can you judge the anime adaption independently of the manga? can you judge the show independently of the ending?
I was asked what my top 4 shows were. I responded with (not in a tiered order):
- Why Women Kill
- BEEF S2
- Avatar the Last Air-bender
- An anime of some sort
I couldn't really think of a single anime that stuck out to me as my favorite of all time so I went searching on myanimelist and got reminded of To Your Eternity. Dude.
The emotions I was experiencing while watching this show was so intense. I have so many clear memories of the context in which I was watching this show; memories much clearer than any other shows. I have a matching shirt, with a photo of me and my friend crying from watching To Your Eternity, printed.
HOWEVER, the manga got so weird.
My memory is a bit fuzzy but the main dude gets with his generational enemy and all the dudes friends gets reborn into modern day??? What is going on ??? I legitimately had to drop at some point.
But does my feelings toward the manga and the ending sour the entire show/ manga? I don't know. My feelings and experience watching season 1 are extremely memorable and one of my fondest memories. Can I say this was my favorite anime if I couldn't even finish the manga? Couldn't even watch season 3?
I had a similar experience reading Beastars (not the anime). I loved the tension, the character designs, the plot, etc. However, the ending was absolute garbage and shit.
I don't know. In the shortest amount of words, I have mixed feelings towards both of these animes. My love for To Your Eternity season 1 is still strong but I don't think I can confidently say I love the anime as a whole. Or something I can recommend someone to read with full confidence.
Can you judge the different parts independently? Or must you judge the sum of all the parts? I'm leaning towards adding extra granularity and details when I say this is my favorite anime of all time.
My favorite shows (not in tiered order):
- Why Women Kill
- BEEF S2
- Avatar the Last Air-bender
- To Your Eternity Season 1
Since, the first season was too memorable to disregard. I think the ending of the show tainted my image of the anime/ story as a whole. But, the beginning was too strong for me to take it out of the competition, you know? I still have yet to watch something that fucked me up the same way and same extent as this anime. God, loved the anime.
This reddit post explains how I feel very well and the discussion is very interesting: click here!