Series Fauxnale in Anime & Manga.
- Done deliberately in Attack on Titan with the "Return to Shiganshina" arc, which gathers all the heroes and villains in the place Where It All Began. A massive battle ensues, tons of characters die and it all ends with Eren and co. reaching the long-rumored basement and learning the truth about the Titans and supposedly solving the Ontological Mystery that drove the series. The anime goes even further by also making it a giant throwback to Season 1 with an OP that directly referenced Season 1's intros, brought back tons of songs during the episodes not heard since then, and even used the Season 1 animation style of thicker black lines and shading during the episode when the basement was finally opened. But alas, the manga would pick up where the story left off after a Time Skip, and the anime would follow suit with The Final Season.
- Ayakashi Triangle:
- The Jinyo arc was likely written as a potential end for the series, taking up most of the third volume (when short-lived Shonen Jump manga tend to end). It leads to Shirogane's Heel–Face Turn, Matsuri restored to male form, and him realizing he's in love with Suzu, resolving a good part of the manga's major conflict... but for the important details that Matsuri goes back to being female after a few hours, and Shirogane no longer has the power to change him back. Shirogane even interrupts Suzu and Matsuri's hug to declare "You're still a far cry from a happy ending!"
- The end of the tenth volume, right before the series changed magazine, is a two-chapter story where Suzu is given the chance to reverse Matsuri's gender transformation by altering history so it never happened in the first place. Suzu ends up deciding against it because, even if they still want Matsuri to be a boy again, his transformation led to his life significantly improving in ways they didn't want to lose.
- A strange example in the Black Cat anime, which reaches the end of the manga with Train defeating Creed and foiling his plans. Then suddenly, with only a single minor scene of Foreshadowing (and an entire story arc revolving around Eve's creator and her origins being strangely absent), several members of the Numbers are revealed to be The Mole for a whole other organization, and the series ends in a four-episode anime-only story arc instead that changes Eve's origins entirely. It can't even be explained away as a Gecko Ending, since the anime started a whole year after the manga ended.
- Nanako Tsujimura believed that The Case Files of Jeweler Richard would end after four volumes, and so introduced a sort of wrap up. Fortunately, sales were good enough that book after book kept coming.
- Cyborg 009:
- At first, fans assumed that the Mythos Cyborg arc might have also been intended as a finale. The arc ends very abruptly, with an explosion destroying everything and the narrator noting that there were no traces of any of the cyborgs left behind (leaving viewers to assume they'd died). However, the reality is that Ishinomori had trouble with the editorial department in Weekly Shonen King, who decided to drop the series as they felt the Mythos arc was too confusing and complicated for children to understand. Thus when given the final chapter, he ended things off in a rushed and ambiguous manner.
- The actual original ending was the Underground Empire arc in 1967; however, fans did not take very well to the bittersweet (yet now considered iconic) finale in which Cyborgs 002 and 009 fall to Earth, dying upon re-entry and becoming a "shooting star" seen by two children. The brother wishes for a toy gun, but the sister wishes for peace. Fan outcry convinced Shotaro Ishinomori to resume the series soon enough, and he threw in a retcon for that ending. Although, as far as the Sega CD game in the '90s goes, this moment is where the series ends, and although the 2001 anime also loosely adapted the prologue of "Conclusion: God's War" as a post-series OVA, this moment was also intended to end the series.
- It is pretty apparent that Doraemon was supposed to end at Chapter 106, the last chapter of Volume 6. In it, Doraemon returns to the future and bids goodbye to Nobita, who promises to become a good kid even in his absence. However, the popularity of the series and editorial demands led series creators Fujiko Fujio to revert this with the very next chapter, which provides a Deus ex Machina for Doraemon to be able to travel back again.
- Dragon Ball had multiple instances
where the series might have ended, but didn't. Here are some of the better known cases:- The Dragon Ball manga initially was not very popular. While Akira Toriyama did take steps to address common criticisms of it as soon as the first arc concluded, the third arc was written in such a way that the story could have a satisfying ending if it was indeed canceled. The arc was a hit, however, and so Toriyama decided to continue.
- The 23rd Budokai, where Goku defeated Piccolo. For the anime, this was the conclusion of the original series with the story continuing as Dragon Ball Z after a Time Skip. While time skips are routine in Dragon Ball, there usually being one between each Story Arc, this was the longest one yet (and would remain so until the one after the Cell Saga), which is a large part of why the anime adaptation treated this as the end of Dragon Ball and what came after as the Sequel Series Dragon Ball Z. In the manga, Master Roshi broke the fourth wall to confirm that the story will in fact be continuing.
- The end of the Cell Saga very much does feel like a finale, with Goku dying in one last Heroic Sacrifice while Passing the Torch to his son Gohan, who finally unlocks the great potential that's been hinted at ever since his introduction years earlier and defeats the Big Bad who Goku couldn't. It actually was the finale of the Re-Cut Dragon Ball Z Kai before it was Un-Canceled.
- Ironically, Dragon Ball GT was considered this for a long while for the Dragon Ball series. Then, 20 years later, after the warm reception to the Dragon Ball: Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!! special short, the folks over at Toei decided to try their luck again with Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods, Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F', and Dragon Ball Super, both retconning GT and fulfilling this trope at once.
- The anime adaptation of Dropkick on My Devil was planned to end with the third season of X where the ending involves Jashin-chan sacrificing herself to save the world by flying into the sun in a Heroic Sacrifice as the series wasn't too popular to warrant another season, but due to a collaboration with Hatsune Miku in the same season boosting the series' popularity, a 4th season was decided upon and confirmed shortly after.
- Durarara!! ended in 2010 but was surprisingly renewed for another season in 2014. It helped that the first season only adapted the first 3 books of the series, and that it ended with a few lingering plot threads to be potentially explored in future episodes.
- The Southern Cross story arc of Fist of the North Star (the first ten chapters of the manga and the first 22 episodes of the anime) was written so that it could stand on its own in case the manga wasn't picked up. Shin's status as Kenshiro's Token Motivational Nemesis (being the guy who engraved Ken's seven scars and stole his girlfriend) is cemented afterward when the manga continued beyond his death.
- Fushigi Yuugi gives us an epic battle between Nakago and the Suzaku Seishi (and Seiryuu and Suzaku themselves!) in Tokyo before fast-forwarding to three and a half months later to symbolically wrap things up with Cherry Blossoms. This was supposed to be the Grand Finale for both the anime and the manga, but... y'know.
- GaoGaiGar has a similar example to that of Pretty Cure's, with Big Bad Pasder being defeated for good in episode 30. Then the Primevals happened. This one's entirely a case of Your Princess Is in Another Castle!. It had only filled out half the episodes of any Brave Series and made it known by revealing King J-der's lovingly animated design and Stock Footage.
- Happened multiple times with Gintama:
- Episode 201 abruptly ended with Kagura breaking the fourth wall and saying "Happy Merry Last Episode!" followed by the usual credits sequence being replaced with a montage of moments from throughout the show's history. Despite the strong implication that this was meant to be the end, the show returned for another season the following year.
- Following another 64 episodes, the anime seemingly ended for good with the 2013 release of a Big Damn Movie that acted as a Grand Finale. However, the success of the movie led to the show being revived again in 2015. The season premier even poked fun at the whole affair by having Gintoki give a press conference where he apologized for the show having returned again despite the seeming finality of the film.
- Meanwhile, the manga seemingly reached its conclusion with Silver Soul, an epic arc that brought back nearly every character who'd ever appeared in the series for a huge Save the World plot. Then, at the last moment, it was revealed that the series would continue online with an epilogue arc that ran for another 36 chapters before finally ending once and for all.
- Then, in 2018, the anime began its adaptation of Silver Soul, with this season promised as the last one for real this time. Despite this, the season once again finished with the characters breaking the fourth wall to apologize for the lack of a proper ending, followed by an announcement that another movie would be released in 2021 to finish the story. As if to lampshade the whole thing, said movie is titled Gintama: The Very Final.
- The second season of Hell Girl ultimately became this due to a third season coming along. In the second season finale, Ai becomes mortal and sacrifices herself to save a young girl, resulting in Hell Correspondence dissolving and each member going their separate ways. Come the third season, however, and Ai gets revived and forced to reunite the group to continue making deals with mortals.
- Young Kindaichi's Trip of Death Preparedness was the final case of The Kindaichi Case Files, and it shows. Kindaichi's archnemesis declares the case their final battle, and Kindaichi faces the most direct and dramatic threats to himself, successfully exposes and redeems the culprit despite them having the most horrifying Freudian Excuse in the series, and captures said archenemy, who gracefully admits total defeat as he's brough off to jail. The archenemy then sends Kindaichi a letter containing a list of places he'd scouted as likely to be the sites of future cases, so Kindaichi collects donations from everyone who'd ever been a recurring character in the entire expanded universe up to that point, has his First Kiss with Miyuki, and sets off on a bike trip across Japan to visit all the listed places, leaving his friends and family behind... then the series was revived three years later. The firse New case could have functioned as an epilogue, as Kindaichi coincidentally runs into Miyuki when she visits one of the areas on the list and the two of them solve a final case when she winds up framed for murder, but after it was confirmed that The New Kindaichi Case Files would be an ongoing serialization, Kindaichi returned to high school, his archenemy broke out of prison (admittedly not for the first time) and started planning new cases, and everything went back to normal.
- Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha was the very first TV anime of Seven Arcs and was The Anime of the Game to boot, so it ends in a rather final way with the Big Bad dead, the MacGuffins safely secured, Fate having a tearful farewell with Nanoha, the last scenes showing everything going back to the way they were, and... whoops, looks like Seven Arcs' first attempt at a series was successful enough to kickstart a franchise! Contrast the finales of the subsequent seasons, whose "Where Are They Now?" Epilogues are unambiguous in its intent of setting things up for the next season.
- Magical Princess Minky Momo had an infamous one in which after the show was Screwed by the Merchandise, out of spite Takeshi Shudō made an episode with Momo losing her powers and then followed it up with her being hit by a truck. However, they were contractually obligated to continue the series and picked up where they left off with her being reincarnated as her foster parents' real child.
- The Pain arc from Naruto which ended with Naruto returning to the village as a beloved hero and considering his beginnings as a lonely outcast. It feels conclusive to his character as a whole and the series could've ended there perfectly (for some fans they wish that was the case), if it wasn't for a few dangling plot threads. But barring that, there's the Fourth Shinobi World War which serves as a very definite Final Battle for all involved and ends with Naruto and Sasuke finally reconciling. There was also the Distant Finale which felt like the definitive conclusion and finally answered which were the Official Couples. This of course was just the platform for the franchise's New Era Project consisting of Naruto Gaiden, Boruto: Naruto the Movie and Boruto: Naruto Next Generation.
- Pokémon: The Series:
- The second film of the franchise, ''The Power of One'' could be taken as an early conclusion for Ash's journey, as he not only saves the entire planet and fulfills a prophecy that he serves a key role in, he successfully cooperates with three of the legendary Pokemon birds, Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres. In addition to that, the film resolves the Ash and Misty relationship with Misty vowing to stay at Ash's side so he'll never be alone.
- The end of the Diamond and Pearl series is significant in that it's the first series that didn't contain any kind of obvious Sequel Hook for the next generation, with Ash simply returning home to Pallet Town after his journey in Sinnoh. It's also notable as the official sendoff for Brock, who had been a mainstay since Episode 5 of the original series; he explicitly tells Ash that he's changing his goal and can no longer continue traveling with him, thus putting their partnership to an end after 13 long years. It's not too hard to see this episode as something of a Grand Finale for the "classic era" of the anime, especially as the next series served as a Soft Reboot that reset Ash and overhauled many other aspects. Every series since has similarly retooled the show to fit a certain direction, each one more different than the last.
- The end of the XY series (the Japanese version, in particular) also gives off a feeling of finality, as for the first time a series ended with a "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue sequence (featuring Ash's rivals no less) and montages of the highlight moments of the (human) party members, with Ash's being a full-fledged Credits Montage. The episode even ends with "And to each [their] own way" rather than the usual "Next Time - A New Beginning!" However, this was not because this was the end of the anime,note but because much of the staff who had been on the anime for years were leaving at once. note
- The series Pokémon: To Be a Pokémon Master is a unique one as it is a series fauxnale for the Pokémon anime, but it's also the Grand Finale for the series lead protagonist, with Ash having achieved his dream of becoming the World Champion, now coming to understand what it means to be a Pokémon master, reuniting with many of his former companions and Pokémon along the way. The series continued in Pokémon Horizons: The Series, but with new protagonists.
- The 26th episode of Futari wa Pretty Cure appears to have been written under the assumption that it would probably be the last. The Big Bad is unambiguously killed off by a climactic Theme Music Power-Up, the last of the Quirky Miniboss Squad is eliminated, the Garden of Light is restored, the Queen gives Nagisa and Honoka a heartfelt thank you, and there's even a happy reunion between the main characters and the Mons in the final scenes. This was the series that kicked off Pretty Cure— Post-Script Season doesn't really cover it. Amusingly, everyone in the series spends the next few episodes confused and not exactly sure where things were going now
- It happened again in Smile Pretty Cure! with Episode 23, defeating all four members of the Quirky Miniboss Squad and gaining a brand new form to beat Pierrot with... then the next episode starts out with everything back to square one: they still have their new powers, but the bad guys are still alive and they're back to collecting MacGuffins again. In Smile's case it wasn't actually intended as a finale in the first place, but more likely as a homage to the original Pretty Cure.
- Puella Magi Madoka Magica ended with Madoka becoming a goddess, and rewriting the laws of the universe so that magical girls wouldn't become witches. Thanks to runaway popularity, Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Movie: Rebellion appeared, introducing new conflict between Madoka and Homura, and ending on a Sequel Hook. Several years on, though, it seems likely that the sequel movie itself was an inversion, since nothing more than vague implications that a followup might eventually come out have been produced.
- Sailor Moon (both the manga and original anime) was supposed to have ended with original Big Bad Queen Metalia's defeat, but the manga persisted for another 46 chapters and the TV show for another four seasons. This was especially noticeable in the anime, as the first season finale was very clearly intended to be the end of the story, complete with the Sailor Senshi all losing their powers and memories after Metalia's defeat. Because of this, the first two episodes of the second season had to hastily reassemble the girls and give them their powers back to fight a new threat.
- The sports fest arc of School Rumble ends with Harima and Eri dancing together and it even says "THE END" (well, not really).
- Sgt. Frog sort of does this in Episode 51. In this episode, the Keroro ("A.R.M.P.I.T.") Platoonnote receives a message from headquarters ordering them to return to Keron... or they will die. There are even scenes that show them packing everything up, and erasing everyone's memories (including the Hinatas'). It turns out though, that they only had to return for a regular medical checkup, and as a result they never really had to leave "Pekopon" after all.
- Sonic X: The end of Season 2, which is understandable given it was originally supposed to be the end of the series before an unexpected order for more episodes. All the characters from Sonic's universe have to return to their world. After initial resistance, Chris and Sonic have a heartfelt goodbye. Sonic then stops Eggman from conquering his world, with his archenemy ecstatic to have him back. Additionally, the ending seems to hint at the pairings of Sonic/Amy and Knuckles/Rouge actually getting together, which isn't the case in Season 3. The only real tag for another season is the ending where it's revealed Chris is working on a portal to meet Sonic again.
- Parodied in the first episode of Space☆Dandy, which ends with almost the entire main cast dying when Dandy's ship explodes and takes out an entire nearby planet, complete with "The End". Then the next episode preview happens, with QT asking "Didn't we all just die?", and the second episode continues on as if it didn't happen. This actually becomes plot important in the actual finale, as it foreshadowed Dandy's timeline-hopping nature long before it was revealed.
- Sword Art Online had this with its Alicization arc. SAO was originally a web novel written from 2001-2008 with Alicization being the final major story arc completed before the series became an officially published light novel in 2009. It has many hallmarks of a series finale, with the Underworld project being the culmination of the Seed technology developed by Akihiko Kayaba, Kirito's worst and oldest enemy, the leader of Laughing Coffin a.k.a. the "Prince of Hell" finally returning for one last showdown after being missing for much of the series, another one of Kirito's worst enemies Nobuyuki Sugou also playing a major role as a background antagonist, and almost all of the friends and allies he and Asuna have made throughout the franchise such as the original Aincrad crew, Sinon, General Eugene, Sakuya & Alicia, the Sleeping Knights, and even the digital ghost of Kayaba all returning in his darkest hour. For 10 years, Alicization was indeed the ending of the franchise... but in 2018, Reki Kawahara began publishing the beginning of the Unital Ring arc, which continues the story beyond Alicization's end.
- Similarly, its spinoff series Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online was originally meant to end with Squad Jam 4's conclusion in Volume 9, as revealed by the author himself in the Volume 11 afterword. But the series had gotten to be so successful that it ended up continuing onward.
- Every season of Symphogear, Every season was expected to be the last one, and ended with a satisfying conclusion. Except sales of Soundtracks and Blu-Rays were through the roof every season, leading to a new season each time. The first season's 1st episode flash forward of the death of Hibiki may well have been Retconned when the producers realized they had a huge hit.
- Episode 52 of Voltron (which is where the original source material of GoLion, which they dubbed over to make Voltron ran out) has the Voltron Force successfully attack Planet Doom, defeating Zarkon and Lotor, destroying their armies, and freeing all the slaves. Then the American studio that did the dubbing commissioned twenty more episodes, which had Planet Doom suddenly become a threat again, featured very bad writing, and ended on an episode that didn't really resolve anything.
