A good story is almost critical for most anime, covering up for everything from lackluster animation to forgettable characters. Great stories get viewers hooked like nothing else and turn these anime into something truly memorable. The vast majority of popular anime have brilliant stories that either last long as epics or form tight narratives that are well-paced.
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This is why an ending to an anime needs to be absolutely worth the wait for the story to have a great impression on viewers. In a way, the following anime achieve this since their endings have become the subject of much debate. It speaks volumes about the popularity of these anime that their endings are still passionately discussed to this day.
10Dragon Ball Z
Dragon Ball Zis one of the most popular anime ever made, so it’s bound to have many people who hotly debate the many developments in the show. The ending is no exception here, with the conclusion of this series being widely talked about even now.
For starters, the advent ofDragon Ball Superhas rendered many elements of this ‘epilogue’ redundant. Along with this, the ending itself was considered to be a bit of a letdown after the lengthy Buu Saga.
9Death Note
There are many great anime that take certain liberties with their source material. In the case ofDeath Note, the most popular instance of this is in the ending itself, which changes many elements about Light’s capture and his eventual demise.
Some people found the anime-exclusive ending to be more poetic, while others thought the manga did a good job of capturing the end of Kira’s reign. Regardless, the anime is still a great watch that fans should check out.
8Neon Genesis Evangelion
Neon Genesis Evangelionis one of the most thought-provoking anime around, with its character writing being absolutely brilliant. However, even this lauded anime isn’t averse to criticism, and the majority of it stems from the series' ending.
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The anime’s ending is considered by many to beone of the most needlessly complicated conclusionsin history. The two episodes that formNeon Genesis Evangelion’s conclusion are an absolute mess that becomes too high-concept for most people’s liking.
7Naruto
Narutois one of the most popular shonen anime of all time. However, some people didn’t appreciate the immense length of the War arc and the many twists and turns that ended up bogging down the overall experience.
While the final confrontation between Naruto and Sasuke lived up to the hype and was brilliant in every way, it didn’t do enough tomake up for the problems caused by the War arc’s conclusion. It certainly didn’t help that the anime extended its run even more to hit the 500-episode mark, making the true ending of the series even more painstaking to reach.
6Yu Yu Hakusho
Before his work onHunter x Hunter, Yoshihiro Togashi penned the brilliantYu Yu Hakusho. The story of the budding Spirit Detective Yusuke Urameshi and the rest of the gang as they tackle innumerable threats makes for a great time indeed.
However, over time, Togashi’s motivation for the series waned after losing faith in his skills as a mangaka. This is something that is reflected near the end of the series too, with the anime becoming fairly lackadaisical and Yusuke himself wondering what even is the point of it all. It’s a fairly unique ending to a series that some people do appreciate, although there are others who absolutely hate this conclusion.
5Fullmetal Alchemist
The original run ofFullmetal Alchemistwas pretty great in its own right. The series focused on the brothers Edward and Alphonse Elric, who embark on a journey to get back what they lost after engaging in the forbidden art of human transmutation.
However, the 2003 version of the anime caught up to the manga and decided to veer off into an original story of its own. This was an admirable attempt thatended with a rather unique conclusion, although some people denounce it as completely inferior to itsBrotherhoodcounterpart.
4Future Diary
The story ofFuture Diaryis a pretty riveting one, pitting twelve people against each other in a twisted contest to become the new god and prevent an incoming apocalypse. While the show starts off on a strong note, there are moments where it wavers quite a bit.
The ending is the most controversial part of the show, withYuno’s sacrifice and Yukiteru’s inability to accept her demisebeing both fascinating and thoroughly underwhelming for the fanbase. While the ending does have a positive note to it, some people still find the chain of events to be thoroughly unrewarding.
3Tokyo Ghoul
The original ending ofTokyo Ghoulis unanimously considered to be bad by fans. However, at the time of airing, the potential opened up by this unique ending made it pretty exciting to see how the series could go forward.
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Sure, the changes were pretty major and some fans wanted the anime to be faithful to the manga, but there’s no denying that the direction thatTokyo Ghoulwas going in seemed promising at the time. It’s a shame that the later seasons have been such a massive disappointment.
2Akame Ga Kill!
A lot of people had issues withAkame ga Kill’s pacing. The fact that the anime was tearing through the manga’s story without giving any breathing room rubbed many fans the wrong way, especially when it came to the last few chapters of the series.
However, for anime fans who were never going to read the manga anyway,the entirety ofAkame ga Kill!was pretty engagingall the way till the end. Sure, the pacing wasn’t perfect… but it wasn’t as egregious as everyone was making it out to be either.
1Danganronpa 3: The End Of Hope’s Peak High School
The idea of aDanganronpaanime that would give some much-needed closure to the characters of the first two games was a pretty exciting prospect. For the most part, the anime delivered on many fronts… although some people weren’t too stoked by its ending.
The fact that they recycled Kyoko’s fake death again was annoying to many, withthe fate of the characters inDanganronpa 2also being rather unsatisfyingfor many fans. However, for the most part, the anime did a great job of building on the universe and giving some much-needed closure.
