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The story
Ever since Demon Slayer became a hit, there’s been a growing trend of treating anime-original content (“ani-ori”) as a disrespectful “ruination” of the source material — or so argued a thread on 5ch’s Nandemo Jikkyo G (“Live Anything” board). There was once a time when anime-original episodes were just standard practice, as with Dragon Ball and Yu-Gi-Oh!, and the thread buzzed with takes like: if Spy x Family’s movie had stuck strictly to the manga instead of going original, it might have earned even more at the box office — and how Detective Conan occupies a uniquely strange position, churning out anime-original theatrical hits every single year despite having relatively little source material to draw from. Opinions on the merits of anime-original content split into two camps — some said it all comes down to the creators’ “resolution” (skill and vision), others said anime-original content shouldn’t exist at all — and the debate never really converged.
What people said
"Anime-original = evil" just became the vibe.
And sure enough, when Demon Slayer itself added anime-original parts, it got dragged too.
If Spy x Family's movie had adapted the manga instead of going anime-original, it probably would've cleared 10 billion yen.
If they'd done the luxury liner arc, it probably would've done Chainsaw Man-level box office.
If they'd turned the season 2 material into a movie, the popularity would've lasted way longer… lol
It scores a huge anime-original movie hit every single year.
Looking at Dragon Ball and Spy x Family, I really don't get how Conan pulls that off.
"The manga's not that great, so let's boost it with an anime adaptation" → anime-original content.
That's really all there is to it.
But if the manga's not that great, maybe just don't animate it at all.
What's bad is when the anime staff roll in with a "I read the manga, it's boring, so I'll make it good, lol" attitude and just wreck the source material.
The old 2003 Fullmetal Alchemist anime was seriously like this.
Why though.
But with Demon Slayer, everyone kept saying "don't pad the runtime with anime-original filler!"
Uh, you get voice acting and animation?
If it were pointless, Demon Slayer and Chiikawa movies wouldn't be that popular.
Old Gonzo anime used to be pretty rough about this.
Gonzo was infamous for half-assing licensed work specifically to free up budget for their own original projects.
One Piece is getting rebooted and it's not even finished…
If Anno made it and slapped "Shin" in the title, that'd be fine, right? Miyazaki's Nausicaä gets praised to death too.
Miyazaki IS the original creator of Nausicaä, and he was still a nobody at that point, just so you know.
Even Oda-kun (One Piece's creator) is now getting manga-canon episodes turned into movies.
It really comes down to the creators' vision.
Bardock and Broly, who are now totally accepted as part of the canon, started out as anime-original too.
But in most cases, it just turns to garbage because some talentless staffer decided to inject their own ego.
So how was Ribbon Hero, which was supposed to take over that timeslot afterward…?
That's probably unrelated, given the production timeline.
JoJo Part 3's "picture-show" animation (slang for cheap, static, panel-like visuals) was so pacing-killing that I ended up thinking you're better off just reading the manga.
JoJo blew up thanks to Parts 1 and 2 being well received, and then, lol, Part 3 — the main event everyone was waiting for — turned out badly and the hype died down.
Frieren, though… doesn't seem to have anything like that, lol.
The problem is everything after the Macht fight has just been unnecessary padding.
Pretty much just Conan.
I mean, Oda-kun's One Piece movies get mocked in comparison to Demon Slayer, but box-office-wise they're absolute legends.
Though since he's so involved in them, they might not strictly count as anime-original.
Simply because the anime catches up to the manga, and the original creator doesn't have time to write a whole screenplay just for a movie.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
The backdrop here is that Demon Slayer’s anime adaptation closely followed the structure of its source material and was highly praised, which led later works to increasingly be judged on how faithfully they stuck to the original. That said, historically speaking, there are plenty of examples — like Dragon Ball’s Bardock and Broly — where elements that started out as anime-original later became accepted as staple characters or episodes, so it isn’t as simple as “anime-original = bad.” It’s also worth keeping in mind that Detective Conan’s yearly success with anime-original theatrical films comes down to a production reality: the anime’s broadcast runtime far outpaces the manga’s serialization pace, forcing the studio to fill the gap with original material — a structural situation that makes it hard to compare directly with other manga-based anime.
※This article was compiled and summarized from a 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo G) thread titled “Source-material purists say “We don’t need anime-original stuff, just stick to the manga!” — yeah, about that, lol.”
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