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What's The Best (And Worst) Anime Ending You've Ever Seen?


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Whis-pur



Joined: 26 Jul 2015
Posts: 130
PostPosted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 12:52 pm Reply with quote
Favorite endings? At first I thought they were talking about ending songs in anime and got really confused when I started reading it. As for great series ending: Poyopoyo, so much emotion T.T
Usagi Drop, and of course FMAB.

As for ending? I really don't know. Usually shows go bad for me in the middle and I end up dropping them out of frustration or boredom. If it were manga I'd say Hitman Reborn, and a number of other stuff, but I haven't come across many anime that started great and was ruined by the ending.
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Levitz9



Joined: 06 Feb 2007
Posts: 1022
Location: Puerto Rico
PostPosted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 12:53 pm Reply with quote
What the gentle caress was up with Martial Heart, yo?! I read the synopsis, but I still can't wrap my head around it. It's like some crazy, netorare-ryona-themed doujin. Jeez!

Anyway, my favorite ending is GaoGaiGar's. Even though spoiler[all of the Zonders and Primevils are defeated, it turns out Gai's girlfriend is still Zonderized, and mutates into a new monster at that. Robots are destroyed, cities are leveled, and Gai still can't bring himself to kill the love of his life--even when she begs him to do it. But wait! Unbeknownst to the world, the G-Stone is powered by love! So Gai and his girl are turned into Evoluders (super-evolved humans), 3G Enterprises repairs the city, and Mamoru goes into space while his friends tearfully await his return, because friends always come home in the end].

It's shmalzy, but it fits in with everything else in GaoGaiGar, thematically speaking. GaoGaiGar is all about being big, loud, and cheesy. Also, I'm with Bodacious Space Pirate: Simoun has one helluva finale.

Worst ending, though? Saber Marionette J. Just hear me out: Saber J is crap, but the ending is a slap to the face. Nothing on Marial Heart's level (good God), but still.

Saber J follows Otaru Mamiya, who is really hard to dislike: he's had a hard life, lives in a ramshackle old apartment, subsists off of crap jobs, but is still a good person to everyone he knows. His Marionettes give him hell, but they're the closest thing to a family he's ever had. He's not infallible: the fame of being savior of the world went to his head, but he made up for it. Otaru is, frankly, a better character than Saber Marionette J deserves. (Someone like Kirito would've been better suited.)

At the end of the series, though, the three marionettes have to stay on a space station to bring back the last woman for galaxies around, and Mamoru has to lose the only family he's ever known. Even though he gets a statue and a direct apology, he wants none of it because hey, nothing personal but he lost his family because of an old blood-feud he had nothing to do with.

As sad as the ending is, I think it works so far: it's got way more gravitas than Saber J cultivated or deserves, but it's emotional and surprisingly engrossing. You can't help but feel for Otaru and all the crap he had to suffer through, and even then the poor dolt tries to put on a smile...

But then spoiler[the marionettes show up at his door one second before the screen goes to black]. No explanation. No justification. Emotion? Build-up? What's that? Here, have those things with tits on 'em!

For anyone who actually cared for Otaru, it's a slap on the face. But then again, it's kinda on me: I was watching Saber J.

Screw you, Saber J. Screw you so hard.

So hard.
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Akane the Catgirl



Joined: 09 Oct 2013
Posts: 1091
Location: LA, Baby!
PostPosted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 12:54 pm Reply with quote
I have to agree that the Madoka TV series had a fantastic ending. In fact, every time I get to the final episode, a certain moment spoiler[Madoka saving the magical girls, past, present, and future] made me bawl like a baby. As for endings nobody has mentioned yet, I have a few.

Welcome to the NHK: This show originally started as a dramedy. The final arc drops every little bit of comedy and becomes just plain SAD. However, the ending is, while not exactly happy, ain't a downer either. spoiler[Misaki and Satou decide to start over as friends. While Satou is nowhere near ready for an intimate relationship, he's working it out day by day with Misaki on his side. Hitomi's happy and about to become a mother. Even Yamazaki managed to work with his arranged marriage rather than against it.]

Black Butler Season One: I thought the ending was perfect for the story it was telling. spoiler[Ciel gets exactly what he wants, which was vengeance for his parent's death. However, in order to do that, he had to pretty much sell his soul to Sebastian. And...there's no way out of it. Once The Angel dies, that's it. Ciel is killed in the aftermath, and his soul is eaten by Sebastian. There's no Deus ex Machina or out-of-nowhere sparing of his life. I can appreciate the balls of steel Mari Okada had to go with this.]

Worst endings? Deadman Wonderland had a total non-ending that soured any potential like I had previously. I already went into why EVA's ending was total garbage and why NOBODY deserved what went down in the final two episodes. (As for the movie, I have pretty much no opinion on it because of the sheer WTF factor). Michiko and Hatchin was a big fat let-down. However, I think I've seen better endings than not.
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Saffire



Joined: 25 Nov 2007
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 12:54 pm Reply with quote
Best ending is...tough. There's a lot of great ones in the article and I can think of several others. My impulse is FLCL but I'm having a hard time articulating why at the moment.

Worst, however, is easy. The OVA epilogue episode of Kashimashi. I have never, ever gotten that angry at entertainment before or since. Minor spoiler[The TV show wraps the love triangle, one person ends up with their heart broken and the other two end up together, and then...the episode opens with everyone smiling about how the two are no longer together because one wants to go find herself or whatever, and now everyone's convinced that the protagonist must, for no particular reason, end up with the other one.] There's so many things wrong with the situation that it's been nearly a decade and I still get angry when I think about it because I thought the TV series concluded well and this "bonus" episode completely destroyed everything that made it good.
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Pipoko



Joined: 13 Jun 2014
Posts: 165
PostPosted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 12:59 pm Reply with quote
I can think of a few. Dunno if they're straight-up actually "favorites" or "least favorites", but at least some of the very good/very bad ones I can recall. For good ones, I agree with Cowboy Bebop in the article, but FMA 2003's and Fate/Zero's come to mind.
In my eyes they were perfect for what the respective series wanted to say. Psycho Pass and Madoka Magica were the same way. Urobuchi is just very consistent about the themes of his series. All of them were very satisfying.

For pure insane bombast One Punch Man and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann get a mention. For emotional satisfiction, Death Note, actually. Light's eventual fate was really satisfying.

For not so good ones, School Days. Simply terrible writing at work, but the deal with it to me was that I found the entire series unintentionally funny, one of the "so bad it's good" series. It was incredibly entertaining by giving the characters exactly what they deserved, just not in a good writing way.

Then there's Parasyte, mostly because it started out really good and then just got worse and worse, ending by just kinda stopping? There was no satisfaction in any way. Just "it's done".


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TonyaGBane



Joined: 02 Mar 2016
Posts: 1
PostPosted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 1:03 pm Reply with quote
Ok, so I wrote a really long and thoughtful essay here on how Death parade was the war ending in anime period, but since it got deleted in not going to repost another hours worth of typing on my phone. Instead, I'll just say Dekum and the main character got amazing character development and the literary construct at the end set up a beautiful and grand final story arc.

As far as worst anime ending, I have to believe that Angel Beats was the worst, only because we were left with mostly half developed characters, with no promise of ever getting a full explanation as to who they are. (God damn cliff hangers)
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EricJ2



Joined: 01 Feb 2014
Posts: 4016
PostPosted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 1:03 pm Reply with quote
Cowboy Bebop is still the benchmark for how to do an ending to wrap up all the characters' fates, but I'd put Azumanga Daioh's end-of-school graduation up there as well, for how to bring a show full circle.

Galaxy Express 999, whose entire series spent two or three years trying to get somewhere, after resolving the conflict once they got there, sailed off with farewells, as the overdramatic narrator tells us that all the allegorical-fairytale adventures teaching Tetsuo about the meaning of life might have been just part of one big allegorical-fairytale dream of the main character, a la Night on the Galactic Railroad. ("Saraba, Tetsuo...Saraba, Maetel....Saraba, dreams of youth....")

Most of the picks for Worst endings are too obscure to have heard of, so it's hard to pick my own choice.
Have to go back so far, I still pick Video Girl Ai--Whose six episode OVA had been going along nicely with sentiment and surprisingly realistic characters for a romantic comedy, and then, for a climax, wanders into Bizarro Symbolized-Quest universe, as Youta has to go through an Enma-Hell-like alternate dream dimension of abstract-symbolized versions of his friends just to work out his feelings, and walk over broken glass to rescue Ai-chan from being crucified...Why, it's just like Sleepless in Seattle, isn't it? Shocked
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Key
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Joined: 03 Nov 2003
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Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley)
PostPosted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 1:05 pm Reply with quote
Just a reminder that when talking about endings not mentioned in the article, use spoiler tags appropriately. (I've already had to edit two person's post for this.)

I also want to fully endorse Jake's pick for Worst Ending (it would be my #2) and offer up one additional suggestion for great endings that hasn't been mentioned yet: Fantastic Children. The short OVA which served as the epilogue for the series provides such a potent and utterly satisfying conclusion to the stories of the various children that I would rank it on a level with the endings of Cross Game, Kurau: Phantom Memory, and Simoun. CG won out for me out of that lot I think because it wrapped up a longer series, and achieving a proper sense of completion is a lot harder for a long series than shorter ones.


Last edited by Key on Wed Mar 02, 2016 1:12 pm; edited 2 times in total
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DuelGundam2099



Joined: 07 Dec 2014
Posts: 533
PostPosted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 1:07 pm Reply with quote
Aside from NGE and Outlaw Rocksteady I haven't seen a single title in this article. With that said....

Best!

-End of Evangelion: It was trippy, actiony, and Lilith was the perfect final boss since spoiler[she was the creator of all carbon based life since Adam's lifeforms lost the battle for the Earth; the ending also allowed everyone a chance to start over again.]

-The Aquarion entries: Yes, all of them, even the OVAs, all of them ended similar to EoE except with the addition of better music and better use of philosophy.

-Gravion Zwei: It breaks the hot blood meter all the way up to Getting Your Obari On. Technically I should be putting Guren Lagann here, but then I remembered it only had art going for it, not the amazingness of Klein Sandman nor the threatening gravitous of the zeravire nor silly in the moment nonsense and both even ended spoiler[on a wedding and unlike TTGL Gravion Zwei actually ended where it needed to, not draw it out to a pointless 50 years later scene.]

-Gundam SEED and Destiny: Yes, both, and for the same reason: Both had a ton of action and climactic pay off that lasted all the way through several episodes. Not to mention they provided nice curb stomping that never gets old. Destiny also later dropped an epilogue which it could have used in the TV run, but better late than never. Cool G, Wing, and X get special mentions for ending similarly.

-Nobunaga The Fool: It is the most fitting ending to a historical and theatrically charged series and possibly the best tragic ending, I won't spoil the surprise.

-ROCK SHIN GATTAI GODDO MARZ: Best "basic" finale, an ending filled with hope and the good side of humanity that has amounted over the course of 64 episodes going against the ultimate incarnation of evil.

-Neo Ranga: On top of superb animation and action, the ending gives themes such as what it means to rebel, to have authority and excise it, to support one's family, to have responsibility with knowledge, and to show mercy to enemies. I'm not just saying all that because Akasa is one of the best anime monsters in history, it really has a lot going for it.

-GaoGaiGar FINAL: That entire final episode was too dramatic and action packed not to leave out and was a tragedy done correctly. spoiler[It even left in sequel potential that never occurred, but still felt conclusive.]

There are many more, but I cannot go on without repeating myself. Now for worst:

-Any Guyver entry: Simple reason: "yeah lets just not have a conclusion and end on cliffhangers because the manga didn't reach this far". Only anime on this list I actually find decent let alone good.

-Girls und Panzer: This is the true battle of Anzio!: By true battle they mean spoiler[Nothing on screen happens as promised.] What a joke.

-Cardcaptor Sakura Movie 2: The Sealed Card: spoiler["Oh you asked kindly for me to stop? Sure, I'll stop!" *everything goes back to normal*] A nice example as to how to write yourself into a corner and failing to get out. They really should have ended with the TV series.... In fact they should have ended with episode 46, it was just dragging endlessly after that.

-Otaku no Video: "Lets end our otherwise down to Earth/mostly realistic story with the two male leads spoiler[going to outer space in their old age!"] The documentary portion where they were literally chasing a guy was the last nail in the coffin, screw this.

-Doomed Megapolis: Random happy ending that comes completely out of nowhere and leaves extremely bad whiplash on top of making you ask basic questions.

-Skull Man: spoiler[Directly insulting the audience's intellect, abandoning the main characters from the focus, having the titular anti-hero be the boss of the organization he was trying to destroy, and random super technology not even hinted at on top of rushing explanations for motives.]

-Valvrave The Liberator: spoiler[All the male protagonists die, the tone is forcefully sad, people survive that shouldn't have (Akira specifically), the villains act like idiots, the day was saved by the grossly under developed faction, and overall general mean spiritedness and really bad tragedy.] It should be considered the worst anime period, then I watched

-Infinite Ryvius: spoiler[Children confirmed for multiple accounts of assault, theft, murder, and terrorism with destruction to military property and causing a solar system wide panic after attacking a planet. Instead of rightfully throwing these heinous organisms under the disguise of humans in prison or even executing them they are seen as "survivors". Top that with a horrendously long final episode epilogue it makes you wonder what the hell was going on behind the scenes, let alone THIS GARBAGE WON AN AWARD!]

I'd list Nanoha Vivid or Hataraki Man, but both of those endings are just plain pathetic, barely even worth the dishonorable mentioning. Everything else that comes to mind can be chalked up to cliffhanger endings or having problems that plagued most if not all the story rather than just the ending itself. Guyver got a specific mention because all three anime entries and the live action movies do it, doing it that often warrants a mention.
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Zhou-BR



Joined: 28 Feb 2008
Posts: 1419
PostPosted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 1:16 pm Reply with quote
If OVAs count, Gunbuster's ending is still my favorite, with a beautifully emotional scene that shows that spoiler[everything the main characters sacrificed wasn't in vain]. As for TV series endings, I'm very partial to Wolf's Rain and its spoiler[cyclical-but-not-quite] final scene. And as far as movie conclusions to TV series go, End of Evangelion is a perfect culmination of the show's plot and themes.

Now, for worst ending, I find it curious that Saber Marionette J has already been mentioned in this thread, because to me Saber Marionette J to X had an even worse conclusion that was a cop-out in every way. The whole franchise is about whether machines can love and whether it's OK for a person to love one, but J to X's ending does away with all of that by spoiler[making the three main Marionettes "die" and have their "souls" transferred to human baby clones, whom the main character Otaru decides to raise as his daughters.] What makes it even worse is that the whole season teases the possibility that spoiler[Otaru will eventually have to choose one of the Marionettes to be his wife, and the ending robs him of that choice].

And I didn't want to criticize the many, many incomplete adaptations of long-running manga and light novel series out there, since it's not really the staff's fault that the source material was still unfinished at the time or they didn't get enough episodes to cover the whole thing, but... Man, what was up with Gangsta's ending? Why did they even start covering that arc if they weren't going to finish it?


Last edited by Zhou-BR on Wed Mar 02, 2016 1:38 pm; edited 2 times in total
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Xavon



Joined: 09 Jan 2007
Posts: 366
Location: Minnesota
PostPosted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 1:17 pm Reply with quote
Without discussing how I disagree with certain opinions in the article, and heartily agree with others...

Best Ending: Martian Successor Nadesico. spoiler[Akito chasing Yurika, admitting his feelings, and claiming he had never heard her confess before was both touching and amusing. As was Ruri lampshading it and Inez shushing her.]

Worst Ending: The Negima TV ending. The story itself had potential, if it had been incorporated from the beginning. But instead it just felt rushed and unbalanced. And, of course, it was nothing like the manga (which isn't always bad, but is rarely good).

Both: Toppa Tengen Gurren Laggan had a stellar ending, until the ridiculous fast forward.

And what about manga endings?
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meiam



Joined: 23 Jun 2013
Posts: 3442
PostPosted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 1:26 pm Reply with quote
I ultimately have to agree with cowboy bebop, great ending and they didn't run the a great series into the ground, which is more than most ending. I also rather liked code geass ending, if you cut out the first half of S2 it wasn't all that bad, but really they should have just had S2 ending at the end of S1. Having never watched evangelion (only read the manga) that ending sounds awesome.

Someone mentioned school days, I agree the nice boat was a terrible ending. The real ending was freaking awesome though. As a bonus if I ever have kid, I can just show them school day to teach them about sex ed.!

Worst ending, just so many. I guess the one I remember the most at the moment is jormugand, that was so unfathomably dumb and really just there to appear edgy. Felt like it was written by someone who never actually read the manga (I am aware it is the same in the manga, but it still feel like it).
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Knight-Hart



Joined: 27 Mar 2014
Posts: 266
PostPosted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 1:32 pm Reply with quote
One of the best endings I've ever seen was the ending to the original GunBuster! anime. I originally only set out to watch it so that I could go watch Diebuster, but I ended up loving it. A short series, but a truly amazing, genuine ending.
And Steins;Gate, of course. Such an awesome ending. Well, also my favoriute anime. I also felt completely satisfied with Jormungand's ending. I found that Hyouka had a great ending as well. Sweet, touching, and subtle.
And one of the bests, as well as what I think is one of the best anime out there, is Katanagatari. It's one of the most well-constructed and well thought out anime shows I've seen.
Michiko e Hatchin struck me as one of the most realistic and unexpected endings I seen in anime. Good show in general as well.

For worst endings, I want to say BTOOOM! just because it desperately needs a second season and the way the first season left it was such a cliffhanger.
Honestly, most of the bad endings I can think of are just shows that really needed continuation but just never received it.
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WingKing



Joined: 27 Apr 2015
Posts: 617
PostPosted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 1:35 pm Reply with quote
meruru wrote:
Oh yeah, I should have mentioned Toradora also. Of course, on rewatches I tend to just stop halfway through the last episode and pretend that other thing didn't happen. There's actually a lot of romance shows that have similar endings. I think it's because Japan likes the trope spoiler[ of the tragically separated lovers that hold out for each other until they are reunited years later. ]. Well, I loathe that trope, and I think Toradora did it particularly clumsily.

As for what Vasaiga said, while I didn't feel that way, I can definitely see where you could. I had a similar reaction to Angel Beats, as much as I liked the show.


Well the books ended it somewhat differently, and (I thought) much better. In the books, spoiler[Ryuji and Taiga were only separated for about six weeks, until Taiga and her mother were able to reach a compromise arrangement that allowed Taiga to live with her mother but still stay in the same school for senior year. It really worked well because it showed how Taiga was starting to grow up a bit and that her and Ryuji were both making honest efforts to break that cycle of parental estrangement and abandonment.] The last book was the only one that hadn't been written yet when they did the anime, so they probably fashioned an ending out of the author's first draft notes or something - it's the only place where the series deviates significantly from the books.

As for me, I won't say they're my favorites, but two endings that come immediately to mind that I thought were well-done are Anohana and Hyouka. I know the latter ending had its detractors, but I thought from both the thematic and character development perspectives it concluded the show on just the right note.

Disappointing ending for me? Trigun. Not because it was "bad" per se, but because it just left me scratching my head. spoiler[Like, okay, you've beaten your genocidal brother in a fight and knocked him out. Fine, but what's going to happen when he wakes up? You only won one fight, it's not like you've actually changed his mind or rendered him completely harmless or anything. And now you're going to take him back to your friends and everyone's supposed to be buddy buddy or something?] How is that even going to work?
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neilcfreak



Joined: 29 Aug 2013
Posts: 15
PostPosted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 1:40 pm Reply with quote
Wow. I can't believe I didn't see for best ending people screaming Code Geass a million times. Not gonna say anything else.

For worst ending it would have to be No. 6. Sadly it started out really good and I really appreciate a queer couple being represented in a action/adventure genre, not on the sidelines but as the focus of the series. But the the story rushed into all these unexplained events. And the great antagonist being bees.........yes bees......and spoiler[then finally when everything is fine "I'm leaving you forever." WTF???]
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