NightCrawler
Aeons gone, vast, mad and deathless
metime00 said:I prefer the anime's telling of the Golden Age more than the manga's. I think it's more focused because it doesn't have to set up lore and events for the continuing story
I tend to agree with this mainly because i always felt the anime heightened the impact of the eclipse by making it more ominous and less telegraphed like in the manga. Everyone i talk to that followed the same course of reading the manga after watching the anime usually agrees with this. Even though i absolutely love the Black Swordsman arc, i think the first episode of the anime is pretty much perfect (excluding all the nonsensical liberties, like "Griffith became king"). I don't know if it was due to budget constraints, or if it was a storytelling decision, but it came as a blessing.
Of course the anime misses a lot of important character development, and Adon is unwatchable, with Silat being understandably cut. But i couldn't agree more with the removal of the Skullknight and especially Wyald from the anime. The later is the character that people love that baffles me the most. I see how people that read the manga first need another reminder of whats to come after several volumes passed since Zodd's appearance, but in the anime it would be redundant to have Wyald putting the breaks on the narrative.
I also appreciate how they handled the first appearance of the apostles at the camp in the anime. All is done for the sake of the final impact, you can say it's cheap, but in this medium i'm really grateful they went for the less is more approach, and to keep the supernatural as hidden as possible. It almost plays like a classic (lovecraftian) horror story, unknown evil is introduced by a deeply scarred protagonist, with the story then becoming a flashback leading up to the traumatic event that changed it all.
In the manga, you need all the backstory because it does not end at that fateful event. In the anime, there is no after the eclipse, therefore most of the storytelling liberties taken were crucial and overall a good decision by the creators.
This would probably belong in another topic.