By now you know that most of the anime on the market were adapted from a manga counterpart. You also probably know that there are also plenty of anime on the market that are completely original series that lack a source material in favor of being its own complete thing.
But did you know that some of these original anime have inspired manga spin-offs of their own? It's true, many original anime that you may not even know are original have reversed the usual order and inspired manga series following after them. If you're a fan of any of the anime of this list it's highly recommended you check out their manga spin-offs as well.
10 YURI!!! ON ICE
Yuri!!! On Ice is a breakout sports anime of the year 2016. It's a highly successful series written as a love letter to the sport it focuses on which is, of course, ice figure skating. So successful in fact, that it inspired its own original film as well as a side story manga.
This side story manga is called Yuri On Ice Side Story: Welcome to Madness. To go into detail of this side story would mean giving out spoilers of its prequel anime so to avoid that you should just go take the time and plow through it if you're a fan of the original anime. It's fairly short and a good piece to check out if you're wanting more.
9 LITTLE WITCH ACADEMIA
Studio Trigger's Little Witch Academia got its start as a two-part short film series that quickly gained a ton of popularity and praise. This lead to the series getting adapted into a more fleshed out anime which is continuing that success streak presented by the series. This success also led this anime to receive a spin-off manga.
In fact, Little Witch Academia spawned three manga, two simply being adaptations of the short films and the anime, and another featuring an original story that was released in Ultra Jump in 2015.
8 THE BIG O
The very classy anime Big O is one that fans constantly call "the anime version of Batman". In fact, it was coined as an influence of the series. While the series mirrors many pieces of the classic Dark Knight lore it also mirrors its success in the West, as the series failed in Japan but was a big hit in the US.
This success resulted in a side series which was created in anticipation of a second season of the anime titled, Lost Memory. It takes place between volumes five and six of the original manga and released in two volumes of Magazine Z.
7 SAMURAI FLAMENCO
Samurai Flamenco is one of those series that throws you for a loop with every new episode. It starts off as an anime Kick Ass, turns into Kamen Rider, then Super Sentai, and then into Metal Gear: Rising. With that said it was a blast to follow and its spin-off manga continues that fun ride.
Samurai Flamenco: Another Days may lack the more polished art of its anime source but it makes up by giving us more laughs and a bit more characterization to add on to the anime. It's a great little distraction to add to the Samumenco experience.
6 TIGER & BUNNY
Tiger & Bunny is one of the best superhero anime out there and one of those series that would be perfect to get western comic fans into anime. It's about two professional heroes, one old dog and a rookie, attempting to work together as a duo and eventually uncovering some crazy truths behind the corporation that the heroes of this futuristic world work under.
Tiger & Bunny received three manga counterparts to accompany it. One being a spin-off one-shot manga, another being a complete adaptation of the original anime, and the last being an anthology spin-off.
5 MADOKA MAGICA
Puella Magi Madoka Magica is a series that has blown up and spawned so much spin-off material it's insane. The lore of this series is so rich that there is a lot of room for spin-offs to only add more richness. This magical girl series took the world by storm due to its subversion of the usual magical girl tropes in favor of some darker adjustments.
The Madoka Magica series is accompanied with countless manga spin-offs that expand on the series's original concepts such as Puella Magi Kazumi Magica, Puella Magi Oriko Magica, Wraith Arc, and more.
4 SPACE DANDY
This original series created by the mind behind of Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, and more touched new grounds from its big brother series. It's a space opera series following the adventures of the alien hunter Dandy and his incapable crew of a cat alien and a robot vacuum cleaner. The series takes a very different approach from any anime before it.
It also received a manga "adaptation". For some reason this manga spin-off is usually classed as an adaptation when in actuality most of the content present is completely original and not present in the anime.
3 NEON GENESIS EVANGELION
Much like Madoka Magica, Neon Genesis Evangelion is a series that birthed such rich lore that it's left plenty of room for additional pieces to expand even further on things touched on in the original anime. It has spawned many films as well as videogames and of course a manga adaptation/spin-off.
This manga companion to the original series is classified as an adaptation and spin-off due to the fact that it makes a few additions not present in the original story and is recognized as mangaka Sadamoto's original work, not to be used to reference anything present in the anime.
2 GURREN LAGANN
This super hype anime that marked the beginning of Studio Trigger is one of the series that is perfect for additional supplemental material. It follows a very simple storyline and isn't a series taking itself too seriously meaning that the additional stories probably had a lot of room to go for some fun pieces to add on to the lore.
One such spin-off manga is Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Gurren Gakuen-hen, a series that takes place in an alternate universe where our main characters go to a school titled Dai-Gurren University instead of fighting in a larger than life war.
1 COWBOY BEBOP
Cowboy Bebop is most likely the most popular original anime series of all time so it's only fitting that there be a spin-off series to accompany this great series. Well lo and behold, Cowboy Bebop has spawned two different spin-off manga.
One of these series is titled Shooting Star Bebop which featured an alternate telling of the same story from the original anime featuring changes to the designs of the main characters such as Ed being a male. The other spin-off simply titled Cowboy Bebop features even more stories not present in the anime starring all the crew and designs fans of the series are used to.