Sealed with a Kiss

"The curtains close / on a kiss God knows / we can tell the end is near."

— Buffy the Vampire Slayer, "Once More With Feeling"

When the Official Couple kiss at or very near the ending of the series or film. If the kiss itself isn't the very last shot, it will probably be followed by their wedding, a dance, Riding into the Sunset, or closing the bedroom door. If the kiss is the very last shot, bonus cheese points may be awarded for ending with an Iris Out centered on it.

Chances are good this will precede any ending narration or title card that says "And they lived Happily Ever After."

Being an Ending Trope, it's a given the examples contain SPOILERS. Consider yourself warned.

Sometimes a sub-trope of Last-Minute Hookup, or it might happen at a Wedding Finale. Not to be confused with Last Kiss, A Magic Contract Comes with a Kiss, or Signed with a Kiss.

---

Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Bakuman。 ends with Mashiro and Azuki kissing.
• The last scene of the Blue Comet SPT Layzner OAV, which is also the end of the whole series, features Anna and Eiji having quite The Big Damn Kiss.
• Brigadoon: Marin and Melan ends with the title characters kissing. It might be a good-bye, kiss, though, so this may actually be a Bittersweet Ending.
• Corsair ends this way, with the protagonists kissing on the top deck of their ship.
• D.N.Angel ends with Daisuke and Riku sharing a kiss while Risa and Hitawi are hinted to hook up later. Actually, the only "hint" is that they could be seen as gazing at each other. Whether this actually was supposed to be a hint or not is debated in fandom.
• The ending of the fourth season of High School D×D has Issei and Rias kiss.
• I'm Gonna Be an Angel! ends with Noelle and Yuusuke kissing, mirroring their first kiss from the first episode. For some, Raphael and Mikael also count, though theirs is not 'that' visible
• Sailor Moon:
  • The manga ends with Usagi and Mamoru kissing at their wedding.
  • The 90s anime ends with Usagi and Mamoru kissing in the moonlight.
  • Sailor Moon Crystal's Closing Credits end on a kiss between Serenity and Endymion as they're reflected in water, with the precise moment their lips touch obscured by ripples.
• Simon and Nia kiss at their wedding in the final episode of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Interestingly, it's also a Last Kiss, since Nia's existence cannot be sustained any longer because she has Anti-Spiral data in her, and she fades away.
• The World God Only Knows has Keima kiss each Girl of the Week at the end of her arc; this drives out the "loose spirit" inside them, allowing Elsie to capture it. Also a Last Kiss, because the girl forgets their entire relationship afterward though some of them get their memories back later.

Comic Books

• DC Pride 2022: Most, but not all, of the stories in this anthology end with couples kissing.
• Super Mario Adventures ends its last chapter with Toadstool giving Mario a kiss on the cheek.
• Wonder Woman Vol 1: The final chapter closes on a kiss between the newlywed Diana and Steve Trevor.

Fan Fiction

• Just Another Morning: After Katara gets her breath back from the Friendly Tickle Torture inflicted upon her by Aang, she kisses him to thank him for waking her up.
• In Perfection Is Overrated, Shizuru and Natsuki's last scene together ends with them kissing.
• Sunsplit Saga: At the end of Sunspawned, Sunset and Sunburst kiss to test it out.

Films — Animated

• In The Book of Life, Manolo and Maria kiss as Mary Beth finishes telling their story to the children. Also, once Mary Beth and the old security guard reveal themselves as La Muerte and Xibalba, the two share a passionate kiss as the movie ends.
• Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs ends with Sam and Flint finally getting to kiss, punctuated by Brent yelling "Yeah! I'm a chicken!"
• Disney, naturally, Loves This Trope:
  • Cinderella: Cinderella and Prince Charming on the way to their honeymoon (as seen in the image).
  • Sleeping Beauty: Aurora and Philip after sharing a waltz.
  • Robin Hood: Robin Hood and Maid Marian on the way to their honeymoon.
  • The Little Mermaid: Ariel and Eric during their wedding reception.
  • Beauty and the Beast: Belle and Adam after sharing a waltz.^note The dance and the kiss both recycle animation from Sleeping Beauty.
  • Aladdin and Jasmine seal their love with a kiss at the end before embarking on another flying carpet ride.
  • The Princess and the Frog: Tiana and Naveen while dancing on the balcony of Tiana's Palace.
  • Tangled ends with Rapunzel and Eugene kissing while (in narration) the latter answers the question "Did Rapunzel and I ever get married?"
• Futurama: "Into the Wild Green Yonder" has Fry and Leela finally kiss before the crew flies through a wormhole to escape Zapp.
• Howl's Moving Castle: The final shot of the film is Sophie and Howl sharing a kiss and then Riding into the Sunset.
• The Last: Naruto the Movie ends with Naruto and Hinata sharing The Big Damn Kiss up in the air with Full Moon Silhouette behind. When the scene blacks out, you can hear Naruto thanking Hinata. The ending credits immediately follows, and it features their wedding, and then The Stinger shows them with their children Boruto and Himawari playing in the snow.
• The Nightmare Before Christmas ends with Jack and Sally sharing their first kiss.
• Summer Wars ends with a kiss. Kenji doesn't quite have the balls to do it, so Natsuki has to take things into her own hands and give him a peck on the cheek. He collapses as a result.
• The Swan Princess ends each of its first three movies with Derek and Odette kissing, via Stock Footage of the first time they locked lips.
• Robin and Starfire kiss at the end of Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo. Cyborg remarks it's about time.
• Don Bluth's Thumbelina ends as Thumbelina and the prince kiss, now married.

Films — Live Action

• Breakfast at Tiffany's ends with Paul and Holly kissing in the rain.
• Bring It On: Torrance and Cliff in the final scene get their Relationship Upgrade with this. "So how’s second place?" "Feels like first."
• The 1958 film version of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof ends with Brick and Maggie kissing.
• Fantastic Four (2005) ends with the leads kissing.
• The Girl Next Door: Matthew and Danielle end the movie with a kiss.
• High School Musical 2 ends with the leads kissing.
• This is the standard ending for James Bond films, although the woman saying "Oh, James..." only came later. A few examples:
  • Dr. No: Bond and Honey Ryder make out in a rescue raft while throwing away the mooring rope tying them to a Coast Guard ship.
  • On Her Majesty's Secret Service is famous for lacking such an ending. Poor Tracy. ;-;
  • The Man with the Golden Gun: Bond disconnects a phone call from M to make out with Mary Goodnight.
  • The Spy Who Loved Me:
  Gray: Bond! What do you think you’re doing?!
  Bond: Keeping the British end up, sir.
  • The Living Daylights: Kara Milovy is disappointed that Bond didn't attend her concert. Turns out he did, and sneaked into her dressing room. It's famous for being the most WAFFy ending of a Bond film.
  • The ending of the tremendously Darker and Edgier Licence to Kill has a WAFFy ending as well.
  • Tomorrow Never Dies: Bond declines rescue from the Royal Navy in South China Sea so he can make out with Wai Lin. Fridge Logic dictates that they would end up drowning, but oh well...
  • Casino Royale (2006), Quantum of Solace and Skyfall don't have any such scenes yet, and as such, only time will tell...
• A movie version of the myth Jason and the Argonauts ends with Hera and Zeus watching Jason and Medea kiss. (They neglect to tell you what came next, of course...)
• In the Mockumentary A Mighty Wind, Mitch and Mickey's song "A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow" always used to end with them kissing during the last line. During the reunion concert, there is a pregnant pause at that point, and then they do kiss, even though they have been broken up for years. After the concert we see interviews of both Mitch and Mickey claiming that the kiss meant more to the other person than to them.
• Paris When It Sizzles discusses the trope before using and lampshading it at the end.
• Pretty in Pink ends with Andie and Blaine making out in the parking lot.
• The Princess Bride. "This kiss left them all behind." Notably, the book goes on for a little bit, opting for And the Adventure Continues.
• Rob the Mob: Ends with a kiss between the two protagonists. Unfortunately, it's a Downer Ending...
• Naturally happens in the animated feature Romeo & Juliet: Sealed with a Kiss.
• Singin' in the Rain ends with Don and Kathy kissing in front of a billboard for their next movie.
• Sky High (2005) ends with The Hero and his childhood friend kissing and floating in the air.
• Some Like It Hot has Sugar and Joe cap off their last scene by kissing in the back of Osgood's motorboat; they continue kissing in the background while an argument Osgood and Jerry have in the front of the boat wraps up the whole film.
• Spaceballs has Lone Starr and Vespa kiss after engaging in "the short short version" of a wedding.
• The first Spider-Man film subverts this trope. Mary Jane confesses her love to Peter and kisses him. Peter turns her down and insists that can only be friends, knowing that if Spider-Man's enemies found out about her, she would be in constant danger. The second film plays it straight when the two kiss passionately.
• Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones ends with Anakin and Padme kissing during their secret wedding.
• The ending of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) movie features April and Casey kissing, with the Turtles watching above from a rooftop congratulating them.
• Wings (1927) has Jack and Mary share a kiss after seeing a shooting star.

Literature

• In Date A Live, almost every arc ends with Shido kissing the Girl of the Week. (This seals their power and allows them to live normally.)
• After one year of Twice Shy and another being forced apart by Amalgam, Kaname and Sousuke finally make up for lost time with a Big Damn Kiss in front of the whole school body on the last two pages of Full Metal Panic!'s final volume.
• Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Last Olympian gets Percy and Annabeth together. "And it was pretty much the best underwater kiss of all time."

Live-Action TV

• The Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Once More, With Feeling". It's lampshaded just before it happens with the lyric "The curtains close on a kiss, God knows we can tell the end is near."
• In the series finale of Chuck, the last image is of Chuck and Sarah kissing on the beach.
• The end of season four of Merlin more or less ends on the image of Arthur and Guinevere kissing as he crowns her Queen of Camelot (though there is a brief Sequel Hook afterwards involving Morgana in the forest).
• Sabrina the Teenage Witch does this with Sabrina and Harvey in the last episode.
  • Also lampshaded in the episode that turns the Spellman household into a silent movie. Everything suddenly turns back to normal after Sabrina and Harvey kiss. The aunts explain that the kiss broke the spell because silent movies always end with a kiss, or a comedic pratfall.
• In Scrubs's Season 8 finale (which was supposed to be the Grand Finale, but wasn't), the last image J.D. sees on the "Goodbye" sign is of him and Elliot kissing.

Video Games

• The Playstation version of Chrono Trigger added a movie of Crono's and Marle's marriage to the standard ending. The same movie also shows Kino proposing to Ayla and Frog (in his human form) being knighted.
• The ending of the Witch Hunt DLC for Dragon Age: Origins can be the player character and Morrigan embracing before stepping off into the unknown.
• Final Fantasy:
  • Final Fantasy VIII ends with Squall and Rinoa kissing as the Balamb Garden flies under the moonlight.
  • Final Fantasy XV has Noctis and Luna share one of these in the post-credit stinger during their wedding in the afterlife.
• In Stardew Valley, if the player character is married, in the ending cutscene at the valley's summit which is unlocked after attaining 100% Completion, they will be joined by their spouse who will say how far they've come together in the last years and how happy they are, then they kiss and the credit sequence rolls.

Web Original

• Kid Radd, only it ends right before the kiss, which pisses the hero to no end.
• Ruby Quest has Ruby and Tom kiss right before they escape the Metal Glen and ride a tram into the sunset.

Western Animation

• The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius managed to do this without anyone planning it. The show was abruptly cancelled after its third season (at least 4 scripts for Season 4 had already been written). Not only that, but the big Villain Team-Up episode that was originally intended to serve as the third season finale was aired almost a year and a half before the season ended. The result? One of the last 3 episodes to air ("Lady Sings the Blues") had a B-plot of Jimmy and Cindy accepting their feelings for each other and ended with them kissing on the lips, which is why half the fandom considers it the series finale.
• Avatar franchise:
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender: The final shot of the series is of Aang and Katara getting their Big Damn Kiss outside of Iroh's tea shop, which slowly pans up to the setting sun.
  • The first season of The Legend of Korra ends shortly after Korra and Mako kiss.
• Batman: The Animated Series: Although not said with it's usually intended meaning, Poison Ivy directly quotes this in "Pretty Poison" before applying her special lipstick and sharing a deep, passionate kiss with an unwilling Batman. Given what type of person Ivy is her subversion was likely intentional.
• Kim Possible:
  • So the Drama, which was supposed to be the Finale Movie until the series got renewed for another season, closes with Kim and Ron kissing at the school dance.
  • "Graduation", the finale of the fourth and final season, ends with Kim and Ron kissing as they fly off into the moon-set in their flying car.
• Danny Phantom: The last scene of the Series Finale Phantom Planet has Danny and Sam kiss. Then Danny takes Sam for a romantic flight into the sunset as the series ends.
• Gargoyles: Elisa kisses Goliath at the end of the second season finale. It's the end of the series, not counting the non-canonical third season.
• Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM): Sonic and Sally kiss in the final episode, although it's followed by a Cliffhanger.
• Steven Universe: Future: Steven and Connie aren't seen kissing on the lips until near the end of "The Future", right before Steven moves out of the Gem Temple and leaves Beach City on a Journey to Find Oneself.
• Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!: The final episode ends with a Cliffhanger, but not before Nova gives Sprx a kiss on the cheek after confessing her love for him.

---