Hello,
Today we'll talk about a slightly different topic (compared to the usual episodic coverage of the current anime series) that I thought of interest for all of you.
After watching yesterday Tasogare Otome X Amnesia's finale, I started to think about how much the ending of a particular story affect the level of enjoyment that we have from the full product.
Even if the series as a whole was extremely enjoyable, you end up with that "that's it?!" feeling when they disappoint you with just the last couple of minutes of the last episode.
My memory goes back to the old ages of anime (at least for me) when I first watched Last Exile that is one of the most popular series animated by Gonzo in the long past 2003.
The series was golden for most of its run with a gripping storyline, likeable characters, an impressive world setting and one of the best animation style/quality of the time. I clearly remember how striking it was the difference in animation quality between Last Exile and the rest of the series.
Everything was going smoothly till the last couple of episodes where the story started to make less and less sense to the point of leaving yourself with an almost infinite series of "WTF?!" and a bad taste in the mouth.
There are many other example of stories that get ruined by abrupt, forced or simply bad endings. Let's think about Ookami Kakushi (anime), Tsukuyomi Moonphase (anime), Voices from Har Megiddo (Visual Novel), etc...
And here we get to the questions I had in mind. What are the rules that a company must follow in order to make an enjoyable ending for me? What exactly are the "no-no" situations that they should avoid?
The first important thing that I search from an anime ending is CLOSURE. I want a story that start introducing some events, develop them and finish giving enough explanations in order to make all of them understandable.
Truth to be said, while I do prefer happy endings, a sad ending (for example Fate Zero) won't compromise the final vote of a series as long as the story continues to follow the same path they build up till that point in the whole series.
What I really don't like is when series decide to do a 180° turnaround at the very end destroying all the build-up they've made in order to pursue a particular ending. (Do you remember Kimikiss : Pure rouge?!)
By the way, I also don't like playing the "let's try to decypher the author's intentions" game whenever an author decide to go with vague stuff expecting viewers to fill in the gaps. It was one of the most played game when watching Mawaru Penguindrum after all!
Probably the best example of "perfect ending" for me is Steins;Gate that is also the second highest scoring anime in my all-time rankings. The story in this series had plenty of time to develop and never really wasted too much time in fillers.
The final crescendo of emotions was incredible to watch and they closed all the remaining main questions I had over the story with an optimal explanation.
On the top of all this, they even managed to fit a well written happy end showing Kurisu surviving and at the same time remembering the time she spent with Okabe!
And you? What are the rules that you think are best to follow in order to make an excellent ending? Do you have an example of series that followed your rules? What is the most memorable ending in your anime life?
See you soon,
feal87