[socylad]

I watched the Anime first. I thought the Anime was pretty flat for the the most part. Characters are really 2 dimensional. No real growth. Then it almost changes genres about 20 episodes in. Goes from high-school drama/comedy to pure comedy, focusing more on slapstick than situational comedy. The overall story stalls out right there as well, and filler type episodes take up most of the rest of the series(you know, story arcs that are only one episode long, no change in characters from one episode to another). The ending felt stilted and contrived. I almost didn't read the Manga BECAUSE of this. For the first few episodes of the series I was really into the Anime, then I lost interest. After reading the Manga I realized that after about 20 episodes the Anime and Manga diverge, reason being is that when the Anime was produced, only 17 of the total 33 volumes of the Manga were out. The Manga version of GTO is probably one of the best Manga I've ever read.

Now I know people who read this are going to say that Manga is allways better than the Anime when the Manga came first, same as books being better than Movies. I don't think that's always the case though. School Rumble is almost frame by frame the same, and there isn't really a disparity in quality between the Manga or the Anime. Bamboo Blade is being released right now, and I think the Anime is actually better than the Manga, filling out the characters more than the Manga did.