Anime Or Manga?

Please don't let yourself be irritated from the quotation marks. It's the german version. :P Too lazy to search and change them.

Okay, here's my problem:

Whenever I find an anime I'm interested in to watch, I end up not watching them most of the time. This has one particular reason: Whether the respective anime only is a manga adaption or not. Because if that is the case, I can never decide what I should do. Should I read the manga? Or should I watch the anime?
I'd rather go with the anime. Just because it looks better, and I like japanese. :P
But knowing that an original manga exists previous to the anime, I always get the feeling I'm missing something out if I were to watch the anime instead of the manga. That is, since in most cases, the anime misses lots of things or changes the plot completely. I cannot watch an anime knowing that the plot is different. Unfortunately even, the plot goes in a worse direction and many people say that the manga is to be preferred. (Or maybe the plot is better sometimes?)
This makes me go with the manga then. However, I either already know a lot of the plot and just jumping into the un-animated version of the series seems utterly wrong to me.
Or, and that's the the biggest problem, the style of the original manga is so different from the anime that I cannot adjust to the new one.
Which makes me to stop the manga and anime completely.
I'm really demanding on that point sadly. If the manga looks „bad“, no way I'll read it. This made me almost stop reading Bitter Virgin. If I had done that, I could never forgive me I guess.
If the manga looks good though, I stick with it most of the time, since I know that many animes have fillers or, as I mentioned hundreds of times already, a different story. That's to be applied for series like Naruto or One Piece in my case.

„Great Teacher Onizuka“ emphasized my problem. It's already some time ago that I watched it. I started watching the anime, and really enjoyed it the first time. Then however, I felt that the whole series was getting a little boring. Incidentally, I read somewhere that GTO originally was a manga and that the anime's plot not only turns out to be different from the manga but that it is also worse if you believe the common opinion. Now that made me stop watching the anime. But the manga wasn't after my liking at all. It kinda misses the charm of the anime. >_<
Going back watching the anime isn't anymore, since I've heard that it should be turning out rather badly in comparison to its predecessor.

Now you may say: „I don't get it, just read the manga as a whole and then watch the anime as a whole, dimwit!“
But sorry, I can't do that. I simply can't. After having read the manga, or watched the anime I know the whole plot already. It's just no fun to read something which's outcome you already have seen previously. :(
Aside from that, I don't have the time to do everything twice. I cannot start reading the anime, seeing that I don't really like it, and then take a look at the anime, no time for that, no sir.

Take Fullmetal Alchemist as a recent example: Should I watch it? Should I read it? I already informed myself on wikipedia and if I'm right, the anime also turns out to be different from its original story. Now should I go with the manga, or still watch the anime? As I said, I'm sure I would stick with the anime from its „appearance“, as I already looked a bit into the manga but if the plot is different …

I hope after reading this outlining my situation, you get an idea of the problem. It is really hard for me to always decide with what I should be going, really.
It might have been a little complicated read, it's hard to gather the thoughts but the basic issue I have is this: Do I watch or read a series I'm interested in?

So what do you do? How do you decide? You just watch the anime and don't care about the manga for a single second? (This being an anime forum mainly, I guess that's the way it is for most of you)
Or vice versa? Or you read and watch both? Or you do a little research to find out which one's better? The problem there is though, that's its really hard to find that out without getting spoilered. That's why I don't actually like to inform myself about the series I plan on watching, to begin with.

And what's your opinion about it? Do you generally prefer the anime version or the manga version of a series you like?

I don't have that particularly annoying problem that I can't just do both so... I do both.
Sometimes I only like one of both (for example when I really can't stand the art, voice work, etc. of one of them) but that's rather rare.

It's like a film based on a book, I have no problem whatsoever with both watching and reading.

for me it's always different. for Naruto i like to read the manga because the anime is all flashbacks. but for others like bleach or lucky star i would rather watch the anime because you can actually see the action or drama right there. i think it all depends on who you are. if you don't like to read then you watch the anime, but if you would rather read (and you have the money) then you will probably read the manga.

I don't have that problem, I never got into any manga so I just watch anime, I didn't know I was missing out on anything until I read your post! I thought the manga would just be the same thing that I was watching.

I just really think it spoils the fun if you read the manga for instance and then start watching the anime.
I'd like to go with the best of the both, however it's not like I could find out which one's better without knowing both "sides".
But generally, I don't prefer anime over manga or vice versa. Depends on how good the respective one is. :P

Other than that, I think you have a point Hassun. In general, that's pretty much the same, although issues I might have with the art of a manga don't exist.
I guess the main difference there is, that a film tends to be shorter than an anime series which goes over more than 40 episodes. It's an evening with friends where you go to cinema. That's it. An anime series takes much longer to watch through it. Time I don't always have. >_<

And sorry Zev, didn't mean to spoil you. Anyway, just keep on happily watching the animes. I envy you. :D

I just started reading manga and knowing the plot doesn't ruin the anime for me
instead I can't wait when the anime reaches the manga then I can see all the action and the characters come to life because of this I would choose anime over the manga.

Why not do both. Here is a strategy from one anime fan to another. Find someone as into anime and manga as you are. Not hard. And plot. After you get done reading the manga while he watches the anime, and then swap. Often enough there is differences between the anime and the manga so don't worry you will still like it.

well,i do both of them... i read the manga and i watch the anime...it depend on my mood sometimes...if i just soo lazy to read the manga so i just watch the anime...