Anime Good Anime... Bad Ending

[Batbloodx]

If you watch enough anime, it's bound to happen at some point.

So, you get into a series--REALLY into it--you get attached to the characters, immersed in the story, and start stringing episodes one after enough because you can't stand waiting to find out what happens next, and watch the plot unfold.

The inevitable end approaches, and your fingers are crossed for that explosive, memorable ending that ties everything together and gives it all meaning...

...but it never comes.

In some cases, it seems like the series isn't over--there's no sense of closure. It just...ends. In other cases, it just ends up being so disappointing that you wish you'd stopped watching a long time ago, just to spare yourself the anguish. And other times still, it's just that lingering, unsettling feeling of..."what."

For me, most recently, it was Kuroshitsuji season II. I LOVED season I; it started out a bit slow, but once the underlying plot became more apparent, it unfolded beautifully. The emotion, the character development, everything--and the last episode left me fighting back tears. I was hesitant to begin season II after the satisfying finale of season I, but at the same time, part of me wanted to know that it wasn't truly over.

I began season II, and it felt good to see the series I loved so much continuing on. Overall, I enjoyed it--the plot twists, the added elements--and then came the final episode.

(In case you haven't seen it...)

Spoiler

Hannah turned out to be the demon that Luca hired to fulfill his brother's wish. Good! I wasn't expecting that.
Sebastian successfully killed Claude to win back his master's soul which had been lying dormant beneath Alois's soul, to complete the contract Alois had made with Hannah. Good.
But then--instead of Sebastian finally being able devour his soul--Ciel was revived as a demon, trapping Sebastian in eternal servitude as his butler. After all that shaping and raising of the soul, helping Ciel exact his revenge, and essentially going through hell and back for him, Sebastian got fucked.

I felt so cheated! What a cheap, unsatisfying ending!

I'd like to know--what anime has done that to you?

 

[Insanish Danish]

Vampire Knight. Ugh I loved the anime so much, but the ending pissed me off so bad I can't even think about it without getting angry. Yuuki leaving with Kaname made me angry enough, but just the fact that Zero was left all alone and his brother was dead and UGH. I know the manga kept going on after that so the anime's conclusion wasn't the actual end to the Vampire Knight series, but it STILL made me so angry. I'm never going to get over it.

 

[Pyrax]

Blue Exorcist's anime, allow me to elaborate.
The first half was fairly faithful to the manga, no complaints there. The anime-original second half, on the other hand, was actually somewhat decent, if it weren't for the deus ex machina ending.
They could've had an open ending (maybe at the start of the Impure King arc) to allow for a second season but no, they just had to have an original ending.

 

[Blazaking]

One of the anime endings I've particularly disliked was Strawberry Panic's.

Spoiler

It's a yuri show, pretty slow, tries its hand at drama. Now, the show was not anything spectacular, but by the end the characters had grown on me to some extent. Anyone could figure that the two characters appearing in the opening are gonna end up together. But by the end of the show, they had really built up the relationship (and I mean a lovers kind of relationship) between the main character (Nagisa) and her best friend (Tamao). The way they just threw Tamao off at the last minute to let Nagisa go off with the white haired bishoujo just really rubbed me the wrong way.

 

[X Dragoon]

11eyes

I absolutely loved everything about it until the last episode came along. There was a lot of build up in the last episode, but it all just ends so anti-climactically. Why build it up so much and just ruin it like that? It could've ended just fine, but they rushed the ending way too much, so probably one of those shows that needed 24 or 25 episodes instead of the standard 13. It's too bad cause it had so much potential to be really good.

 

[Dolce]

Sekirei season 2 for me.

It just crushed me when the anime ended with a to be continued, and didn't continue after season 2. Being my favorite series, seeing a to be continued gets my hopes up just to crush me in the long run makes me want to cry honestly. And now I hate when any series does this.

 

[Alolan Slowpoke]

Lets see... YuriYuri is my recent one. Fate/Zero and Sword Art Online are up there too.

Because YuriYuri season 3 is confirmed, I won't bother it too much, but Fate/Zero was stellar, and the ending was just confusing. Sword Art Online, being a barely average anime to begin with, had a really shoddy ending, also.

 

[Saturnidae]

Panty and stocking.
WTF? -_-
Also Sergeant frog will never freaking end so that too.

 

[Dolce]

Panty and stocking.
WTF? -_-

Omg I agree! That was terrible, the anime was great up till that point!

And now I'm adding Sasameki Koto to my list, it was a sweet romance and all but there was no confession for the couple at the end. We got to see their relationship grow and develop, but no confession. At the very least the anime should have ended on this point. >_<

 

[Batbloodx]

I also sort of feel that way about the World God Only Knows. I wish it would have been longer--it seemed to end somewhat abruptly, and the final episode was just sort of open-ended. I mean...what was that? Did he die?

 

[raychuu]

The Vision of Escaflowne

Spoiler

for the rushed / unfitting ending. Allen and his sister for example... they (especially her) did a lot of wrong things, but people just forget what happened. I mean, sure, there were reasons for it, but the resolution felt weak. Should've been more of a fight.

In Kaichou wa Maid-sama! they just sorta... drop it. There's no real resolution. Since the story in the manga does continue, I do believe they were hoping to make a second season, but that never happened due to poor sales.

 

[Elysion]

Lets see... YuriYuri is my recent one. Fate/Zero and Sword Art Online are up there too.

Because YuriYuri season 3 is confirmed, I won't bother it too much, but Fate/Zero was stellar, and the ending was just confusing. Sword Art Online, being a barely average anime to begin with, had a really shoddy ending, also.

Fate/Zero is the prequel of Fate/Stay Night, so it didn't have much of a choice with the way it ended(although I understand why you would think its confusing, since I had to watch it twice for everything to really sink it for me).

 

[Haruka_Rules!]

Hotarubi no Mori e. I love this movie to pieces and the character development was well done but I really hate how it ended.

Spoiler

Why did Gin have to die!!!??? D;

Despite the disappointing ending I still highly recommended the movie.

 

[Glitchipedia]

It's those darn anime that are based on ongoing manga, but only produce enough episodes to barely retell the beginning. If they're lucky, they might get a second season (or more accurately, a sequel series), but that's often still not enough to reach a satisfying conclusion. It's especially frustrating in cases where the anime gets localized, but the manga doesn't. I'm looking at you, Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple! One climactic showdown and they think everything is resolved?! But we never found out if he got the girl! I thought that was the whole point!!!

Another one that left me suitably disappointed was Ai Yori Aoshi. Even thirty-six episodes total (twenty-four in the first series, twelve in the sequel series Enishi) were insufficient to resolve....well, anything, really. The final episodes of the first series seem to set the stage for Kaoru and Aoi to publicly announce their engagement, but by the end of the second series, set two years later, we find out that their efforts still haven't gone anywhere. In this case, the manga was released Stateside, I just can't find the darn thing.

 

[Relicanth1]

Blood-C had just a terrible ending to it IMO. I realize they wanted a cliffhanger that they could eventually resolve with a Movie-but it was just awful to have to wait forever for the movie. I really enjoyed the series and then boom its over with no ending and no resolution-kind of ruined the whole thing for me.

 

[Lysson]

Deathnote.

Spoiler

After L's death I feel that everything went to shit. I watched the anime because I wanted to see how it turned out, if L would win or Light (I liked both so the outcome didn't bother me) so to find out neither won, but L kinda won? I hated Near so much he's probably my least favourite anime/manga character. So with him kinda winning in L's place was depressing. I found the arc after L died to be kinda boring and too much of a try hard. And Light's character just stayed the same after L died so I just try to forget about Deathnote's ending.

I know this is in the manga too but I guess this counts as anime? I just felt is had such a unsatisfying ending.

 

[mousse]

Akuma No Riddle. What the hell was that ending? An enjoyable anime ruined by a lazy and pathetic ending. So tragic.

 

[Krash]

It's those darn anime that are based on ongoing manga, but only produce enough episodes to barely retell the beginning. If they're lucky, they might get a second season (or more accurately, a sequel series), but that's often still not enough to reach a satisfying conclusion. It's especially frustrating in cases where the anime gets localized, but the manga doesn't. I'm looking at you, Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple! One climactic showdown and they think everything is resolved?! But we never found out if he got the girl! I thought that was the whole point!!!

Another one that left me suitably disappointed was Ai Yori Aoshi. Even thirty-six episodes total (twenty-four in the first series, twelve in the sequel series Enishi) were insufficient to resolve....well, anything, really. The final episodes of the first series seem to set the stage for Kaoru and Aoi to publicly announce their engagement, but by the end of the second series, set two years later, we find out that their efforts still haven't gone anywhere. In this case, the manga was released Stateside, I just can't find the darn thing.

CLAYMORE. The The anime just plays out to roughly before the timeskip. It's the story AFTER that which gets amazing. Evangelion was also a let down for me, both versions. It just didn't have the oomf the rest of the series had.

 

[Sylvea]

Akuma No Riddle. What the hell was that ending? An enjoyable anime ruined by a lazy and pathetic ending. So tragic.

Exactly how I felt about Soul Eater! The ending for Soul Eater was atrocious

 

[ocelotlrama jaguar]

Wolf's Rain's ending was the pits! I enjoyed the show but it was depressing as hell, and the ending didn't help at all. I know this is not a feel good show and not everything is going to have a happy ending, but I have never felt so awful and unsatisfied once the show finished. It didn't help that there were only 30 episodes (four of them being recaps), but you end up wanting more. You sympathize with the characters. You want to know more about them. You WANT to see them happy after all the crap they have been through.

The ending just felt like a big middle finger to those who wanted to something more than what we got. It didn't have to be happy, but it at least had to be satisfying. It was neither.