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People will not be surprised to hear that my motivation for creating this thread pertains to a certain awesome genderbend of a certain adventurer.

So, a lot of animated series are based off of popular comics. Obviously with anime there's the manga-usually-comes-first-and-then-there-is-an-anime-based-off-of-it, but in Western animation as well [like superhero shows].

Question-- do you tend to prefer the animated version, or the original comics? Does that opinion differ based on whether or not it was originally in Japanese [and there is translating bias that leads you to prefer one or something]?

Also, what about in the case where the animated series came first, and a comic was made as a spin-off?

I guess the main question is do you prefer the more detailed, still images without voice acting and animation but with text that you can interpret and emphasize however you want, or do you prefer the moving, animated, voiced version? Or do you tend to just prefer whichever came first, because the spinoff [if you will] leaves important stuff out and/or has too much filler?

Up until recently I was an adamant animated-only person, but the more I started getting into series like xxxHOLiC where the animated version simply does not even come ****ing close to comparing to the source manga, I began to re-think this stance. I think I'm liking the 'whichever came first' idea more and more, except in some cases [such as Cardcaptor Sakura] where I just like the animated version better.

Also, Fionna and Cake comic is just awesome.

thoughts

It depends on the series, really. Some are better in animated formats - there's no such thing as "comic timing" in a book.

I liked the Animated Version of FMA:B better but that was mostly cause i think it flowed better than the manga and some scenes looked more awesome in color.

But i like Both the More static media and Animated stuff equall it's just that i think action makes better animation than for example a Drama theme

^^ Yeah, same. I think it's a trade-off in a lot of cases; taking an animated show into comic format gets rid of timing-based jokes, but some snarky text just doesn't translate to vocal chords, either. You hit the nail right on the head of something I wanted to say but failed, so thank you.

^ FMA:B is by far my favorite out of everything FMA. They skipped over a lot of the early stuff that was the same as the original show, which is kind of the only drawback, but since I saw the original show like three times before Brotherhood was a thing it didn't really affect me.

There were some visual gags that were better in comic format but other than that I prefer the anime, definitely. Especially with the whole iconic-eye-and-hair-color thing.

After watching one of my favorite comic books get watered down and bastardized into 'Superman vs the Elite', I don't think I can take animated versions being made of the original comics seriously anymore.

That being said, motion comics made with the original art, good foley, and professional voice acting can be pretty good. Example Iron Man: Extremis.

I like the justice league cartoons more than jla comics

I generally prefer whichever is better. Often, there's pros/cons to each, so I usually enjoy both for different reasons. However, animation is what I like, as a preference outside of quality. What I mean is that if both versions are as perfect as possible, I prefer animation.

The DBZ character Bardock had a manga spin-off. I think it's great for series to not stick to one format for their story.

@CL the reverse is true for art, too. Manga often can be far more detailed than the anime and look a lot better because of it. I'm thinking of Junji Ito's 'Gyo' as an example.
Compare the anime:

to the manga:

^ exactly. That's why I outright refuse to watch the xxxHOLiC anime-- the art in the manga is very very stylized and detailed and awesome, but the anime took out ALL of the detail and just... kept the awkwardly long style but didn't do anything to incorporate it so it just looks terrible

yeah i def understand that, but there are some anime in which the art still looks nice, or even if it doesn't the awesome animation or action makes up for it.