Why Don't These Animes Ever Get Proper Endings? :(

[Fappy]

So I just finished watching Birdy the Mighty: Decode on Netflix and while I have noticed and complained about this in the past I think I have hit the boiling point... Why the flying fuck don't these animes ever have proper endings!?

Sure there are plenty of animes that do have definitive endings, usually because they either deviated from their manga counterpart in order to reach a logical conclusion while the manga continues or the show itself isn't too long and had a planned beginning and end from the start. Unfortunately there are plenty of others that either have cliffhanger endings at the end of seasons without continuations or 8,000 loose plot threads that were left unattended to by the time the show prematurely ended.

I know this happens in live action television shows all the time too, but for some reason I find it far more frustrating in anime.

Here's a list of some animes I have watched over the years guilty of this. In some cases there is still a remote chance of another season, but they are very unlikely:

- Birdy the Mighty: Decode, as I previously stated. Ties most stuff together with the exception of the overarching villain's plot and kind of ends abruptly. Stuff is clumsily tied together at the end.
- Darker than Black's first season had a pretty decent ending and could have ended there. Let's not talk about the second... oh please god no. So obviously set up for a 3rd season... been a few years.
- Shikabane Hime... oh my god... I can't even. One of the worst endings to anything I have ever seen. Up there with ME3.
- Gunslinger Girl and Full Metal Panic just kind of ended. They weren't horrible, but it seemed premature for sure.

There are plenty of others I just can't think of off the top of my head at the moment also. Honestly, I prefer sub-par "anime" endings (where the manga is still ongoing) simply because THERE IS AN ENDING.

Well I am done screaming at a wall now. Any other examples you guys can think of? Does this bother you? Discuss!

 

[Scarim Coral]

The only ones I can think of are the ones where the manga is still ongoing like One Piece, Naruto Shipudden, Fairy Tail, Berserk and Hunter X Hunter and etc.

However Berserk and Hunter X Hunter have been on a haitus type of break for a really long time so those two really should had ended by now or had more chapters to it (well ok the Manga Ka were ill but still even when they recover they just can't be bother drawing it).

I suppose Shaman King anime sort of count as it only end with the Tournament was put on hold after Zeke (Hao) defeat but then the tournament reopen so we don't who exactly and how they won the tournament. Granted thought I did read that the manga ending was alot worse than that.

Oh yeah I just remember the ending to The Big O, that had a weird ending that didn't bring any closure at all.

 

[Fappy]

The only ones I can think of are the ones where the manga is still ongoing like One Piece, Naruto Shipudden, Fairy Tail, Berserk and Hunter X Hunter and etc.

However Berserk and Hunter X Hunter have been on a haitus type of break for a really long time so those two really should had ended by now or had more chapters to it (well ok the Manga Ka were ill but still even when they recover they just can't be bother drawing it).

I suppose Shaman King anime sort of count as it only end with the Tournament was put on hold after Zeke (Hao) defeat but then the tournament reopen so we don't who exactly and how they won the tournament. Granted thought I did read that the manga ending was alot worse than that.

Oh yeah I just remember the ending to The Big O, that had a weird ending that didn't bring and closure at all.

Yeah I have heard really bad stuff about the Berserk anime. Isn't it just the prologue of the manga?

 

[RJ 17]

My beloved Bobobo-Bobo-Bobobo ends before the series is complete for absolutely no reason...it's made even more frustrating by the fact that they were just about to go up against a big final boss and the episode just ends with "Yeah, we're done, go read the manga."

 

[Scarim Coral]

The only ones I can think of are the ones where the manga is still ongoing like One Piece, Naruto Shipudden, Fairy Tail, Berserk and Hunter X Hunter and etc.

However Berserk and Hunter X Hunter have been on a haitus type of break for a really long time so those two really should had ended by now or had more chapters to it (well ok the Manga Ka were ill but still even when they recover they just can't be bother drawing it).

I suppose Shaman King anime sort of count as it only end with the Tournament was put on hold after Zeke (Hao) defeat but then the tournament reopen so we don't who exactly and how they won the tournament. Granted thought I did read that the manga ending was alot worse than that.

Oh yeah I just remember the ending to The Big O, that had a weird ending that didn't bring and closure at all.

Yeah I have heard really bad stuff about the Berserk anime. Isn't it just the prologue of the manga?

Yup, granted I have only read the info and not reading the manga itself. The anime is pretty much the prologue to the main story in the manga and all I can say is that it's about revenge in a way.
I have watch the original Hunter X Hunter anime (can't be bother with the newer version as it's just reshowing what I've already seen but in new animation) so I was offended when I found out that it still had not ended (well still ongoing at a very slow rate despite it being an old series (it's was sort of like the Naruto, One Piece of the 90's).

 

[Fappy]

Surprised no-one's mentioned Neon Genesis yet. You could pretty much describe the fallout from that as 'Mass Effect 3 for the 90s'. Indeed, Neon Genesis got its own 'retake' movement which resulted in Gainax producing End Of Evangelion... and that just made things worse. Gainax are the namers for the Gainax Ending trope on TV Tropes because of Neon Genesis. That's how pissed off fans were.

Not for me, obviously. I loved the endings to both series and to the movie, but then again, I love me some trippy mindscrews in my entertainment. For a lot of people though, Neon Genesis is pretty much the uber-example of a great anime that completely loses it at the ending.

Wasn't there some kind of remake to end all remakes for it though? I heard about it a few years ago but never looked into it. I watched the original anime once and had no clue what the fuck was happening in the last two episodes >.>

 

[Soviet Heavy]

How about shows that end a season on a cliffhanger.... only to never follow it up without completely undoing everything that was built up?

Code Geass I'm looking at you.

 

[Loop Stricken]

Wasn't there some kind of remake to end all remakes for it though? I heard about it a few years ago but never looked into it. I watched the original anime once and had no clue what the fuck was happening in the last two episodes >.>

I assume you're talking about Rebuild of Evangelion.
It's sort of a remake, except with new shit.

Spoiler

It's implied that this is another timeline, or... something.

 

[Fappy]

Wasn't there some kind of remake to end all remakes for it though? I heard about it a few years ago but never looked into it. I watched the original anime once and had no clue what the fuck was happening in the last two episodes >.>

I assume you're talking about Rebuild of Evangelion.
It's sort of a remake, except with new shit.

Spoiler

It's implied that this is another timeline, or... something.

Is it worth looking into? I have heard some cool things about it.

 

[Loop Stricken]

Is it worth looking into? I have heard some cool things about it.

I prefer it over the original series, largely because it's far far easier to follow and there's a much more acceptable ratio of talking to asskicking.

It is only half finished at the moment, though; a mere two movies' worth.

Spoiler: And not ALL of the movie is full of such awful voice-acting...

Yes, this is from the Japanese version.

 

[Jonluw]

I think there might not be such a deep-seated tradition for closure in Japanese literature.
I've noticed a real lot of anime uses the whole "Stuff doesn't stop happening in the world just because this particular story is over" thing.

 

[Loop Stricken]

I think there might not be such a deep-seated tradition for closure in Japanese literature.
I've noticed a real lot of anime uses the whole "Stuff doesn't stop happening in the world just because this particular story is over" thing.

AND they keep putting little snippets after the end credits which changes the ending of the series entirely.
I raged at the piss-poor endings of Toradora and Mirai Nikki... until I went back and watched them past the credits.
Everything went better than expected.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Is it worth looking into? I have heard some cool things about it.

I prefer it over the original series, largely because it's far far easier to follow and there's a much more acceptable ratio of talking to asskicking.

It is only half finished at the moment, though; a mere two movies' worth.

Spoiler: And not ALL of the movie is full of such awful voice-acting...

Yes, this is from the Japanese version.

You know what's pathetic? That voice actor may have had a hard time pronouncing the words, but the inflections were still better than pretty much any English dub made in the last decade. What is it with American and Canadian dub studios phoning it in? I mean, compare an old Streamline dub to something recent. The Streamline dub will win hands down, despite in all likelihood having some censorship issues. For all the attention they get paid at conventions, dub voice actors sure do like to phone things in these days.

 

[Redd the Sock]

Unwritten truth about anime is just how much like American TV it can be. You don't want to cut yourself off in case you get a second season or OVA deal (Negima). You don't want to Have a big shift in care it contridicts later manga material (Fruits Basket). Sometimes a show gets canceled (Final fantasy Unlimited). On rare occasions it can be because they want to stay true to the manga, but he manga needs to finish (Inuyasha, Nana). Then of course there's the obivous budget problems.

Eva's a sepcial case where Aino went batshit.

Some worst offenders in my collection:

Spiral: built around a big mystery that never gets even close to resolved.
Mahoromatic: I don't know what was up with that finale to the second season.
Tsubassa: show jsut stops, gets OVAs that skip large portions of manga.
Fruits Basket: almost too many issues to mention.

 

[rayen020]

Sekirei Kaze no Stigma also had this problem. i was mad and went to check if there was still an ongoing manga and find out what the deal was. I was alot less mad when i discovered that the writer/artist died in a car crash.

 

[Fappy]

Unwritten truth about anime is just how much like American TV it can be. You don't want to cut yourself off in case you get a second season or OVA deal (Negima). You don't want to Have a big shift in care it contridicts later manga material (Fruits Basket). Sometimes a show gets canceled (Final fantasy Unlimited). On rare occasions it can be because they want to stay true to the manga, but he manga needs to finish (Inuyasha, Nana). Then of course there's the obivous budget problems.

Eva's a sepcial case where Aino went batshit.

Some worst offenders in my collection:

Spiral: built around a big mystery that never gets even close to resolved.
Mahoromatic: I don't know what was up with that finale to the second season.
Tsubassa: show jsut stops, gets OVAs that skip large portions of manga.
Fruits Basket: almost too many issues to mention.

Yeah they are eerily similar to American TV shows that way. There are very few live action TV series I can think of that ended properly either.