Have you guys ever had trouble deciding whether you should read the manga, watch the anime or both? Today I’m introducing a new segment called Manga versus Anime FIGHTO inspired by all the manga and anime all out wars disputes I end up witnessing.

Personally, I’m a little biased for manga since I personally prefer to cozy up to a series for hours just powering through chapter after chapter. However, I am aware that quite a few manga series are based on the anime (e.g. Puella Magica Madoka) . Today we’re reviewing the Vampire Knight series by Matsuri Hino and the anime adaptation of the story that spans two seasons.

Manga Rating: 4/5 happy clouds

When you pick up the manga, you know, in an instant that it’s shojo and girls, I’ll be honest, it’ll send ALL your guy friends running. Vampire Knight mainly takes place at Cross Academy, run by former vampire hunter Kaien Cross who’s also a pacifist that wants to bring together both vampires and humans in peace. He is the father of Yuki Cross and guardian to Zero Kiryu who are both students at the Academy. The school is divided into Day Class and Night Class; the former consisting of humans while the latter is composed of vampires who follow class president and pureblood vampire Kaname Kuran at the school. After settling into the initial world order and the characters’ interactions, the readers are thrown into a world of twisting politics and tragic backstories…

Anime Rating: 3/5 happy clouds 

The anime on the other hand, is much simpler than the manga and focuses on the first and second arc of the manga series. For this reason, we don’t see much of the strife between the vampires, the Senate and the vampire hunter society. The anime tells the story of Yuki’s mysterious past, how she became under the care of Kaien Cross and her connection to the other vampires (especially Kaname). At the same time, Zero’s story is unfolding, his childhood within the vampire hunter society as well as the incident that befell his family.

Because the first and second arc take place quite quickly in the manga while the anime spans two seasons long. There isn’t as much comedic relief in the anime (of course, because it’s about vampires) and also the setting and mood of the story both convey mystery and suspense more than anything else. I have to admit that there were several times in the anime series where I did skip over several scenes that slowed down the rhythm of the storytelling. Other than the fact that the animation cleans up a lot of the detail of Matsuri Hino’s beautiful art style,  I was impressed at how much the storyline held true to its manga counterpart. I have to say, it’s much easier to tell shojo/bi-shojo characters apart when the anime gives them different coloured hair. (Even so, Idol and Wild are still a little hard to distinguish… but I love them anyway).

I know some of you aren’t willing to relive the story (unless it’s an absolute favourite) which is why this segment will hopefully shed some insight on whether the manga or anime is better. But if you’re a strict anime-watcher or manga-reader, that’s cool too, find a friend who’s watched or read what you haven’t get their opinion on the anime or manga before you delve into a story.

Thank you guys so much for reading! I hope you guys liked this new segment and more posts will be coming soon!

– Cloudy

What are you pondering today?

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