Top 10 Best Anime Endings

I don't think it's a stress to say that an ending to a show is one of the most important aspects. It can drastically effect how good or bad I think a show is, and determine just how well a show is able to tie themes and character arcs together. But regardless of all that, endings are usually my favorite part of a show. I just like seeing these characters I've spent so much time with go through their final moments on screen, and seeing how everything ends up. Unless it, you know, sucks. But that's for another countdown.
     Hello people of "The Wired", my name is Quan, I hope you're having a great day, and welcome to a new countdown, today, it's my top ten endings to an anime. Just to be clear, this includes both movies and TV series, and also, this must the true ending to a show or movie, as in, there's no next season. However, it's okay if there is an OVA or even a movie after these endings, just as long as the TV series or movie is completely done and self-contained. Oh, and of course, I'm not sure if I need even need to say this but major, major spoilers are ahead. We clear? Okay, let's begin.

10. Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day

We all love you Menma. So, call this endings what you will. Emotionally manipulative. Melodramatic. Stupid. And you'd be right. Sort of. Anohana as an anime was an emotional and somewhat nostalgic experience, that was dead-set on making you cry under any means necessarily. It throws all the sad things at you: death, friends splitting, memories you're unable to change, all that stuff, and because you recognize this, it all feels very translucent. So, I enjoyed the anime as I would, but never really fell for any of the emotional traps the series left because I saw what it was trying to do. However, this ending got me somehow, and it's one of the only endings that has made me straight up cry. I don't know. It was so perfectly happy and sad at the same time, the perfectly placed dialouge, and with the beautiful ED playing in the background, I just broke down. And if it was because that was exactly what the anime was going for, doesn't that mean it succeeded? I remember the moment I finished this anime, at 1 in the morning, still sniffling and recovering emotionally and absolutely exhausted. I remember thinking: "Well done... well done. That was good."

9. Baccano!

So admittedly, I might be being a little biased here, since I do think that this anime is an unrivaled masterpiece that everyone absolutely needs to see. I actually wanted to put this ending a lot higher, but if I was to be honest with myself, this ending didn't exactly wow me unlike the others on this list, but rather left me feeling, so... very... content. Everything wrapped perfectly. All loose ends dealt with. All character arcs gone full circle. And it was just the perfect ending to the perfect anime. Not the best ending by far, but something that left me reassured that Baccano! is the best anime I've ever seen in my life. The endings above this are luckily I'm not including the OVA's, by the way, those have Chane Laforet in a wedding dress. 

8. Steins;Gate

This anime was brilliant on its own, but its last episode proved to me that this anime was just as awesome and clever as it was telling me. Time travel is one of the most heavily over-used science fiction tropes out there, and you'd think all of its possibly loopholes and tricks would already be exploited, but Steins;Gate somehow managed to be unique and exciting with its ideas, and the endings shows just how brilliant it is(yes, I know I'm saying brilliant a lot). Admittedly, it was a little slow getting there, but I found the concept of changing the past but keeping a person's perception of the past the same just... well, brilliant. This ending is also the reason why Okabe Rintarou is one of favorite characters, it's not the average MC who literally stabs himself in the chest to save his kind-of-sort-of-not girlfriend. 

7. The World God Only Knows: Goddesses

Like Anohana's ending, this is an ending that got to me on an emotional level. But unlike Anohana, when I just waiting for the big "everyone-cries" finale and was simply surprised just how effective it was, this is one that I was completely unprepared for how emotional and god-damn good it actually was. The World God Only Knows franchise has never exactly prided itself on its depth; more like prided for being funny/entertaining and igniting "Best Girl" wars across various nations(Chihiro is best girl BTW), but for the last episode of Season 3, the writers pulled off all the stops and brought something truly amazing to the table. It also is one of the most depressing endings on this list, even more so than Anohana, because the resolution to our MC's arc: Keima Katsuragi  is just... sad. That last scene of him on the bench all alone... jeez. It's even more depressing when you consider that this the last season of the franchise, and it's unlikely we will get another in anime format, so now we're stuck with this worst-case-scenario ending, unless you want to go read the manga. I'll hold out for a couple more years I think. Just in case.

6. Kyousougiga

I think it's pretty fair that this ending is just as weird and fun as the show it belongs to. I think the reason this ending is so satisfying is that it was built up to so well to the point that all this ending really needed to was throw some sparklers on the ground and pound home the moral of Kyousougiga's story: "family is the best thing ever". Fortunately for me, it did a lot more than that. We got the MC Koto fall from the sky, fight God on the moon, and literally beat the moral of the story into his face with her fists. It was crazy, colorful and wonderful, again, like the show, and can I just say... the final scene: perfect. 

5. Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

If you're at all into this anime thing, then you've no doubt at least heard of this show, and if you've heard about the show, you know just how over the top, non-sensible, robot filled and manly it is. It had epic battles, gigantic laser-beams, and everything in the entire world you could possibly want from an anime, even if it came at the cost of absolutely nothing making sense. And even though we'd already had the battle for planet Earth, Gurren Lagann apparently thought it needed to go even bigger for the grand finale, and suddenly as the final episode played out its minutes, I watching in quiet awe as two impossibly big robots were literally throwing galaxies at each-other on my screen. Yes, t'was pretty epic, and yeah, if you're thinking "wait, that doesn't make sense", yes, being able to pick up galaxies and throw them like frisbees may not be completely scientifically accurate, but then again, who the hell really gives a crap? 

4. Welcome to the NHK

I'm happy to say that this utterly depressing anime is one of my favorites, as NHK was a truly unique and interesting experience, that may leave you a little down(that's an understatement by the way), but it was also intelligent and almost perfectly structured.  It built up to this ending from the very beginning, and showed a steady downward spiral of the character's psyche. It created an anime that was dripping in hopelessness and negativity, but that's partly why I loved NHK, it made you feel just as empty as the characters did. But at the same time, that's why this ending is so effective. Even though it contains schizophrenic hallucinations, suicide attempts and nothing really getting concluded about the characters lives, it all felt... strangely hopeful. I mean, nothing was solved, but then again, with this particular anime, maybe the point was that it wasn't ever going to. And that's okay. 

3. The Tatami Galaxy

This is a somewhat recent entry, I finished The Tatami Galaxy only a few weeks ago, but the moment I finished the last episode, I knew that this ending would be on this list somewhere. As a show, The Tatami Galaxy is like an intriguingly written book, and it's only when you have all the pages that the story finally makes complete sense. It's similar to Kyousougiga actually; at least in the way that everything in the anime builds and enhances other parts, and at the end, the anime clicks in the final puzzle piece for the characters and story. It's easily when of the best pay-offs to a show I've ever witnessed, especially for our main character Watashi, and yes, it was a little surreal and strange(like seriously, where did the moths come from?), but nevertheless, I thought it was all fantastic. The best part I think is how you can return to the very beginning or even the OP and see that they basically spoiled everything; it takes a very special kind of story to pull that off.


2. Kara no Kyoukai

I'm actually not quite sure what to say. It's just amazing. I mean if you break it down, basically the last half of the movie is our main character Shiki debating whether to kill a crazy guy. And then she does. And then it's over. And yet, it's one of the most absorbing, intelligent, epic and powerful things I've ever seen in anime. 

And Number 1 is...

1. Code Geass R2

Call it my choice predictable. Call my choice safe. I don't care. Let me put it this way; this ending is so incredible hyped by so many for a reason. It's not just mindless hype, this ending is legitimately the best ending I've ever in anime. And I'm going to break down exactly why.

     First of all, we need to talk about the build-up. The episodes leading up to the finale are crucial, because you're really wondering whether Lelouch has finally given in to the inner darkness that has been haunting him since the beginning of the show; I mean, he does kill people, take over the equivalent of the world's nuclear arsenal, and then declare himself basically king of the entire world. Yes, you start to wonder whether you should be cheering for this guy anymore. But in the finale, absolutely is turned on it's head, as Lelouch, now with the hatred of the entire world focused on him, sacrifices his life to bring the world to peace. I mean, it was just so well executed. The way the crowd reacts to his death, the wonderful music playing in the background, and his dying words which go down as one of my favorite anime quotes: "I destroyed the world, and created anew." My god did I have a void after finishing this; stuck in a space where I was unable to do anything besides stutter out praise for this thing. And for you who believe the theory that Lelouch is still alive, please, that would take away from the power of the ending, and make Lelouch an absolute hypocrite. So just leave the ambiguous ending ambiguous, okay?

Well, I hope you all enjoyed. I've been Quan, you've been awesome, and I'll see you all later. 

 My countdown of the Top Ten Anime Average Joe's is here.

Click here for my complete review of Kyousougiga. 

Or for video-game reviews, click here for a review of Dishonored. 

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