Summary
Different anime invoke different moods, whether it’s shōnen shows building up anticipation for its big fights, or a comedy getting goofy, etc. So, it’s not exactly shocking when a dour series aims for a dour ending. Shows likeAttack on Titan,Monster,Berserk, etc. weren’t going to end with all the key characters singing and laughing together in the finale like a Hanna-Barbera cartoon.
However, there are a few examples out there that like to give their viewers emotional whiplash. Where they’ll make things sweet and cheery, or at least settle into some sort of groove, then immediately turn everything on its head and leave people wondering what on earth just happened. Like these animes, which take sudden dark turns at the end.
1Magikano
Boy Turns Evil, So Girls Turn Back Time
Magikano’s ending is dark, in the sense that the heroes lose and evil technically wins. But when the last episode ended, most viewers weren’t so much shocked as annoyed. The original series was a sort-of harem where Ayumi, a witch, tried to awaken the powers of Haruo, an otherwise ordinary high school boy, in a bid to avoid losing her magic.
His sisters would rather keep him ignorant of all things arcane, as they have magical abilities too. But it’s all for naught in the last episode, where Haruo turns out to be an incarnation of the evil being Maoh, who takes over the magical world. The girls’ only hope is to go back in time by one year and redo everything, rendering every prior episode in its single season pointless.
2Magical Princess Minky Momo
Magical Girl Show Gets Darker After Truck-Kun Experience
Magical Princess Minky Momois nowadays more infamous for its dark turns than for its main achievements. After toy company Popy pulled their funding, writer Takeshi Shudo thought that would end the show. So, he cut the Princess of Fenarinarsa’s attempts to make people dream more to save her land short by making her lose her powers, and havinga truck run her overin Episode 46.
Yet that wouldn’t be the end. The series managed to hang on for 16 more episodes afterward, with Shudo quickly resurrecting Momo in the form of a new girl. But the subsequent episodes would get darker compared to the happier fare before the Truck episode. Like at the very end, where Momo comes to terms with her old life’s death to overcome the evil Nightmare once and for all.
3Mahoromatic
Man Mourns His Late Android Love by Battling Across the Stars
Mahoromaticstarts simply enough: Suguru needs a maid to help him clean the big house his late parents left him, and he finds one when he’s inadvertently saved by Mahoro, a combat android with a limited lifespan. If she keeps fighting, she’ll shut down within a month. But if she takes up a more peaceful job, like housekeeping, she’ll last over a year.
So, its ending sounds etched in stone: Mahoro dies with Suguru by her side, either in action or at home. But it took a few more twists than that. In the years after her death, Suguru left Japan for good and became a half-cyborg mercenary, hunting down what’s left of the secret Management organization, until he was left for dead by a different android. His last vision is of Mahoro coming back to take him home.
4Blood-C
Slayer’s Life Turns Out to Be a Lie
At first, things seem standard withBlood-C. It’s basically an anime take onBuffy the Vampire Slayer, only its “Buffy” is Saya Kisaragi, a shrine maiden and expert sword fighter, and instead of vampires, she fights Elder Bairns. They also feast on human blood, but they’re based more on theGreat Old Ones from Lovecraftian horror.
However, things take a turn when she starts having blank spots in her memories, and the Bairns seem to know more than what’s going on. It turns out she’s an Elder Bairn herself, and she’s been manipulated into her current life with false memory implants by Fumito, her “Giles” equivalent. All her friends die fighting Fumito’s forces, and Saya’s left for dead, vowing to get revenge.
5Fist Of The North Star Zero: Legend Of Kenshiro
Kung Fu Superman Saves City, Only For It To Be Destroyed Moments Later
TheFist of the North Starfranchise isn’t exactly sunshine and lollipops, though compared to its influences (Devilman,Violence Jack), it’s practically a gorySupermancomic. Heroes may meet tragic ends, and innocents get tormented and killed, but good ultimately triumphs over evil. At least, until theZero: Legend of Kenshiroprequel, where Kenshiro fights to free Gesso City from the evil Siska.
He manages to stop his forces and stop him from blowing the city up. That is, until Siska reveals he had another switch in his chair. He presses it, and blows the whole city up, killing him and everyone else in the city except Kenshiro. It’s since become why he keeps moving from place to place: because chaos follows him wherever he appears, and if he sticks around too long, it’ll catch up to him.
6Kuma Miko: Girl Meets Bear
Girl Gets So Embarrassed That She Gives Up Thinking
One of the consequences of a manga getting animated is that they may have to make a few changes. Like the studio needing to make up their own ending when their schedule/budget/both, etc. can’t let them hang on for the strip’s intended conclusion. Even so, they’re not always as grim as the one made up forKuma Miko: Girl Meets Bear.
Machi, the shrine maiden of a remote village, wants to get over her social anxiety and live in the big city, with help from her talking guardian bear, Natsu. But in the finale, she fails the last hurdle so badly that she gives up on her dream and mentally regresses to the level of a 4-year-old. Mangaka Masamune Yoshimoto opted not to do script checks during the anime’s production and, judging bytheir (now deleted) Twitter comments, likely regrets that choice.
For some, theSchool Daysanime was saved by its ending. Before its last episode, it was a rote love triangle series, where Makoto falls for his classmate, Kotonoha, unaware that another girl, Sekai, has fallen for him and has other plans regarding his relationships. It’s based on a visual novel game where, if things go well, Makoto and co. go on to have normal lives.
However, the anime’s finale took inspiration from its bad endings, where thingscan get really bad. In it, Sekai ends up stabbing Makoto to death. Then she’s called to the school roof, where Kotonoha presents her with Makoto’s decapitated head, then kills her in revenge. This sudden turn has since become the most (in)famous moment in the anime, though whether it’s worth watching the other episodes for it is another matter.
8Master Of Martial Hearts
Fanservice Fighting Anime Ends With Betrayal And Murder
At first,Master of Martial Heartsseems like another ecchi seriesa laIkki Tousen, as eleven girls fight each other to claim the Platonic Heart, a jewel said to grant wishes. It’s as full of fanservice as the next show, but without the shamelessness ofEiken, or the fame/notoriety ofQueen’s Blade. Particularly as four of its five episodes are nothing to write home about. Then the finale comes along.
In it, the tournament is revealed to be a ploy to trap Aya, the series’ heroine, by her so-called friends. Aya’s mother, Suzuko, had won the original tournament, dooming their mothers to slavery. So, they wanted to avenge them by attacking her daughter. Instead, Suzuko kills them and sacrifices herself to save Aya. Which is one way for a show to give its viewers a proverbial cold shower.
