Manga

Manga is the lifeblood that drives the anime industry. Everything and its mother is based on manga. However! There are exceptions where the manga was not the basis for the anime.

It`s common practice to make manga adaptations of many popular anime, there`s a manga based on Evangelion, and two (one shounen and one shoujo) based on each of Escaflowne and Mahou Tsukai Tai. Also it`s quite common to release manga and anime versions of a story in parallel, for instance Nadesico and Shoujo Kakumei Utena. There are also cases where an anime continues in a manga, as in the case of Angel Beats! and Angel Beats: Heaven`s Door, or reverse.

See also manhua and manhwa.