[Flower]

For myself I usually tend to prefer manga or visual novels to anime, and thus tend to judge anime by how faithful they are to the manga. But sometimes (and for me this is rare - both in anime and in film or other "media" like live drama) the ones presenting the written text into a "visual presentation" add small extra elements that help to emphasize a quality of the story or a character(s) in the story that was not really present (or emphasized sufficiently from the presenters' perspective perhaps). These small extra elements can help bring out aspects and appreciation of the written story even more. On rare occasions the anime presentation is even more "real" and/or effective, making me come to appreciate a character I previously disliked. For me both of these cases are difficult and rare to pull off, but I really appreciate it when it is done well - at least done well in my opinion.

One example that comes immediately to mind in the realm of manga would be the two seasons of "The World God Only Knows". In season 1 the animators did this very well with two of the characters - the pop star Kanon and the librarian Shiori.I had already really liked Shiori's character from the manga before watching the anime eps, but Kanon as depicted in the manga did not really make much of an impression on me. Thanks to her well done presentation in the anime I began to have a greater appreciation for her overall. In season 2 the animators did this very well with the character of Chihiro as well. Of all the "mini heroines" Chihiro was the one who I empathized with the least in the manga. After watching the anime presentation this is no longer the case.

In the realm of visual novels, one good example (for me) would be Aisaka Taiga from Toradora. For me how she behaved in the novels was too "over the top" and even nasty, but in the anime she seemed more balanced, normal, and even "human", and I empathized with her more....