There are two anime series that are getting a lot of coverage this season that I won't be watching; “Aku no Hana” and “Shingeki no Kyojin”. Both are based upon manga series that have been running in Bessatsu Shounen Magazine over the past couple of years that I have been buying that manga magazine every month.
“Aku no Hana” started out as a gritty psychological drama about a teen who obsesses about a girl in his class, and another girl in the class who blackmails the teen into a near-sado/maso relationship. The drama was quite well done and eventually a very intense conclusion was reached. At that point it appeared that the story was complete. An epilogue then came out in the next issue and that neatly tied up the loose ends. Then the next issue the story continued after a time skip, with the same protagonist, new classmates, and essentially the same thing going on all over again.
I was astounded that what had been a very well done and complete story was suddenly dragged out and carried on as a repetitive melodrama. It is still going on a year after the first false conclusion. I don't know if the anime will do the same thing or if it will stop at the first conclusion, but I'm not going to bother watching it because of my disappointment in the manga.
Also, for some yet inexplicable reason, the animation team decided to use rotoscoping for the series, and so the character designs are nearly unrecognizable in comparison with the manga designs. Essentially, the characters in the anime look like the sorts of characters in horror anime that the viewer can tell will sooner, rather than later, turn into horrific monsters.
“Shingeki no Kyoujin” started out as a typical shounen action/monster-fighting story, but with a very gritty character design style. I had difficulty from the beginning with the fantasy setting and the plot holes because it seemed more a set-up for a shoot-em-up video game rather than a coherent story-world. This was also one of those series where all of the characters are deathly serious all of the time and yell out their lines (even in the manga). The initial nightmare-like sense to the story soon became a series of repetitive and interchangeable fight scenes with all of the usual shounen action tropes anchored firmly in place.
So while I still skim the story as it comes out each issue (it was at chapter 43 in the April 2013 magazine) in case something changes, I'm not following it, not can I see any reason to follow the anime.
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