Well, I watched the movie first and liked it, but that was more based on the concept than anything else. I know the Japanese film industry isn't anything special, but it looking cheap and the lack of characters getting fleshed out disappointed me after how awesome the premise sounded.
Then a friend told me to read the manga. I was reluctant at first since I had "already experienced the story", but I started it anyway. I was blown away pretty quickly. First of all, I absolutely loved the art. Yeah, the gore was a bit much at times, but I thought it worked well in context even if some instances were way over the top.
What were just vehicles for despair in a fucked up plot became characters I actually cared about, as each one got fleshed out a good deal. Can't say that for anyone in the movie, which didn't give enough time for me to really be affected by any of the deaths. The manga was the complete opposite, making me legit depressed when
died, especially after being the source of hope for a decently-sized chunk of the story. This also made me truly hate Kiriyama, a character that was only there to look cool and psychotic in the film. Made me conflicted when we actually got some more backstory on him, as well as the other villain, Mitsuko.
With the way it affected me, it ended up being 1 of 4 or so series that I actually gave a 10/10 on mangaupdates. Man, this is making me want to reread it. Need to find my collection for when I move anyway.
