Most anime that fans love or want to try are based on manga. Mangas are the source material for most anime and they are written sometime before the anime actually starts airing. Manga in simple terms are Japanese comics but they are usually not colored, are darker in some cases and are ready right to left instead of the traditional left to right.
Manga are the blueprint or the script on which an anime is based. Most popular anime such as Attack on Titan, Horimiya, and One Piece are based on manga. The anime tends to follow the source material faithfully, but there are some times when the anime deviates from the manga. Here are the top 5 anime which deviated from their manga.
- Twin Star Exorcists
Twin Star Exorcists is one of the lesser popular but phenomenal anime. It centers around Rokuro and Benio, both of whom are Exorcists focused on destroying Kegare. They are forced to be a couple as they prophesied to be the twin Star Exorcists. The anime ends with them destroying the Kegare and repairing the tree that keeps the Kegare and humans separate. However, in the manga, things go very differently with Rokuro going to a different Island with Benio.
- Boruto
Boruto is part of the extremely popular Naruto franchise and is based on Boruto, Naruto Uzumaki and Hinata Hyuuga’s son. The anime started almost at the same time as the manga and the animators actually had to stop for the manga to catch up. The anime then had some filler arcs until the manga caught up and they could follow the major storyline again. Many people consider it to be a bad decision on the animators part.
- Tokyo Ghoul
Tokyo Ghoul is one anime that has always been criticised for deviating from its source material. Tokyo Ghoul was appreciated for its former seasons and fans started looking forward to newer seasons. However, the anime ended up disappointing the fans when it started creating its own storyline instead of sticking to the source material. Fans didn’t like the anime and many even stopped watching it.
- K-On
K-On is a slice of Life anime focusing on a group of high school girls who end up joining their high school music club in order to save it from being disbanded. The story focuses on their adventures, mundane daily activities and cute interactions and amazing songs. The manga is a four panel manga and most of the content in the anime is anime original and not in the manga. It is one of those anime which did better than their source material.
- Card Captor Sakura
Card Captor Sakura is a classic anime that most anime fans have heard of, if not watched. The anime features amazing OSTs, layered characters and eye-catching outfits. The anime however turned out to be a little different than the manga. The character of Mei Ling was an anime original and the longer duration of the anime allowed people to fully feel the depths of the characters and the storyline. This inevitably allowed people to connect to the storyline more. This is another example of when the anime did better than the source material.
date: 2026-02-14 11:04:00
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