And now I'm reading the manga (I'm up to Volume 13)... Many scenes in the anime are much shorter/simpler in the manga. No one accidentally transforms when Tohru's friends come to visit, for instance. The event that ends the anime is so much less climatic in the manga, as has already been discussed...
The manga has some very good parts to it, like Hatori and Mayu's meeting and Kyo and Kagura's date in volume 12. Any parts involving the new student council are REALLY annoying, though.
Akito's true identity as revealed in Volume 11 is way cooler than at the end of the anime

... but no manical laughter?
