10 Great Anime With Rushed Endings

Some anime series start out strong but end up with a rushed or unsatisfying conclusion.

There are many satisfying forms of entertainment that engage in epic storytelling, but anime has gained a strong reputation for serialized narratives that can run for decades and achieve incredible heights. Anime can tell incredible stories with lovable characters, but unfortunately, an unfulfilling ending can be enough to taint the entire series.

The adaptation process from manga to anime is far from perfect, and it can result in anime that wildly differ from their source material, or in some cases, they don’t even get to finish their stories. Of course, there are lots of anime that go out on top and stick their landings, but it’s a highly frustrating experience when an anime does everything right, only to abruptly conclude things in a rushed manner.

10. Soul Eater Ditches Its Plan & Message For An Ending That Falls Flat

There are just over 50 episodes of the exciting Soul Eater shonen series that pairs together intrepid soul reapers with living weapons. The journey to collect souls and assemble a death scythe is consistently entertaining, and Soul Eater is filled with thrilling action sequences that emphasize the importance of teamwork. That's what makes the abrupt ending where everything is resolved with one unbelievable punch feel like such a cheat and a disservice to what Soul Eater previously established. If there’s any series that’s in need of a do-over in the same fashion as Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, it’s Soul Eater.

9. Yu Yu Hakusho Sprints For The Finish Line As Soon As The End Is In Sight

​​Yu Yu Hakusho is an iconic anime series from the '90s that feels unique, and the progress and development of Yusuke Urameshi and the rest of the characters remain entertaining. Yu Yu Hakusho does so much right, which makes it a major disappointment that the final arcs are seriously rushed and end the anime on an unsatisfying note. The Three Kings material introduces some fascinating ideas to the series, which are promptly dropped in favor of a stock resolution. It's a disservice to all of the hard work that the rest of the anime establishes.

8. Claymore’s Ending Is Robbed Of Nuance & Minimizes The Threats That Clare Faces

The problem with Claymore is that the majority of the series takes its time and allows characters and plotting to gradually develop. There are real stakes behind the danger of the Awakened Beings as well as Clare's temperamental power.

Major threats, like Priscilla, are vanquished with minimal difficulty, and the existence of more powerful Claymore gets teased. The anime resolves the immediate threat at hand but throws so much at the audience in the final episodes that it's just a wash. It feels like there's inevitably going to be more to the story, but there isn't.

7. Dragon Ball GT Suddenly Ends With Goku Abruptly Bidding Everyone Farewell

Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball series is still going strong, but Toei’s Dragon Ball GT remains a controversial chapter in the franchise. The sequel series finds its footing in the middle of its 64 episodes and does deliver some satisfying battles, but the anime is a bit of a disappointment that isn’t helped by its perplexing conclusion. Dragon Ball GT spends a lot of time on the Shadow Dragon saga, but its conclusion quickly transitions into Goku’s ultimate goodbye and the series’ ending. None of these elements feel natural, and it plays like an even more disappointing riff on Dragon Ball Z’s finale.

6. Guilty Crown’s War & Love Story Feel Generic After The Major Shortcuts That They Take

There's a lot to appreciate in the post-apocalyptic dystopia that is Guilty Crown. Shu Ouma has the unique ability to draw out weapons from others, which turns him into an unlikely player in a deadly war. Guilty Crown only has 22 episodes to explore this story and Shu's struggle, so there are some excusable plot holes and developments that get rushed to help forge together a conclusion. The finish, in which Inori makes a crucial sacrifice to protect Shu, feels like the right place for the story to end, but there are too many logic leaps taken to arrive here.

5. Nana Wraps Up Without Closure, Which Is True To Life, But Unfulfilling

Lots of slice-of-life anime series exist, but few are as genuine and crushing as Ai Yazawa’s Nana. The patient josei series follows two twenty-somethings, both named Nana, who are eager to find love and fulfillment.

Nana is regarded as a masterpiece because of its realistic and painful depictions of its characters as they fumble through adulthood and try to better understand themselves. A rushed and random conclusion to Nana speaks to the unpredictable nature of life and how people can come and go without warning, yet it still results in a lackluster finish that robs Nana of perfection.

4. Trigun Builds A Delicate Arc That’s Suddenly Over & Doesn’t Look Back

Trigun is a triumph of '90s anime, and when it's working, it delivers some truly breathtaking action sequences. The pain that Vash the Stampede carries with him is responsible for much of Trigun's impact. Trigun is only 26 episodes, but the back-end of the anime acts as if Legato Bluesummers is Vash's final foe. Legato's unconventional finish results in a final showdown between Vash and his brother, Knives. Knives is teased through flashbacks, but the finale rushes this reunion and robs it of nuance. The series technically ends in a place of resolution, but it's a messy and empty finish.

3. Hundreds Of Episodes Of Ranma ½ Culminate In A Slapdash Ending

Rumiko Takahashi is a prolific mangaka who's responsible for influential series like InuYasha and Maison Ikkoku, but the gender-bending Ranma ½ is still frequently regarded as her most successful series. Ranma ½’s anime properly captures the humor and action of the manga series and gets more than 160 episodes to play around. However, Ranma ½ dives into an unexpected conclusion that feels like a cheat and isn’t really satisfying to anyone. Much of this has to do with how the anime ended before the manga, so it avoids a definitive finish, but it’s the wrong approach for this long-running series.

2. The Promised Neverland Makes Needless Concessions That Cripple The Narrative

It’s always crushing when a popular anime adaptation gets ahead of its source material and is forced into impulsive narrative decisions that ruin what originally made the series work. The first season of The Promised Neverland is fantastic, but the series’ massive popularity forced forward a very different second season that ditches character development and truncates major stories into minor plot points. As it stands, it’s unclear if a season three of The Promised Neverland will materialize, but after the off-course ending to season two, there’s certainly less excitement over the prospect.

1. Neon Genesis Evangelion Crams An Entire Apocalypse & Rebirth Into A Busy Finish

On its surface level, Evangelion is a tragic mecha series where giant robots defend the Earth from monstrous Angels, but deep down, it’s an anime about the human condition and the futility of failure. The general trajectory of Evangelion gets hijacked by Hideaki Anno’s vision, which results in one of the strangest conclusions ever to an anime series. There’s no disputing that Evangelion’s ending is sudden and a major change of pace, but at the same time, it’s also strangely the perfect conclusion. Pointedly, Evangelion’s Rebuild films continue to explore how the series “should” end.