Recently I realized I’d not finished watching the excellent anime ReLife, a show about a mysterious company that approaches men and women in their 20s who are disillusioned with their lives as adults and makes them a unique offer: they can live a year of their lives as high school students, getting a second chance to form relationships and get perspective in their lives, then receive a job referral at the end of the project. The show came out in 2016, but because the original episodes were released for streaming all at once, rather than one per week, it made a very small splash among fans, despite having a great plot with many surprise twists. I finally finished the show, which brought the story to a very satisfying conclusion, and this got me thinking: what makes a great anime ending?
We all know a bad ending when we see one. An anime that ends on a cliffhanger because the manga or light novel is still ongoing, and it’s not clear whether they’ll be another season. A show that fails to bring in Blu-ray sales, so its budget is slashed after episode 6. Creators who clash with fans on social media, causing the anime to go on hiatus. A show that gets you hooked on the characters then says, “Thanks for watching, follow the rest of the story in the manga and light novels!” And based on online discussions I’ve seen, endings involving dragon queens who go crazy and burn the cities they’re trying to conquer might be less than optional.
I asked J-List’s Twitter followers to tell us their top great anime endings, and we came up with some good candidates. Naturally, spoiler warning, though I’ll avoid giving specifics about any anime ending.
Some Endings That Are Perfect If You Ignore the Sequels
One of my pet peeves is an anime that’s flawless in its execution but becomes so popular that new seasons or movies get piled on, which kills the perfect balance of the original story. Madoka Magica and Code Geass are both perfect without their sequel movies, and I refuse to acknowledge anything beyond the first season of Love, Chuunibyo and Other Delusions as canon because the first season tells such a well-structured story.
Anime Endings That Make Us Sad, But That’s Okay
Since we’re trying to explore anime endings that are satisfying to fans who’ve devoted their time to the property, it’s not always about having a happy ending but one that fulfills us emotionally. Sometimes this can lead to tears being shed, as in AnoHana: The Flower We Saw on that Day, Your Lie in April, The Garden of Words, and Gurren Lagann. This is fine because life is like a roller coaster: the highs are meaningless but for the lows.
Story Endings that are Good, but Vague
A lot of anime endings are satisfying only after you give them time to percolate in your mind a bit. Code Geass’s open-ended resolution or the vague ending of AnoNatsu: Waiting in the Summer are two good examples. I consider Toradora to be an almost perfect anime, too, though it doesn’t overtly show us which characters end up together.
WTF Anime Endings?
Sometimes an anime has a “WTF??” ending that makes fans react with shock and dismay. To my mind, even if fans didn’t “like” the ending, if it was bold, true to the vision of the story creators, and if we all had fun along the way, it’s all good. Some of these might include the original Neon Genesis Evangelion, Oreimo, Darling in the Franxx and the School Days anime, which is of course very different from the original game.
Anime Endings that are Just Perfect
Some other anime endings that are pretty much perfect include Steins;Gate, Assassination Classroom, Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, Gundam Unicorn, Magical Knights Rayearth (both seasons), ERASED, Cowboy Bebop, and the Tamako Market Love Story movie. And perhaps the best ending to a school romance anime, the Morishima-senpai ending of Amagami SS+. Though your mileage may vary.
So, what do you think makes a great anime ending? What anime endings have totally satisfied you as a fan? Tell us on Twitter!
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