Forum - View topicAnswerman - Satisfying Endings
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Greed1914
 Posts: 5365 |
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Samurai Champloo is the first one that comes to mind for a satisfying ending. Also, this is the first time I've seen anyone say that they expected it to end with Mugen and Jin fighting again. I didn't expect that at all since the series had made it clear before the final episode that both moved beyond that.
Maybe it isn't the point of the particular article, but I will say that the nature of most anime being adaptations that don't get to cover the majority of the material for various reasons is probably my biggest frustration with anime as a whole. Most don't get to have an ending, good or bad, they simply stop. In a way, it makes me appreciate even a disappointing ending for at least existing. Last edited by Greed1914 on Mon Dec 08, 2025 12:51 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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malvarez1
Posts: 3021 |
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I think a lot of people tend to exaggerate the “bad endings” problem. I say this as someone who was completely fine with My Hero, JJK, and Naruto’s endings.
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Oggers
 Posts: 468 Location: Ontario, Canada |
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Definitely agree regarding Sailor Moon and Mob Psycho having satisfying endings, as well as the Fullmetal Alchemist manga. I'm not sure where exactly I heard this, but I believe Arakawa has said she already had an ending in mind for FMA when she started working on it, which is probably why it stuck the landing so well.
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Iritscen
 Subscriber Posts: 910 |
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To make a slight correction, the Trigun anime actually got about 3-4 volumes into adapting Trigun Maximum, but with increasing divergence at the end so that it's hard to compare the stories in Maximum #3 and #4 to the anime version. Maximum somehow goes on for another ten volumes after that before ending spoiler[in pretty much the same way].
Like most fans, I felt the ending of the manga was way too stretched out and the punchier conclusion to the anime was better. But the manga actually handles the ending better in one key respect, which is that it makes it clear that spoiler[Knives is going to turn over a new leaf and stop being a homicidal maniac.] The anime simply has spoiler[Vash shoot Knives and bring him home, which naturally leaves the viewer wondering if he hasn't just brought the fox into the hen house. What is Knives going to do when he wakes up?!] But the manga takes more effort to develop Knives' character; it shows us that he only hates humans because he fears them. The ending has him spoiler[disappearing into the desert after planting a fruit tree to thank the humans that rescued him and Vash. The implication is that he's gone on a walkabout to think things over, and he's beginning to change.] |
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annasartin
 Posts: 45 |
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Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu didn't make the cut? It totally deserved a mention.
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Beltane70
 Posts: 4187 |
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Maison Ikkoku is the first series that comes to mind when talking about series with satisfying endings.
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Glordit
 Posts: 1195 |
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Agreed, a lot of the time think that people would like to sit next to the author and have them write the ending they want, not the one the author intended and wanted it to be.
Absolutely! I'd also nominate these for shows with satisfying endings: Katanagarari Shin Sekai Yori Code Geass Monster PLUTO Fruits Basket Casshern Sins Working!! Kaiba Clannad Mob Psycho 100 Bakuman Sakamichi no Apollon I'd even go as far to say that many of the older Gundam Series have satisfying endings. |
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Iritscen
Subscriber Posts: 910 |
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I really like this topic by the way, because some anime are really good overall yet still botch the ending (The Big O, I'm looking at you). Some anime don't even have an ending! (RIP Medaka Box, No Game No Life, Flowers of Evil, Baby Steps and countless others that never finished adapting their source material.) I think a lot of viewers would have liked to know that going in, so it's good to warn people.
Honestly some of the shows with the most satisfying endings are overlooked 1-cour quickies. A few examples from my experience: Angel Links (but do NOT watch the English dub), The Tatami Galaxy, Sound of the Sky, and Space Patrol Luluco (which has 8-minute episodes, making it super short). A couple well-known classics with satisfying endings would be Bubblegum Crisis (1999) and Gunbuster. Also, this is a hot take on two anime from 1998, but I liked Outlaw Star's ending way more than Cowboy Bebop's. |
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tintor2
 Posts: 2713 |
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Honestly, a lot of series I watched as a kid had either sequels with lack of ending or slow serialization. I actually was happy with the ending of Rurouni Kenshin's manga spoiler[but was depressed with Seisohen like if the director hated it. Then Hokkaido arc started and it felt like a horrible reboot.] Saint Seiya confused me as a kid cos it felt like a happy ending with the Poseidon arc but you can tell the Hades arc was rushed as heck when spoiler[then villain barely lasts a chapter so do all new Cloths.] Omega, Tenkai Hen Overture and Assassin all tried giving Seiya their own closures but the anticanon beam from Next Dimension sure made it sad to wait so much to see him again.
Same with Clamp's works. xxxHolic Ro spoiler[gave everybody closure even in the Adayume OVA that explained what happens to Domeki's personal life. There were some complaints about Watanuki but Clamp themselves explained that was Watanuki's desired ending.] Then we have Tsubasa's ending spoiler[that doesn't even satisfy the protagonists even in the sequels as the whole cloning crisis was never resolved while Tsubasa Syaoran will be forced to travel for all his life without Tsubasa Sakura for some reason.] X's tv series was actually wellreceived by a lot of people Clamp included but the manga was all left in hiatus without closing the real endings of Subaru among others. I actually liked Shaman King's ending but I can't tell exactly what happened with Takei to make such a big hiatus to end it. The sequel sadly made everything ambiguous about whatever happened to Yoh. If there are endings that made me happy to watch are Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood but most of the series mentioned here are too mainstream. If there recent series that felt like good endings are Vinland Saga as spoiler[it stays true to Thorfinn's values without exaggerating them.] The one I'm sometimes not sure how to feel is Zeta Gundam since not only it's the games but even Tomino rewrote the ending as if he wasn't glad about it. I liked Jujutsu Kaisen but devoting 6 volumes out of 30 to the final arc felt exagerrated and tiring to read. Compare Sukuna's fights with Toguro and Meruem and you see a big difference. When it came to Bleach, I simply got tired of reading while with Naruto I realized that my complaints were really minor when seeing the extra content from Storm 4. |
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dreamingsamurai
 Posts: 50 Location: Fairfax, VA |
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I would second MI's ending as well. To the point of saying it's my favorite Takahashi ending out of all her works (with One-Pound Gospel coming in second) |
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FishLion
 Crazy Fangirl Posts: 861 |
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I'd be interested in a follow up about long manga that stick the ending.
I have always enjoyed one or two cour anime that finish the story because it felt more complete than the cartoons I grew up with that were always extremely episodic and rarely had changes in stakes or finales that had a good buildup. I have always seen plenty of those, but it would be fun to look at manga that went on episodically for a long time and also managed to stick the landing, that has been extremely rare for me because usually the longer they go on the more the expecitations have built up and the harder it is for the story to stay on a single track. |
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Blanchimont
 Posts: 3848 Location: Finland |
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Wakaki Tamaki's manga usually manage to stick the landing. The World God Only Knows was quite long (268 chapters) but the ending was well received. Same goes for, albeit shorter, 365 Days to the Wedding. |
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Divineking
 Posts: 1317 |
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Off the top of my head, Fruits Basket, Basara, Shaman King and Yu-Gi-Oh immediately to mind as longer manga that ended exceptionally well. Also heard good things about how Haikyu wraps up though I need to finish the last couple of seasons of it myself |
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FishLion
Crazy Fangirl Posts: 861 |
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I remember liking the ending of TWGOK myself, though I was just a kid when I read it so I couldn't have told you if I still agreed, glad to know it did a solid job! I have seen parts of the rest mentioned but never finished them myself, a few are already on my to read list though. |
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Top Gun
 Posts: 5296 |
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Some really good choices in the article. Samurai Champloo really does act as a fantastic mirror to Cowboy Bebop, showing characters being able to move into a new future as opposed to those inevitably trapped by their own pasts. In particular I'm glad to see the ending of the original FMA adaptation get some love, because far too many people have used the existence of Brotherhood to all but erase it from existence. One of the major themes of FMA was how much you were willing to sacrifice for those you love, and the mutual acts of selflessness between Ed and Al in those last few episodes embodied that brilliantly. The end result was bittersweet but still hopeful, a perfect thematic capstone on what came before. (We'll just...ignore the existence of Shamballa, shall we?) When I later watched Brotherhood and finally got to see the manga's ending, everything just felt way too...easy by comparison. Just about every character got what they wanted without needing to sacrifice all that much in the end. spoiler[Ed in particular got off almost scot-free: sure he had to give up his alchemy, but obviously that was a small price to pay for getting Al back, and somehow he even got his original arm too. It was just about a net positive!] Normally I'm all for a good happy ending, but after the deep emotional experience I had with the ending of the 2003 anime, Brotherhood just felt rather shallow to me by comparison.
One series whose ending immediately comes to mind for me is Eureka Seven. The story did a fantastic job of taking an instantly-infatuated teenager and a Rei clone and showing them develop a real, complex, fulfilling relationship, complete with all of the joys and struggles and misunderstandings and forgiveness that it entails. The climactic few episodes in particular are a roller-coaster ride of drama and self-sacrifice and temporary despair, but then that glorious finale shows that sometimes, if we're lucky, the power of love really can conquer any obstacle. To this day it's still my favorite love story in any medium. (Much like in FMA's case, we'll just stop there and ignore the existence of any ill-conceived pseudo-sequels or WTF alternate versions. Woof.)
Oh absolutely. I think it's why the majority of my all-time favorite series tend to be original anime works, because at least those have the opportunity to be planned from the start and reach a set ending. I despise the long-standing practice of having anime adaptations act as mere advertisements for the source material, because as someone who's a fan of anime but not manga it's left me with a graveyard of half-finished anime stories that will probably never see a continuation. Land of the Lustrous, Shadows House, The Promised Neverland (it's a damn shame that only got a single season and nothing else isn't it?)...I could go on and on. Or if by some miracle something is picked up, more often than not it'll be in the form of a remake that rehashes a bunch of already-adapted content before it gets to the new stuff that fans actually want to see. Like I loved the hell out of the original Spice and Wolf anime, but I haven't touched the new thing because I still haven't figured out if I want to sit through a different take on what was already adapted, or try to pick out the newly-adapted source material, or what. It would have been much simpler if the new anime project had just picked up where the previous one left off.
Not to yuck on anyone's yum, but I was surprised to see this mentioned here because I absolutely hated Katanagatari's ending. That final episode felt like it rendered everything that came before it utterly meaningless, and I was left feeling that the entire series had been wasting my time, which is the worst last impression I think a viewer can have.
This is probably fair from a critical standpoint, but man, despite being a giant ball of WTF I still kind of love Big O's ending. I've read (and written!) entire essays trying to puzzle out the deeper meaning behind the series, and I think if there wasn't all of that ambiguity it wouldn't have inspired nearly as much discussion over the decades. |
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