One Week Friends Anime vs Manga

Hey again! Once again I enjoyed a story so much, I went through the trouble of experiencing it in both mediums. This time I read the manga before watching the anime. The anime aired and ended before the completion of the manga so they had different endings. I’m not really writing this as a “which is better” but just using it as an outlet to talk about my thoughts while noting the differences between the two. What I liked, didn’t like, what I think could have been done better, etc. So let’s hajimemashou shall we?

So let’s get some general differences out of the way. The manga had inner monologues. A lot of them. The characters thoughts were very transparent to the reader. Why they’re hesitating, why they did or said certain things. There were also a few funny jokes that didn’t transfer over to the anime because of the lack of these inner thoughts. And as a minor difference, aside from promotional art, the mangaka always draws Kaori’s hair as pitch black, not light brown like Hase’s or like she has in the anime. I think the black hair suits her better.

The anime and manga diverge after Kujo enters the scene. Kujo was introduced in chapter 14(out of 38 chapters) of the manga so he was around for more than half of the series. However in the anime, he’s introduced at the end of episode 9, leaving him only about 3 episodes of development. They did more things with Kujo in the manga, like going on a school trip to Kyoto, and Hase and Kujo having a weird bonding moment at Hase’s house playing video games together. That said, I don’t think it really hampered Kujo’s development as a character in the anime. His main plot relevance was carried over well in the short time he was there.

The manga introduced Kujo’s brother, who had no impact on the story and was sorta shoehorned into the cause of the problems when he didn’t have to be. Ultimately Kujo’s brother had nothing to do with Kaori’s memory loss and could have been written out of the story and nothing of value would have been lost. So I’m glad the anime cut him.

The anime sped up Kiryu and Saki’s nakanaori(tl note: make up) which was also for the best. The manga spent far too many chapters getting dragged down by this little side arc that should have been wrapped up in 2 chapters at most. Personally I feel they didn’t even need to have any romance subplot for Kiryu and Saki. It would have been fine to just have them as platonic supporting friends.

Both anime and manga have rushed endings. The manga stumbles over itself for several chapters near the end trying to wrap up the plot and fails spectacularly. They introduce several theories and solutions and just trod along not doing anything groundbreaking or significant until the last two chapters where all the plot is just crammed into one chapter and suddenly Kaori’s cured by learning the root cause of the problem just like that. A little too convenient. The anime did a better job of it by revealing the cause of Kaori’s memory loss from the girls who had a part in it and were actually there when it happened. It was a much better angle than the sloppy mashup of Hase and Kujo gathering bits and pieces of information just to shove it down Kaori’s throat(lewd). I prefer the anime’s straightforward approach and that there wasn’t a perfect solution to magically cure Kaori.

The anime didn’t feel particularly rushed until the last episode. Hase distancing himself from Kaori was played a little better in the manga. His reasoning being a mix of jealousy and thinking Kaori and Kujo would be better off together(the cuck). He realized that after the reset that Kujo caused, the Kaori he was dealing with was not the same one that he spent the summer with. The anime merely glosses over this point. The manga was more detailed with Kaori noticing how Hase was not his cheerful usual self as mentioned in her diary. The ever important Christmas party that didn’t make it into the anime was a major point where Hase, who wasn’t sure of what he should do, still wanted to support Kaori from a distance. Kaori hoping he had asked her out over winter break left a lot of uncertainty for their relationship.

In the anime, the mystery had been more or less resolved so distancing himself at that point feels a bit unnecessary. Although I understand where he’s coming from, it was a bit of a stretch to think he would cause the same situation Kaori faced as a child(especially since he’s not nearly as popular as Kujo d’ohohoho). Their somewhat randomly running into each other at the bridge and then the shrine visit where spaghetti spills everywhere and suddenly all is good again just in time to roll the credits was too forced. They really missed the point of Hase’s indecisiveness and Kaori’s concern that was portrayed in the manga.

Neither the anime nor manga provides satisfying closure for Hase and Kaori’s relationship. We all wanted to see them move onto that next step but the powers that be deemed it unnecessary. I would have liked to see them get that little push to move them past just being friends.

And that’s all I’ve got. Btw, am I the only one that hears voices when I read manga and books? The anime captured the voices pretty close to what I heard in my head. Though my impression of Saki was slightly more nasally. And Kaori was a little higher pitched. And though I was getting some NTR vibes, Kiryu turned out to be the broest of bros.

As a final omake, I edited this little fan4koma that was already translated on danbooru.