Based Off the Hit Series...

Recently, Yen Press announced something that got me excited until I actually read the article.  Let me put this in a manner that can only be understood by the age-old medium of emoticons.  At first when I heard that Yen Press was going to publish Durarara, I was all:

:D

Then I read it was the manga and not the light novels, and I was all:

D:

Some small background.  Durarara is the epic anime series that recently was released on DVD and is currently airing on Adult Swim on Saturday night/Sunday morning.  The anime series was based off the light novels.  The manga was released after the light novels, but right before the anime.  In short, I consider the light novels to be the inspiration of the anime series and not the manga, as the manga hasn't really touched on everything the series has during the time of the airing of the anime.  So in essence, I feel the manga as more an afterthought instead of the inspiration of the anime.

This isn't the first time this has happened.  The same is with the Shakugan no Shana series.  The light novels came out, and I consider them to be the main inspiration of the anime series.  There is a manga of the series as well, but it just doesn't feel as important as the light novels, especially with a series that has so much focus on action.

Other series have this same situation.  The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Hayate the Combat Butler (The light novels being the lesser of the two in that case), Spice and Wolf, and several others have this problem.  One medium just isn't respected as much.  In all the cases, at least in my experience, that has yet to fall on the anime adaptation.  This is more of a fight between light novels and manga.  Sometimes it is based off a preference, I know, but for the most part, there is the main attraction, and then the "Did you know there is a manga of the series too?"  "Oh.  That's nice.". 

Do you understand what I am talking about?