Anime That Went On Too Long According To Otaku

Members of a popular forum on Reddit have embarked on a lively debate over anime that they believe should have concluded sooner than they did. The discussion thread was started by a user who expressed his opinion on the topic, noting, "An anime that should have had an earlier ending. By that I mean that the show could have concluded the story at an earlier event and it would have worked better in terms of story."

This comment sparked a flurry of responses from other forum members, who shared their own opinions on which anime series could have benefited from an earlier ending. Some argued that certain series unnecessarily prolonged their plots, diluting the quality of the plot and exhausting the viewer's attention. Others suggested that writers and creators sometimes seem to drag out series simply to keep audiences interested or meet the expectations of investors and animation studios.

This discussion has highlighted the importance of narrative pacing and consistency in anime series. While some series manage to keep audiences engaged over multiple seasons, others can lose steam by dragging out the plot too long or introducing unnecessary twists. Forum members discuss which series could have benefited from a more concise approach and how an earlier ending could have improved the overall viewer experience.

Although opinions may vary widely, the exchange of ideas on this forum demonstrates the commitment and passion of anime fans for storytelling and the quality of the stories they consume. Discussions like this reinforce the sense of community among anime fans and provide a platform for the expression of opinions and the exploration of different perspectives on popular anime series.

"Shokugeki no Soma. The season four finale didn't close all the loose ends, but it might have been left as a satisfying ending if the series hadn't continued. Season five was weird, disappointing, and a lousy ending to the story."
"RIkekoi: Science Fell in Love, So I Tried to Prove it could have ended in the middle of the second season because the story had already reached its primary objective. The second half was a complete descent into disappointment."
"The Promised Neverland. We'll probably never know, maybe the second season would have been good, but if they had stayed in the first season a lot of disasters could have been avoided."
"The original Macross series should have ended in Episode 27, as it was originally supposed to be. I liked some ideas from the remaining episodes, but it all turned out to be very disappointing, dropping from a solid 9 to a pathetic 6."
"It might be a bit of an odd answer, but I felt that way with both Banished From the Hero's Party and The Misfit of Demon King Academy, I'm not a source reader, but in both cases I felt that the end of the first season was a great ending, just to have another season come along where I didn't really care what was going on."
"Guilty Crown. The second half of the series was completely unnecessary and made it a lot worse, in my opinion."
"Darling at FranXX. If they had killed the antagonists before the aliens showed up, the series would have been a 10/10."
"I watched Eureka Seven 15 years ago and I refuse to watch anything else that came out of the show. I feel like I've been proven right for doing so. A strange example is that the last episode of Toradora is a nonsensical conflict to the point of being hateful and therefore I would like to suggest that it would be better to end exactly one episode early. Considering that something noteworthy happens at the end, that's probably blasphemy to fans, but otherwise it really undermines the sense of well-being of the series finale for no good reason."
"Wonder Egg Priority".
"Rent-A-Girlfriend should have ended before the first season."
"The Misfit of Demon King Academy could have perfectly ended at the end of Season 1. or at the end of Season 2 Part 1. But no, they kept going."
"Higurashi no Nako Koro ni Sotsu. I eliminated the meandering answer arcs that explain the mystery that was already solved."
"Rather than stopping directly after a certain point, I think a lot of programs could have been reoriented slightly to better leverage their strengths. The best segment might benefit from being slightly extended and/or re-written in a way where it can be pasted at the end on a satisfying note."
"There's often the mention of Death Note, which is a great example of a series that wouldn't necessarily have had a banger ending if it had ended directly at 'that point'. But at the same time, everything beyond that point is of a lower quality than what came before. I think rewriting that inflection point and maybe expanding that segment of the story a little bit to serve as a grand finale would have resulted in a better overall product."
"The Promised Neverland always comes up, and rightly so. But I think even its source material loses the strength of its mystery/thriller line pretty early in its runtime and cutting the lower-quality content in the back half in favor of expanding that segment of Season 1, where it managed to really play into its strengths would have also led to a better manga/anime overall, even if the total length of the manga could have been only half as long."
"Yu Yu Hakusho really didn't need that last arc."
"My Hero Academia, too big for its own good."
"My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom. It's pretty clear that they only had ideas for one season. At the beginning of the second season I said to myself "you don't have anything else to do for these characters" since most of the subplots are about kidnappings and all the love interest characters just hang out together and say their signature trait every time they show up. Katarina's charm also wears off quickly, mostly because she doesn't understand that girls can be in love. If you come from the real world, Katarina, you should know what a bisexual person is."
"Shield Hero, it could have ended in Season 1 and I would have been fine with it."
"Psycho Pass. The first season was very solid (I still recommend it), but the franchise hasn't stopped producing more and more lower quality seasons/sequels. I probably should have been done with the first season, frankly."
"Everybody's already mentioned Death Note, Madoka Magica and Code Geass. The last half/third part of Death Note wasn't bad, but it certainly wasn't as strong as the beginning of the series. Madoka Magica ended perfectly. However, I personally was fine with the sequel film. I haven't seen Resurrection from Code Geass yet, I saw the first two movies more or less by Akito the Exiled years ago. I haven't seen the end of that or uhh any of the new content. So I can't give an opinion, but obviously the original series was pretty solid on its own."
"As for DBZ, I quite disagree. Although the Buu Saga is weaker, it's still great and had some amazing character development moments, especially for Vegeta. GT was bad. I haven't seen Super, but the few clips I've seen have certainly been at least reasonable. It shouldn't be expected to be anywhere near the level of DBZ, but I found it to be at least satisfying, showed some development, and had character interactions (like where X character went after DBZ) that would appeal to fans."
"Banana Fish: it might as well have ended in episode 13. After that, he did nothing but repeat himself and try to squeeze as much trauma and anguish out of it as possible."
"Nisekoi, and many other romantic stories, especially Seo Kouji's hits. Gone are the romances that ended in 30 or 50 chapters, or even 100 chapters. Now they go on for 300 chapters even though there are no more stories to tell."
"It's not an anime (I mean, there's an anime, but the point where it ends is fine) but Yofukashi no Uta could have cut a lot of the middle part and it would be much better."
"OreImo. Horrible end for everyone regardless of your shippeo, for some incredibly stupid reasons."