Manga and the Japanese Comics Tradition

As a kid I grew up watching shows like Dragon Ball Z, Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Naruto, and I didn't know that they were anime, I just assumed they were a different type of cartoon. I still watch anime on a regular basis, my library is a bit more diverse, although I do admit that probably the majority of it is still shonen. Anime has been a part my life for as long as I can remember but for some reason I have never read any manga until taking this class. I guess I just figured that most anime are based off of manga so there wasn't much need to go reed it when I can just watch it on a big screen.
The two manga that I decided to read were Ajin Demi-human and Fairy Tail. The reason I decided to read Fairy Tail was because I have been a fan of the anime for several years now and wanted to be able to compare the two and see what the differences are in how they translate from manga to anime and the difference in experiencing them. I found it to be a relatively similar experience except for certain aspects of pacing. Its interesting because the anime often has a frantic, quick rhythm to it which gets a bit lost in the manga due to the way scenes are carefully and sometimes meticulously set up with pages simply establishing the environment. I however enjoy the manga, but do prefer seeing the anime because I have grown attached to the cadence of it as wells as the voice cast of the dubbed version, which really brings the characters to life for me. The other manga I read was Ajin, and I have really fallen in love with this story. Its a supernatural, science fiction hybrid with a really cool premise. There is a very small species of people, no more than a few dozen in the world, that can't die and they are called Ajin. No one knows that they are an Ajin until they die and come back, and the story follows Kei Nagai who, after dying, realizes he is one of them and must leave his life behind and disappear to avoid being captured by the Japanese government. Netflix is releasing it soon as an anime series, and after reading a bit of the manga I cant wait to see it.