good start/bad ending and bad start/good ending

[panzerfan]

Chrno Crusade and Love Hina I have to agree. As a matter of fact, add XEBEC's Negima to that list.

[kujoe]

Originally Posted by kari-no-sugata

I'd say that anime based on novels tend to have more "so-so" beginnings, but possibly kick-ass endings.

For example, for me, ep 1 of Juuni Kokki (The Twelve Kingdoms) wasn't that special. Not bad though... but ep 39 (original ending as it were) was seriously cool.

Actually for me it was quite different. The first episode was actually interesting, but everything after that all the way until the part in the story where you realize what role the main character was going to play, (that moment in your viewing hours when you go, "oh, I think I know what's going to happen now...") was rather so-so for the most part. I do agree on the ending though.

Well, people have already mentioned Tenjo Tenge. But yeah, that definitely should be on the "good-to-bad" list.

And oh, add KGNE to the "so-so-to-good." The first two episodes were seemingly your typical high school romance story that we've all seen before, but by the end of the second episode, the whole series took a turn for very interesting, albeit messed up direction. Regardless of what anyone thought of the ending, it did capture the attention of a lot people all the way to the very end.

Hmmm. That's all I can think of at the moment.

[SvenTheSweeper]

Canvas2 ~Niji-iro no Sketch went form good to bad.
It had a good start and held my interest through out the series, but in the last 30 seconds of the show:

Spoiler:

Hiroki and Erisu were shown kissing under a blanket. It's like WTF! The creators didn't set up and justify the ending. The incest implications didn't bother me, but please have a more plausible ending. You expected and hoped for Hiroki and Kiri to end up together.

It's probably the worst case of Jumping the Shark I have ever seen. It felt like the creators sucker punched the viewers with the that scene. I erased all traces of the show form my hard drive, because I was deeply disappointed with that ending.

[Sailor Enlil]

Hmm, good start, bad ending:

I'd nominate Canvas2. Much as like like that series overall, it started well and had a good rollercoaster plot, but the ending just fell flat right at the last minute.


Can't think of any bad start/good ending shows though.

[Shakugan no Shana]

I have to agree with Good Start/Bad Ending with Shuffle! and Chrono Crusade.

Aswell as my Opinion of Good Start/Bad Ending...
~Air:The Series

Spoiler:

Even though It is suppose to end like that, I still think Misuzu shouldn't have ended that way *Sigh*

~Air:The Movie

Spoiler:

It's actually the same way it ends, But just abit different plot. Still think Misuzu Deserved to live, And why does Yuki just leave at the end WHY!!! *Sigh*

~Shuffle!

Spoiler:

From the start, It's all actually Rin's Fault that Kaede turned out like that in the first place since he lied to her from the truth. And I also think it's kinda stupid how Rin doesn't realize girls feelings in the first place, it even gets worse in the ending... I think Rin should have been with Kaede.

~Aishiteruze Baby

Spoiler:

To me personally, The Ending is just stupid. Nothing "Big" Like i expected actually happened, and Yuzuyu's mom just ditched her like she's shit... Also, she should get a life.... Life goes on. I expected her to to actually come back... But meh.

~Gundam Seed & Gundam Seed: Destiny
Reason is.. I hate how the creators are doing stuff randomly about it, even the ending was just so "Unexpected".
~Dragon Ball GT

Spoiler:

Ok, I know there are "Many" fans of DB But please.... The ending was just... "Not DB" at all. Specially how Goku killed him. It's also lame how it's always depending on the "Spirit Bomb"... Come on... Do something "New" for a change.

~Pokemon
Yep. Most of you all should know about. Loved the Beginning when "OMG POKEMON, gotta catch 'em all!!!" But.... After realizing "ZomG new pokemon!" And then other new pokemon:"Something".... Bleh Story Repeats itself too much.
~Rain
Love the Start, Cried at the end, Hated it mostly...

I can't think of any BadStart/GoodEnding at the moment or more GoodStart/BadEnding.... lol

[rei]

Originally Posted by Js2756

Oddly, I liked the endings to Shuffle! and Chrno Crusade.

Spoiler:

Kaede was a psycho who tried to kill Rin as a child. Nerine and Sia have multiple personality disorder. Primula looks too young. If I was Rin, I would've picked Asa as well.

I won't say it's odd for you to like the ending. Judging from your opinions of every SHUFFLE! girls, I can see whose side you are on & hence didn't find anything wrong with the story. I'll say every main SHUFFLE! girls excluding Primula are fitted to be with Rin. That 'under the bridge' scene is the most pathetic thing that I've ever seen.

I might have thought that someone will mention Canvas 2 here. Eventhough I like the ending (yeah, some of you might know why ), I'm pretty disappointed that they pulled that stuff at the end. I WANT TO SEE MORE of Hiroki x ??? !!! But I definitely prefer this one to SHUFFLE!

Good starting --> Bad ending anime:

Tokyo Underground - It has a good start but had a terrible ending. Just when it was getting interesting, they had to cut some plots & carry on with the final battle which lead to ??? ending. Jeez, I was looking forward to see Sui-sensei in action.

Star Ocean EX - What the heckkkk? I like the character design because IMO, they're better than in the game (yeah, I've played SO 2 game). I wouldn't say the starting is good enough but it's better than the ending. It's not even an ending, I should say.

I, My, Me! Strawberry Eggs! - This one has a good start IMO

Spoiler for for the ending:

but why oh why does Hibiki has to leave. Poor Fuko. I want to see Hibiki x Fuko.

Bad starting --> good ending anime:

This is just my personal opinion

W~Wish (Double Wish) - I definitely won't recommend this to those who had watched too much anime. Because it's not that interesting at all. Let's just say the ending is predictable. But it's good enough for me.

[Js2756]

Originally Posted by rei

I won't say it's odd for you to like the ending. Judging from your opinions of every SHUFFLE! girls, I can see whose side you are on & hence didn't find anything wrong with the story. I'll say every main SHUFFLE! girls excluding Primula are fitted to be with Rin. That 'under the bridge' scene is the most pathetic thing that I've ever seen.

Just to state my opinion, there are tons of issues with the story of Shuffle!, I never said it was a perfect show. I just happen to like the ending. Asa isn't even my favourite character in the show, that would be Kareha. It's just that out of the 5 main girls for Rin to choose from, I would have chosen Asa.

Not sure if this needs to be put into a spoiler, but just to be safe,

Spoiler:

I have to admit that at the very beginning of the show, I already had a bias against Kaede simply because she already had the "I live with the guy/childhood friend" aspect working for her. More often than not, these shows pick that type of character as part of the final pairing because it's easy and convenient (ie. Da Capo 1 and 2, Ranma, Lamune, Mahoromatic, To Heart, etc.). There is literally no serious competition for most of these types of girls whatsoever, so it was nice to finally see a show where the obvious choice was not the one made. It is similar to Kanon in that respect, except I hated Kanon from start to finish.

As far as SHnY goes, I also loved the first episode. Having worked on amateur film in high school and having been a judge for a high school film festival, I found it easy to relate to the first episode. It brought back a lot of memories of working in an editing room and seeing just how hilariously bad the end result was.

[Zython]

Originally Posted by Orchunter226

The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi: First episode was awful, imo, but the rest was gold.

Am I the only person in the world who figured out what the whole deal was 5 minutes into the episode. It was pretty obvious what was going on (as if the credits at the beginning weren't a dead give-away). The first episode was hilarious.

As for Haruhi, the first episode was amazing, I laughed so hard even though I've never watched any Japanese drama, it was just so dumb! Which made it hilarious, I loved all the sarcastic comments being made by Kyon.

Thank you!

Now, for the topic at hand, I can't say if they have good endings or not, since neither of these have ended, but I thought the beginning of Utawarerumono and Hunter x Hunter were both boring as hell. Fortunately, they pick up pretty quickly.

[mit7059]

Originally Posted by Js2756

As far as SHnY goes, I also loved the first episode. Having worked on amateur film in high school and having been a judge for a high school film festival, I found it easy to relate to the first episode. It brought back a lot of memories of working in an editing room and seeing just how hilariously bad the end result was.

You see, my high school film was good, there were a few continuity errors simply because we ran out of time, and we had a blast making it. Lol we filmed the entire film backwards and flipped it in editing, a link's in my sig, see if you can recognize the music and understand the title. (I always love getting feedback, its actually pretty good)

As for Shuffle!, I never thought of Sia/Nerine as actually competition, at first I assumed he would go with Kaede, but then when Asa became an actual interest I supported it, simply because she was a better character, but I also felt bad for Kaede because, in reality Rin was doing a shitty thing to her. (Why are they all obsessed with Rin? He doesn't seem that special, I'm better than him! Wait! Must remember that anime is not reality...*twitches*)

[DanielSong39]

Good start, bad ending:

Ai Yori Aoishi got off to an awesome start. After 4 episodes I was hooked. If the anime (and the manga it was based on) had gone with straight drama the story would have been gold. Instead it turned into a poor man's Love Hina very quickly.

Bad start, good ending:

I thought Da Capo got off on the wrong foot. There were some OK episodes near the start - the Kotori episodes (4 and 10) and Mako episodes (7 and 12) being among the better ones - but it doesn't really hit stride until episode 16, when Sakura makes her move. The last few episodes are quite impressive.

[White Manju Bun]

goodstart/badending

Rurouni Kenshin -yeah I know they didnt totally finish with the manga ending but epis 1-60 were awesome (give or take a few fillers) but 61-95 sucked!!

Coyote Ragtime -Ive dumped this anime, it had such a promising start after the prison break and the 12 sister but I just lost interest

badstart/goodending

Air - I wasnt totally sold on this anime when I first started watching it but Im glad I kept with it. Sad ending but I good one.

[Deathkillz]

goodstart / badending ~ honey and clover...its was almost like a chore trying to watch every ep...i know its ment to be deep but the ending just puts everything back to square 1 with no real progress...tho i might just start watching H&C 2nd season if i get around to it

[Rin-Sama]

A: The origanl Gundam Seed. Great start to this series. I liked the parrallel story to the origanl Gundam Series. The series had a great plot and a great animation to boot. However the last 2 episodes sucked ass. I HATED THE ENDING! Flay dieing for one was probably the WORST character death ever. She just didn't deserve it. I know her dieing was to show the tragady of war but this ruined the story. (I actually felt a little sick seeing this) Also having 2 other main characters die in the final battle (I.E. Muw supposedly died here) didn't help the story either. Not to mention having Freedom look "angelic" just before killing Raw was an unessassery addtion. Maybe having him kick Raw into the short final burst of the Genusis weapon would have been a better ending. All in all this had a VERY poor ending.

A: Although Im a HUGE fan of the series (Shinobu fanboy) i will have to agree that the Love Hina anime didn't do well. It had a great start, even though they did change the story somewhat. They got done with the 1st "season" when Bandai realized "OH NO WE'RE RUNNING OUT OF MONEY FOR THE SHOW! LET'S MAKE 2 MOVIES INSTEAD!" they made 1 episode for the 2nd season but then went a made 2 short sub par movies. (although i did find the Christmas movie somewhat good) Then Akamatsu took the raines and made LH Again (which was bad altogether in my opinion, excluding the amping up of fanservice) However there is a rumor going around that Akamatsu may make an OVA wedding movie with the introduction of Emi into the anime. So this might save face for the series. But i doubt it.

A: Tenchi Muyo GXP. This show had potinal for the 1st couple of episodes, by introducing a new character and story line, but just fell apart by episode 7. It got so repetitive i just had to stop. The fanservice that was there just couldn't save it.

A: Yu-gi-oh. Either dubbed or uncut, this show had a good start but that was it. After the 1st episode i realized this show had more talk than bang even worse so then DBZ. It sucks plain and simple. Yack for 20 mins and have boaring "action" of only 5 mins. BOARING!!!!!

A: GITS Innocence and SAC. RUINED THE SERIES ALTOGETHER! The 1st movie own3s but the 2nd movie the and series just ruined it. NEVER SHOULD HAVE BEEN MADE!

A: Riegn the Concorer. Liked the 1st couple of episodes but it just fell apart after the 1st battle sequince.

A: Evangalion the series. Need i say more?

B: Gundam Wing. At 1st i couldn't understand very well about what was going on but it quickly got going by episodes 3 and 4 and it ended very well.

B: G Gundam: At 1st i didn't like the idea of a fighting system revolving around a fighter in a special fighting suit. But it quickly changed my mind when i saw it in action. (Although a few of the attackes were a bit rediculous) But it more than makes up for that in action and story plot.

B: Susuymia Haruhi: Im sure we all were going WTF in the 1st episode. I know i sure was. But then we all realized by Episode 2 and 3 that this was a series shown out of order. Which then we all said "OH SO THAT'S WHY WE SAW MIRUKU IN A BUNNY SUIT HOLDING AN AK-47 IN THE 1ST EPISODE!"

B: Abenobashi. At 1st you think this looks like a neat little boy/girl young love romance story, but then it totally flushes that thought down the toliet by the end of the 1st episode. 2nd funniest anime in history! (Puni Puni Poemi being 1st)

that's all i can think of at the moment.....

And despite what some of you think SHUFFLE! HAD A GREAT STORY PLOT ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE SERIES. From begining to end. Simple as that. so stop trying to make excuses just becasue Rin didn't chose Kaede!

[Vexx]

It would probably be much easier to find a show that DID NOT meet this criteria. Almost every show I can think of had either a really slow beginning or a lame ending or sometimes both.

Ones that did NOT have this problem (imo):
1) Tsukuyomi Moon Phase - actually it kind of flopped around in the middle with the arranged marriage kids but it started and ended with a bang and had nice small climax in the front half.
2) The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi - the timeline disorientation really propelled the dynamic and had the "curious with a decent attention span" riveted for each episode. The opener was a bit of prologue brilliance -- it really didn't take rocket science to see it was a student film and setting the stage for all the characters (as well as being a nice send up of amateur films).
3) Lamune - many say the whole series was slow, but to me it was just the right speed and one of the steadiest build ups to a climactic ending of *any* romance anime.

Slice of life shows like Azumanga Daioh, Kamichu!, H&C, and such are great but don't really have the pattern we're discussing.

Most of the other series... even ones I adore, generally have serious pacing flaws, plot derails, non-endings, or trainwrecks.

[C.A.]

I really want to say this:

Haruhi did not only have a great start and ending.

Haruhi had two good first episodes and last episodes lol

[rooboy]

Originally Posted by Vexx

1) Tsukuyomi Moon Phase - actually it kind of flopped around in the middle with the arranged marriage kids but it started and ended with a bang and had nice small climax in the front half.

Really? I thought Tsukuyomi suffered from the normal problems of it's genre - it started with a whimper and went out with a bang. I've noticed similar things from Shakugan no Shana and Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu. I think it's because they essentially waste the first episode in order to set things up to give us the little plot twist at the end of it. Then the show tends to start with the next episode (Haruhi blazes a trail in that this actually happens during the second episode, not the first).

Personally I'd prefer bad start/good ending (the only shows I've ever really noticed that don't have one or the other usually have both ). The one that kills me the worst is when it has a good ending, and then a bad middle. You want to stop watching, but you hold out hope that it'll go back to being as good as it was in the beginning. At least if the ending is bad it usually means you enjoyed the first however-many-eps and then you can just forget the ending happened. And if it starts bad you can just skip to the part you like and start from there. I do this all the time with FMA, my disc one and two rarely get opened, on the other hand I can't remember the last time I actually played disc five (the last one) of Kare Kano - no point to watching that either. But it's hard to skip the middle as it leaves a big gap in what you watch.

[C.A.]

No, lol, we've pointed out so many times that Episode 1 is brilliant. Its just that there's this group of people who don't seem to understand that episode.

Asahina Mikuru no Bouken Episode 00, is no way a wasted episode. This little parody episode tells you to forget all the anime cliches you've seen in the past and get ready for something that you wouldn't expect to happen. The first episode summarises everything in this story, it is preparing you for the unexpected.

And it makes you laugh for 20 minutes.

But no matter how many times I explain, people who don't get it in the first place won't get it.

[DanielSong39]

I understood that Episode 0 of that Suzumiya Haruhi was supposed to be an amateur film shot by people in the SOS Brigade. It was clear to me from the start.

I simply didn't find it funny.

I guess not everyone can be perfect.

[C.A.]

Its actually the same case for FLCL, its either you find it extraordinarily brilliant or you find the entire show pointless.

And I suspect there's a gene behind this.

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by rooboy666

Really? I thought Tsukuyomi suffered from the normal problems of it's genre - it started with a whimper and went out with a bang. I've noticed similar things from Shakugan no Shana and Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu. I think it's because they essentially waste the first episode in order to set things up to give us the little plot twist at the end of it. Then the show tends to start with the next episode (Haruhi blazes a trail in that this actually happens during the second episode, not the first).

The first two episodes of Tsukuyomi were like a little mini-adventure, setting the mood for vampires - I found it very atmospheric with the sad wistful musical score. There was the climax of ep 1 which led to the opener of ep 2 with the punchline (Kouhei not acting in the planned way to Hazuki). I guess it depends on what one defines a "whimper" as since I didn't see that as slow or a waste at all. It also lay the groundwork that the show was essentially dark with comedy overtones.

Suzumiya is more problematic since it comes with that rarity - an entire episode "zero" that is a prologue. I've seen a few film treatments like this where it drops you into a disorienting situation and then there's the "lets reel it back and see how we got here" (eps 2,3 & 5 with 4 as a teaser of the unworldliness to come). Its untraditional enough that I don't think the template fits well here.

I actually haven't seen Shakugan no Shana so I can't comment on that.