10 Manga Darker Than The Source Material | CBR - CBR - Comic Book Resources

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When a manga adapts or adds a prequel, sequel, or spin-off to an older franchise, it's normally taken for granted that the tone will stay the same. After all, if something has managed to attract fans, why risk alienating them?

Sometimes, though, creators decide to take a risk and end up giving fans a very different story -- in these cases, much darker ones. From magical girl series to shonen classics, and whether they went from cutesy to creepy or ramped their heavy content up a notch, here's ten manga that looked at their source material and decided it just wasn't disturbing enough.

10 The Princess Tutu Manga Made A Beloved Character Into The Villain

The magical girl anime Princess Tutu is remembered for being -- despite its name -- a remarkably dark take on the genre. Its plot, which follows a duck who dreams of being a ballet-dancing girl and gets drawn into a fairy tale gone wrong, steadily ramps up the horror elements as the show goes on. One consistent source of kindness, however, is Edel, a woman who is always there to guide the protagonists on their quest.

This is changed completely in the manga. In order to compress the story into two volumes, Edel was repurposed as a villain who hides her intentions behind a helpful exterior -- and shocking fans who had grown to love her in the process.

9 AD Police Is The Darker Prequel To Bubblegum Crisis

Bubblegum Crisis might sound like a sugary story for kids, but the threats the main characters face in this classic OVA series are far from sweet. It focuses on an ongoing conflict between mercenaries and robots, and, while that might sound grim, the fun cyberpunk aesthetics and colorful mech designs stop it from feeling too grim.

The prequel manga AD Police is a different story. Losing both the main cast and their bright colors, this manga leans heavily on gruesome scenes of a cyberpunk dystopia. It's an engrossing read, but fans of the original anime might find it tough going.

8 Magical Girl Site Swaps Post-Apocalyptic Action For Pure Psychological Horror

Fans of Magical Girl Apocalypse, which flips the usual role of magical girls on its head by making them the murderous catalysts of a zombie apocalypse, might wonder how the spin-off Magical Girl Site could possibly be any darker. Site contains a somewhat smaller volume of gore, after all.

But it's this move away from the action that makes it an even harder read. While the harrowing themes of abuse are somewhat hidden by Apocalypse's lavishly drawn fight scenes and buckets of blood, they're unavoidable from the get-go in Site. An opening chapter about a zombie invasion is popcorn-worthy; one about our main character being abused is just plain horrifying.

7 UQ Holder Doesn't Bother With Negima!'s Harem Antics

The long-running manga Negima! Master Negi Magi became famous for its rich worldbuilding, huge and colorful cast of characters, and, most of all, for being a fun harem comedy that eventually took things in a much more serious direction. The work of Ken Akamatsu, who also created the genre-defining harem series Love Hina, this story about saving the magical world starts with one boy surrounded by an entire classroom of girls with romantic interests in him.

UQ Holder, meanwhile, takes place in an alternate timeline after the conclusion of the original series and immediately plunges into a story concerned with vampirism and the nature of immortality. Whether the original tone didn't fit the story Akamatsu wanted to tell, or if Negima had been successful enough that he didn't need the harem antics to sell volumes, UQ Holder is a dark, contemplative series that never pretends to be anything else.

6 Cells At Work: CODE BLACK Shows A Body In Crisis

Even the most squeamish of fans will have found the original Cells At Work, which casts cute characters as the cells that keep our bodies going, a light-hearted and relaxing read. CODE BLACK, however, takes place in a body that's far from working well, meaning that the educational slice-of-life antics of the original are replaced by a constant battle with life -- literally -- on the line.

Featuring everything from truly terrifying monster designs to depictions of bad habits that might hit too close to home, CODE BLACK's recent anime adaptation means that fans can now be horrified twice over. They might want to check out the extra-adorable Cells At Work: Baby afterward, though.

5 Fushigi Yuugi: Genbu Kaiden Is A Less Sparkly Take On A Shoujo Classic

Yuu Watase's manga Fushigi Yuugi might be most well known for its romance, but this classic shoujo take on the isekai genre is also beloved for its complex plot and creative interpretation of Chinese mythology.

For fans for whom the jokes -- mainly revolving around our hapless protagonist Miaka -- were a distraction from the serious plot, Fushigi Yuugi: Genbu Kaiden was the perfect prequel. Ditching the humor, as well as focusing on the relationship between the main character and her father as well as those between her and the handsome warriors she meets, means that this journey into ancient China is far more serious than the first.

4 The FLCL Manga Dials Up The Show's Moodiness

Fans of Gainax's cult classic FLCL will remember that among the show's famously zany animation and plot (involving a mech sprouting out of a teenage boy's forehead), there were many moments with a more subdued, even moody, tone. Many of these centered around interactions between the understandably angsty Naoto and the troubled Mamimi.

While the anime tempered even these scenes with incredibly vibrant and colorful animation, however, the manga's sparse black-and-white illustrations cast that feeling of teenage sadness over the whole story. Taken with the manga's added violence -- such as Naota killing his own father with a baseball bat -- and it's a recipe for a much darker version of the original.

3 Puella Magi Oriko Magica Has All The Darkness Of The Original (Without The Happy Ending)

It's no secret that Puella Magi Madoka is itself one of the most surprisingly dark anime ever, hiding its tale of death and Faustian tragedy under the pink, glittery facade of a typical magical girl show. What is often lost in the reaction to this shocking twist, though, is the fact that Madoka has a triumphant ending, with Madoka herself taking a truly heavenly form.

The spin-off manga Puella Magi Oriko Magica, meanwhile, tells the story of one of the many timelines that ended with the Madoka and the rest of the main cast either dead or in extreme danger. The only comfort to readers is the knowledge that Homura and Madoka will one day win -- just not this time.

2 Steel Ball Run Was A Turning Point For JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

JoJo Bizarre Adventure Steel Ball Run Finish Line

Between the Gothic aesthetic of the first arc or the deaths of beloved characters, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure has never been afraid to stray into darker territory, while making sure to keep on foot firmly on the ostentatious tone the series is known for. Recently, however, it's gone further than ever before.

When the seventh story arc, Steel Ball Run, rebooted the franchise, the universe wasn't the only thing that was changed. The manga switched from being serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump to Ultra Jump, and the move from shonen to seinen meant that Araki could tackle darker topics than ever before.

1 Pokémon Adventures Is A Grittier Take On The Franchise

Pokémon Adventures Heartgold & Soulsilver

It's hard to imagine a series more kid-friendly than Pokémon. Over countless games, anime, and manga series, this franchise makes sure to keep things as non-violent as a world built on powerful creatures fighting each other can be. Well, mostly.

Pokémon Adventures quickly gained notoriety for having its Pokémon fight with their lives on the line, taking injuries that a trip to the Pokécenter won't fix. For fans of the franchise who are after a little more realism, this long-running manga will perfect -- but younger readers might be kept up at night.

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About The Author

Polly Scott (3 Articles Published)

Polly Scott is a writer, hobbyist game dev, and long-term anime fan. She lives in Scotland, where she received a first class degree in English Literature from the University of St Andrews. She's currently studying for a master's degree. If something's weird, she'll probably love it.