Top 20 Worst Anime Conclusions

If you like downer endings, then this one’s for you. However, if you appreciate when characters are treated with respect, then you may want to keep going. In a bold move, the final battle of “Akame Ga Kill” claims most of the Night Raid, main characters included. Leone and Tatsumi? Both Gone. Akame and Najenda are the only real notable survivors, which feels like a disservice to the found-family part of the story. Especially since this is an anime-original ending that heavily diverged from the manga. At the very least, it’s definitely memorable. Just not for the right reasons.

Fifty episodes in, this influential anime trades mysticism and alchemy for zeppelins and World War 2. No, it doesn’t make much more sense with context, either. To summarize the very convoluted exposition dump, Ed is in Munich, Alphonse is still in the “Fullmetal Alchemist” world, and… actually, that’s all. The credits roll, and that’s how the show ends. It’s a baffling conclusion that raises more questions than it answers. But then again, that was probably the point. In order to see the real ending, you had to buy a movie ticket to the sequel film, “Conqueror of Shamballa.” Nothing ruins story integrity faster than a mandatory blockbuster follow-up.

This show’s final episode can be summed up pretty quickly: everyone dies, the villains win, and nothing matters. That’s no hyperbole. You’ll need more than one hand to count all the major characters that sacrifice themselves in the last battle. And yet, none of that bloodshed or heartache seems to really accomplish anything. Kudelia suddenly becomes important again and gets a quick monologue about wishing for a better future, but that’s about it. Even worse is that, out of every character, it’s the insufferable Julieta and Rustal who get to walk off into the sunset. Whether it's realistic or not, “Iron-Blooded Orphans” deserved better.

It’s almost impressive to craft a final episode so bad, it retroactively ruins the eleven that came before it. But, that’s exactly what happened with “Fena: Warrior Princess.” Despite being about her quest for self independence, it’s revealed that Fena’s entire journey was predetermined by a so-called Observer. It changes this empowering character study into a moral thinkpiece at the eleventh hour, and lacks any of the thematic buildup to make it work. Most offensive of all, Fena’s mind gets wiped in the end, anyways. By robbing its central character of any agency, this insulting hat-trick fundamentally changes “Fena: Pirate Princess” for the worse.

In a perfect culmination of the series’ storylines, “Medabots” goes out with Metabee taking on Victor for one, final Robattle in the tournament finals… just kidding. The hotly-anticipated match gets interrupted by a new threat - a giant baby robot! With only a handful of episodes left, “Medabots” abandons its ongoing tourney plot to have Ikki and Metabee fend off the rubber robo gang’s leader. It’s maddening because they had the perfect ending set up and ready to go, but veered off track at the last second. To rub salt in the wound, the show has the gall to go out on an open-ended freeze frame. “Disappointing” doesn’t even begin to cover it.

A few trap cards was all it took to ruin what could’ve been an all-timer. For one, the climactic, last duel of “Arc V” coming down to Yuya and Declan is just plain disappointing. No amount of serendipitous friendship power-ups could keep this match from feeling lame. But, “Arc V’s” issues go much deeper than a lackluster closing number. There’s also some downright head-scratching decisions, like Yuya now sharing a body with his cross-dimensional doppelgangers. Although, a strange resolution is better than no resolution at all, which is what happened with most of the supporting cast. It’s a shame that an otherwise great season got majorly lost in the shuffle.

This is the kind of unforgivable closure that makes you wonder, “what was the point?’ “Girl Meets Bear” was supposed to be about Machi outgrowing her reclusive ways by attending modern day high school. And, she does, for all of eleven episodes. But, after a full season of slowly emerging from her shell, one bad contest has Machi retreating back into her hermit lifestyle. No redemption, no good moral, and nothing to show for twelve episodes of character work. Fans were outraged at this senseless change from the source material, and they weren’t alone. You know you’ve really messed up when even the original author starts voicing criticism.

Order users possess a special power that allows their wishes to be realized. Unsurprisingly, giving this type of ability to an obnoxious student leads to the “Great Destruction” and countless of dead folks. But wait, it was his sister who done it all along – what a twist… Now, Big Order is a pretty farfetched show – hence ladies getting pregnant from having their ears being fondled – but the ending is infuriating nonetheless. After defeating God via an ass pull, Eiji uses his power to fix everything, including the Great Destruction.

Tokyo Ghoul struggled to properly adapt the long manga into 24 episodes, leaving a lot of content on the cutting room floor. Despite having such limited space, the finale wastes a substantial amount of time showing characters dicking around, instead of providing closure. It ends with Kaneki carrying Hide’s body in his arms before coming face to face with Arima. Aaand then they cut. No final battle. None of the awesome stuff that happened in the manga… Really makes you wonder why they deviated from the plot just to arrive at a watered down version of the same conclusion…

Aldnoah Zero set itself up with several things that needed to be sorted out by its conclusion. First of all, how are we going to solve the conflict between the Vers Empire and The Earth Union. Second, how’s Slaine going to finally redeem himself? And third – and obviously most importantly – how will the love-triangle work out?! Well, the show managed to bugger up all three things; the war seems to just fizzle out, Slaine gets his ass handed to him and locked away in jail, and instead of one of the lads ending up with Asseylum, some random character no one gives a crap about does! Why do they gotta do our boy Slaine like this?

Until the sequel comes out, Panty & Stocking still deserves a place on this list. The series had its ups and downs, but you could always count of the fallen angel sisters to kick serious amounts of demon heinie. So, after stopping the evil Corset from unlocking Hell's Gate, what happens? An after-credit scene reveals that Stocking was actually a demon all along! For some reason… As a follow-up is yet to happen, this out-of-nowhere plot twist made absolutely no-sense and ended an otherwise decent show on a sour note.

Good things do not always come to those who wait. Following some significant production delays, fans waited an extra three months to see the true finale of “Wonder Egg Priority.” There were so many questions: What really happened with Koito? What’s Frill’s connection to everything? How will Ai fix it? No, we’re genuinely asking, because the final episode sure doesn’t explain anything. Rather than providing closure, “Wonder Egg Priority” went in a tasteless direction that undermined its own message about believing trauma survivors. You can imagine the backlash. Viewers waited an extra three months just to see the story they loved get scrambled, burned, and scraped into the garbage.

From the same mind that gave birth to Big Order, Future Diary stands as his insane magnum opus. Yuki is a spineless loner who owns a diary that predicts the future and gets thrown into a battle royale against 11 other people – eventually winning and getting elevated to the status of a god! While this sounds cool in theory, the anime spirals out of control towards the end, introducing time travel and alternate dimensions. Sure, the OVA “Redial” tided us over a little, but as for the tv series ending, the whole thing was just overly-convoluted and didn’t satisfy on most fronts…

A powerful demon who just happens to be the son of Death is – apparently – no match for a good dose of courage. Soul Eater is a fantastic anime for around 99% of its run, with the ending serving as the exception. Known for its creative action sequences and colorful cast, Soul Eater constantly declares the importance of teamwork... So, why is the final boss defeated by a single UNARMED character? While the rest of the cast watches from a distance, Maka causes the powerful Asura to explode after punching him in the face with the power of courage.

Epilogues work better in theory than practice, and Digimon serves as the perfect example.
After defeating MaloMyotismon, the story flash forwards to the year 2027 and shows what became of the digi-destined. Over those 20 odd years, the Digital and Real World learned to co-exist and everyone now has a Digimon, which kind of ruins the appeal of being a chosen child. The heroes grow up to follow completely mismatching career paths - like Sora becoming a fashion designer. Also, aside from Matt, Sora, Ken, and Yolei, all the digi-destined get married to nobodies – meaning TK and Kairi didn’t end up together, which we can all admit sucks!

What began as a promising thriller ended up breaking its vows in record time. The biggest offender is the ending - and we use that term loosely. After a series of needless deviations from the manga, “The Promised Neverland” reached the end of season two and simply stopped. We aren’t just talking about the arc or season, we mean the entire adaptation just full-on ended. To put it into perspective, they crammed half the remaining manga into a montage, skipped to the shoehorned happy ending, and had the gall to keep it as a day-of surprise. It’s easily one of the most botched conclusions an anime adaptation has ever received, and that’s saying something.

Ok, we’ve given this show so much grief over the years, so let's break it down real quick. These two are siblings. Alright let's move on.

Season 1 ending? Perfect. Season 2 ending? Satisfying. The movie finale? Awful!
Everyone was hesitant when hearing that aliens were being introduced into the franchise for this film, so in order to silence the critics, Sunrise really had to knock this out of the park. They didn’t. The whole thing feels completely out of place, with weird storytelling decisions and series favorites being killed for absolutely no reason. Worst of all, the flowery ending is played completely straight, as the two warring species realize this was simply a misunderstanding and decide to work together to achieve peace. Piss off.

The anime that’s ‘so bad it's … still bad’. The practically nonsensical plot follows Takeru, who is the only person capable of wearing a combat suit to defend Earth from a Martian invasion. While the stiff animation and lifeless characters make Mars of Destruction a long sit, the hilarious ending takes the cake. A huge plot twist reveals that the Earthlings were the real aliens all along… Centuries ago, the Martians conquered Earth, forcing the remaining survivors to seek refuge in space. Again, piss off.

Despite its name, “Platinum End” doesn’t finish as much as it completely falls off the side of the storytelling cliff. In just twenty-two minutes, Shuji becomes God, decides humanity will always crave death, and makes the unilateral decision to end himself. This causes all life to suddenly disappear, whether they like it or not. Look, tragic endings can work if they’re earned. But, “Platinum End” is so busy trying to seem sophisticated, it forgets how to convey ideas at all. See, the downer conclusion isn’t just a tough pill to swallow, it actively trivializes everything that came before it. In the end, the real tragedy lies with everyone who thought “Platinum End” might stick the landing.

What’s an anime ending so bad, it ruined the rest of the show for you? Let us know in the comments below!