Summary

As a rule , mostanimeendings tie every loose end in a neat bow . However , there are a number of series whose endings break all the convention , resulting in trippy finales that have fans questioning reality , and contemplating how reliable the anime ’s teller is . Often , they ’ll be go with by fast - paced , thrilling activeness and visuals that fiddle with the very threads of reality that the series take place in .

These finales are not only a tipping point for the characters caught in the middle of them . If their subject matter has gotten through strongly enough , sports fan may start feeling as unmoored as their hero .

Endings like these are so judgement - blowing for their audience thatthey stay well - get laid and wide discuss years , or even decades , after first airing .

The Apothecary Diaries imagery and Universal Studios OSaka

10Neon Genesis Evangelion Is Peak Gainax

Original series created by Hideaki Anno

Studio Gainax has become infamous for these type of endings , to the point where they ’re colloquially sleep together as “ Gainax ending ” . Arguably , the most well - know of these remainsNeon Genesis Evangelionand both its notoriously bonkers conclusions . Though it ’s clear from the first installment that this is as much your normal mecha Zanzibar copal as the EVA Units are normal mecha , in 1995,audiences could never have predicted how far the show would spiral by the end .

The original last two episodes see Instrumentality reducing humans into one aerial entity with no emotions or single identity , sending Shinji on a flakey journeying through his own soul as he take between embracing lifespan or doom humanity . ButThe End of Evangelion , hail as one of thebest anime movies , takes it up to eleven and brings everything full lap . The horrors of Instrumentality and the fall of NERV in the real world are shown in bloody detail , and Shinji ’s last reckoning is even more unhinged .

9Serial Experiments Lain Explores How Technology Warps Identity

Original series written by Chiaki J. Konaka

sequential Experiments Lainholds up as one of thebest Lovecraftian Zanzibar copal with horrors beyond comprehension . Its geographic expedition of the relationship between engineering and the " self " , as well asthe gulf between people because of it , often reaches reality - bending layer . Nowhere is this more ostensible than in the show ’s final sequence , aptly title “ Ego . ”

The show set about with one of Lain ’s class fellow taking her own life and posthumously claiming to have ascended to another state of existence : the Wired . Its close sees Lain take this idea to its consistent extreme point , taking dominance of reality itself and everyone in the physical world ’s perception of it . She deletes herself from existence , and ascends further than anyone ever has into the Wired , becoming a virtual being of untold power .

8Mekakucity Actors Ties Its Heroes’ Fates Together

Based on the Kagerou Project music videos by Jin

At first , Mekakucity Actorsseems evenhandedly conventional . LocalhikikomoriShintaro Kisaragi is storm to embark from his home in search of a new keyboard , only to get caught up in a terrorist attack at the electronics store . He ’s saved by a radical ofsuperpowered kids who call themselves the Mekakushi Dan , and draw for good into their worldly concern .

The further the show explores each hero ’s backstory and the origins of their powers , the more surreal thing get . Shintaro ’s dreams of danger test prophetical , and he awakens to his own power just in sentence to help carry through the Mekakushi Dan from the otherworldly force keeping them pin in a rhythm of panic . In the end , he and his friends are able to restore their run reality to reality , but only after facing down incomprehensible power .

7The Big O Goes Off The Rails In Its Finale

Based on the manga by Hitoshi Ariga

The Big Ohas an ending thatcomes directly out of nowhere in its 2d season . Paradigm City is a post - apocalyptic place recovering from a aggregated amnesia result and hiding long - buried secrets , and it ’s where Detective Roger Smith and his robot pardner R. Dorothy Wayneright puzzle out crimes for a aliveness . Their superstar in the hole is the titular Big type O : a massive conflict mecha they bust out to support their home from catastrophe .

With the chances of a third season nil , Chiaki Konaka , the author behindSerial Experiments Lain , felt free to go a little barbarian with the season finale . Roger and Dorothy are lose badly in their last battle with the Rosewaters and Big Fau , and begin to see visions of parallel reality . Angel is revealed to be some sort of non - human with bastard memories , a Revelation of Saint John the Divine that gain her snap and transform not just her form , but the intact world , reset time and space back to the first episode .

6Paranoia Agent Is Exactly As Unnerving As Expected

Original anime written by Seishi Minakami

FromPaprikatoPerfect Blue , Satoshi Kon ’s best filmsfeature an element of psychological horror , and his major maraud into television receiver , Paranoia Agent , is no elision . Mushashino , Tokyo is dead struck byrandom street assaults by Shonen Bat , a boy with a gilt bat whose face nobody can seem to remember . It ’s up to a pair of detectives to break up the case , but unbeknownst to them , they ’re in way over their heads .

As its title suggests , Paranoia Agentcenters around the care , repression , and crises of indistinguishability chivvy all of its fiber . Though it ’s suggest that Shonen Bat is a especially slippery juvenile delinquent , or a supernatural military group called by desperation , the real result is even more shocking . With the lines between vision and reality disappearing completely , and both Shonen Bat and Maromi wreaking monstrous destruction on Tokyo , it ’s revealed that all the show ’s fantastic holy terror recoil from the mind of a sure so-called victim .

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Cast

Paranoia Agent is a Nipponese reanimate tv series created by Satoshi Kon . The show follows several unconnected people in Tokyo who are terrorized by a mysterious juvenile assailant named Lil ' Slugger . As the attacks increase , detectives Keiichi Ikari and Mitsuhiro Maniwa investigate the incidents , uncovering complex psychological issues and social pressures among the victim . The series offers a review article of innovative urban life and explore theme of paranoia and self - deception .

5Darker Than Black Bends And Twists Space And Time

Original series written by Tensai Okumura and Shoutarou Suga

Everyone on Earth knows about Heaven ’s Gate and Hell ’s Gate , the chaotic crack in space and prison term on either side of the world . What almost nobody know about are the Contractors : humans who impromptu developed superpowers when the Gates opened and are now used as gun and spies by funny government and organisation worldwide . Hei is a Contractor working for one of these organizations , carrying out dirty job after unclean job .

Darker Than Blackis largely occasional , pitting Hei against other contractor and the official forces out to thwart his various offense . However , the finales of both seasons each take the chance to go off the rail . From surreal mental imagery to dangling patch threads to even bass cracks in the fabric of reality , this show not once but double leaves fans scratching their heads and seek to figure out what on Earth just come about .

4Fullmetal Alchemist 2003 Has A Notorious Original Ending

Based on the manga by Hiromu Arakawa

When Edward and Alphonse Elric lose their limb and entire consistency , respectively , in an attempt to resurrect their mother , they devote their lives to their quest to reinstate themselves . However , it is n’t that dewy-eyed : they find themselves in the midsection of a corking cabal that targets not only their entire state , but the story of their fellowship as well . It soon becomes light thattheir journeying may have no end after all .

Because the manga was n’t finished by the time the original anime adaptation ofFullmetal Alchemisthas one of themost famous anime - only endingsout there . And itisquite out there , with an out - of - the - blue construction that lands Edward ( the most bewildered one of all ) in our globe , right in the middle of World War II - era England , revealing that alchemy in Amestris is fueled by the demise of humans on Earth . The follow - up movie , Conqueror of Shamballa , which drive Edward to sail Nazi Germany , is no less foreign .

3AKIRA Takes Its Espers To Another Dimension

Based on the manga by Katsuhiro Otomo

This cinema ’s sensational animation is just one of many reasons why alive - action remaking ofAKIRAsimply would n’t work . Tetsuo losing mastery of his magnate , transform into a monumental , rapidly mutating mountain of flesh , and menace to kill everyone around him isone of the most famously terrorise vista in anime . The determination , which like much of the film leave behind out a lot of the point from the manga , is no less impactful .

It ’s inconceivable to flat - out drink down Tetsuo or to change by reversal his transformation . In the end , it ’s the return - from - the - dead Akira who saves everybody : he uses his own psychic powers to create a new universe for his fellow Espers , indicate Kaneda visions of the past before ejecting him into a destroyed Neo - Tokyo . As for Tetsuo , he now has the tycoon to do the same , stepping into a new dimension of his own beyond the audience ’s comprehension .

A secret military project endanger Neo - Tokyo when it turns a biker ring phallus into a rampaging psychical psychopath who can only be stopped by a teenager , his crew of biker friends and a group of psychics .

Feature Image for Retro Anime Starring Revolutionary Girl Utena, Ghost in the Shell, Witch Hunter Robin

2Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Movie: Rebellion Sends Its World To Hell

Based on the original series “Puella Magi Madoka Magica”

The ending of the original show flips its entire conceit on its principal , with Madoka go up to godhood and becoming an almighty source of hope for all witching girlfriend , in the yesteryear , present , and future tense . All except for one : Homura is the one loose thread in an otherwise upstanding close , pointedly leave alone and bleak in one of themost shocking anime post - credits aspect , and the final twist ofRebellionfinally reveals her fortune .

Homura ’s only felicity is Madoka , and she can find no consolation in being leave alone . So she becomes the demon to Madoka ’s god , invert Madoka ’s wish and exchange it with her own , and traps Madoka and all her friends in a false Mitakihara with no memory of anything that come in the main show , as one does . The moving-picture show ends with Homura delighting in her victory but acknowledging the hypothesis / subsequence bait that if Madoka ever find her retentiveness , they will become enemies .

1Adolescence of Utena Is Much Wilder Than Its Show

Based on the original series “Revolutionary Girl Utena”

As heavy on symbolization and metaphor asRevolutionary Girl Utenais , it can sometimes be unvoiced to make common sense of what ’s truly bump , but as inMadoka , the final stopping point is perfectly understandable . Though Utena has disappeared , her wallop is permanent : Anthy is finally empowered to walk away and bequeath Akio and Ohtori Academy behind . It ’s the sequel moving-picture show thatfeels truly free to get trippy with it , because it assumes that viewers have already seen the show .

Adolescencefocuses primarily on Utena and Anthy and their journeying to freedom and happiness together , demo their history in even more striking and unique visual styles , which , consider the visuals of the show , is sound out something . In the film ’s most renowned brain roll in the hay , it end with Utena being rust by a motorcar wash drawing and reemerging as a car , which Anthy drives out of Ohtori while being go after by armoured combat vehicle . When Akio attempt to stop her , she does n’t just destroy his mindset , she blows him up into a bunch of rosaceous petal .

Dragon Ball, One Piece and Gundam

Collage style image featuring art from madoka Magica, Paranoia Agent, and Neon Genesis Evangelion

Kaworu Nagisa from Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Paranoia Agent is a Japanese animated television series created by Satoshi Kon. The show follows several unconnected people in Tokyo who are terrorized by a mysterious juvenile assailant named Lil' Slugger. As the attacks increase, detectives Keiichi Ikari and Mitsuhiro Maniwa investigate the incidents, uncovering complex psychological issues and societal pressures among the victims. The series offers a critique of modern urban life and explores themes of paranoia and self-deception.

Neon Genesis Evangelion Franchise Poster

Paranoia Agent (2004)

Paranoia Agent is a Japanese animated television series created by Satoshi Kon. The show follows several unconnected people in Tokyo who are terrorized by a mysterious juvenile assailant named Lil' Slugger. As the attacks increase, detectives Keiichi Ikari and Mitsuhiro Maniwa investigate the incidents, uncovering complex psychological issues and societal pressures among the victims. The series offers a critique of modern urban life and explores themes of paranoia and self-deception.

Headshot of Liam O’Brien

Cast Placeholder Image

Fullmetal Alchemist Franchise Poster

Akira 1988 Anime Poster