End of story Depression.

[NeutralDrow]

I know where you're coming from. That can sometimes happen to me, but only under some circumstances. Stuff that ends bittersweetly makes me pretty depressed afterwards, of course. Comics and games that go out of their way to emphasize the transience of their settings, no matter how much they subvert it in the end (Azumanga Daioh leaps immediately to mind, though other high school-themed manga have done the same), will make me a bit uncomfortable. I still haven't watched past the first episode of 5 Centimeters per Second because of this; I just need to work myself up to it.

Really, transience, lingering regrets, and fear of the unknown are the things that make me really sad a story's over, as a reminder that closure is something that doesn't always happen.

If something ends on an unambiguously happy note, though? I don't really get sad, somehow. Even though I probably liked the show or game simply because I got attached to the characters, that might be a part of it. I know the characters have weathered some crisis, grow together, simply spent time with each other, etc., and that they're doing well by the end, and somehow, being happy for them wards off the implications that I won't be spending any more time with them. Doesn't mean I won't shed a few tears at the ending a little, or maybe more than a few if it's just a perfect ending like Fruits Basket, but they're usually tears of fulfillment instead of grief.

And don't get me started on visual novels. When there's a fairly wide range of possible endings, it gets...complicated. >_>

 

[Nouw]

Happened to me recently with Fate/Zero but only because...

Spoiler: Spoilers for Fate/Zero and Fate/Stay Night

the ending wasn't all that satisfactory. It just miffs me that an anime that was pretty damn good as a self-contained series had to meet the continuity obligations from its visual novel predecessor. The biggest gripe I have is that Sabre as a character didn't really go anywhere. Sure you could say the same for other characters but when you give so much screen-time to a character and begin to develop them, they better fucking fully develop. Okay, she got a verbal beat-down on ideology from Rider and began to doubt and self-examine but this introspection just left her in a state of melancholy and despair. Up to the very end Sabre still feels the same way she does ever since her meeting with Rider, hell, she feels even worse. It just really bugged me that her character is left hanging for Fate Stay/Night. I can't even turn to the VN or anime for some kind of closure because apparently she's completely different and isn't well-written. Ah well, time to move on.

Yeah I wanted to get that off my chest. The point is, stories that don't end on a way that makes sense or provides closure depress me. I wasn't depressed at the end of Fullmetal Alchemist, The Walking Dead or Kara no Shoujo despite having a deeper attachment with them because they all ended on a satisfactory note. Yes it was sad that they were finished, the endings themselves sometimes being sad, but the experience was amazing from start to finish. Now that the experience was finished, I could move on. I think I'm beginning to understand on a personal level why ME3 was such a big controversy now.

All a learning experience though. Not everything I watch is going to have an ending I like.

EDIT: Fate/Stay Night remake coming out. Depression cured. I swear to god if they fuck up her character... ㅇㅅㅇ

 

[Xdeser2]

When it was a bit younger that happened to me with Avatar TLA.

I loved every minute of it, and as a child/early teen those characters impacted me in a significant way, and when it ended, I was left pretty sad that there wouldn't be more of the same on the horizon.

 

[keiji_Maeda]

The only time it happened to me was when I finished Lone Wolf & Cub. I thought "Well, that's the end of that," and then I got up to go out when I suddenly was overcome with tears.

There had to be a grizzled close up of your manly tears as you left, right?

that is the Goseki kojima way.

 

[Auron225]

That happens to me fairly often - it's kinda happening right now with Attack on Titan,in a way - the first season is over and the 2nd isn't gonna be made for quite a long time. So I read all the manga to this point but then I caught up on that too. In about 2 weeks I watched 25 episodes and read 50 chapters - now I have to wait 1 month just to read 1 chapter!

In terms of actually finishing something for good - The Hunger Games did that to me, mostly because of how many characters got killed (especially in the last one).

 

[Thaluikhain]

Yeah, I get that a lot. Often with webcomics.

Even with series I don't like, like DS9. Consistently crap show full of unbelievably stupid characters, but I got all the way through it in a week or two, and it felt odd when it ended.

Er, the worst example of this I experienced was when I was a kid and finished the Mallorean, which is a 5 (I think) book set following the adventures of Belgarion, Polgara and Belgarath. I had nailed the Belgariad and then the Mallorean in a couple of months. Was bereft, no more interacting with those characters. Gutted.

Read it again years later without the wonder of youth and it's clunky, not terrible but not brilliant, but there you go.

As an aside, there's some other books from that series, and everything else the author has done is exactly the same anyway.

 

[Drummodino]

I got it bad from Persona 4 Golden. It left a giant hole in my life. So I dove right back in for a second playthrough

 

[Samantha Burt]

This happens with me all the time too. Examples that occur are Strawberry Panic, Kannazuki no Miko and OreImo. Included are also two or maybe three endings from Katawa Shoujo. It makes me wonder why I bother continuing to watch/play these things. xD

 

[GladiatorUA]

Depends on a reason.
If the series was axed, like Firefly, it is depressing and it bothers me greatly.
If the ending itself is depressing, like Sundome(warning:might not be your thing), it is depressing, but it doesn't bother me.
If the ending is unsatisfactory... Well, shit. There is a lot of that. And it doesn't have to be completely bad. Witcher book series is good, the last book ties up most of the plot lines, but the way Sapkowski kills off Geralt in the end(not really a spoiler with two games out and doesn't matter for the plot) is retarded and unnecessary. The equivalent of dropping a random brick on his head just because. Unsatisfactory endings are the worst.
Animes have a big problem with endings because they usually come out before the manga they were adapted from is not finished at the time they are made. Some of them are lucky to work with big enough and complete story arcs and choose to follow them closely(Kekkaishi). Some of them do not and try to invent their own stuff with different levels of success often fucking things up(Gantz). It comes with the medium and the way publishing is done. One of the reasons I stopped watching anime and eventually almost stopped reading ongoing(not completely published/translated) manga
And there are also rushed/axed titles that have only couple of chapters to finish up. Those are also bad.

Proper ending rarely depresses. Unless it intends to. Which is fine. It's a valid emotion.

 

[Vausch]

That happened when I finished the Hyper Police manga and when Titus went off the air. Titus especially since the proper ending was depressing and the out of order ending was just kind of confusing as to why they would end a series like that.

 

[deathjavu]

Yep, pretty much every time with any good book, game or a series that didn't have a shitty ending (usually from being dragged on too long, where I stop caring). But I really get that feeling of huge sadness, like something is gone, over and done with that I've enjoyed because I know I can never really go back and enjoy it again as much as I did the first time.

Well, it's nice to know someone else who's like this. And it doesn't take much to hook me in a story. And it really takes a lot to leverage me out of a story once I get in, there have been some stories that have really gone down the shitter (that probably weren't great to begin with) that I absolutely had to finish because of my investment in the world. Which means that I get sad about basically every and all media I can consume start to finish. Which probably explains why I read so many ongoing webcomics/manga...

If the ending itself is sad, well, that's just extra depressing topping on the sad ice cream. Fuckin Shadow of the Giant and Amber Spyglass, makin me have feelings...

 

[Yopaz]

My most notable example on this will have to be The Wheel of Time. I'm trying to keep this free from spoilers.

The ending in itself wasn't sad, it was optimistic, it was open, it hinted that the future of the living characters would make for some interesting stories.

However the end of the series meant a lot to me. I've been reading it for about 10 years and it's been amazing. The author died back in 2007 which was a tragedy for fans of the series. He had planned for this and had written the ending and some detailed notes on some points leading towards it so the series could be handed down to someone to be completed.

When the series ended it wasn't just the end of a series that I really like and has been a part of my life. It was like I was finally able to say good bye to a person who has influenced my life 6 years after he passed away. His legacy and life's work saw its completion and that gets me every time I think of the series. It's strange how much a man I've never met can mean to me, but I mourn his loss and despite loving Brandon Sanderson's work (which I might not have found without his death) I really wish I could have seen his way of finishing the series.

 

[Hawkeye21]

I had that same feelings about "The Wheel of Time" series. The ending was quite satisfactory, but... Damn it, I've been reading this series for 12 FREAKING YEARS, "Eye of the World" was the very first book I've read in English (and that wasn't easy), I've grown so attached to characters over time, so knowing that not another word would ever be written about them just makes me very sad.

 

[Mr.Squishy]

Katawa Shoujo.
Also, been watching all of Higurashi no naku koro ni (and kai, rei, kira and kaku as well) as of late, and while it's apparently the inferior version compared to the visual novel/manga, I still got pretty sad when it ended, but also relieved.

 

[MrDumpkins]

Sometimes when a character's role is finished in a game I get a bit upset if I know the game continues without them, for example Amata in Fallout 3 or... Bonnie Mcfarlane, the woman from the first part of Red Dead Redemption.
But yeah in some games that are series, specifically Mass Effect 3, I got really sad when it was over (and citadel DLC specifically) as the characters' arcs were over and it was all finished.

I always get sad for a week or so after finishing a game or book. But with mass effect 3 I didn't feel it. Probably because the ending was so bad I was flabbergasted. However, when they released the citadel DLC, and after playing through it, that last scene, when everyone walks out with shepard and they stare at the normandy, that was when it finally hit me. They messed up quite a bit with ME3, but citadel was really the most fantastic send off I could have ever imagined, that DLC proved to me that bioware really cared about their game, and that it wasn't their fault ME3 ended the way it did.

There was just so much time invested in those characters for me. I mean, 3 games over the span of years. Even when you aren't playing the game you still remember all the characters, and it really felt like I'd been with them for so many years.

 

[Thaluikhain]

As an aside, there's some other books from that series, and everything else the author has done is exactly the same anyway.

Is there? I have googled but can't see them? Would be interested to know.

Polgara and...her father can't remember his name, each got spin off prequel books.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Ended Fallout New Vegas like that. I knew that the rest of the game would be going through the same motions in a slightly different way and that it wouldn't be the same, novel, first time trek through the Mojave ever again.

Didn't stop me for playing for dozens of hours after that point though.