Sep 26, 2020
I think the Pandora Hearts manga is amazing, it's such a complex mystery story with the most plot twists I've ever seen in a story, with some being some of my favourite twists ever (even rivalling the twists in Zero Escape VLR). The characters are all very well written, the mystery is compelling from start to finish, the atmosphere and aesthetic is beautiful, the ending is very fitting, and everything has a purpose, it's just incredible. If you do or do not end up watching the anime, you should definitely read the manga.
The anime on the other hand is just ok. The show only adapts
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the first 33 chapters of the manga, and to the credit of Xebec, (besides the last 3 eps) the story is adapted incredibly faithfully with some episodes being panel-by-panel copies of the chapters. This means nothing is rushed or cut out, there's no filler (except for last 3 eps) and the pacing is fine. Speaking of the last 3 episodes though, there is an anime original ending which isn't a problem itself, but the last episode actually reveals a big-ish plot twist in a different way than the manga did (although in the grand scale of things it isn't that significant), so if that's important to you then don't watch the last ep. However, even though the story stays close to the manga, the scenes themselves are done way worse in the anime, for example the dialogue has way less impact and the few action scenes are slow and drag on.
The art is also a huge downgrade. The art in the manga is beautiful but in the anime, the characters look inconsistent and stiff, the backgrounds are cheap and tacky especially in the Abyss, and there's an ugly grainy look that makes it look 10 years older than it really is. The animation is also just not very good, the characters don't move naturally and the action scenes with the B-Rabbit somehow feel more animated in the manga than in the anime.
The whole reason I watched the anime was actually because of the music. and I think it's worth watching just for this ost. This soundtrack is one of my favourite works of Yuki Kajiura, it's not as intense as Fate/Zero, nor as beautiful as Kara no Kyoukai but is more similar to her music in Madoka Magica except more simple. The ost is also really varied, with many tracks having different melodies rather than having one or two key motifs and remixing that for the entire soundtrack which a lot of anime do. However, even though I love the music, I feel as though it was under-utilised. It's a rare case where listening to the tracks on their own has more impact than watching the scenes where the music was played in (although that may be because the early chapters aren't as memorable as the later chapters). The voice acting is also good and everyone was well-casted, but the actual audio quality was bad for some reason.
Overall, even though the manga is 100% better, I'm still happy the anime exists and I respect Xebec for sticking with the manga. I thnk the anime is worth watching just for the music alone, and then you can easily jump straight to the manga (I would recommend starting from the beginning though), or you could do what I did and listen to the entire soundtrack first (namely Lacie, Contractor, Will, Revolve, Miracle and everything else) and then just read the manga. The OP and EDs are also really good.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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