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Old 2013-07-15, 22:32   Link #5
relentlessflame
 
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Join Date: Dec 2003
Age: 41
I think the choices are a bit slanted. I don't think you will find very many people who will out-and-out say "oh, I want to watch a show that has a disappointing ending that doesn't live up to its potential". But you don't generally know in advance whether you'll like an ending. Even if you were to wait until many other people see it to get some sort of public consensus, you may very well find that the masses see things differently than you do. I know there are a number of shows where I've liked the ending even though a lot of people hated it, and vice-versa.

By the same token, I'm not a person for whom a "bad ending" will necessarily ruin the whole show, particularly when the ending connects to the rest of the story. So in that sense, assuming I otherwise love the show, either a "weak ending" or a "weak middle" may not make so much of a difference to me in the end if I like everything else well enough. Actually, a weak middle could be more devastating if it causes me to lose interest and not even bother sticking around to the ending (I'm absolutely not a "completionist").

I think Darthtabby's point is also important: it's also worth considering whether the ending was really intended to be an "ending" or just a "stopping point". For stories with on-going source material, I tend to be more understanding if I know the story will go on (whether it turns out the anime ever does or not).

Most writing teachers I've met will tend to teach the "A" model of writing: to bury your weaker points in the middle, but make sure you have a strong opening and ending. I think a lot of anime are intentionally structured this way, but definitions of what a "strong ending" are vary a lot. "Stopping point" endings notwithstanding, I don't think most authors intend for endings to be "dissatisfying", even if they're controversial or somewhat symbolic/metaphorical. Sometimes it depends on the message they're trying to send and whether the audience is receptive to that message.
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