Best Manga Adaptations Of Anime, Ranked

Name any popular anime, and chances are it was adapted from a manga first. It’s not always the case, but there are plenty of famous series based on strips, like Dragon Ball, Naruto, Sailor Moon, Nana, etc. Some are much better in print than in motion, like Berserk or Junji Ito, while others benefited from being animated, like the redrawn One-Punch Man series.

But what happens when things get reversed? When a studio produces an original anime, and other writers, artists, and writer-artists adapt it into a manga? They could just adapt their scene straight onto the page and leave it at that. But a few strips go beyond that and expand on what was shown on the screen. These are the best manga adapted from anime.

8

Darling in the FranXX

Fixing What Was Broken

• Creators: Code: 000 (story), Kentaro Yabuki (art)
• 8 Volumes, 60 Chapters
• Available in English via Seven Seas Entertainment’s Ghost Ship imprint

With how the anime turned out, it’s hard to imagine the Darling in the FranXX manga being any worse. It had a neat premise, as artificially created children (“Parasites”) are raised to pilot mechs called FranXX to protect what’s left of humanity. But their alien enemies, the VIRM, came out of nowhere, the fanservice was out of place, and the ending was a mess. The manga doesn’t magically fix every issue the anime had, but it is a marked improvement over the show.

It mostly does it by trying to fix where the show went wrong. The characters are more consistent, particularly its protagonists Zero and Hiro. Its awkward twists are blended into the story more naturally, and some of the anime’s most ridiculous moments are cut out (e.g., Strelizia True Apus). The final product isn’t exactly a masterpiece, and it’s got enough fanservice to make reading it in public a bad idea, though it gets points for trying to make up for the anime’s sudden downturn in quality.

7

FLCL Omnibus

Fooling With The Plot, But Keeping It Cool

• Creator: Hajime Ueda
• 2 Volumes, 15 Chapters
• Available in English via Dark Horse Comics

FLCL saw Naota’s world get turned upside down by the arrival of the chaotic alien girl Haruko. It only lasted six episodes, but it became one of the best cult anime around, and made fans wish it lasted longer or had some sequels. Unfortunately, one of them must’ve been holding a monkey’s paw at the time, as FLCL Progressive, Alternative, Grunge, and Shoegaze came out years later to gradually decreasing acclaim. Turns out catching lightning in a bottle is a hard thing to do regularly.

But it wasn’t all doom and gloom. The FLCL Omnibus manga, consisting of two “First” and “Final” volumes, holds up pretty well by being an alternate take on the anime’s story instead of a straight print-out. It skips some characters and events, and changes others, like Naota’s grandfather playing a bigger role in the story, and Haruko is sweeter on Naota. While the original anime is still the definitive way to see FLCL, the manga is a neat deviation from the norm.

6

Psycho-Pass: Inspector Shinya Kogami

How The Cop Became A Criminal

• Creators: Midori Goto (story), Natsuo Sai (art)
• 6 Volumes, 35 Chapters
• Available in English via Dark Horse Manga

Production I.G. hit it big with their adaptation of Ghost in the Shell and wanted to follow in movie director Mamoru Oshii’s footsteps with their own, original sci-fi cyberpunk crime drama. Thus, Psycho-Pass was born, where people are rated on how likely they are to commit a crime, and once their Crime Coefficient Index maxes out, the police send out the investigative Inspectors and their Enforcer bodyguards to nip potential situations in the bud. But it’s not a perfect system, as Akane and her partner Shinya find out firsthand.

It received a manga adaptation, Inspector Akane Tsunemori, which is basically the show converted into print, with the same story and twists. But it also received a prequel in Psycho-Pass: Inspector Shinya Kogami, which shows how Akane’s Enforcer went from being a fresh-faced officer to the bad cop seen in the anime. As such, he doesn’t get his harsh attitude from the show until near the end, which critics missed, but they loved Natsuo Sai’s artwork for its use of expressions and subtle humor, which gave it a little more flavor over the Akane manga.

5

Angel Beats! Heaven’s Door

What Happened Before Otonashi Reached The Afterlife

• Creators: Jun Maeda (story), Key (story), Yuriko Asami (art)
• 11 Volumes, 77 Chapters
• First volume was available in English via Seven Seas Entertainment. Subsequent volumes are only available via fan translations

As Inspector Shinya Kogami shows, manga is a good way for writers to provide prequels to their animated projects. It worked for Angel Beats, too. It was basically about Yuzuru Otonashi and other souls getting stuck in a school-shaped limbo. While there, they could do what the student council president Angel says, or join the Afterlife Battlefront, souls who openly rebel against the unseen God responsible for their deaths and placement in purgatory. Or so they think anyway.

Co-creator Jun Maeda spun the series off into a branch of light novels called Tracks Zero, which followed side character Hinata before he co-founded the Afterlife Battlefront. That became the basis for Angel Beats: Heaven’s Door, which built further on the light novel by going into the future Battlefront members. Yuri’s antipathy toward God, Noda’s game-obsessed outlook, and Cha’s use of firearms, among others, get fleshed out and pave the way for the anime’s opening episode.

4

Voices Of A Distant Star

Adding More Adversity On The Path To Hope

• Creators: Makoto Shinkai (story), Sumomo Yumeka (art)
• 1 Volume, 10 Chapters
• Available in English via Vertical Inc

Before Your Name, Weathering with You, and 5 Centimeters Per Second, Makoto Shinkai wrote, produced, animated, and starred in Voices of a Distant Star. It follows two childhood friends, Mikako and Noboru, who struggle to stay in touch after Mikako is sent off into space to fight in a war against aliens called Tarsians, until years go by before Noboru gets a response. Yet the two remain hopeful they’ll see each other again someday.

It was Shinkai’s second OVA after the short She and Her Cat, and it shows as it’s only 25 minutes long, and the art is less consistent than his later works. Two years after its release, Shinkai adapted it into a manga. It expanded on the story by giving its two leads more room to express themselves and adding new characters that build on VDS’s world. For example, Mikako gains a pilot friend in Hina, who shows how dangerous space missions can be when her cosmic venture goes awry.

3

5 Centimeters Per Second

Making A Bittersweet Movie More Bittersweet

• Creators: Makoto Shinkai (story), Yukiko Seike (art)
• 2 Volumes, 11 Chapters
• Available in English via Vertical Inc

Makoto Shinkai stuck with the theme of two friends who gradually lose touch in his second feature-length film, 5 Centimeters Per Second. Though this time, instead of trying to stay together despite all odds, it’s about learning to let go, as Takaki still yearns to be with his first love, Akari, which has cost him opportunities over the years. Shinkai later adapted the movie into his first-ever novel in 2007, which then became the basis for the 2010 manga.

Like VDS, it’s not a radical departure from the anime’s story, but its extra details make it a fuller, more moving story. Like giving Takaki’s unfortunate girlfriend Risa more scenes that detail their failing relationship, from confronting him at his workplace, to a failed vacation, among other additions. Viewers who saw the movie on its own could get its message of moving on from the past, but the manga hits home by seeing how much Takaki’s clinging hurts others well into his adulthood.

2

Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The Different Story

The Dark Side Of Magical Girls Condensed Into A Short Story

• Creators: Magica Quartet (story), Hanokage (art)
• 3 Volumes, 12 Chapters
• Available in English via Yen Press

Puella Magica Madoka Magica didn’t just get a manga adaptation. It received twelve manga strips, alongside four video games, four movies (with a fifth on the way), and a novel. Just because it’s a dark inversion of a magical girl show, where the titular Madoka’s new powers are part of a wider plot that exploits her and the “Witches” she fights, doesn’t mean it can’t sell just as well as Sailor Moon or Cardcaptor Sakura.

But which of its twelve manga is the best? That honor usually goes to Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The Different Story. It’s a prequel that follows Mami and Kyoko as they try to fight for hope and justice, until they learn the bitter truth. While it’s short, it acts as a good taster for curious readers. If they don’t want to go in blind, they could check out TDS to learn its themes without coming across any significant spoilers. It’s PMMM in a fun-sized portion, so to speak.

1

Neon Genesis Evangelion

A Reimagination Of NGE’s Plot

• Creator: Yoshiyuki Sadamoto
• 14 Volumes, 97 Chapters
• Available in English via Viz Media’s Action imprint

The seminal 90s mecha series Neon Genesis Evangelion also has a brace of manga adaptations, some of which go in completely different directions (e.g., The Shinji Ikari Detective Story). But even the official manga adaptation of the TV show found itself zigging when the anime zagged and provided its own food for thought. Like how Shinji and Asuka’s backstories differ significantly from the anime, and Shinji is less reluctant to head into battle.

Rei’s character is fleshed out beyond her more symbolic role in the show, making her slightly less of a soft, passive figure, while Kaworu has a more menacing introduction and doesn’t befriend Shinji until much later. Gendo Ikari, usually considered one of the worst anime dads, even tries to help out Shinji in his latter stages. Why is it so different from the show? Because the manga isn’t creator Hideaki Anno’s vision of NGE. It’s character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto’s interpretation of the plot. It might be less introspective, but it’s a fascinating read in its own right.