Is this different than anime??

BigBlueBash said:
Is it going in the same direction or is it actually making sense and not rushing through??

Also, are there any aliens?

heychrisfox said:


I'm on chapter 21 right now (started a couple days ago). So far it's pretty much scene-for-scene with the anime. Obviously there are differences; some things are more concise than in the anime version. But it's clear the anime really shines because it was drawing so strongly from the original production nature of the show, so much so that lots of the individual scenes even have identical framing of the characters and locations. I think the most notable differences most anime fans will see in the manga is that the characters overall are a little more one-dimensional in the manga, just because the anime had more time to explore their personalities, dramas, and the audio-visual medium in general is just better at expressing some of the nuance. That means it does feel a bit rushed, but not necessarily in a bad way if you've already seen the anime.

But the biggest difference is the ecchi. The anime doesn't really have any major fanservice - it's just kind of the whole background idea of "THE WHOLE THING IS TALKING ABOUT SEXY TIME" which serves as the fanservice - the anime mostly focuses on the melodrama of the characters, and I honestly think that was the best route. But the manga, meanwhile, has no problems dipping into fanservice liberally. They basically use any excuse to get one of the girls naked pretty much every chapter. Your mileage may vary depending on how much fanservice annoys you, but I'm sure most people love it. As someone who doesn't care for it myself myself, it seems tacky but not out of place since the narrative is so sexual in general. And the art's great, so you can't complain too much.

That all being said, it was recently reported on ANN that the author, Kentaro Yabuki, is going to take a huge divergence starting in chapter 37. You can read the report here.

So basically, no huge differences at least at the point I'm in with the manga. But guaranteed major differences (so the author says) later on. The anime is getting close to a year old, so he has no real reason to stay true to the anime at this point, especially since the common consensus was that the ending was a huge dumpster fire.

Also no aliens at my point in yet, but I'm around halfway through the anime's version of the first core.