History GainaxEnding / AnimeAndManga

** The movie: Be Invoked expands things greatly but is just as, if not more bizarre as the tv series. The Buff Clan finish work on a colossal super weapon called the Ganda Rowa which the Solo Ship tracks down. Earth and the Buff Clan homeworld are both obliterated by meteorites and Karala is shot dead by her sister Harulu. A massive battle breaks out between the Solo Ship and the Buff Clan fleet, killing nearly all of the cast, including children and even series creator Creator/YoshiyukiTomino. Doba is killed by his own soldiers after he refuses to stop perusing them. The Ganda Rowa destroys the Ideon with a massive blast, killing Cosmo and Deck along with the Ganda Rowa, wiping out all life in the cosmos. The rebirth ending from the show then occurs albeit expanded upon. Fun, eh?

* ''Anime/DragonBallGT''. What happened to Goku in the last episode? He just leaves without even saying goodbye. Vegeta knows something's up, then suddenly his clothes are seen left on the ground. But in ''Manga/DragonBall'' when [[NoBodyLeftBehind they die]], they die with their clothes (In fact, that shot is ''out of sequence'' and is shown after the end of the next couple of events). But then he's off to visit Kame Sen'nin and Piccolo, who both also know something's changed about him, but a mere "Are you...?" [[ShrugOfGod is not very helpful]]. When they take their eyes off him for a second, there's suddenly no one there. Then the dragon balls merge into Goku as he rides away on Shenlong's back, then he disappears. Then many years later he reappears as an adult to an elderly Pan and his descendant Goku Jr. but only in glimpses. Where does he go? What happened to him?

* ''[[Anime/DarlingInTheFranXX DARLING in the FRANXX]]'', while having a more conventional [[spoiler: BittersweetEnding]], has [[spoiler: the final battle where Strelitzia turns into Strelitzia Apus, which is Zero Two, the heroine, in giant form. As the series at least grounded in (pseudo) scientific approach before the final battle, it's very weird.]]

* ''Anime/{{Gunbuster}}'''s final episode was animated in black and white, with gray tones, alongside intense still shots during the final battle. And then, after the black hole bomb goes off, it takes them 12,000 years to make it back to Earth. (Due to the relativistic affects of near-light-speed travel, probably only a day had passed from their POV) And ''then'' "WELCOME HOME!" (with one of the kana backwards, even), which was absolutely awesome and genuinely heart-wrecking, even if it left a billion unanswered questions. While it all does work to increase the dramatic tension, given who produced the show, there have been a lot of suspicions over the years that it was done more for budgetary reasons than for any reasons of high art. The Black and White stuff was actually more expensive to do at the time, as it is much more requiring to paint in greyscale, also including the fact that you need to compensate for the color detail with drawn detail. Likewise, the episode is done in a downmatted widescreen, and all comedic tone is dead, simply finalizing the evolution the show takes from a fanservice-filled parody into something much darker.

* ''Anime/SamuraiPizzaCats'': Cat Ninden Teyandee's finale involves a [[ColonyDrop comet on a collision course]] with Edoropolis. Thanks to a last ditch effort by [[TheHero Speedy Cerviche/Yattaro]] (with a pinch of DeusExMachina), the comet is destroyed. It seems at first that Yattaro might have died in a HeroicSacrifice, so the mood is [[BittersweetEnding bittersweet.]] But then he comes back safely. Everyone rejoices, including Omitsu/Lucille, known for her habit of launching missiles from her hair when excited. She is so overjoyed to see him alive that she launches ''a giant nuclear missile'' from her hair, which [[AllForNothing blows up the parts of the city that haven't already been damaged by the comet.]] [[{{Bowdlerise}} The nuke scene was cut from the ''Samurai Pizza Cats'' dub.]]

* ''Anime/SpaceRunawayIdeon'' ends rather anticlimactically where during a massive space battle, [[BigBad Big Bad]] Doba declares he will chase the Solo Ship and its crew to the ends of the universe, at which point [[HumongousMecha The Ideon]] awakens its otherworldly sentient energy source and wipes out both the human race and the Buff Clan as punishment for their seemingly endless bloody conflict and inability to stop fighting and sends their souls to opposite ends of the universe to be reborn. The series ends with Karala’s unborn child and resident kid of the Solo Ship Piper Lou floating together through space, leading the souls of humanity to rebirth. The End. All of this happens in the space of around 2 minutes.

* ''Anime/DarlingInTheFranXX'', while having a more conventional [[spoiler: BittersweetEnding]], has [[spoiler: the final battle where Strelitzia turns into Strelitzia Apus, which is Zero Two, the heroine, in giant form. As the series at least grounded in (pseudo) scientific approach before the final battle, it's very weird.]]

* The second season of ''Anime/ZombieLandSaga'' ends with a scene of a spaceship blasting a town to pieces, with absolutely no context and little hints f its connection to the rest of the series.

* The second season of ''Anime/ZombieLandSaga'' ends with a scene of a spaceship blasting a town to pieces, with absolutely no context and little hints f its connection to the rest of the series.

** The final anime episode consists of Yuki escaping the LotusEaterMachine and convincing 1st!Yuno to not kill 3rd!Yuno, and so she stabs herself, allowing Yuki to win the survival game. He then returns to the Second World, which is now a vast expanse of nothingness, and mourns her for 10,000 years. In the anime, it ends there. The manga adds about three more pages of story, where Yuno suddenly breaks through the wall of space-time with a hammer, telling him she is the 3rd!Yuno, with 1st!Yuno's memories implanted, and they go off to the Third World to rule as Deus's replacements. And Nine/Uryuu has flying babies.

* The ending of the ''{{Anime/Pokemon}}'' episode "Hocus Pokémon" definitely qualifies. When Ash becomes the target of a magic spell that was supposed to make him capable of understanding Pokémon language, it instead turns him into a Pikachu, which, oddly, doesn't let him understand Pokémon language; he still talks normally in that state. The transformation lasts the last 3 minutes of the episode and the first 3 seconds of the next; after that, it wears off. [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment Completely irrelevant to the show's plot, and never mentioned again.]]

* ''Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam ends on a massive cliff-hanger where [[KillEmAll a massive amount of the cast die]], a plot choice brought on by Creator/YoshiyukiTomino’s [[CreatorBreakdown at the time depression]]. Kamille ends up with severe brain damage after Scirocco’s [[TakingYouWithMe dying attack]] mentally cripples him. Axis ends up basically winning the fight with the Titans nearly completely wiped out and the AEUG fleet heavily damaged, taking Emma and Captain Henken with it. The series ends with Fa taking the now child like Kamille back to the Argama in tears while the destroyed Hyaku-Shiki floats empty amongst the wreckage with its hatch wide open. End of series. Thankfully, these hanging threads would be resolved with the sequel series Anime/MobileSuitGundamZZ, while Char’s fate finally saw closure in Anime/MobileSuitGundamCharsCounterattack, but it’s still never fully explained what Scirocco did to destroy Kamille’s mind and how Char survived being crushed to death by debris

* In ''Manga/LucuLucu'', you expect the main character, Rokumon, to end up in a {{Shipping}} with Lucu (at least in the first 30 chapters, and you keep hoping)... but, [[MindScrew that's not quite what happens...]] You see Rokumon was used essentially as a sim game by Lucu to learn humility, and his whole entire life has been a ''lie'' throughout the '''entire manga''. His dead-father-turned-living-talking-cat is also ''not'' his real father and his whole entire memory comes back in the last 5 pages of the manga.

* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion''.
** Due to the budget effectively being shot, the final two episodes consisted heavily of stock footage, musings on human nature, discussion of the characters' psychological problems, some mention of the [[AssimilationPlot Human Instrumentality Project]], and a HighSchoolAU with a [[ThisIsYourPremiseOnDrugs Rei Ayanami on]] {{Genki|Girl}}. Even the movie ending, while straight-forward, is pretty bizarre by ''normal'' standards, and would be considered an example by the standards of most of the other things on this page if the TV ending hadn't out-Gainaxed Gainax. WordOfGod says that the movie was the original planned ending.
** Despite being made to basically advertise and coincide with the anime, the manga's ''massive'' ScheduleSlip resulted in the initial few differences snowballing into altered plotlines, to the point that Shinji actually is relatively badass during the Mass-Produced Eva battle and saves Asuka - only for the rest of the ending to happen anyway, and then suddenly everyone is living their days normally again with no memory of the series of events occurring, to the point of Shinji not recognizing Asuka when they see each other in public. [[MindScrew And the crucified-pose Evas from End of Evangelion are just part of the landscape that's taken for granted.]]
* ''Manga/{{Mahoromatic}}'' on three levels:
** It seems to end every episode in this manner. In fact, the entire premise of the show is that as a non-rechargeable [[RobotGirl combat android]], Mahoro can literally number the days till she deactivates, and the viewers are constantly reminded of this fact.
** It should be noted as well that that the countdown is never finished, as Mahoro's ultimate attack drains the same energy that keeps her alive; she is forced to use it in the second season, leading to the TimeSkip enigmatic ending.
** In that ending, she ''comes back in some form'' right as Suguru dies. Possibly as a memory, possibly as some sort of afterlife, or possibly as them both being restored to life. What.

* ''Anime/MagicalShoppingArcadeAbenobashi'' has an ending that may make no sense whatsoever to you if you didn't follow the shows' philosophy and possibly solve the MoonLogicPuzzle.

* Gainax truly managed to outdo themselves with ''Anime/PantyAndStockingWithGarterbelt'', and that's saying something. In more or less chronological order: Panty spends an undefined amount of time as a farm girl (the setting of which is otherwise staged), Panty and Brief finally do it, Panty [[MoralEventHorizon lets]] Brief accidentally unlock the gate of a ''[[GagPenis giant penis ghost]]'', Corset turns Scanty and Kneesocks into weapons and kills Garterbelt before fusing with said giant penis ghost, Chuck and Fastener turn into awesome monster things, Panty and Stocking use Garterbelt's credit card to buy enough weapons to attempt to deliver an [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill awesome finishing blow.]] They miss and hit Heaven, which summons a pair of [[MediumBlending lifelike legs]] to close the gate. This pair of legs turns out to be Panty and Stocking's mom. And Garterbelt dies again, [[DeathIsCheap only to come back to life.]] Among all this, the heavens are actually [[Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann pierced]] with a [[ThisIsADrill drill.]] BigBad dies, but then isn't dead, ''Stocking is actually a demon WHO KILLS PANTY'', and now Brief must retrieve Panty's 666 pieces and bring her back to life. It's still not even clear if all this is actually the ending, or even canon. In fact, it's so big of a Gainax Ending that the characters who didn't see it coming react to it in much the same way the viewers do.
* ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' actually manages to ''invert'' this. The opening scene makes absolutely no sense compared to the rest of the series ([[BigLippedAlligatorMoment as well as contributing nothing to the story and is never mentioned again]]), and WordOfGod is that they "[[WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants lost that plot thread somewhere]]." Fans came up with the idea that it was some alternate timeline, and the creators said [[AscendedFanon Sure, why not]]. It appears to be a preview/flashforward to a part of the final battle near the end of the show, but viewers watching it for the first time will have no idea what is going on, and when the events the scene should be in finally come, nothing matches with it (it also includes a character who dies in the first few episodes).
* ''Anime/RoyalSpaceForceTheWingsOfHonneamise''. Rather than addressing whether or not Shiro's mission is successful, the film ends with an abstract montage of everyday life and the rise of civilization on the fictional planet.
* ''Anime/WishUponThePleiades''. Yep, even their otherwise straightforward 30-minute MagicalGirl [=OVA=] manages to have a weird ambiguous ending. The BigBad does a HeelFaceTurn, but then is dragged off to who-knows-where by... his earrings? He throws his coat to Subaru, who finds a single flower growing in the otherwise desolate weird holographic garden. This is taken as an indication that he's still alive, or something. In the full anime, Minato turns out to have been in a coma the whole time, and after the girls all return to their respective, separate universes, he is still in a coma. It is unclear if he will ever wake up, although the ending scene tries to imply a happy ending. How the powers, alien magic, different universes and memory manipulation even worked in the first place is still up in the air.
* ''Anime/{{FLCL}}'' inverts this. After a rollercoaster of plain craziness, the series ends on a heartfelt and rather straightforward (but still open) note with Haruko giving Naota a farewell and reciprocating his feelings, [[PetTheDog probably the sanest thing she's done in the entire show]]. It's where the ComingOfAgeStory aspect really shines, with Naota finally acting like a kid while he still can.
** The non-Gainax produced sequel ''[[Anime/FLCLProgressiveAndAlternative FLCL Alternative]]'' plays this trope straighter. It actually ''mostly'' works if you accept the WordOfGod suggestion that this season is a StealthPrequel to the original, and that the original's setting, Mabase, [[spoiler:is on Mars]].
* Joked about in ''Anime/KillLaKill'', where the final episode preview consists entirely of Senketsu hoping Creator/StudioTrigger (which was created by former Gainax employees, specifically those responsible for the aforementioned ''Panty and Stocking'') doesn't screw up the finale. In the end, ''Kill la Kill'''s ending makes as much sense as anything that came before it, [[spoiler:but kills off poor Senketsu]].

* ''Anime/DarlingInTheFranXX'', while having a more conventional [[spoiler: BittersweetEnding]], has [[spoiler: the final battle where Strelitzia turns into Strelitzia Apus, which is Zero Two, the heroine, in giant form. As the series at least grounded in (pseudo) scientific approach before the final battle, it's very weird.]]

* In ''Manga/FutureDiary'':
** The final anime episode consists of Yuki escaping the LotusEaterMachine and convincing 1st!Yuno to not kill 3rd!Yuno, and so she stabs herself, allowing Yuki to win the survival game. He then returns to the Second World, which is now a vast expanse of nothingness, and mourns her for 10,000 years. In the anime, it ends there. The manga adds about three more pages of story, where Yuno suddenly breaks through the wall of space-time with a hammer, telling him she is the 3rd!Yuno, with 1st!Yuno's memories implanted, and they go off to the Third World to rule as Deus's replacements. And Nine/Uryuu has flying babies.
** The ending from the manga did make it into the OVA adaptation of the special "Redial" chapter later on however.
* The anime of ''Anime/ExcelSaga'' actually ''inverts'' this trope; in the last few aired episodes [[CerebusSyndrome it suddenly gets a real plot going and is much more serious]]. Then in the final (albeit unairable) episode, it becomes even ''more'' weird, as if to make up for the serious finale. The last thing that happens is Hyatt coughing up so much blood that the entire planet is flooded and everyone drowns while Excel scream for help. Then during the end credits, Menchi has switched places the translator. The episode finishes with Excel telling the viewers telling the viewers about the [[HereWeGoAgain first episode]] in the place she would normally tell about the next episode.
* ''Manga/{{Chobits}}'' starts out as a typical MagicalGirlfriend-cum-{{Moe}} show, then, about halfway through, gets... er, [[ContemplateOurNavels weird]]. And to top it off, after spending half the series contemplating the sentience of persocoms, the single most advanced persocom in existence states that she isn't really sentient, and neither are any of the other Chobits - they're highly advanced, naturally, but when you get down to the nitty-gritty, they're only following their programming. Most of the fans interpreted this turn of events as a gigantic middle finger from Creator/{{CLAMP}}. In the anime, they are sentient.
** It should be noted that in the ending of the manga, Zima actually says the opposite of what Freya said. One popular theory is that she was just in denial, because pretending her emotions weren't real was a way to attempt to cope with the pain of the incident that led to her 'death'.
* ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'' has an AmbiguousEnding that's surreal, but then again, so is the rest of the show. Then the ''movie'' showed up, which is somewhat of a symbolic true ending to the show despite taking place in an AlternateContinuity. The entire thing could be considered a Gainax Ending to the show, what with the environment itself moving around at random, but then the climax to the movie involves the protagonist turning into a car, who her girlfriend proceeds to drive under a castle on wheels and into a post-apocalyptic wasteland. The symbolism is still consistent, yes, but it ''really'' goes off the rails regardless.
* ''Anime/DragonBallGT''. What happened to Goku in the last episode? He just leaves without even saying goodbye. Vegeta knows something's up, then suddenly his clothes are seen left on the ground. But in ''Manga/DragonBall'' when [[NoBodyLeftBehind they die]], they die with their clothes (In fact, that shot is ''out of sequence'' and is shown after the end of the next couple of events). But then he's off to visit Kame Sen'nin and Piccolo, who both also know something's changed about him, but a mere "Are you...?" [[ShrugOfGod is not very helpful]]. When they take their eyes off him for a second, there's suddenly no one there. Then the dragon balls merge into Goku as he rides away on Shenlong's back, then he disappears. Then many years later he reappears as an adult to an elderly Pan and his descendant Goku Jr. but only in glimpses. Where does he go? What happened to him?

* ''VisualNovel/{{Clannad}}'': After Nagisa, Ushio, and Tomoya [[KillEmAll all die of various tragic causes]], Tomoya's last wish to "save Ushio" somehow causes a time-reset to the day Nagisa died in childbirth. This time, she doesn't die, and they all live HappilyEverAfter. Understanding this apparent DeusExMachina requires a lot of analysis of the dialogue between Ushio and the Garbage Doll before the Illusionary World collapses; but that side-plot itself is never really explained. It's probably meant to emulate the true/good/best ending unlocked in a VisualNovel by achieving HundredPercentCompletion. The very last scene is the most inscrutable of all, and [[http://tsunderestorm.com/2009/03/clannad-after-story-17-22/ may imply]] that [[TheDogWasTheMastermind Fuko orchestrated everything]].
* ''VisualNovel/RoboticsNotes'' has a Gainax Ending for its ShowWithinAShow, ''Gunverral'': clocking in at five minutes, tops, the leaked last episode showed several robots, including the eponymous Gunverral, walking into a furnace within a structure called the Grand Obelisk, which fires a beam into the sun, causing it to go supernova. The show's BigBad, Anubis, is wiped out, along with the majority of humanity, in a twist that eerily mirrored a conspiracy by a shadowy organization in the real world.

* ''Anime/XamdLostMemories''. An AncientConspiracy of soul-eating albino children. A stillborn DeathSeeker {{kaiju}}. Only a mass-sacrifice CombinedEnergyAttack can stop the BigBad, except not. The main character goes to a JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind and defeats the BigBad by giving him his name... Or was it the laser? [[AssimilationPlot Instrumentality]]! The main character dies, and gets better nine years later for no reason. And he has inexplicably aged in the meantime.
* ''Anime/BagiTheMonsterOfMightyNature'' does this. At the end, Bagi is left prowling the jungle with her human intelligence destroyed, and Ryo just decides it would be better to stop trying to catch her.
* The manga version of Music/SoundHorizon's ''Ark'' starts out straightforward enough, but a few pages into the second and final chapter, it takes a sudden detour through [=WTFville=] into Gainax Ending Land.
* While the ending of ''Manga/ChronoCrusade'' is better explained than some of the other examples here, due in part to some poor planning from Daisuke Moriyama and a rush to get everything explained in the end, the last volume or two of the manga feels like there's a sudden GenreShift mixed with several open-ended questions, unless you were clever enough to pick up on subtle foreshadowing throughout the series. Some of the weirder points of the ending include the revelation that [[OurDemonsAreDifferent the demons]] are really {{Sufficiently Advanced Alien}}s, Rosette's soul leaving her body, causing her "death" and a trippy afterlife scene that ends with her and Mary Magdalene entering her body together to revive her, Chrono finding out that the demon HiveQueen was a human woman that was kidnapped by the demons and transformed into Pandaemonium--who was pregnant with human twins that would grow up to be Chrono and Aion, Chrono and Aion charging at each other for their final battle, only for the manga to cut away and change focus, deliberately hiding the outcome of the battle and Satella freezing herself and Florette/Fiore into crystal, and the two of them found and revived in the year 1999 and forced to start over their lives after (almost) all of their old friends have passed on. While the GeckoEnding of the anime is [[DownerEnding depressing enough]] that many fans prefer the manga ending, it's still known for being quite weird.
* Following the pattern of its own insanity, ''Manga/TsubasaReservoirChronicle'' has one of these, in which Fei Wong has somehow been defeated, Watanuki and Syaoran did ''something'', which somehow resulted in bringing Syaoran back to Sakura from weird black void-thingy, the clones went *poof*, and Syaoran and Sakura appear to have gotten their memories back.
* ''Manga/XxxHolic qualifies''. After its sister series ''Manga/TsubasaReservoirChronicle'' ends, Watanuki takes over the magic shop and fulfills wishes. Then after a few story arcs, the entire series ends in two chapters mostly involving a dream sequence after a 100-year time skip. Clamp even teases the reader by dangling a loose plot thread in the final panels.

* In ''Manga/LucuLucu'', you expect the main character, Rokumon, to end up in a {{Shipping}} with Lucu (at least in the first 30 chapters, and you keep hoping)... but, [[MindScrew that's not quite what happens...]] You see Rokumon was used essentially as a sim game by Lucu to learn humility, and his whole entire life has been a ''lie'' throughout the '''entire manga''. His dead-father-turned-living-talking-cat is also ''not'' his real father and his whole entire memory comes back in the last 5 pages of the manga.
* ''Manga/{{Gantz}}''. Did he save the girl? Why was he running from the train all over again? Cut to Gantz once again, almost as if started from the beginning…? The last several episodes of the anime are [[GeckoEnding an original idea of the director]]. They do not follow the manga at all.
* ''Anime/DarkerThanBlack'', both seasons. Both finales actually contain scenes apparently inspired by the TV ending of ''Evangelion'', although the scene in the first season is actually in the middle of the episode and the parts following it make it a bit less mindscrewy. The second season, on the other hand, is a perfect example of a mindscrew ending.
* The ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'' anime's ending could be considered a Gainax Ending. If you watch it without ever reading a bit of the manga, you'll have a lot of trouble understanding the fact that towards the end, monsters unknown to each and every character start showing up and eating them, which is hard to understand because the anime doesn't even mention the existence of other behelits apart from Griffith's. Oh, also the anime ends abruptly, with Casca being raped by Griffith (now as Femto), while Guts is forced to watch, being subdued by a group of demons and losing an eye after carving his own arm off to escape some other demon's grip, with no sign of closure whatsoever. No epilogue, not even different credits, it just ends. It didn't get cancelled or discontinued either, it's supposed to end there. Talk about ''downer ending''. The strangest thing is that after the credits we see a healed Guts leaves Godo's house to have his revenge on Griffith. In the anime it's never explained how that happened. Talk about NoEnding or LeftHanging.
* ''Anime/{{Madlax}}''. Totally leaves the viewer hanging over the fate of three of the supporting cast. Plus the cause of some intense arguments over if Margaret resurrected Elenore, Vanessa and Carrossea or not.
* ''Anime/SerialExperimentsLain'': The whole series was a MindScrew, so of course it gets one. [[ResetButtonEnding Lain creates a new reality where she doesn't exist.]] That part makes sense. But then she has a discussion with [[LiteralSplitPersonality herself]] about resetting reality and the true nature of the [[{{Cyberspace}} Wired]], which only creates more questions then answers. An emotional Lain then tells her alternate self to "stop"... and the other Lain quite literally stops, flickers and vanishes. Then Lain's father appears and she has tea with him while they're both floating in the sky. It's not terribly clear if Lain's father is actually real, a hallucination, or {{God}} himself. In the next scene Lain re-introduces herself to an older Arisu in the new reality. Finally Lain appears in a static-filled screen and says that she'll "be with you forever"; the context suggests she's speaking to Arisu, but it's also possible she's [[BreakingTheFourthWall speaking to the viewer]]. The last scene is of the electrical wires that [[BookEnds appear at the end]] of the OncePerEpisode opening montage. Yeah, [[TheWalrusWasPaul your guess is as good as ours.]]
* The ending of the ''{{Anime/Pokemon}}'' episode "Hocus Pokémon" definitely qualifies. When Ash becomes the target of a magic spell that was supposed to make him capable of understanding Pokémon language, it instead turns him into a Pikachu, which, oddly, doesn't let him understand Pokémon language; he still talks normally in that state. The transformation lasts the last 3 minutes of the episode and the first 3 seconds of the next; after that, it wears off. [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment Completely irrelevant to the show's plot, and never mentioned again.]]

* The original ''Manga/ShamanKing'' qualifies. The heroes go to sleep the day before the final battle. After that, it cuts to a series of scenes with Manta and Anna, including a short dream. After that, the series ends. The final battle is neither shown nor spoken of. The ending is unknown. All we get is a "The End" author's note. Luckily, Shaman King Kanzen-Ban finally showed the ending, but that came out MUCH later.

* ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagicaTheMovieRebellion''. The Puella Magi foiled Kyubey's plan, everything's fine, and Homura can finally see Madoka again. All good, right? Wait, did Homura just ''hijack Madoka's god powers?'' Viewers can find clues that this would happen, but probably not until they [[RewatchBonus watch it for the second time]]. The least subtle of those is the scene with Homura and Madoka in the field, which serves to set up the ending. Even so, this only allows you to guess Homura will attempt some sort of ResetButton--something she's done many times through TimeTravel--and doesn't explain exactly what happened in the ending (she apparently absorbs the entire universe into something even weirder than a witch labyrinth using ThePowerOfLove and becomes a self-proclaimed demon; none of this easily fits into the world's established rules), or how it was possible.
* ''Anime/GuiltyCrown''. All of the final episode is incredibly symbolic and bizarre, but the actual ending, a Time Skip to the protagonists celebrating Hare's birthday, leaves no questions answered about what happened after the events of the story, save that Tsugumi became a teacher.
* {{Parodied|Trope}} in the ''Manga/{{Gintama}}'' anime: in one episode, [[BlatantLies Sunrise ends up cancelling the show earlier than expected]], which results in the cast trying to find a fitting Gainax Ending to the series during the whole episode. And yes, this means [[NoFourthWall the main characters were]] ''[[NoFourthWall expecting to be cancelled]]''. Just not yet.
* ''LightNovel/MagicalWarfare'' had a mostly incomprehensible KudzuPlot to start with, with several plot twists and revelations being introduced only to never get mentioned again. But then the final episode takes it all UpToEleven. The Ghost Trailers attack Subaru Magic Academy and a major battle ensues, during which Takeshi [[SayMyName shouts his evil brother Gekkou's name]] more times than one cares to count. Then there's suddenly a massive explosion, and Takeshi wakes up at Subaru... in ''1998'', surrounded by teenage versions of various adult characters. The show then abruptly ends without any explanation of... well, anything at all.
* ''Manga/TsukuyomiMoonPhase''. The series is a comedy that is sometimes dark, what with fighting all the vampires and death usually lurking near. The last anime episode, though, ends with [[spoiler: everyone somehow suddenly stuck in a floating house on the ocean and only one person in the group questioning why. The episode ends with the house sinking because the huge cork keeping the water out was removed]]. It's the last episode of the anime, with a bizarre title, leaving probably many a fan going "....What?"
* ''Anime/ShinMazinger''. It ends on a horrible cliffhanger, with Mazinger defeated and the Earth seemingly about to be taken over. It seems to be a hook for a Shin Great Mazinger sequel, given that this reflects the ending of the original Mazinger Z and beginning of Great Mazinger, but there's no plans for one.
* The anime for ''Manga/SorcererHunters'' definitely fits this description. After killing off every hero besides Carrot, the last episode splits its time between Carrot's solo battle against the BigBad and modern day Tokyo with the other heroes. Then somehow Carrot calls to them, they hear him from across time and space, they somehow ''come back'' to the world and proceed to power up (usually involving clothing getting blasted off), and rather than this leading to them having a battle against the baddie, they all run over to Carrot with big smiles and laughter. But wait! There's more. The BigBad is banished, somewhat without fanfare in silent-film style, with a closing scene of what is presumably Carrot hitting on a modern day girl, not that we see the hero.
* In ''[[Manga/SaiKano Saishuuheiki Kanojo]]'', the female lead is a normal teenaged girl transformed into a cybernetic doomsday weapon. At the end of the series, it seems as though all life on earth is destroyed, except for her boyfriend... and there's no sign that there's any way he'll be able to survive for long in what's left. A tiny spark that seems to be all that is left of her descends into his hands, and suddenly we're back to the moment they met in the first episode, roll final credits.
* ''Manga/HanaukyoMaidTeam''. A mild version in the second series ''La Verite''. Ryuuka proposes marriage to Taro again and beats him up when he doesn't agree, the other maids all try to kiss him but he escapes. He meets Mariel and they walk off into a white background hand in hand.
* Episode 26 of ''[[VisualNovel/PhantomOfInferno Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~]]'' ended on a downer note and a DiabolusExMachina with a few more added bangs. Reiji is shot dead but it's unknown if Ein dies. She simply lies into the grass and smiles. Sharp eyed viewers say Ein picked apart a toxic flower which would have killed her, others feel she survived.

* ''Anime/LegendOfTheBlueWolves'' has a BittersweetEnding in that Jonathan is forced to kill Leonard, the man he loves, in order to free him from the control of the aliens that had absorbed him. As Jonathan salutes him in tears, on-screen text indicates that this battle was mankind's first victory against the aliens. Cue after the credits--two individuals who hadn't even been introduced up to this point are riding an elevator and discussing the war. When the elevator opens, they find to their shock an alien spaceship buried deep underground. What does this mean? Nobody knows, because the anime was never finished.

* ''Manga/{{Fourteen}}'' is strange enough, but the ending takes the weirdness to a whole new level. The escape rocket reaches the edge of the universe, and it turns out that the universe itself is ending. America suddenly sees a light outside of the rocket, and follows it until he's outside of the universe. He discovers that the universe the story took place in was a bug crawling on the road in another universe where everyone looks like Chicken George. America stops the bug from being hit by a car, and the driver of the car puts the bug back in the forest. Kiyora appears and reveals that the children are all bug spirits, the rest of the kids exit the bug and talk for a while, and everyone comes to the conclusion that this new universe is Chicken George's. The final shot is of Chicken George and Chicken Lucy, alive and in the new universe.

* ''Anime/{{Daitarn 3}}'', of all things, ends this way. See TheFellowshipHasEnded for more details.
* ''Anime/EurekaSevenAO'' pulls a convoluted one of these, causing quite a backlash. Truth erases himself with the Quartz Gun, but it inexplicably {{Cosmic Retcon}}s him back into existence as the Nirvash's "archetype" (some sort of power-boosting soul thingy). It's revealed that Elena is ''not'' Ao's sister. His sister was DeadAllAlong, TakenForGranite as an infant because of [[HandWave high trapar density or something]]. He'd suffer the same fate if he returned home with his parents, so, instead, he Quartz Guns ''all'' the Secrets and Scub Corals out of reality, accidentally wrecking Nirvash in the process and sending them both bouncing through time. For some reason. Eventually he returns to roughly his own time, and is conveniently able to stop randomly time-hopping, but his friends probably don't remember him. [[NoEnding "Probably" because we never find out… it just ends there.]] Truth straight-up admits that he has no idea what the implications of Ao's actions are. The fact that Truth turned into the Nirvash because of the second retcon means that the effects of the third are unpredictable. He also said that he didn't want to destroy all of the Scubs because there's no telling what that would do to Naru. So naturally, [[TheUnreveal the implications of firing the Quartz Gun the third time are never revealed.]]
* Several anime series have taken a similar style of ending that can be described as 'goo falls, everyone dies'. In ''Anime/KeyTheMetalIdol'' and ''Anime/ParanoiaAgent'', for example, the protagonist essentially transforms into a literal sea of blue slime, that washes down and drowns all villains and heroes alike. Then after this disaster, life begins anew for the survivors.
* In ''Anime/{{Hamatora}}'', Art, [[NotQuiteDead who was thought to be dead]], returns to anticlimactically kill the sickly, injured bad guy, and then proceed to [[BlackScreenOfDeath shoot the main character in the head(?).]]
* Parodied in the first episode of ''Anime/CarnivalPhantasm'', a spoof of ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' and ''VisualNovel/{{Tsukihime}}''. After [[ItMakesSenseInContext a very violent game show for the Holy Grail]], Shirou decides the Grail is too terrible to be used and must be destroyed. He promptly uses its powers to shatter it, but inside is... an anthropomorphic cat. Which suddenly summons an army of itself to kidnap Shirou and take him aboard their spaceship. The other characters are dumbfounded.
-->'''Kirei''': [[FantasticAesop Does this mean the Holy Grail is too much for today's humans to handle]]?
-->'''Rin''': Why are you making this sound like it was a good story?!
-->'''Kirei''': That's because I don't know what to do!
* ''Anime/SamuraiPizzaCats'': Cat Ninden Teyandee's finale involves a [[ColonyDrop comet on a collision course]] with Edoropolis. Thanks to a last ditch effort by [[TheHero Speedy Cerviche/Yattaro]] (with a pinch of DeusExMachina), the comet is destroyed. It seems at first that Yattaro might have died in a HeroicSacrifice, so the mood is [[BittersweetEnding bittersweet.]] But then he comes back safely. Everyone rejoices, including Omitsu/Lucille, known for her habit of launching missiles from her hair when excited. She is so overjoyed to see him alive that she launches ''a giant nuclear missile'' from her hair, which [[AllForNothing blows up the parts of the city that haven't already been damaged by the comet.]] [[{{Bowdlerise}} The nuke scene was cut from the ''Samurai Pizza Cats'' dub.]]
%%* ''{{Anime/Osomatsusan}}'' - Episodes 24 and 25 can't be described in words.
* ''Manga/YakitateJaPan'': The manga itself is pretty weird, but after the big bad is beaten, in a very Shonen-style battle, with declarations of friendship, etc., somehow, the heroes need to... fight global warming? This is a plot point that starts 6 chapters before the end, was never announced, and was resolved in as bizarre a way as the weirdest parts of the manga.
%%* ''Anime/YuGiOhArcV'' spends most of the anime dealing with a dimensional war and Yuya's SuperPoweredEvilSide Zarc. When Zarc finally takes full possession of Yuya while the dimensions are starting to merge together and is defeated by Reira, who splits the dimensions back up the rest of the episodes pretend like a greater part of the series never happened. Instead, the remaining few episodes were spent on a TournamentArc and Yuya trying to regain his nerve to use the four dimension dragons after regaining his memories, all while attempting to make a baby smile in the process. Yes. You read that right.
%%--> [[FandomVIP RANK10YGO]]: ''Are we really doing this? Is the final arc of the show really a dragged-out series of attempts to get a baby to smile?''
* ''Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam ends on a massive cliff-hanger where [[KillEmAll a massive amount of the cast die]], a plot choice brought on by Creator/YoshiyukiTomino’s [[CreatorBreakdown at the time depression]]. Kamille ends up with severe brain damage after Scirocco’s [[TakingYouWithMe dying attack]] mentally cripples him. Axis ends up basically winning the fight with the Titans nearly completely wiped out and the AEUG fleet heavily damaged, taking Emma and Captain Henken with it. The series ends with Fa taking the now child like Kamille back to the Argama in tears while the destroyed Hyaku-Shiki floats empty amongst the wreckage with its hatch wide open. End of series. Thankfully, these hanging threads would be resolved with the sequel series Anime/MobileSuitGundamZZ, while Char’s fate finally saw closure in Anime/MobileSuitGundamCharsCounterattack, but it’s still never fully explained what Scirocco did to destroy Kamille’s mind and how Char survived being crushed to death by debris
* Anime/SpaceRunawayIdeon ends rather anticlimactically where during a massive space battle, [[BigBad Big Bad]] Doba declares he will chase the Solo Ship and its crew to the ends of the universe, at which point [[HumongousMecha The Ideon]] awakens its otherworldly sentient energy source and wipes out both the human race and the Buff Clan as punishment for their seemingly endless bloody conflict and inability to stop fighting and sends their souls to opposite ends of the universe to be reborn. The series ends with Karala’s unborn child and resident kid of the Solo Ship Piper Lou floating together through space, leading the souls of humanity to rebirth. The End. All of this happens in the space of around 2 minutes.
** The movie: Be Invoked expands things greatly but is just as, if not more bizarre as the tv series. The Buff Clan finish work on a colossal super weapon called the Ganda Rowa which the Solo Ship tracks down. Earth and the Buff Clan homeworld are both obliterated by meteorites and Karala is shot dead by her sister Harulu. A massive battle breaks out between the Solo Ship and the Buff Clan fleet, killing nearly all of the cast, including children and even series creator Creator/YoshiyukiTomino. Doba is killed by his own soldiers after he refuses to stop perusing them. The Ganda Rowa destroys the Ideon with a massive blast, killing Cosmo and Deck along with the Ganda Rowa, wiping out all life in the cosmos. The rebirth ending from the show then occurs albeit expanded upon. Fun, eh?

%%--> [[BigNameFan RANK10YGO]]: ''Are we really doing this? Is the final arc of the show really a dragged-out series of attempts to get a baby to smile?''

* ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagicaTheMovieRebellion''. The Puella Magi foiled Kyubey's plan, everything's fine, and Homura can finally see Madoka again. All good, right? Wait, did Homura just ''hijack Madoka's god powers?'' Viewers can find clues that this would happen, but probably not until they [[RewatchBonus watch it for the second time]]. The least subtle of those is the scene with Homura and Madoka in the field, which serves to set up the ending.

* Creative differences caused a Gainax Ending in ''Manga/KareKano'', abruptly ending the story just as a new arc was starting up.

* ''Anime/MahouSensou'' had a mostly incomprehensible KudzuPlot to start with, with several plot twists and revelations being introduced only to never get mentioned again. But then the final episode takes it all UpToEleven. The Ghost Trailers attack Subaru Magic Academy and a major battle ensues, during which Takeshi [[SayMyName shouts his evil brother Gekkou's name]] more times than one cares to count. Then there's suddenly a massive explosion, and Takeshi wakes up at Subaru... in ''1998'', surrounded by teenage versions of various adult characters. The show then abruptly ends without any explanation of... well, anything at all.

* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion''. Due to the budget effectively being shot, the final two episodes consisted heavily of stock footage, musings on human nature, discussion of the characters' psychological problems, some mention of the [[AssimilationPlot Human Instrumentality Project]], and a HighSchoolAU with a [[ThisIsYourPremiseOnDrugs Rei Ayanami on]] {{Genki|Girl}}. Even the movie ending, while straight-forward, is pretty bizarre by ''normal'' standards, and would be considered an example by the standards of most of the other things on this page if the TV ending hadn't out-Gainaxed Gainax. WordOfGod says that the movie was the original planned ending.
** And despite being made to basically advertise and coincide with the anime, the manga's ''massive'' ScheduleSlip resulted in the initial few differences snowballing into altered plotlines, to the point that Shinji actually is relatively badass during the Mass-Produced Eva battle and saves Asuka - only for the rest of the ending to happen anyway, and then suddenly everyone is living their days normally again with no memory of the series of events occurring, to the point of Shinji not recognizing Asuka when they see each other in public. [[MindScrew And the crucified-pose Evas from End of Evangelion are just part of the landscape that's taken for granted.]]

* ''Anime/HanaukyoMaidTai''. A mild version in the second series ''La Verite''. Ryuuka proposes marriage to Taro again and beats him up when he doesn't agree, the other maids all try to kiss him but he escapes. He meets Mariel and they walk off into a white background hand in hand.

* ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagicaTheMovieRebellion''. The Puella Magi foiled Kyubey's plan, everything's fine, and Homura can finally see Madoka again. All good, right? Wait, did Homura just ''hijack Madoka's god powers?''. Viewers can find clues that this would happen, but probably not until they [[RewatchBonus watch it for the second time]]. The least subtle of those is the scene with Homura and Madoka in the field, which serves to set up the ending.

* The ending of the ''{{Anime/Pokemon}}'' episode "Hocus Pokémon" definitely qualifies. When Ash becomes the target of a magic spell that was supposed to make him capable of understanding Pokémon language, it instead 'turns him into a Pikachu', which, oddly, doesn't let him understand Pokémon language; he still talks normally in that state. The transformation lasts the last 3 minutes of the episode and the first 3 seconds of the next; after that, it wears off. [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment Completely irrelevant to the show's plot, and never mentioned again.]]

* ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'': The fact that the ending is a Gainax Ending isn't due to Madoka becoming a god, it has more to do with the fact that the show takes great pains to make this series a DarkerAndEdgier GenreDeconstruction for {{Magical Girl}}s. Then the climax turns it into a DeconReconSwitch. Combined with the rather suspect/curious [[FauxSymbolism symbolism]] and timing of the GrandFinale ([[TooSoon Due to some issues]], it first aired on Good Friday), you have quite a few people still scratching their heads over the whole thing. The BolivianArmyEnding that suddenly appears after the credits throw more confusion as we have a sudden shift to an open desert with Homura facing off against a bunch of wraiths, and [[TrollingCreator the writer didn't feel like going into details]] - [[http://wiki.puella-magi.net/Madoka_Magica_Episode_12:_My_Best_Friend#Observations it was an homage]] to ''Film/{{Blade}}'', of all things. What's meta about it is that Gen Urobuchi, the writer for the series, was taken aback by some of the fan interpretations like Homura being the only magical girl left alive; in a way, fans thinking like that is a Gainax Ending in itself to his writing the show.

** The movie: Be Invoked expands things greatly but is just as, if not more bizarre as the tv series. Starting where the show ends with Doba declaring he will never stop pursuing the Solo Ship, the movie takes a different turn and continues the story. The Buff Clan finish work on a colossal super weapon called the Ganda Rowa which the Solo Ship tracks down. Earth and the Buff Clan homeworld are both obliterated by meteorites and Karala is shot dead by her sister Harulu. A massive battle breaks out between the Solo Ship and the Buff Clan fleet, killing nearly all of the cast, including children and even series creator Creator/YoshiyukiTomino. Doba is killed by his own soldiers after he refuses to stop perusing them. The Ganda Rowa destroys the Ideon with a massive blast, killing Cosmo and Deck along with the Ganda Rowa, wiping out all life in the cosmos. The rebirth ending from the show then occurs albeit expanded upon. Fun, eh?

** [[Anime/BeInvoked The movie]] expands things greatly but is just as, if not more bizarre as the tv series. Starting where the show ends with Doba declaring he will never stop pursuing the Solo Ship, the movie takes a different turn and continues the story. The Buff Clan finish work on a colossal super weapon called the Ganda Rowa which the Solo Ship tracks down. Earth and the Buff Clan homeworld are both obliterated by meteorites and Karala is shot dead by her sister Harulu. A massive battle breaks out between the Solo Ship and the Buff Clan fleet, killing nearly all of the cast, including children and even series creator Creator/YoshiyukiTomino. Doba is killed by his own soldiers after he refuses to stop perusing them. The Ganda Rowa destroys the Ideon with a massive blast, killing Cosmo and Deck along with the Ganda Rowa, wiping out all life in the cosmos. The rebirth ending from the show then occurs albeit expanded upon. Fun, eh?

** [[Anime/BeInvoked The movie]] expands things greatly but is just as, if not more bizarre as the tv series. Starting where the show ends with Doba declaring he will never stop pursuing the Solo Ship, the movie takes a different turn and continues the story. The Buff Clan finish work on a colossal super weapon called the Ganda Rowa which the Solo Ship tracks down. Earth and the Buff Clan homeworld are both obliterated by meteorites and Karala is shot dead by her sister Harulu. A massive battle breaks out between the Solo
Ship and the Buff Clan fleet, killing nearly all of the cast, including children and even series creator Creator/YoshiyukiTomino. Doba is killed by his own soldiers after he refuses to stop perusing them. The Ganda Rowa destroys the Ideon with a massive blast, killing Cosmo and Deck along with the Ganda Rowa, wiping out all life in the cosmos. The rebirth ending from the show then occurs albeit expanded upon. Fun, eh?

* Anime/SpaceRunawayIdeon ends rather anticlimactically where during a massive space battle, [[BigBad Big Bad]] Doba declares he will chase the Solo Ship and its crew to the ends of the universe, at which point [[HumungousMecha The Ideon]] awakens its otherworldly sentient energy source and wipes out both the human race and the Buff Clan as punishment for their seemingly endless bloody conflict and inability to stop fighting and sends their souls to opposite ends of the universe to be reborn. The series ends with Karala’s unborn child and resident kid of the Solo Ship Piper Lou floating together through space, leading the souls of humanity to rebirth. The End. All of this happens in the space of around 2 minutes.
** [[Anime/BeInvokedThe movie]] expands things greatly but is just as, if not more bizarre as the tv series. Starting where the show ends with Doba declaring he will never stop pursuing the Solo Ship, the movie takes a different turn and continues the story. The Buff Clan finish work on a colossal super weapon called the Ganda Rowa which the Solo Ship tracks down. Earth and the Buff Clan homeworld are both obliterated by meteorites and Karala is shot dead by her sister Harulu. A massive battle breaks out between the Solo

* ''Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam ends on a massive cliff-hanger where [[KillEmAll a massive amount of the cast die]], a plot choice brought on by Creator/YoshiyukiTomino’s at the time Depression. Kamille ends up with severe brain damage after Scirocco’s [[TakingYouWithMe dying attack]] mentally cripples him. Axis ends up basically winning the fight with the Titans nearly completely wiped out and the AEUG fleet heavily damaged, taking Emma and Captain Henken with it. The series ends with Fa taking the now child like Kamille back to the Argama in tears while the destroyed Hyaku-Shiki floats empty amongst the wreckage with its hatch wide open. End of series. Thankfully, these hanging threads would be resolved with the sequel series Anime/MobileSuitGundamZZ, while Char’s fate finally saw closure in Anime/MobileSuitGundamCharsCounterattack.