Top 10 Anime Finales Everyone Hated
Script written by Alex Crilly-Mckean
#10: “Tokyo Ghoul Root A” (2015)
It’s bad enough that this sequel abandoned the perfectly placed road map of the source material, but to then try and mesh in the canonical ending without any build-up and with a dozen cut corners? There’s a reason that so many dropped this anime after that final fade to black. You’ve got Touka running around like a headless chicken while the battle is going, Kaneki spending minutes on end carrying his dead best friend to unearned choir music, and best of all, they skipped the confrontation with Arima. Turns out the A stands for anticlimactic.
#9: “Kuma Miko: Girl Meets Bear” (2016)
The departure from the source material here is just dumbfounding. Clearly someone behind the scenes had it out for Machi. How else do you explain why she was robbed of her happy ending? Instead of overcoming her anxiety and achieving her dream of hitting her stride in the big city as an idol, Machi is consumed by fear. This leads her to returning to her small mountain town where she becomes an even bigger recluse with no hope of future happiness. It’s so needlessly malicious that it’s no wonder everyone was outraged, mangaka included.
#8: “Future Diary” (2011-12)
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Say what you will about Yuno and her habit of bringing an axe to people’s faces, she made for a far more compelling lead when compared to the boy of her dreams. Bloody Yuki. In spite of his cowardice and manipulation, he still went on to win the survival game and become the new God of Time. And what does he do? Spends eons wallowing in self-pity because the murderous yandere who tried to kill him is now no longer in his life. Bottom line, Yuki is an idiot!
#7: “Gurren Lagann” (2007)
Are we going to complain about the giant fight fest involving two mecha the size of whole galaxies? Of course not. Are we going to lose our rag over watching Nia disappear just as she and Simon tie the knot? It may have broken our hearts, but was still a beautiful display of their adoration for one another. However, what we do take umbrage with is that Simon goes on to be some old vagrant barely getting by! This man saved the goddamn universe. He should be living and loving life, perhaps found himself a new wife, and basked in the gratitude of all existence! Nia wouldn’t have wanted this, and neither do we!
#6: “Medabots” (1999-2000)
It’s one of the cardinal anime scenes; never cut off a tournament arc, especially when the finale is underway. While the conclusion to the fight with the Rubber Robo Gang did give us such sights as a giant Metabee as well as the strange, strange revelation that the one recurring hot guy was actually an alien, it still cut off Medabee and Warbandit’s last bout. And just when it looked like they were about to continue things, they pulled a freeze frame ending on us! Way to tease us with a better outcome!
#5: “Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V” (2015-18)
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Turns out the final season of this once beloved instalment was a trap card in disguise, capping off with a duel nobody wanted and a conclusion that had fans petitioning to make things right! The missteps just keep coming with this one. Yuya taking on Reiji instead of someone more appropriate like Zarc was already a bad start, but then the duel turned out to be underwhelming, followed by the confounding decision to have Yuya and Yuzu’s past selves all be stuffed into one body! It’s not shocking to learn there were plenty of issues behind the scenes. Not even 4Kids could make a slip up like this!
#4: “Neon Genesis Evangelion” (1995-96)
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While hindsight has led to many fans changing their opinion on the first of Evangelion’s many, many, many endings, it’s fair to say at the time people were not happy. As the human instrumentality project kicks off, Shinji is sent into a dreamscape, one containing precious few EVA Units and an abundance of self-reflection. This turned out to be too much of a leap for initial watchers, especially when the rest of the cast appeared and started to randomly clap and give their congratulations. Not saying a happy Shinji is a bad Shinji, it’s just some more context and a sense of finality wouldn’t have hurt!
#3: “Oreimo” (2010-13)
What we have here is a meeting of two extremely misjudged narrative points. Despite teasing their forbidden romance all series long, it seemed for the most part that volatile siblings Kirino and Kyosuke wouldn’t cross that unforgivable line, and that he instead had a chance with the much more appropriate love interest of Kuroneko. That is until they went all in on THAT route. Only to have them break up following a pseudo-wedding. As you can imagine, this satisfied nobody. If you’re going to commit a crime against nature, then at least see it through!
#2: “Digimon Adventure 02” (2000-01)
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Who’s ready for a rapid-fire summary of how the Digidestined grew up, got normal jobs, and did away with all their character development in one fell swoop? Let’s count them down. The only characters to end up together are Yolei with Ken and Matt with Sora, so any of you who were pining for TK x Kari can go cry in a corner. Sora’s job as a designer completely does away with her tomboyish and rebellious persona. Even steal-your-girl Matt quit his passion for music to become an…astronaut? None of this makes sense. Bring back Apocalymon and start over!
#1: “The Promised Neverland” Season Two (2021)
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Precious few sequels have done as much damage to the original’s splendour as this train-wreck. Sad to say this also applies to its ending. Crossing right over the threshold of believability, Emma and company’s struggle for survival comes to a screeching halt as everything falls into place for them one domino at a time, in the dullest and most rushed way imaginable. Finding freedom has never felt so unearned, especially when so much of it is presented via slideshow. Take us back to Grace Field House!
