There are very few anime that are perfectly accurate adaptations of manga. Most series need to take into account a limited number of episodes and have to deal with the way the contents of chapters translate into an episode of the series.
Anime Seraph of the End is no different in this regard. The vampire series doesn’t deal with all of the things that happen in the manga. Some of the things that were left out were fairly minor, but many shed important contextual light on happenings in the story. Here are ten things from the manga that the anime left out.
10 Children Talking About Not Being Livestock
The beginning of the series deals with the children who are being kept as livestock for the vampires deciding that they don’t want to live like that. They make a plan to all escape together from their containment and to go out into the world to live freely, where they won’t be treated as a source of food.
As they get to the door and are almost free, they excitedly start talking about how they aren’t livestock at all but are instead geniuses for escaping. It’s an ironic conversation to have, considering what’s about to happen, and it would have added an extra layer of tragedy to the scene if it was included.
9 Shinoa Giving Yu A Military Uniform
All of the characters are pretty young in the series but, as a Gundam series, that doesn’t usually keep them out of the line of fire when it comes to warfare.
Early on in the manga, Shinoa gives Yu a military uniform, signaling that he’s now a member of the Japanese Imperial Demon Army, which works to fight against vampires. It’s a small moment, but it’s also an important scene because it tells us that this is an end of childhood for Yu, who now will have to fight as an adult in this war.
8 Shinoa And Guren Talking About Black Demon Candidates
Black Demons are pretty much the most powerful demons that fight for the Japanese Imperial Demon Army. They’re incredibly difficult to kill, and it’s very unlikely that a person fighting against them will survive the encounter. Shinoa tells Guren in the manga that Yu and Kimizuki are both candidates to become Black Demons.
Black Demons all go through a process where they’re experimented on, and most of the candidates don’t come out successfully on the other side. It’s an interesting bit of information that tells us a lot about Shinoa and about Yu and Kimizuki.
7 Yu Has The Same Dream Every Night
Another thing that isn’t mentioned in the anime version of the story is the fact that Yu has the same dream every night. It only occurs after he receives his sword, and it’s a violent dream that actually turns out to be something of a premonition.
He has trouble sleeping because of this and is often tired. This is a great character moment since it tells us that a lot is happening in Yu’s mind and that he has definitely been irreversibly affected by being in the army and being involved in this war.
6 Information About Vampires
Shinoa is the leader of a squad, and she’s in charge of making sure that her team has the information that they need to safely fight against the vampires. But more than that, there is a certain responsibility to the storytelling to make sure that the viewers also have all of the necessary information.
In the manga, before an attack, Shinoa tells her squad some valuable information about the world. Vampires outnumber humans 7 to 1, which is a pretty big number. And they also sleep from early morning to noon, which is a good time to attack them. This kind of light worldbuilding would go a long way to helping with the storytelling in the anime.
5 The Squad Being Yelled At For Killing Vampires
On a mission to a small town that has a large number of vampires around it, Shinoa’s Squad kill the vampires. Afterward, a father in the village has an altercation with the squad.
He shouts at them about killing the vampires, which surprises them, and he goes on to explain that the vampires’ presence had kept other monsters at bay, essentially protecting the town. It’s also a great moment of worldbuilding since it’s a good way of showing what the world is like outside of the military and with normal people dealing with the vampire threat.
4 Vampires Turn Into Demons
Speaking of worldbuilding, there is a lot that’s complicated about how the world of Seraph of the End works. It’s not a straightforward vampire show; there is another mythology that also has to be taken into account regarding storytelling.
In the manga, Asuramaru gives the vital information that demons are also vampires and that vampires eventually just turn into demons in the end. We eventually see that this is the case with some vampires, but having the information spelled out would have been helpful while watching the anime series.
3 Shinoa Telling Everyone Kimizuki Is Gay
Shinoa makes sure to praise Kimizuki to the rest of the squad because he’s so good at household chores and has been doing the group’s cooking. She then declares that Kimizuki is gay. It’s a pretty cheap joke, that a man with domestic skills is gay, and Kimizuki denies it as a lie.
But the fact that it’s not included in the anime is also interesting. A lot of fans think that some of the characters read as queer, especially in the manga, so we almost wonder if the anime was trying to downplay some of that reading.
2 Asuramaru Yelling At Yu About Losing His Humanity
This is another big character moment that would have been good to see. War is difficult for everyone, but it must be especially hard on characters who are literal teenagers. They have to make decisions that no actual child should have to make and are often involved in things that most adults shouldn’t have to deal with. It’s no wonder that it’s easy to detach from what’s happening in order to get it done.
Asuramaru can’t accept this and yells at Yu about how easy it’s been for him to lose his humanity in the course of things. It’s a great moment between the two of them and feels like a good sign of what’s to come.
1 The End Of Season Two
The end of season two, which is currently where the anime ends, is not the end of the manga. It deals with chapters 39-41 of the manga, ending an arc. In both cases, there is a time skip at the end, but the anime doesn’t handle the time skip the same way as the manga and seems to be ready to diverge completely from the manga from here on out.
Though there haven’t been any more seasons of the anime yet, it seems unlikely, based on the ending, that they could be planning to follow the same story that the manga is telling.