Anime VS Manga

I have not read the manga for Claymore so cant comment on the differences. Reading many comments about the anime version of Claymore, it looks like many preferred the anime adaptation to follow the original manga. Is that a totally bad thing that anime doesnt truly follow the original manga? I guess it depends on the series. Watching the same story in anime could be boring for some where a different story would be more interesting.

For me, I preferred the manga version of Inuyasha (love Kagome-chan), Ranma 1/2 and Crayon Shin-chan. Especially Shin-chan - the manga seemed to have a ton of adult and poo jokes in it which never made it to the TV and yet the manga was also being read by children.

The anime that I really did prefer over manga was KochiKame which is sadly not on TV anymore. Which do you think is generally better?
Claymore manga image from Azure Flame.