Unfinished Anime: “Because we all like getting half of the story.”

Kanu Unchou from Ikkitousen Dragon Destiny

I was commenting on Amayalee’s blog a few minutes ago on an article of the top 5 coolest women of anime with her choice being Lucy/Nyu as number one.  Elfen Lied is my favorite anime and I loved Lucy’s character (Nyu was just plain funny and so helpless it was somewhat sad) so I began showering here with praise and gave her remarks of my approval.  The only character (in my opinion) who is as awesome as Lucy is Kanu-Unchou from the three seasons of Ikkitousen.

Lucy from Elfen Lied

However since I was thinking of Elfen Lied it made me think about another subject in anime that drives me crazy and irritates me.  Whenever an anime does not finish the story and just stops halfway as compared to the manga.  For example Elfen Lied the anime is only thriteen episodes and one OVA which is like episode 10.5.  I wish so badly that they would make another season of Elfen Lied which would finish up the manga.  However, I strongly doubt that’s going to happen anytime soon, but you have no idea how happy I would be if a company in Japan decided to go on the endeavor of animating the rest of the manga.

The other example is the anime Tejho Tenge.  I thought the anime had great potential however, it was ruined by having an anime series with 24 total episodes and having at least ten of those episodes being about a flashback.  Now don’t get me wrong I understand the importance of backstory which helps reveal pasts and explains the circumstances of the current setting.  However, whenever there are around six straight episodes about a flashback it gets a little old. If you think about it that is a month and a half of not seeing the current characters. After the six episode flashback we get two episodes of current events progressing the story then we are plunged back into flashbacks.  I put up with it because I wanted to see the awesome fight tournament.

Big problem, it NEVER played the tournament, even with two OVA episodes.  I was so angry.  One of the last statements the main antagonist makes near the end is “We’ll finish this in the finals.” Finals referring to the tournament that never happens.  Then I realize that the story continues on in the manga.  I found the manga do be a thousand times better than the anime, and so did about everyone else.

These are series I can think of off the top of my head and I’m sure everyone can think of a series they enjoyed that does’t get finished in the anime but the story continues on in the manga.  Now I know ratings have something to do with the show continuing series, but unfinished stories just annoy me to no end.