

I used to be an anime only guy, but now I pretty much only read manga.

Last edited by LazyReviewer at 12:25 am, Oct 8 2023

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I'm a jack of all trades but master of none. Too many jars and not enough hands.

In general, I'm more of a manga person and I rarely watch anime. I also tend to choose only one medium per story -- so, either I read the comic or watch the adaptation. In the specific case of this poll, if I'm really interested in the series, I'd probably only read the manga and ignore the anime, considering my already mentioned inclination for manga and also the fact that the anime doesn't cover all the plot.

Last edited by ForeignerChan at 6:59 am, Oct 8 2023

It's kind of hard to answer this one. I usually read manga rather than watch anime in general, so I answered "Read the manga only and ignore the anime."

But if I stumble on the anime first, watch it, and really enjoy it, I'll watch it then pick up where it left off in the manga. But if it's just okay & it's not gripping, I'll probably just wait for the next season of the anime.

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http://i.imgur.com/LxhWm.jpg (will reformat this some day…)

I greatly prefer manga and rarely watch anime. But if a new series has both (and I know about both - which I often don't because I'm lazy) I'd read and watch in parallel. Although it says 'parallel' on the poll I like to be a bit ahead in the manga. And I won't stick with the anime unless I think it's really good. Voting was difficult this time since my treatment varies from series to series. I've done all except the first option which I think is crazy. For example:

Shoujo Kakumei Utena: Watching. Anime is amazing so I'll read the manga next.

Bungou Stray Dogs: Watched 3 seasons. Couldn't be bothered to read the manga since it was too long and less exciting.

Sailor Moon: Reading and watching in parallel for some time. Although the anime has plot differences.

Detective Conan: Reading on-and-off for years. I like the anime but just don't have time for that many episodes.

Many of my favourite animes are old ones. Often I don't watch the newest ones (a few are good) because I just don't like the openings, the voice actors, the mediocre conversations and the animation style which is different to the author's art. And I have less patience for 24 minutes of trash than for 30 pages of it.

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...Hop!

I don't like adaptations... so ignore anime it is...

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I am envoy from nowhere in nowhere. Nobody and nothing have sent me. And though it is impossible I exist. © Trimutius

I both watch anime and read manga, so it depends on what came first for me. If I watch an anime and I like it quite a bit then I probably will seek out the manga and start from the beginning (sometimes its an almost panel for panel adaptation other times there can be small or large changes). If I've already been reading the manga or finished it and like it sufficiently then I'll seek out the anime. Sometimes the anime can make it more interesting or just the voice acting can add to the experience of the story. I wont bother with anime where I dropped the manga or that I considered just average or the anime is just badly animated (could not get through the first season of Kingdom and the newer Berserk animes made me want to vomit).

There's been very few anime where I watched it and have just waited for later seasons and not bothered with the manga, but there has been a couple (Attack on Titan has been one of those for me).

There's some anime that's made me pick up the light novels like Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers, etc.

I generally prefer manga, so i'll most likely start from that. If i like the manga enough or there are other merits to it (great animation, aletered plot etc), i'll watch the anime too.

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-Sincerely, six angry cats in a trench coat

Depends entirely on the anime/manga!

If the manga is really well received and the anime appears to have poor production quality or is otherwise regarded as a bad adaptation then I'll go straight to the manga and ignore the anime (e.g. Berserk 2016).

On the flip side, if the anime is really well produced and does the source material justice then I'll try my very best to avoid reading the manga unless I really can't help myself (e.g. FMA: Brotherhood).

If the anime is a decent adaptation, and I'm actually interested in where the story goes, then I'll likely jump to the manga after getting caught up (e.g. Tower of God). This will usually inevitably happen for long running shows as in my experience the quality or pacing always drops sooner or later.

Different mediums excel at different things. While there are specific series that really can't translate well from a manga to an anime, the vast majority can. The two mediums are far closer to one another than books and television or even books and manga. So what we get from time to time are these adaptations that actually improve on the source material. One I always go back to is FMA:B, but I think AoT is actually a better example these days.

The FMA manga was always a rather standout work, and while the anime did make it better, it simply did so by being a good anime (great OST, animation, VA, pacing, etc). AoT on the other hand was a fairly poor manga. I know that's kind of a hot-take, perhaps less now that it's over, but I picked the manga up prior to the anime ever came out and oh boy was it forgetful. The pacing was bad, the characterization for most of the cast was bad, and the art was mediocre at best. The best thing about it was the premise and initial world building.

Yet the anime took that source material and made gold out of it. I remember watching it and thinking "who is this character? I don't remember them AT ALL, but not only was their on screen presence powerful, their death was brilliant!".

Watch anime and read manga in parallel I actually read like 20 chapters of the manga first to see if I even want to watch the anime. Most the time, I stay ahead of the anime the whole time, and read or watch in a binge. And I can go through way more content in a reading binge, then a watch, so I just kind of ending up dropping the anime eventually.

However, there are some series that I watched the anime only, but its few.

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Internet Lurker At Heart

I use to watch anime then read the manga from the beginning if I could find it. But these days I just read the manga and go oh there's a anime adaptation how nice and not watch it lol

Last edited by F_J at 2:22 pm, Oct 11 2023