i read through this whole thread and got interested in the manga so i read it this week, but i still don't understand what the hell some of you are talking about:
Uhm, well, i think that the manga's better, even because the anime is much... soft.
I've seen Haku's death(i think that I'm a masochist... XDDD) both in the anime and in the manga, for exemple, and it's a 'lil' different.
from what i noticed there's more blood splattered around and that's it. blood paints Haku's ice morrors in the manga but those were shattered in the anime which imo was an improvement.
Zabuza's outfit's horrible in the anime :°°°°°
it is exactly the same.
The anime (surprise, surprise) also leaves out a few minor important details about the characters. Anyone who's read the manga will understand what I'm talking about:
-Kakashi's past career
i didn't see anything about Kakashi's past career in the manga, his background has been shrouded in mystery until now with Kakashi's gaiden which pretty much reveals that his past career was a ninja...
-The entire sequence of how Jiraiya comes to train Naruto
what "entire sequence"? the manga was the same as the Anime only shorter without some filler
-The TRUE content of "Come Come Paradise"...
both the manga and anime hints that it's an adult book with dirty content, again i noticed nothing different.
why the hell they keep screwing up the characters' colors?

!!?!!!
i did notice a couple of crappy drawn episodes but when did any characters get screwed on their colors? are you trying to scare people away from the anime by looking for minor mistakes through a magnifying glass?
While the anime has it's great moments (whoever directed/came up with the visual design of the Gaara's past sequence is genius)
Gaara's past was based on the manga's aesthetics/visuals just like all the other story sequences, wouldn't the credit just go to Kishimoto (or one of his assistants)?
P.S.: Orochimaru does his best to get a new whiney bit... err, "child form".
the girl body he has is the best, i can't picture him in Sasuke's body. if only he would drop his mask like he did in front of the Third. i mean who wears a mask when you are sick in bed. did Kishimoto completely forget this because (manga spoiler)
[!--SPOILER BEGIN--][div onClick=\"openClose(\'11afb0d4d6ed4344eebda87cbb063b02\')\" style=\"font-weight: bold\"]Click For Spoiler[/div][div id=\"11afb0d4d6ed4344eebda87cbb063b02\" style=\"display:none\"][!--SPOILER END--]when Orochimaru's arms falls off in the shower he is still wearing his mask and his body doesn't look like a girl's at all[!--SPOILER DIV--][/div][!--SPOILER DIV--]
or was that young face he showed the Third complete bs?