I read two volumes of the manga beforehand and while the manga was interesting, they did not impress me that much. In addition, there were no fan service, or the level did not pass my checkpoint. However, the anime is quite different.
The manga stresses or highlights the fact that people without abilities really can’t do much in such an environment – a city full of students with magical abilities or abilities of different kinds, whether all of the abilities are magical or not are really not the real story. However, as some people do not have any abilities at all, they are often picked on or rejected. Whenever there is a crime, they often just stand by and do nothing. It’s all up to our super powerful half of the heroines – Shirai Kuroko, and her crush – Misaka Mikoto – to save the day.
The anime starts out quite different. First of all, the number of heroines is increased to four, with the addition of the girl with flowers on her head, Uihara Kazaki, and Saten Ruiko, who has no powers. Those two appear in the manga, but in my impression, they’re not really part of “the team” of heroines. They’re more like main sidekicks, or at least, Ruiko seems that way; as a matter of fact, something happens to her in the manga by volume two and takes her “off” the “team”. But in the anime, the one without power steps up and plays an important part in helping to deal with the first major crime, which is shown in both the manga and anime. Her involvement is significant that the feeling of the overall tone changes a great deal from the manga. In short, you may not have superhuman power, but you can sure do something to help.
With good animation backing everything up, this show is a surprise for me.
Additional notes: in the beginning of the manga, Misaka Mikoto starts her fight with the male protagonist within the few 20 pages or so; in the anime, he’s not even in the first episode.
And, the fan service is still an epic fail according to my standards due to the lack of showing the actual goodies.
[Additional notes: in the beginning of the manga, Misaka Mikoto starts her fight with the male protagonist within the few 20 pages or so; in the anime, he’s not even in the first episode.]
As far as I remember, the Mikoto vs Touma fight starts in chapter 3, not in chapter 1.
@ Nayrael – ah cool, thanks. I remember they started dealing with each other very soon. Thank you for the correction!
@ Nayrael – mate, dead on. It was chapter 3.
It was a good, refreshing way to start off the fall season. Along with seitokai no Ichizon.
@ Moelitist – I assume you love moe as much as me and others. But in any case, the anime version of this show really did surprise me with a great pace and good story telling.
As for as Seitokai, well, at the moment I’m somewhat impressed but not overwhelmed.
I totally love the futuristic graphic. It’s beautiful, cute. really cute! Girl meets girl type of anime is so divine that I can’t resist, even though it’s sinful to watch. Saten-san is awesome. Combination of a flower on her hair and sailor uniform is a killer, yet her carefree, mischievous spirit is really something. you can’t find this kind of girl in real life. i wish i could meet and date this girl in my high school years. she is electrocuting. my whole soul is sucked into diabolical nature of cutesy character. Moe~!
@Rome – it’s a great show so far! I do need to notice more about the setting (reading subtitle still makes me miss things). And you’re right! Girls on girls is simply awesome! Sinful? Have you listened to our podcast? We’re all sinners!
BTW, Saten is the friend without any powers and the girl with flowers on her head is Uiharu.