Anime or Manga?

I know that this is a debate that has been going for ages, and is probably overdone... Often, I notice that quite alot of people who have read the manga version first do not really like that anime, as the anime tends to be shorter and changes some parts of the original manga. But then again, it's impossible to make it exactly the same. For me although I do love a some manga series over the animes, I find I do like watching the anime adaptations as well, because there's just something satisfying about seeing your favourite characters come to life and be given voices. I admit there are some not so good adaptations, but on the whole I think the series I watch have been pretty fine. Some of them are Fruits Basket, The Prince of Tennis and Bleach. So I'd like to know if anyone has watched an anime based on a manga series and actually preferred the anime to the manga version?