A lot of the shows I’m following for this season have a bad feeling of deja vu to them. Usually, it’s happy news to see the manga you love get green-lit for an anime adaptation, but I’m not feeling the love this season.

Before this season started, I took a look at what all the sources was. Obviously, Persona 4 came from the game, and the others were a mix of light novel/manga/you-name-it turned into anime.

I jumped when they announced Persona 4 was going to have an anime adaptation. I could see all the action packed into episodes that jumped straight into the point? Great. But when it actually aired, combined with studio problems, all the interactivity seemed to drain from the game when all I would see is what I’ve done being animated. With the fights become shorter and less spectacular as well. Before you flame me for not being thankful for an anime adaptation, let’s move to exhibit #2.

Mirai Nikki and Tomodachi ga Sukunai were also fairly good candidates to become anime. I was really looking forward to Mirai Nikki in particular, since there are some scenes that would look really good animated. Tomodachi is going well as of now, but Mirai Nikki seems to lose the sparkle it had in the manga when transitioning into the animated aspect. This might seem like a huge “manga > anime” post, so I’ll withhold any further negative opinions for now. We’ve only just begun, anyways.

But sometimes I wonder how much experiencing anime in its original forms can enhance our viewing experience (either through watching the epic scene you’ve read over and over again come to fruition) or if it were better to experience it fresh from scratch.