Esoteric Happy Endings in Anime and Manga.
- The director claims that the ending of 5 Centimeters per Second is supposed to be uplifting, because Takaki smiles as he walks away in the last scene, indicating that he has moved on. But most viewers see it as a Downer Ending because he Did Not Get the Girl.
- After School Nightmare: It turns out the entire series takes place in a metaphorical realm designed to prepare the unborn babies in a maternity ward for childbirth. The babies who have already "graduated" are all born safely, but they lose their memories of anything that occurred in the series. As for the ones who haven't, they're wiped from existence (except for Mashiro, who escapes just in time to be born as a girl) as they and/or their mothers are killed in a hospital fire. A scene at the very end shows Mashiro and Sou running into each other years later and having no idea who the other is, teasing readers about possibilities that may never be.
- Akudama Drive: Being in a setting of Black-and-Gray Morality cyberpunk world, where Executioners and Akudama criminals are both equally bad (except Swindler and Courier from the Akudama side). The ending is presented as optimistic because Brother and Sister have been saved from being sacrificed to Kanto and have found a place to live peacefully and the people of Kansai have risen up to destroy their corrupt government. But that leaves out the facts that every main character is dead, a large part of Kansai is now ruins and the city is effectively lawless thanks to the people and Courier taking out the police, the millions of human minds stored in Kanto are doomed to a slow death with nothing to prevent it, and it's never even shown if the sanctuary Brother and Sister were trying to reach is even real or if there is anyone there at all.
- Albegas: Yay, the heroes defeated the Dellingers! To do this, they destroyed the star Delan (which is connected to each Dellinger lifespan), driving the entire race to extinction, thus dooming to death hundreds if not millions of innocent lives, but hey, at least the Earth's safe! Though given how Albegas is an Affectionate Parody of mecha anime, this may have been deliberate, given the trend of Sociopathic Hero in the genre such as Ryoma...
- Aldnoah.Zero: The trope qualifies at least for Slaine. At the end of the show, he is left to rot in prison after being accused of plotting to kill Princess Asseylum by Princess Asseylum herself. In reality, all this time he attempted to protect Asseylum, who only incarcerated him out of political necessity. The writers said his ending is supposed to be a happy one because he is no longer obligated to serve Asseylum. Ironically, his original fate was scrapped for being even more depressing; but even his haters thought the revised ending was still too harsh.
- Angel Beats! ends with the characters choosing to leave behind the Afterlife limbo they've spent the series in. It's meant to be a Bittersweet Ending, where it's sad that they'll all be separated, but happy that they've gotten over the personal issues keeping them from moving on. Except ... within Afterlife they were effectively just as alive as they were on Earth, so by "moving on" and going wherever most people go after death, they're all essentially killing themselves, and for no good reason.
- Angel Sanctuary: Several of the main characters manage to survive the series, but Kato remains dead. And with Kira dead, too, Kato's murder will likely not be solved. Setsuna and Sara are still siblings, so society, friends and family will still try to keep them apart and they'll be fugitives for life. Heaven and Hell's layers are still either destroyed or floating aimlessly around, and Adam Kadamon, as well as the Creator, are gone, too.
- Aquarion Evol aimed for an ending that, in Kawamori's words, wouldn't leave a bad taste in the mouth. But in the viewers' eyes, it looks rather upsetting. After Fudo was revealed to be Apollonius all along, it makes it very clear that he's responsible for everything that has happened in the show, and that he has been manipulating everyone to solve the problems he himself started, and in the end he gets free from punishment, shoving all the responsibility on Mykage instead. Nobody, except Crea, knows about this. The love triangle also seems to end on a rather troublesome note: Kagura's character was completely changed at the last minute to give up Mikono and start caring about Zessica instead, and Zessica is shown to be completely broken at the end. Mikono wasn't even allowed to choose who he liked more, since Kagura decided he actually supported Amata's love. And Zessica can't ever hope to be with Amata, not even in a future reincarnation, since she wasn't even allowed to make a 12,000 years promise. They're all smiling in the end, but the viewers can't say the same...
- At the end of the Area 88 manga, Soria, Rishar, and King Zak are left to transition Asran from a monarchy to a modern republic. While Asran's civil war is over and the people are jubilant, Asran's future is far from secure. First, the country's infrastructure and finances have been devastated by years of war. Second, the civil war has probably left Asran's people with deep resentment toward each other. Finally, the whole mess has been inherited by a conservative monarch, a Wide-Eyed Idealist, and an amnesiac who spent the previous two decades in cryogenic suspension. Suddenly, Asran's future doesn't look so bright. Also at the end of the manga, Ryoko reunites with Shin. Shin suffers from amnesia due to head trauma and does not remember his time at Area 88. On the surface, this appears to be a happy romantic reunion, until you realize that Ryoko will need to explain to Shin why he's in Asran and why years of his memory are missing. To boot, Shin will undoubtedly suffer from unconscious war trauma, even if he can't remember Area 88. Finally, Shin broke Ryoko's heart several times throughout the manga, suggesting that he has cold tendencies. In short, Ryoko has chosen to marry a traumatized, amnesiac jerk, raising questions about what their life together will be life.
- The ending of Arisa is played as fully happy, with Tsubasa reconciling with Arisa and their mother and Arisa finding true love with Midori. This ignores that Midori was an ax-crazy killer who manipulated everyone, including Arisa, and she doesn't seem to have learned anything from the experience.
- Armed Girl's Machiavellism: The anime adaptation ends with Nomura beating Amou, who gets expelled from Aichi Academy for causing trouble, but still manages to make peace with her. All's well and good... except for the fact that Amou still declares Nomura to be hers and hers alone, not to mention she never really shows any remorse for her sociopathic behavior. Furthermore, it's implied she didn't actually learn anything from her experiences in Aichi Academy and will continue causing trouble elsewhere, and yet we're expected to believe her love for Nomura has redeemed her somewhat. Not to mention, getting out of the effective captivity the school had forced her into was her entire reason for going on such a rampage in the first place.
- Attack on Titan ends with The Survey Corps defeating Eren, stopping the Rumbling, and in the process end the Curse of the Titans. The titanized Eldians are all back to normal, and Ymir Fritz and every Eldian stuck in the limbo of the Paths are free, with Ymir also turning all Eldians back to normal humans. However, Eren managed to kill about 80% of humanity and utterly devastate the environment, leaving the world unable to retaliate against Paradis. Something Eren knew and purposefully worked to shoulder the world's hatred and end the cycle of violence, at the cost of losing his connection to his friends, including the girl he loved. The Yeagerists are also still active; they were prepared to go to war with the rest of humanity before the renowned heroes of "the War of Heaven and Earth" return to Paradis, seeking to convince them to a peace treaty. They're still prepared to fight and seem to have convinced Historia, broken by her trauma, to agree with them. The Titans may be gone, but there still remains the possibility that the remnants of mankind will still try to destroy one-another. The extra chapter eventually implies that Armin's attempts at negotiating peace were successful, at least during the main casts' remaining lifetimes, with war ultimately tearing down Paradis only in the very far future, when the world has basically become as modern as our own. Even then, what is implied to be Mikasa's descendant has survived and is shown to be exploring, showing that whatever misery humanity inflicts upon itself it always has the ability to bounce back.
- BNA: Brand New Animal: Yes, the Nirvasil Syndrome is cured, the Big Bad has been defeated, Anima City has been opened to let humans and beastmen live wherever they please, and Shirou and Michiru have resolved to live as themselves rather than just their species. But you have to wonder how any of this is going to solve the humans' racism problem, as they've just watched thousands of beastmen go berserk and destroy a city, and been shown that the man behind that incident was another beastman all along. About the only thing that would likely end up doing is making the racist humans' beliefs that beastmen are violent, dangerous, and a threat to their safety more justified—and even without the Nirvasil syndrome to worry about, beastmen are still far stronger than the average human and run on a different moral compass. The last thing humans will want to do is move somewhere that they feel they'll be in more danger, so Anima City will likely remain a largely segregated place to live, even if the doors are open for anyone to come and go, and now it's largely in ruins on top of everything.
- Baki the Grappler: In Son of Ogre, Yujiro decides to give Baki the "World's Strongest Man" title after their fight and walk away content, and Baki is okay with that... but Baki didn't defeat Yujiro (even after all of his training, it's still impossible). Yujiro gave Baki the title because he's the only guy in the entire series that made Yujiro so much as actually break a sweat during a fight. By all means and purposes, he remains a Karma Houdini.
- Belle (2021): Suzu has apparently restored Kei and Tomo’s self-confidence, but no mention is given as to what happened to them afterwards or if their dad or living situation improved for the better.
- What's more, one can only wonder if Justin losing his sponsors is really enough to keep him from hunting down and exposing the Dragon, assuming Kei ever wants to return to U.
- Subverted in Birdy the Mighty: Decode. At the end of season 1, the Roppongi area of Tokyo gets completely trashed by a combination of the ryunka and the sanctum sanctorum Killsat used to attack it. However, season 2 is mostly about how these events affected people, including the survivors.
- Blood-C: The Last Dark ends with Saya finally getting her revenge after all the crap that she experienced in the TV series. But what's the worth of it when she found out that Fumito, the man who tormented her emotionally and psychologically, killed many people in the TV series and turned Mana's dad into an Elder Bairn, happens to be obsessively in love with her and all that he did is for her own survival and to fulfill her desire to feed on humans which he already failed? And considering that one of the people who helped her get to Fumito happens to be in league with him all along, Saya would probably experience more trust issues and never touch a coffee mug again. She can't even go back to Mana after she found out that she killed her dad at the beginning of the movie. Her Walking the Earth at the end of the movie just shows that Saya would end up alone because she might not ever trust people again and end up hurting them if she does.
- The ending of Blue Gender could only be considered happy if you're a severe technophobe. A few humans have survived Gaia's Vengeance, and they can all live in harmony with mother nature, free at last of technology! Then the Fridge Logic sets in - the only survivors will be physically strong people. If you're a person who is crippled, blind, deaf, has a curable terminal disease, etc. then you're hosed. Mother Nature hates you and you have no right to live. And those well-meaning humans who were trying to save the planet by living in a space station (to ease the strain placed on Earth) and eliminating the hostile creatures that had infested Earth? Screw them.
- Boarding School Juliet: While Romeo and Juliet have truly changed the culture surrounding Dahlia Academy by the final arc of the manga, it's clear that racism is still pervasive among the common people of the West and it will take a hell of a lot of effort to clean up. Instead of addressing that, however, the manga only deals with Romeo and Juliet's final fight with her father. Meanwhile, Char's debutante ball stunt is said to have caused the West to be more accepting of others despite the opposite reaction being shown. Any discussion that could have been had on how Romeo and Juliet will pursue their ideals is left aside when the manga skips ahead to end at their wedding, saying that they changed the world for the better without any information as to how.
- Bokurano:
- The Earth survives the ordeal in one piece and humanity is relatively safe, which when compared to what happened in Shadow Star is a positive cause for celebration. All the main characters died, thousands of Japanese died, some 33 thousand other universes and Earths were destroyed, and the game goes on with a new set of players as if nothing has happened... Yay?
- One example of the backlash was the anime's director. The Gecko Ending went on to brighten things slightly: While most of the above still happens, one of the main characters survives and the last pilot breaks the game and makes sure it cannot be repeated elsewhere. Some fans think this change was a welcome improvement over the manga, while others disagree.
- The concept gets discussed in the manga, when Kirie wonders why people would consider a movie in which many people die but the main characters get what they want as having a happy ending.
- Buddy Daddies: Episode 12 ends with a flash forward showing a teenage Miri cheerfully starting her first day of high school before going downstairs to greet Rei and Kazuki, who have opened a diner they all live in. Apparently, Rei's father accepted his son's departure without sending anyone else to kill them for at least a decade (despite his self proclaimed hatred of traitors), to say nothing of the various enemies both him and Kazuki must have made during their time as contract killers. Then there's Miri who seems no worse for wear despite clearly knowing by now that her mother is dead. It's left in the air as to whether her papas ever told her the truth, or if they came up with a believable lie to spare her the trauma and give their family a proper clean slate.
- Cmon Digimon: Sure, his Deathmon gets destroyed, but Shinichiro is not shown getting otherwise punished for essentially inflicting psychological torture on other kids just for kicks. And what's keeping him from creating another Deathmon?
- Chobits: The manga ending. We're supposed to be happy that Hideki and Chii can be together, but society is still implied to be falling apart from humanity's obsession with Persocoms, Chii is explicitly not sapient which makes the entire relationship feel awkward, and the idea that Hideki and Chii can be happy despite not being able to make their relationship physical (aside from some easy-to-miss implications that might not be the case) is ruined by all the virgin-shaming the story has piled on Hideki up to this point.
- Code Geass:
- The series ends with an uplifting ending showing all the surviving characters smiling, despite the bittersweet nature of the preceding events and the very bleak prospects for the future, which is enough to make certain fans consider the whole thing a tragedy. While Lelouch is framed as having committed the ultimate Heroic Sacrifice for world peace, his actions left the world on arguably a much shakier ground than it was on previously and caused a great deal of death and destruction that the ending glosses over, with him being implied to have murdered millions of people in order to enact his Zero-Approval Gambit. There's also issue of the many soldiers Lelouch brainwashed into Blind Obedience, who are now either stuck as Empty Shell slaves to a dead man or (provided they were somehow freed from being Geassed) likely traumatized by the fact that they were brainwashed and forced to commit atrocities. There's also the fact that Lelouch's peace rests on the public at large questioning the identity of the new Zero who suddenly appeared out of nowhere and somehow assassinated the most powerful person in the world, particularly since if it ever came out Zero was Suzaku it would likely lead to massive public unrest given his role as Lelouch's right-hand during his reign as Demon Emperor.
- Another aspect that is open to debate is how Lelouch first had to reach the Despair Event Horizon following the Black Knights' mutiny and Nunnally's supposed demise. Lelouch may well have gone with a less destructive and suicidal method, especially since he's at one point in a position to do so prior to beginning the Zero Requiem, but chooses to go forward with it anyway, seemingly out of his Death Seeker tendencies more than anything else, which also undercuts the selflessness of the sacrifice. In addition, among the Britannian survivors are people who committed horrific war crimes, including the perpetrators of a racially-motivated mass murder and the two specific people responsible for the aforementioned hasty betrayal, yet they also get a Happy Ending. As a result, some viewers found Lelouch's motives and the end results self-contradicting.
- DNA2 has Mori's elaborate plan of using DNA Manipulation and Time Travel to create his personal, mind controlled and telekinetically strong army to declare war on the entire world thwarted. Mori is killed, but this comes at the cost of Junta overcoming the Mega Playboy DNA within him, meaning the playboy never awakened, so his descendants that had the playboy's DNA all cease to exist. Which also included the son Junta and Karin were going to have. And ultimately, Karin shoots Junta with a DMC one final time to fully remove the playboy DNA aspects, and the memories of her and the entire adventure, from him and returns to the future. There is the one bright Hope Spot that Junta and Ami will get together.
- HOO-BOY does Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School Side Hope end with one of these. The Final Killing Game, which pitted all the leaders of the Future Foundation against one-another, wasn't actually caused by the remnants of despair, but by one of their own trying to weed out the despair he believed was hiding among their group and to convince Ryota Mitarai to use his brainwashing video to spread hope to this Crapsack World by force. Second, we learn that Class 77 was brainwashed into becoming the Remnants of Despair against their will. When they're all restored to live by Hajime, they arrive in time to stop Ryota and choose to take the blame for the killing game, then go to spend the rest of their lives in exile on Jabberwock island. Makoto and his friends survive, the Tragedy ends, and Hope's Peak is rebuilt with Makoto as headmaster. So a bunch of kids who were brainwashed into becoming murderous terrorists will now forever spend their lives as pariahs so the truth of the Future Foundation's corrupt leader will remain concealed, while the survivors of Class 78 rebuild the school that caused this entire situation for some reason. Oh, and all the other branch heads die save for Munakata. He'd found out that his girlfriend had been a despair for years and will never know how or why, his best friend (who was secretly in love with him) sacrificed his own life to end the game even after Munakata tried to kill him, and everything he thought he was fighting for was pointless. What happens to him? No idea. But hey, at least Makoto and Kyoko are finally together. Possibly. And let's hope that Makoto learned the lessons from the past to not let History Repeats and doesn't get hit with the drunk state caused by being in position of power...
- DARLING in the FRANXX: In the end, Squad 13 earned their happy ending, while Hiro and Zero Two get reincarnated. While this may seem happier than an average Bittersweet Ending at first, it's heavily implied that Hiro and Zero Two were reincarnated centuries after the final battle. This means that the couple will never have the chance to reunite with their friends. Moreover, Papa and the Vice Chairman both survive, meaning the VIRM is still out there and could invade Earth once again.
- Digimon Adventure 02 seemingly ends on a happy note – bad guy is dead for good, the DigiDestined get to keep their Digimon, even Oikawa gets redeemed in the end. But what many overlook is that the ending says every human on earth gained their own partner Digimon, which leads to all kinds of disturbing implications. Just imagine how much damage a Digimon could do in the hands of a criminal or a dictator.
- Digimon Ghost Game: Similar to Digimon Adventure 02, the ending seems to ignore the potential consequences that the protagonist's actions would bring forth. At the end of the series, the protagonists managed to build the new nation for both humans and Digimon to live together, but seemingly without clearing loose ends with some of the unrepentant Digimon that are still free such as Jyureimon and Lilithmon.
- Domestic Girlfriend: Although the end of the Manga is treated as a happy ending, that does not change the fact that Rui spent years of her life (including a pregnancy!) in a relationship with a man who had always carried a bigger torch for her older sister, and Hina lost a good five years in an accident and three more years recovering from it. Their family situation by the finale is also pretty messy, which Rui even acknowledges by her statement of moving out when her daughter Haruka gets old enough to question it.
- Dragon Ball Super: The ending of Future Trunks arc is supposed to be seen as a bittersweet happy ending with them successfully defeating Merged Zamasu with Whis helping both Future Trunks and Future Mai have a bright future ahead of them by creating a Close-Enough Timeline just for them. However, it still doesn't change the fact that everyone they knew and loved from their original timeline got erased from existence and Trunks wasn't able to protect them in the end because right after Future Trunks destroyed Zamasu's physical body, his soul became a bodiless Eldritch Abomination that wipes out all the remaining survivors left on Earth and is in the process of spreading across the universe and timelines, forcing them to summon Zeno just to stop him but at the cost of the entire timeline. In other words, Zamasu had won and the heroes completely failed their goal of stopping him, even to the point of a Downer Ending for some fans. What mitigates this is that Whis does warn an AU version of himself about Zamasu, and thus there's now a new future for Trunks in which Zamasu doesn't get far.
- The anime of Elfen Lied ends rather positively, because it adds a new ending before the manga crosses the Despair Event Horizon. Subsequently, the manga's ending is iffy - the Diclonii will be completely eliminated within a generation. Their powers are too dangerous to allow them to continue to exist, but they're not all bad people, and their extermination is at best a necessary evil.
- Eureka Seven AO tries to play its ending off as a happy one, but just a little bit of thinking reveals that its anything but. To clarify: The now written-out-of-history Scub Corals were Evil All Along, rendering the whole point of the first series meaningless. High-density Trapars are apparently fatal to Human/Coralian hybrids, meaning Ao can never return to his real home or see his parents again (his ultimate goal was to reunite with his mother). To top it off, his messing with space-time may well have written him out of the memories of everyone he knew or cared about. Yet the ending wants us to believe he's perfectly fine with all this.
- FLCL implies that Naota moves on with his life, but Amarao's entire story is foreshadowing: he fell in love with Haruko at a young age and she eventually abandoned him. Amarao tries to warn Naota but Naota ultimately chooses Haruko, who then predictably abandons him. Naota's subsequent reaction to Ninamori ordering the carbonated drink shows that he hasn't changed or matured as a character; the emphasis on Haruko's guitar in his room reinforces this fact. Naota is going to spend the rest of his life pining for The One That Got Away just like Amarao.
- FLCL Alternative has Medical Mechanica's plans thwarted and Kana maturing as a person and going about her high school life, hoping she'll be able to meet Pets again and reconcile with her. However, what the ending doesn't address is that all of humanity's leaders and intellectual elite have already evacuated Earth and fled to colonies on Mars. While Kana's NO did pull Mars closer to Earth, there's still no guarantee that anybody who left for Mars will be able or willing to return to Earth. This means Earth is completely deprived of its leadership and most skilled workers critical to supporting its infrastructure. There's going to be a lot of societal and political upheaval, of which Kana remains blissfully ignorant of.
- The Familiar of Zero: Saito and Louise get married in the end, even though the latter spent the entire series abusing the former.
- This trope is the main reason why the concluding movie to Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) was so controversial. The bad guys are dead and the Elric brothers are finally reunited and their bodies restored... but in order to prevent an invasion of Amestris by the Nazis, the brothers are forced to permanently seal the Gate of Alchemy from Earth's side, trapping them there, alone, for the rest of their lives, however long those might be since World War II is right around the corner and the movie made it very clear this isn't an Alternate History where Adolf Hitler isn't around. This seems to be an attempt at bittersweet that went too far into the "bitter" ballpark for much of the fanbase's liking.
- Genma Wars ends on a supposedly uplifting note as Earth is freed from demons who have enslaved mankind for ages and civilization is stated to eventually rebuild itself. With that said, the leads attempt to travel back in time to prevent the demons from taking over Earth in the distant past, only to utterly fail in their mission. To make matters worse, they return to their own timeline where nothing really changed despite their efforts, most named characters (including their loved ones) have died over the course of the series and stayed dead. Also the Big Bad responsible for influencing all events in the series isn't really destroyed by the heroes with his survival being ambiguous at really best. The only reason his victory isn't absolute is because the twins refuse to turn against each other and become his puppets.
- Godzilla: The Planet Eater: At the end of this movie, which is also supposed to conclude the entire Godzilla anime trilogy, Haruo allows Godzilla to kill him in order to finally end the cycle of hatred between humans and monsters that Haruo believes himself to be perpetuating. The question is... why does he need to do that? The evil aliens manipulating humanity are dead, Ghidorah is trapped in an alternate dimension and Godzilla's relationship with the Houtua makes it clear that humans and monsters can co-exist peacefully, as long as humans don't piss monsters off and/or harm the planet. All Haruo accomplishes is dying because he can't let go of the hatred that has kept him alive and driven him for so long, not to mention he is leaving his pregnant wife to raise their child all by herself.
- Gunbuster: The ending is meant to be a Bittersweet Ending as It takes Noriko and Kazumi 12000 years to reach the Earth again after performing a Heroic Sacrifice to destroy the alien fleet, but humanity is at least shown to still be alive with their "Welcome Home" message to the pair. But the sheer length of time that's passed will mean the Earth, and likely humanity itself, will be completely unrecognizable for the two. Noriko can't even recognize the Earth's continents anymore, suggesting Okinawa was flooded. Noriko and Kazumi were experiencing heartsickness and technology shock after mere decades in space, making it hard to see how they'll manage to cope with the effects of 12000 years.
- The anime of His and Her Circumstances. Hinting that the official couple will break up sooner or later, and that it's OK, is a "happy ending" for Hideki Anno. Thankfully averted in the manga.
- Many people were dissatisfied with the ending of the Hot Gimmick manga. While it was obvious that Hatsumi was going to end up with Ryoki, some readers held on to the hope that there would at least be enough Character Development to give Hatsumi a backbone or make Ryoki less of a Jerkass, but the general consensus is that there was little if any sign of any of that ever coming to pass. It didn't help that Azusa's Character Development was negated at the end thanks to Aesop Amnesia and that Shinogu, suffered from a blatant case of Cleaning Up Romantic Loose Ends. In fact, about the only thing most readers liked about the ending were the Subaru/Akane bits.
- An example exclusive to the Madhouse anime adaptation of Hunter × Hunter: Gon meets with Ging on the top of the tallest tree on the land, only for Ging to tell him that the tree they're on, is actually a small sprout from the Dark Continent much larger than their own homeland and all of it is taken to be very optimistic and exciting. Now it makes sense in the manga because it's the start of a new arc that will eventually succumb to Cerebus Syndrome, but the anime ending implies this will lead to an idealistic adventure. And that's ignoring the unresolved plot threads the anime has. It is unknown if the anime will ever continue considering the Madhouse's track record and the frequent and long hiatuses from the manga.
- Inuyasha: Inuyasha and Kagome are hinted to be married and are living happily with one another, however the probability that Inuyasha will age much slower than Kagome is never mentioned, meaning he'll most likely still be young looking when Kagome (and Sango and Miroku for that matter) are old. Also, it's never confirmed whether they can still use the well, meaning Kagome could possibly be separated from her family forever.
- The ending to Jewelpet Sunshine has the human Love Interest permanently turn into a Jewelpet so he can be with the Jewelpet protagonist forever. Meanwhile, the plot neglects to address the feelings of his parents and sister about this decision, not to mention he disappears for 5 years without telling anyone so he can turn into a Jewelpet.
- In-universe example in Kill Me Baby: Yasuna has a dream where Sonya is the eponymous protagonist of Killtaro, who is out to slay an oni. Upon reaching the island of her destination, she takes a peach from a tree, and is called out by the villagers, who then chant "Ogre! Ogre!" We then have a discretion shot where she supposedly kills them, and then the narrator says "Such a happy ending..." Sonya then retorts "That wasn't happy at all!".
- Koharu no Hibi: Akira and Koharu end up Happily Married with a daughter. Too bad Koharu is still the same manipulative, controlling stalker she was since the beginning, and not only has she not changed, but now she's raised her daughter to be the same as her. And that daughter has already found herself a victim.
- Koi Zora ends with Hiro succumbing to his cancer and dies, causing Mika to suffer and once again try to kill herself. She's stopped by her friends who show her Hiro's diary notes, which gives Mika the courage to live on and she learns that she is pregnant with Hiro's child. But the questionable happiness comes from the fact that Mika is not properly established as having a stable home life, job and her emotional instability, which has caused her to attempt suicide twice over the course of the series, is also a big issue. It makes one wonder whether she would be able to take care of the child, especially on her own.
- The final episode of Kuma Miko: Girl Meets Bear is unanimously seen as this trope by fans. The character Machi is a teenage miko from a small village with social anxiety who dreams of moving to the big city, and spends much of the show becoming familiar with modern tech in order facilitate this. When she finally gets to go in the final episode, she has to do a performance in front of a large crowd visiting the city. She successfully does the performance by going to her Happy Place, but that's when the entire story goes off the rails. She ends up hallucinating that the cheering crowd is actually throwing rocks at her, causing her to completely break down, terrified of the city and declaring she will never return. Rather than correct her delusions and get her help, her friends Natsu and Yoshio happily celebrate her decision. Then it gets worse, with Natsu telling Machi in this fragile state that she never has to think about anything ever again; the final scene is Machi having mentally regressed into a toddler, now more ignorant about the outside world and dependent on Natsu then ever before. All this while cheerful music plays. The manga’s author, Masume Yoshimoto, was heavily displeased with the ending, and wrote a very politely-worded response
in his blog while one of the anime's writers completely scrubbed all mention of it from their resume after its airing. - Macross:
- Macross Frontier:
- The TV series mostly ends on a happy note; the Big Bad is defeated, Everyone Lives (barring a bazillion Redshirts), and they definitely Earned Their Happy Ending, so what makes it so esoteric? Though the action and overall plot all concluded neatly, the Love Triangle that composed the greater part of the series was left unresolved to avoid upsetting the fans of either girl, which just upset both Shipping factions. Some though preferred it this way. Nevertheless, the debates wage on.
- Returns with the movies with the ending being a Tear Jerker. It leaves off with Alto apparently dead and Sheryl in a coma right after Alto confessed to Sheryl. The fandom's going theory was that this was how they ended up, and that Sheryl's earrings, which being made of fold quartz ignore the normal laws of time and space, kept their hearts together, for at the end one was worn by Sheryl and one was worn by Alto, making it a very Bittersweet Ending a la Together in Death. Among other theories. An interview with Shoji Kawamori later had him wondering how anyone got this idea and Jossed it by declaring that Alto survived and Sheryl woke up.
- Macross Delta:
- Hooray! Delta Squadron has liberated the Brisingr cluster and Hayate and Freyja get their happy ending, but the Windemereans make it clear the war is not over and the death toll numbers in the millions. Also, poor Mirage got her Love Confession rejected...
- For the Windemereans’ case, their future doesn’t look bright for them. Though Heinz is willing to establish peace talks, at the same time, he wants the UN Government to pay for their sins, which might not go very well, as his kingdom will suffer a lot of backlash from the intergalactic community for their actions. Likewise, Heinz is slowly dying after his singing affected his health, and his brother, who is the strongest pilot in the air force, hass already died, which not only leaves the Aerial Knights in a vulnerable position, but also leaves no successors to take leadership of Windermere once Heinz kicks the bucket.
- Not to mention, the issue of Windemereans having a significantly shorter lifespan than other species is never resolved, meaning that despite coming out on top of the Love Triangle, Freyja is still doomed to die long before Hayate does.
- Macross Frontier:
- Magic Knight Rayearth: The anime ends with Cephiro restored but Autozam and Chizeta's problems are left unresolved.
- Mobile Fighter G Gundam: The Devil Gundam is destroyed and the world is saved! ...Except the Gundam Fight system, under which the people of Earth are not only politically powerless, but constantly living in fear of giant robots from space trashing their homes, remains in place. Also, now that the Devil Gundam has been wrecked, there doesn't seem to be much hope for fixing the Earth's environment anymore. ...Yay?
- Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans ends with Gjallarhorn successfully disbanding Tekkadan by force. While the ending is portrayed as positive with Gjallarhorn being reformed to be more democratic and granting Martian independence, it still doesn't change the fact that the new Gjallahorn is still run by the old regime with little to stop them from continuing their corruption.note While the survivors are shown living happy lives while Hate Sink Nobliss Gordon is assassinated by one of the survivors, Nobliss being one of Gjallarhorn's biggest collaborators will almost certainly invite retaliation from them, and since Tekkadan no longer has the power it once did, it's only a matter of time until the survivors are hunted down and executed.
- Naruto:
- Sakura Haruno's ending sees her married to her longtime crush Sasuke Uchiha and having a daughter, Sarada. Great! Except for the fact that in the intervening years after Sasuke had pulled a Face–Heel Turn, he succumbed to the Curse of Hatred that plagued the Uchiha clan for generations, attacked Sakura both physically and psychologically on several occasions, and tried to murder her friends. But after turning Face again, he develops genuine affection for her and marries her in his travels around the world. At one point, Sakura becomes pregnant with their daughter, Sarada. After she gives birth at one of Orochimaru's hideouts, they return in Konoha to raise their daughter together. Unfortunately, he had to leave again to investigate Kaguya, while Sarada was very young. Sakura has no other choice but to raise Sarada alone. Years pass, which means that Sakura doesn't see Sasuke for many years, and he is away from seeing his daughter growing up. In time, Sarada grows conflicted about Sasuke and distrustful of her own mother, after being kept in the dark for her own safety for too many years. Most fans believe that this was another unnecessary drama, and that Kishimoto could have just make Sasuke leaving from time to time, as him being parted from his family for so long didn't affected the plot in the long run. The fact that Kishimoto created this storyline as a "Take That!" to troll the people who couldn't comprehend that Sarada was Sasuke and Sakura's daughter, didn't calm things, making Sasusaku divisive even among their shippers.
- Many fans were also unsatisfied with the fates of the villains, despite being mass murderers. Of the Akatsuki members, only Danzo, Kaguya and Zetsu receive severe punishments; the rest are either forgiven in death (Nagato, Tobi/Obito, Madara), get a slap on the wrist (Orochimaru, the aforementioned Sasuke), or just plain aren't punished at all (Kabuto).
- Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion is definitely meant to be horrifying, but has a spark of optimism at the very end. It sees every human put through a death of the ego and their bodies dissolved, but Shinji gives them the chance to live again if they have the will (on a world wrecked by at least two disasters on a planetary scale). Ultimately, Shinji learns to accept himself and search for happiness, yet understanding that suffering is unavoidable in life; while some find this reassurance of hope even in the face of the apocalypse uplifting, others inevitably find it difficult to accept. Likewise, he and his red-head Love Interest spent the whole series being unable to realize each other's blatantly obvious feelings, and the final scene hints that Shinji and Asuka at last have made a connection and may start to open up to each other (though some people may not interpret Shinji choking Asuka as a positive connection).
- Nobara no Julie begins at the end of 1918 when the main character's parents are mistakenly shot by a plane, forcing her to move to Vienna to live with her extended family. The series ends by saying that Julie has assimilated into Vienna and has become a "true Viennese child". Which would be great, except we know what comes next in this time period....
- Now and Then, Here and There. Even setting aside the whole Good Girls Avoid Abortion thing, the script seems to entirely forget that Sara's parents are now never going to see her again and she's very likely going to be killed by the Earth's still supernova-ing sun. Shu's optimism seems just a little misplaced.
- Princess Sarah: The series ends with an uplifting ending but in some viewer's eyes, it looks rather disappointing. While it could be acceptable to forgive, the fact that Sarah rewarded Ms. Minchin a lot of money and then befriends Lavinia who bullied her in most episodes made viewers cringe. Sarah also seems to ignore that her friends were also victims of those people. To add insult to injury, Word of God admits that Sarah's efforts to change them are likely to end up futile and doesn't tell when will they do so.
- Puella Magi Madoka Magica has one. On the one hand, Madoka was able to stop magical girls from becoming witches. On the other hand, her solution is basically to make them disappear from the world forever. And she gets erased from existence to boot. The ending is still hopeful and optimistic, but it implies that the remaining magical girls won't last long in the new world, and Homura will only be reunited with Madoka in the afterlife.
- Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Movie: Rebellion invokes this as a Deconstruction of Fix Fics for the above. Homura finally saves Madoka, gets Kyubey long overdue karma, brings Sayaka Back from the Dead, and gets Mami a new friend in Nagisa, and everyone's reunited with their family and friends. But Homura had to Face–Heel Turn and betray Madoka to make this possible, destroying their friendship that was Homura's whole motive. And when they aren't Getting Smilies Painted on Your Soul, everyone objects to the circumstances and establish they will fight it once their memories return. This "Happy Ending" is implied to be unsustainable and no-one's truly happy, the one who sought this least of all.
- Re:CREATORS: The world is saved, but almost nobody knows that since they thought the final battle was all a show or weren't aware of it. The villain received no punishment whatsoever and in the end got what she wanted. Most of the fictional characters that came to the real world accomplished nothing and/or died, those who lived in the end still went back to their stories, subjected to their authors' whims, and the authors whose Creations died in the final battle are explicitly shown to be permanently traumatized by the tragedy.. Oh, and there's still a crazy murderer on the loose in the real world. Hooray?
- Remina ends with Earth being devoured by the Eldritch Abomination Remina. And after being chased literally all around the world by a group of deranged cultists and seeing her father and love interest get murdered, the human girl Remina, her hobo friend, and a kind family of survivors get lucky enough to reach a fallout shelter and survive on a chunk of Earth that flies out of Remina's mouth with said shelter inside. So they're saved! The problem is they only have about a year's worth of supplies. And they're left drifting in space with humanity, Earth, and most of the solar system gone. Assuming Remina eats the sun like it did in other systems, then they'll be adrift in interstellar space, with no hope of rescue or chance of even landing on another planet. Not like they could survive anyway. Although, considering how ridiculously lucky they've been so far, who knows what could be out there and what could happen during that year. By Junji Ito's usual standards, it's downright saccharine.
- Romeo × Juliet ends with most of the cast living happily ever after...all because Romeo and Juliet were horribly killed and sacrificed to a tree which had previously kept the city they live in afloat in the sky. What's worse, the show makes it very clear that none of this was Juliet's choice, but that every single woman born to the Capulet line had been sacrificed to this very same tree, meaning that she could have never reclaimed her throne (something the series had been building up to since the beginning) or ruled Neo Verona even if she wanted to.
- Romeo's Blue Skies: The final episode is supposed to end on a positive note with Romeo being able to return home and the Wolf Pack learning to get along with the Black Brothers, but it doesn't change the fact that Luini remains scott-free and still keeps his habit of selling children to serve as chimney sweepers. Some of those kids are more likely to end up with abusive padrones with the Black Brothers not sufficient enough to help them. To make matters worse, it would take ten more years for the law to put a stop to Luini's practice once and for all, with many of those children ending up dead or missing like Alfredo
- Done deliberately with Saikano, which sees the main character and his girlfriend as the last living beings from Earth, drifting through space, said girlfriend now completely inhuman with no hope of ever turning back. This is played as being as happy as they can wish for given the situation. The author's notes at the end of the manga even admit that all hope is gone, "but there are memories, and maybe a future".
- Sailor Moon: The very end of the Stars arc reveals that Sailor Moon managed to defeat Chaos, and kept the Galaxy Cauldron intact, allowing everyone to eventually reborn from there. Her friends all end up being resurrected, life does not cease to exist as Sailor Cosmos intended, and she marries Mamoru in the end. It sounds happy enough, right? Not quite. Chaos is only stopped temporarily, having been melted in the Galaxy Cauldron from which all life in the universe comes from. And as long as the Galaxy Cauldron still exists, Chaos will keep rising back up as an all-powerful enemy who will eventually wage a devastating war across the entire galaxy. Sailor Cosmos' final speech helps to soften the impact of this info, but it doesn't change the fact that Chaos will always be present to devastate the Guardians' lives continually in the future.
- Also, Sailor Cosmos is revealed to be Sailor Moon's future self, meaning Usagi is destined to outlive everyone she loves, and continue fighting a literally endless battle against chaos.
- Sailor Moon Cosmos: Like the manga, Chaos and Galaxia are defeated, the galaxy is saved, everyone is revived and Usagi and Mamoru get married but Chaos will return one day and Usagi will outlive everyone she knows and loves, locked in a never ending battle with Chaos.
- Scum's Wish: We're supposed to see it as a good thing that Mugi and Hanabi are freed from the emotional baggage of their hopeless crushes and are able to move on with their lives...except they don't get a happy ending with anyone else, even though it had been telegraphed from the first chapter that they'd eventually fall in love with each other. It's even further undermined by the Fridge Horror that the unrepentant Manipulative Bitch that has been going out of her way to screw over the main characters just because she can ends up getting the happiest ending out of everyone, outright marrying Narumi, who happens to be Hanabi's longtime crush as well, meaning that Akane ends up as a de facto part of Hanabi's family. It's hard to believe that she won't be constantly reminded of The One That Got Away every time she has to encounter the Jerkass that ended up with the person she genuinely loved, or that Mugi won't keep pining over Akane despite knowing she was just using him. Even Ecchan's end is completely unsatisfying, with the implications that she'll settle for returning Atsuya's feelings because she can't have Hanabi. decor at least addresses these points and gives a proper resolution to some of them.
- Shaman King: The 2001 anime ending gives off these vibes. Hao is dead, and the current Shaman King Tournament is about to continue. Thing is, all this does is to postpone Hao's victory and his subsequent plan to wipe out humanity by 500 years, since he can reincarnate and his soul was not destroyed, as far as we know. He also has 500 more years to train in hell, which pretty much ensures that the next time there will be nobody able to stop him. Unless of course they succeed to kill him right after his birth, not that it worked this time. It's also left unclear if Hao can even come back again, considering the King of Spirits may have stripped him of that power.
- Shelter2016: Rin is finally aware of her father's sacrifice and can live on with his memory and his final words. However, the ending is bittersweet at best, because she will still likely spend the rest of her natural life inside her spaceship with no one to interact with. Sure, she can keep replaying her father's memories, but she will never make new friends or progress in her relationship with her father or even be able to speak with him directly.
- Space Runaway Ideon has this with Be Invoked. Yep, the universe is destroyed, but the spirits of the dead are preparing to celebrate its rebirth again as the Messiah takes the souls to a new planet. It took Super Robot Wars to create a proper Downer Ending as Keisar Ephes corrupts the Messiah, allowing him to take control of the universe properly this time around. An alternative interpretation of the canon ending that preserves the "estoeric happiness" is that, yes, humanity and the Buff Clan were both wiped out, but at least the Ideon was destroyed as well, so whatever races evolve to fill the void won't have to deal with a Mechanical Abomination acting as Judge, Jury, and Executioner over them.
- Speed Grapher: While the ending is supposed to be happy because Japan is saved from greed and corruption thanks to Suitengu succeeding in wiping out Japan's corrupt elite, the fact is that Suitengu is the Big Bad who did this by utterly destroying Japan's economy, which will have a devastating effect on the whole world and ruin millions of innocent lives, and nothing really changes since the old elite gets replaced by Suitengu's corrupt associates, essentially making the heroes' efforts completely meaningless. The main characters get their happy ending as shown in the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue, but it's likely that only the main characters are happy.
- The ending of Strawberry 100% was meant by the author to be a way to happily resolve the Love Triangle and leave all parties happy. However, it ended up as a massive Broken Aesop and caused a gigantic Broken Base, as Tsukasa's "loved him before he knew me" revelation was retconned in very late in the story with no hint that it ever existed beforehand, and Aya's own Framing Device of her story being about a peasant girl vs a princess for the love of the prince was seen by many as an obvious foreshadowing of her inevitable triumph for Junpei's affections. Instead of being an example of an underdog winning through compatible personalities and friendship as a base for romance, the ending simply reaffirmed the real-life Crapsack World-view of "pretty, popular girls win over girl-next-doors".
- Suzuka ends with Suzuka getting pregnant, forcing her and Yamato to throw away all the plans they had for their life in response. The series plays this as being a happy ending. To make it even worse, Fuuka kills off their daughter about fourteen years later, making what little happiness there was in that ending pointless.
- Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Yes, the universe was saved and the Anti-Spiral didn't kill off humanity, but many of the crew dies (including Kittan, right after he confesses his love for Yoko), Nia dies just after her and Simon's wedding and Simon himself becomes a hobo of sorts, which comes off as a rather insulting fate for someone who saved the entire human race from extinction. And the Spiral Nemesis, the thing the Anti-Spiral were trying to stop from happening is still a potential risk that has a very real chance of transpiring and destroying everything. For such an idealistic series, the ending can be especially jarring.
- Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE- ends with a happy note as while Syaoran is cursed to travel endlessly across dimensions he believes he will see his love Sakura again. However, the fact that time flows differently in other worlds means that if it takes him a year to return to Clow Country, Sakura could already be dead when he returns. Furthermore, the villain who cursed Syaoran, Fei Wang Reed, was revealed to an artificial being before his death. Despite dying, it has been stated that artificial beings can be reconstructed so it is possible that he will be back.
- In Vampire Princess Miyu, the artist and her assistant from the TV series episode Love of the Dolls. Surely, they are in a happy relationship at the end, but it is impossible to forget how unhealthy and violent they were to each other either, and one has to wonder what will happen in the future for them.
- At the climax of Weathering With You, Hodaka saves Hina's life, even if it means the heavy rains and flooding will continue. The audience is shown almost immediately that they do indeed continue, and in fact that rain falls continuously for three years, flooding the majority of Tokyo. Hodaka meets with an elderly person who lost their home as a result, but that's the extent of the damage shown on-screen, and while Hodaka seems appropriately concerned at first about the consequences of his actions, the moment he sees Hina he decides immediately that he did the right thing and this is a happy ending. The story sort of vaguely hand waves all of this as being historically normal and that humans are just becoming more in harmony with nature now, which is kind of a flippant way to shrug off the implied deaths of up to thousands of people.
- Wolf Children: Ame leaving for good is presented as a very positive thing, with uplifting music and Tears of Joy on Hana's part. However, this can come off as unsettling/unsatisfying to people who were expecting a different kind of resolution, in the vein of the fact that he and Yuki never explicitly made up (though they did talk once after the fight without issue), and Ame doesn't apologize to his mother after everything, which may or may not just be part of his wolf behavior.
- Wolf Guy - Wolfen Crest: Aoshika is in Alaska, hanging with the wolves and other wolf men. Inugami wakes up in a research lab, his body still maimed from his encounter with Haguro. Somehow, their spirits end together.
- It's also (seemingly) implied that Inugami's sheer force of will is going to help him escape the research lab, and that it is his "destiny" to reunite with Aoshika.
- All of this is not even getting to the fact that literally everyone who had ever been involved with Inugami, from Aoshika, to Ryuuko, to all of Inugami's student friends, to Aoshika's fellow teachers, end the manga worse off than they were before, with physical, mental, emotional and psychological scars that will follow them forever, with Ryuuko in particular having apparently gone murderously insane. Only Aoshika has any chance at happiness, and that's assuming Inugami reaches her.
- Wonder Egg Priority: Despite the fact that the game is over and the Maidens have been resurrected, none of them remember their friendships with the girls in any way because they all come from a parallel dimension where those never existed. Neiru disappears and is revealed to be an AI just like Frill out of nowhere. Later footage shows that Frill, Dot, and Hyphen are still on the loose and Neiru failed to stop them. Several key issues like the identity of Rika's father, Momoe learning to accept herself for who she is, and whether Ai will approve of her mother's relationship with Sawaki never get any resolution. Ai and her friends grow apart with only a vague And the Adventure Continues ending to imply they'll reconcile, assuming Rika didn't actually kill herself after Neiru's reveal as an AI. And that's not even getting into the fact that the real-life people the Wonder Killers are based on are presumably still at large without having suffered the consequences for their cruel behavior while Frill gets away with all of her actions Scot-Free. To many, it seems like the ending means that the main characters completely failed to do anything that had a lasting impact during the entire series
- An in-universe example with Yakitate!! Japan during the Yakitate 25 arc, where Azuma starts declaring every victory for Pantasia a happy ending, apparently ignoring the fact that their opponents (who most of the time aren't particularly bad people) have been transformed by Pantasia's bread with no sign of changing back any time soon, or the two occasions where the match ended with Ken becoming a Yakuza leader against his will or Kuroyanagi suffering from serious internal bleeding. Kawachi is usually quick to point this out.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V has one of the franchise's most infamous endings. The Big Bad has been defeated, his soul is quelled and leaves the infant Reira's body, freeing her. Yuzu reunited with Yuya after long last, and the four dimensions are united. However, the show also establishes that Yuya and Yuzu's counterparts now reside in them, meaning that those people are trapped in Yuya or Yuzu's bodies. Despite the fact that this is portrayed as the right thing for them and something they're fine with, this would also hurt their friends and family. Particularly Shun, who lost his sister and best friend. Also, Reira has been de-aged from a child to an infant, and this seems to be permanent.
- Yuki Yuna is a Hero: The Hero Club has killed enough Vertex to suspend the attacks "indefinitely," and the girls were able to retire as Heroes and recovered from their disabilities. However, the world beyond the Shinju's barrier is still an infernal hellscape and the Vertex will come back eventually, which will probably necessitate a new group of Heroes sometime in the future. Sonoko After expands upon this: the Vertex will eventually return, but the Taisha are going to reveal the truth of the world to the general public and mass-produce the Hero System in order to reclaim the outside world; the new system no longer has the Sange, but it also does not have the fairy barriers, meaning that the Heroes are once more vulnerable to death. Sonoko states that although it will be a hard path for humanity, it's preferable to an eternal siege that humanity is doomed to lose eventually.
- Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs: Yuuna gets an emotional return to the semi-mortal plane due to the efforts of her love interest and friends, and a just-as-emotional confession from Kogarashi with the harem's implicit blessing. However, it comes hot off the heels of the harem gaining false memories of futures where they're the ones he picked instead of Yuuna, keeping those memories after being given the chance to erase them, and Kogarashi also having access to those memories but explicitly saying that all of those realities were lesser because Yuuna wasn't there—and this is during the emotional confession and in front of the harem to boot. A few of the main six don't take this well at all according to the epilogue illustrations, least of all Karura, but regardless the story depicts the ending as completely happy.
