Manga

recent shows that were way worse than the manga: faraway paladin, helck.

anime famous for this issue: berserk, tokyo ghoul, any Junji ito project

popular older anime that have this issue that aren't as talked about: blue exorcist (though that one's currently getting a retcon heavy sequel) trigun (the new 3d series is way more manga accurate) honestly... mostly any 90s-2000s action series. they were really caught in the weekly production aspect of it and it led to terrible pacing and tons of filler. things have gotten better.

like, one piece is terrible to watch straight. i can't recommend anyone actually slog through what the anime was doing during dreserosa. watch the one pace fan edit, or read the manga.

Naruto is another one that got horribly butchered. especially at the end. straight up, as soon as the infinite tsukiyomoi starts, just switch to the manga for like 10 chapters, then go back to the anime. it'll save you OVER 100 EPISODES. you can't even just skip them as filler either. they just took each panel and stretched it into an entire arc. that means that there's still important shit happening that you can't actually miss... it's horrible. they just couldn't let it die. they wrung that shit out like a dirty wash cloth. shameful.

adaptation is hard. you can't truly capture every last detail of a manga in an anime. it also leads to things that make more sense in manga pacing coming through a but funny at times. for example, this is largely where the whole giant anime attack thing comes from. in manga, that build up tension for a free pages then there's like one giant full page glorious piece of art showing a single punch connect. that's just how manga moves. that's why some people really anime original action series. the action is likely to be more dynamic and fluid. take cowboy bebop for example. that action would've translated terribly into manga. it's to small, to precise, too fast, and moves too much. that's why it's really worthy of praise when they go above and beyond to make something really work well.

hell, sometimes you can even make something completely different that people still like. take the shining or Lord of the rings for example. most people don't even realize how incredibly different lotr is in the movie from the books. the movies have a much much broader appeal be kinda almost sorta inverting the message of the books and pissing all over their intent. they're supposed to be anti war stories that show how horrible war is and that there is no honor to be found in it. there is only chaos and carnage and loss. the heroes aren't bold and brave and strong. they're terrified and panicked and none of them want to be there. none of the battle scenes are long or detailed. that's all the movies. there are no great victories. they only ever barely escape the ever encroaching enemy at a great loss and with much remorse.

the movies are action adventure films about Big strong heroes triumphing over the bad guys. that's almost the opposite of what Tolkien wanted. and yet, they're so popular. like, are the movies bad? no. they're great movies that are tremendously entertaining and captured my heart and soul as a child.

I don't have the energy to go into the shining the same way anymore... but my point is, adaptation is tricky. you'll never make everyone happy and maybe that doesn't matter.