I’m of the opinion that if I love the manga and there’s a anime adaptation out there I’ll give it a go. I know there’ll be sometimes little changes here and there; certain things said by characters omitted – the Claymore ep The Slashers being an example. But on the whole if it’s not turning away TOO much from the manga then I can live with it. If I find that despite my best wishes that the anime has disappointed me then I say oh well, pity, the manga may have inspired a kind of expectation and excitement for the anime that may be crushed I was prepared for that to happen. There’s no ‘perfect’ adaptation of manga to anime.

I’m a bit late to the party, but here’s my two cents: I started watching D.Gray Man recently. When I ran out of episodes, I went to read the manga. Boy, what a difference there. I enjoyed the anime because I thought it was quite original, but it paled in comparison to the manga. Was it really lacking soul? Yeah, I’d have to say so.

Original anime does have it’s perks. Darker Than Black and Gurren Lagann are two of my favorite series right now. What I truly enjoyed about both of these two series is that feeling, that immense feeling you get. Perhaps I’ve lost too many of my marbles, but Gurren Lagann makes me feel like I’m on top of the world. Darker Than Black has almost the same affect, albeit with a darker undertone. They pull my emotions all over the place and it’s just beautiful.

Manga usually has this affect on me too. One of the manga-anime series that disappointed me so much was Fruits Basket. I got in the manga, read everything that came out and then came the anime. God, it was slightly painful to watch.

Dennou Coil I’ve seen a few episodes off. It’s not that I’m not interested, in fact I thought it was pretty impressive. Something’s just rubbing me the wrong way about that series. I’m persistent though, against my own will, I’m going to keep watching it.

I’ve yet to read the Claymore manga because they say the story is identical to the manga. It’s already 73 chapters and I’m far too lazy to read it. The thing about Claymore is, I wasn’t that interested until I saw a screenshot of episode 12 and decided that a kiss was worth my time. And Claymore was pretty good for what it’s worth, more than I expected. Now that you bring to my attention that Clare isn’t supposed to be romantically interested in men, it kinda drove me off ever really reading the manga. I’m all for heterosexual…ness…in things…

So, to stop my late ramblings on the subject, I have to agree, agree, agree, agree. There is something about originality and taking a risk of putting it out there that’s remarkable about anime (and the original mangas) that a lot of the spin offs lack.

Still, I get your points. A lot of manga adaptations are as much marketing as they are ‘art’ (case in point: most Jump manga anime), and original anime often has a deeper understanding of the medium. But personally I think it’s ineptitude on the part of the anime production companies when making piss-poor manga adaptations rather than them being inherently inferior.

Often it seems they completely miss the point of what makes the manga so good, and I mean in a fundamental (often purely emotional) sense. Aesthetically I’m completely open to changes the directors want to make for the sake of making a good visual story, assuming they honour/understand the underlying ’sense’ of the original work. Mushishi and Honey & Clover are good examples of this, I think. The tone of their anime counter-parts is quite different from the manga, but the humanity that makes the originals so compelling is nailed spectacularly.

Which is why I sympathise with the director of Bakurano’s comments. Judging by the general aesthetical tweeness of the finished product he may well have made it horrendous given a completely free-reign, but honouring the differences between anime and manga is where I think you’ll find a successful adaptation.

Despite what I’ve said above, I’m enjoying both of these adaptations, but neither appear to carry that visceral appeal shared by the greatest anime. I guess I’m trying to say there is no spark. Even you describe them as "solid". Same thing happened with BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad; it was fun to watch, but a few years later, it’s forgotten. Not the case with Monster or Planetes, which are both superior adaptations, especially compared with Claymore and Bokurano.

It’s not really a placebo, I’m just separating exciting creativity from what amounts to ’solid’ entertainment.

To be honest, I think some of the worst adaptation came from brilliant manga. That’s coz the producer wants to capture all the grandiose of the manga but couldn’t. Classical examples? Clamp works. The producer seriously messed up.

@kauldron26: It took me a while to get into Darker Than Black, actually, I’ve only started to enjoy it since episodes 9 and 10 (the mafia arc with the freaky blood guy). Better than all the others, that one arc managed to blend humor, action and dark drama and for once it used some proper Yoko Kanno music! Up until those episodes the soundtrack was a massive disappointment considering Yoko Kanno is basically a god.

Also, on the issue of hype. I haven’t seen any of those series! I tried to watch Haruhi, but the truth is that at that time, there’s no way I could have enjoyed it considering all the bull-shit praise that was surrounding the series. I’m saving it for a time when the fanboys have something else to cry about.

@Veggies: I’m looking forward to seeing where Claymore goes in the future. It has got epic medieval adventure written all over it, I just hope, like you, the animation gets a little better and perhaps the pace of the story is ramped up a notch or two. I absolutely love the look of "The Awakened" and the "Yoma" in general; fearsome monsters, not some cute crap.