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

[Casual Shinji]

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.

You know how much a disservice you're doing to yourself by not reading the Berserk manga?

Get off your keaster and go read one the best things ever put on paper!

OT: My Dear Marie

An obscure anime from the 90's which had only 3 episodes. Unfortunately the last episode was a run through the main character's dreams which revealed some pretty cool characteristics. The heartbreak of it not continuing is still somewhat there, even after all those years.

 

[GideonB]

Actually I kinda feel like Mirai Nikki did that along with that Eureka Seven manga Gravity Boy and Lifting Girl

But I haven't read either in long so yeah xD

 

[Richardplex]

Thankfully I only really watch anime 26 episodes or lower, with a few exceptions (Death Note and FMA:B being the only ones worth mentioning). So my endings are either planned from the beginning or have the story change for the last 3 episodes because no-one watched the anime and it got cancelled. Pandora Hearts just isn't the same without Yuki Kajiura's music being used in a completely unsubtle way.

But yet C The Money of Soul And Possibility Control, despite being 11 episodes long, managed to fuck the ending up. And this is impressive because up to 1 minute before the end, it's still my favourite finale in an anime. Hell it could of ended perfectly fine without that last minute. But then it had to add in a 1 minute dream sequence that is completely unhelpful.

 

[j0frenzy]

What follows is my general understanding of the situation. I have no numbers or scholarly sources that can back up any of this:
I believe the problem stems from the fact that most anime is adapted from manga as the manga is still popular. The problem is that a manga is popular when it is coming out, so an anime is adapted while the manga is coming out so there is no definitive closure. Added to that, generally manga writers don't write with the intent to end a series, or at least not definitively, because that means going through the stress and hassle of getting a new series published. So what we have is a tv series being made without a definitive ending and the writer has no intent on ending it soon. Compounding all of this, a season of television is generally able to cover more ground than a years worth of manga publications. TL,DR: Publication and adaptation system be borked leading to poorly ended anime series. In other news, can we please get a second season of Beck now?

 

[SckizoBoy]

The one that comes to mind is Nurarihyon no Mago, the second season of which is so damned anti-climactic, with the season's big-bad just going 'I don't wanna fight, I'm buggering off to hell, can anyone hold my hand on the way back?!' which left me raging. Still waiting for the third season, though to be fair, it was only last year, but still...

Then there're a couple of other shorter series that are episodic, with a loose overhanging plot, but they just don't go anywhere (biggest gripe about Yomigaeru Sora Wings, or whatever it's called, very good series, but the final episode is just... 'that's it?!').

*shrug*

As for why... fuck knows... studio couldn't be bothered to invest in it any more... broadcaster wanted leeway to continue for their new cash-cow... a new series started in the time slot that's more appealing...

 

[Infernai]

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?

As the unofficial Resident obsessive berserk fanboy of the Escapist allow me to say this on the anime: It's a condensed, slightly cut down version of the first arc of the manga and ended poorly as a result of funds running out. There's a new series in development though that will redo the first arc and also continue on to cover the other arcs.

However, the manga does indeed continue from where the anime leaves off. Go read it. No seriously, we need the fans...

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

If an anime is not doing well or catches up with the manga you kind of have to be thankful if they even continue or get an ending ala Ravemaster style as in it just stops. I do mean that literally it doesn't end, it doesn't tie up anything there is the main villain left, a few minor villains, a few plot twists and characters to be introduced. It just gets cu

 

[370999]

snip

Birdy was a financial disaster, and was thus cancelled. What you saw was a desperate attempt to give it closure. Shame as I really liked it.

Happens all the time.

Unfortunate reality of anime is the whole catching up to the manga aspect as well as budgets.

 

[Fappy]

snip

Birdy was a financial disaster, and was thus cancelled. What you saw was a desperate attempt to give it closure. Shame as I really liked it.

Happens all the time.

Unfortunate reality of anime is the whole catching up to the manga aspect as well as budgets.

Yeah it was really disappointing. The animation quality in the final fight kind of gave me the impression they weren't doing that well financially. It was pretty crappy >.>

 

[Asita]

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

In fairness, given the themes of the show that ending arguably fit it quite well. That said, it was a rush job stemming from the series' cancellation.

 

[370999]

snip

Birdy was a financial disaster, and was thus cancelled. What you saw was a desperate attempt to give it closure. Shame as I really liked it.

Happens all the time.

Unfortunate reality of anime is the whole catching up to the manga aspect as well as budgets.

Yeah it was really disappointing. The animation quality in the final fight kind of gave me the impression they weren't doing that well financially. It was pretty crappy >.>

Well it never really had incredible animation. Lovely use of colour though.

First season was the tops though.

 

[Quaidis]

It all ties down to money in the end.

Anime costs money to make and sell. A company will sign a deal with the manga artist (and manga company/magazine) for one or two seasons these days, in which they have to take what the artist has done and slap it into 13, 26, or 52 episodes. If it wont all fit, they cut back on major things, water it down as a whole, or take out entire plot elements. If it's too small, they throw in filler episodes.

Sometimes they sign a deal early on when the manga is starting out, and when the episodes catch up to the artist, either fillers are made or the anime as a whole stalls and, in Japan, loses television time.

If an anime stalls for too long of a period, the department's present direction will be dropped in favor of other animes that will bring in money. If it doesn't sell brilliantly at the get-go, same thing will happen. And if the anime gets to a certain point (like 26 or 52 episodes), decisions will be made that the anime has lived a good life and needs to be put down, so an order is made by the company to rush out an ending. These endings are done on the moment (because the creators thought the series was going to continue all that time) and therefore end up rather sloppy.


Sometimes an anime does well in the beginning, is bought out for a few more seasons, those seasons end up rather terrible, and an ending is thrown out on the fly to just get it out the door. You know, fast enough so the company can go on to better, more pleasant ventures.



Hunter X Hunter is a good example. Four seasons were originally made of the series. On the forth season, the anime caught up to the manga and it stalled. The company doing the anime threw together a haphazard, confused, half-way-through-an-arc ending that was rather terrible now that I think about it... And then it was dropped in favor of other projects. Later on, as more HunterXHunter mangas came out, another company bought up the anime rights and released an OVA - which continues on after the 4th series.



This isn't even bringing up the manga companies as a whole and their hyper standards of getting things pumped out as quickly as possible to the distress of the artists. Sometimes mangas get lost, or are put on hold to do other, bigger money-making projects.

 

[wintercoat]

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.

Poor Fruits Basket. I read the manga about a year or so after watching the anime and...damn... It was almost like a completely different work.

 

[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.

Which animes are you talking about? Every one I've seen in the last 3 years that wasn't produced by 4kids has been very good. I know comedy series' aren't as good as their Japanese counterparts, but almost all action series' get it really well.

And for the record, I liked the ending of EoE. It was insane, but it made sense and it brought closure.

Zeta Gundam is the one that sticks in my mind as being disappointingly horrible, but really, watch any anime that is still in production. It's like there's four voices each for male and female characters, with standardized intonations that just scream "anime dub." It's hard to describe, but a really good example of the kind of voice acting I'm talking about is the dub for Fullmetal Alchemist. It's just so... generically anime.

For some examples that I consider relatively good, look at the Streamline dub of Akira, the dub for whichever series of Lupin III that aired on cartoon network all those years ago, and the English dub for Ranma 1/2.

 

[SajuukKhar]

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

In fairness, given the themes of the show that ending arguably fit it quite well. That said, it was a rush job stemming from the series' cancellation.

I remember seeing big O's ending and just being like........................whut?

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

the new Eva movies are amazing.

the ending of movie 2 made me go.......... WHUT DA FUDGE!!!!

 

[ZehMadScientist]

I've seen my fair share of anime with poor endings. But the one that immediately springs to mind is Soul Eater. I don't know why they axed it, there might've been too little material to work with, financial problems, I don't know. But the conclusion to that damn 50 episode show was so terribad, I don't even have the words for it.

There he is, the Big Bad, the great immortal overpowered demon of the moment. And what is the last resort the Protagonist beats him with, after all has failed?

Spoiler

A fist of fucking courage

 

[malestrithe]

Unless you write your story with a specific goal in mind, endings are hard to do. You have to wrap up enough of the storylines in order to have a satisfying conclusion, but leave enough unresolved issues to warrant a sequel series, if you want to do that. Very few people can do this effectively.

It would seem that Gunslinger Girls's problem was that the first series was unfocused and did not have an idea how it would end. The second series did it much better.

 

[SajuukKhar]

a lot of 13 episode animes have no real end.

whats more annoying that after 4, 13 episode seasons the familiar of zero's ending still sucked.

 

[Lunar Templar]

snip

gotta ask something

in regards to Full Metal Panic, have you seen The Second Raid?