I love the manga and you get a little more of the characterisations coming out. Example when Shuuei discusses the fact that Shuurei is off limits to his charms even though she is his type.

I love how the manga handles Ryuuki’s personality and the side story for vol1 has a wonderful story featuring Reishin, Houju and Yuushun just after they became Shinshi. Read it!

I don’t think it really matters if the mangaka made up the side stories, its canon anyway!

The manga art is far superior to that of the anime. I find the anime does not do justice to either Ryuuki or Seiran esp. Ryuuki he is sooooo cute in the manga.

I recommend you read the manga unless of course you do not want to re-read the story thrice!

Well, not all the gaidens do have details that are in the anime, because they were written later, or are so far away from the current chronology, or take place during gaps in the chronology. Also, some of them really are kind of dark…

I will probably get around to reading it sometime, because I do want to read some of the stuff made up for the manga.

Anyway, I imagine that pretty soon we’d get an OVA in some form. I personally HATE OVAs that basically is a RE-CONDENSATION of the original anime series, and/or some made-up story that the studios created to cash in on the anime.

That said, I don’t think they’d animate the Gaiden, or at least, not exactly in the same manner. Since some of the plot details were dragged in from the Gaiden stories into the anime as well, it’ll be a retread, and very very very confusing.

There’s always the possibility that an OVA series would be similar to how the Ruroni Kenshin OVAs and movies ended up, i.e. having a completely different and very much darker tone compared to both the anime and the manga, including drastic plot changes.

Anyway, I’m not sure on the manga. Scanlated, I know we’ve gotten up to Vol. 2. Vol. 3 is out, I think, but since the manga itself is still being serialized, tankoubons are being produced pretty slowly…

No kids yet, so I’m not sure if they’ll be introducing them in the same way as the anime does (which means it’s pretty far away). Right now, chronologically, they’re prolly up to the point where Shuurei’s working as a boy in the ministry, or where she’s about to take the exam.

So, you don’t read the SM manga? It’s actually quite fun, but definitely has a more typical shoujo flavor to it than the anime. I think I said it before, but besides Shuurei acting a wee bit too alarmist, with Ryuuki being more straight-forward (we’re talking about almost Sakujun levels of…slyness) and acting less goofy, it’s tons of fun. In the manga, it’s prolly his character that’s in fact, closer to his novel original.

Plus, yeah, pretty art ^^

Oh, how far have they gotten in the manga? Did they animate the part about the two kids coming to Kiyou when Shuurei is working?

There are some decisions I don’t understand the animators taking, because I think they detract from the storyline, but mostly it works well. I don’t read the manga, but it seems like quite a bit of stuff is made up, or at least, happened somewhere else other than the novels.

I don’t think so either. What I would like is actually a higher quality OVA of some of the gaiden stories that were not animated (read the summary of the second Gaiden). The tone of some of the later side stories, I hear, is quite dark, so they might not fit with the tone of the anime. (It also becomes confusing if they don’t fit in the chronology of the series, like the story about Seiran’s past or Shouka’s past.)

Then again, I just read the translated Vampire Hunter D novels; honestly NOT as good as I hoped, and I don’t think it’s because of the translation =/

Also, most of the other plot details are shown in the manga – which itself omits/condenses several scenes in the anime – so it’s really give and take.

Oh, on the manga, how much liberties does it take? I’m pretty sure most of the side-stories were made-up by the mangaka (although they’re adorable and hilarious *SHUUEI, KOUYOU, AND RYUUKI IN DRAG!!!*), and the mangaka kinda explicitly indicates that Ryuuki is NOT sexually attracted to his brother even before realizing he was his brother…and various other little bits.

Anyway, know what would be awesome? A full-on live-action version of SM. THAT would be a grand sight XD Well, IF they get absolutely gorgeous actors, which I actually don’t think is quite possible to live up to the characters unfortunately.

Takeshi Kaneshiro would be excellent as Seiran though X333