Cliffs Notes
I was on ANN the other day and I was reading the comments on the
site’s top seven list of the most frustrating cliffhangers in anime. I recall
getting into that discussion many times over my anime viewing history. I’ll
rehash that discussion now.
Not too long ago I would have certainly put Inuyasha at the top of my list. As a long running series that I enjoyed, it irked me to no end how it stopped. It wasn't even so much as the fact it stopped, but where it stopped. And the damage was done as, despite Final Act being made I still haven't seen it, so to me it still feels incomplete. But this raises an important point for discussion; namely, mitigating factors.
For one, I have to say there is a difference between a cliffhanger from an ending, and a cliffhanger from a stoppage. What’s the difference? Inuyasha was a stoppage. It wasn’t that the series “ended” in so far as it reached a reasoned conclusion, as much as it stopped because of other circumstances. In other words the end of the original Inuyasha season wasn’t meant to be the end of the story, it simply stopped because they couldn’t make the end.
This phenomenon is increasingly common for two reasons. First, you have a lot more series in general which are based on manga and light novels. This produces its own set of consequences, including the fact that many series are made as promotions for the written medium that predates the anime. In this way the anime highlights the manga or LN and helps boost its sales. But that means that it cannot deviate too much from the source, and certainly can’t supersede its story. That means if it catches up to the source material, it has to stop and wait for that source to build a new lead. If it takes too long for that to happen, people forget the series or get caught up in new things. They may not have the patience or ability to wait around for the story to pick up again. I deem this not as an ending to an anime, but the anime’s stoppage. It didn’t end, it simply failed to continue.
Likewise consumers/fans play a major role now. Fans are potential consumers. They are very vocal. The sale of DVDs and Blu-rays have a huge impact on judging the failure or success of a series. If people don’t pay for the videos, or sales of source material to appreciably increase, the anime is easily deemed a failure. As such criticism can doom a series. Stuff like complaints over how closely it follows source material or the choice of voice actors can negatively impact an anime series even before it gets going. As a result, while a story may have an ending in mind, it may not last long enough to get to it. It may be a series that gets clearance for a first season, but the story needs two or more seasons to tell. It doesn’t get a good response, it ends before it gets to that rest of the story. It becomes a cliffhanger in the technical sense, but it’s not as deliberately jagged as it seems.
Many series nowadays are unintentional cliffhangers like the ones I described above. They end on a cliff, the expectation being that the series will continue one day. But for whatever reason it doesn’t get that continue and so it simply stops, its story left unfinished. Yumekui Merry is one such show in recent memory. It’s anime ended long enough ago that the fact there isn’t a sequel announced by now means the series is dead. If you want to know the rest of the story, you’ll have to hunt down the manga. Deadman Wonderland, Claymore, and Tenjho Tenge are other good examples along those lines that were mentioned in the ANN comments section and high on my personal list of jagged cliffs. Another similar situation is Pandora Hearts, although with the caveat that they half-a**ed their way to a pseudo alternate ending.
The last series’ I’ve mentioned have mangas that continued (and in the case of Deadman and Tenjho Tenge have ended) so the material is there for a continuation should there be enough support for it. Others, such as High School of the Dead or D.Gray-Man have done little in the way of fleshing out the manga at all, so even if the will were there for the anime to continue, there’s no story to animate. Arguably if there was a will the author would be writing that story, but sometimes they simply aren’t able to. I know that in the case of D.Gray-man the mangaka was sick for a time and simply couldn’t continue on. Don’t know their status at the moment, but it’s not hard to imagine they simply have no drive any more for the story after having to take a break from it for so long. In the case of HotD the mangaka simply got caught up in doing other stuff. Either way, you’re stuck in a situation where there is no more story available.
There’s of course another type of cliffhanger; the deliberate one. These are more common of original anime – anime that are anime first, not benefitting of a manga or light novel predating it. The cliffhangers on these can be for similar reasons to the ones I mentioned for those that do have those source materials. They start as once season, hoping for enough approval to get a second, but never get that needed popularity or support. More of often than not, however, they simply end as a cliffhanger because that’s the way the writers and creators intended it.
Valvrave is a good example of this. The show ends with a ton of unanswered questions after completing its two season run. Aside from the choice of ending there was never any indication that there was meant to be another season to follow. The story was supposed to be wrapped up with season two. While the major storyline was more or less resolved (even that wasn’t exactly done up right) they introduced so much through that second season that they didn’t put much if any time into addressing.
This raises the next question – is it a cliffhanger or just a bad ending? The two are not the same, though one is often a result of the other. Sometimes a story simply has a bad ending. Either the writers simply wrote with the expectation of another season, or they just didn’t do a good job of finishing the story. This results in a cliff formed not with intent for stylistic purpose or anything like that, simply a badly written ending. They just ended it without much added thought.
This gets to one final point; a real cliffhanger versus just a good series. Every story, and every cliffhanger, terminates at the same idea – leave the crowd wanting more. A cliffhanger when used properly is a means of teasing the audience by showing enough to hook them, but leaving enough for the story to continue later and have that audience want to come back to see the rest. A good series does the same thing. It tells a great story and is so well done, so engaging, so entertaining, you don’t want it to end and you’ll look forward to the next production by the group that put it together.
The pseudo cliffs to Cowboy Bebop and Code Geass are along those lines. Bebop’s ending is a little bit more clear-cut than Geass, but there are still those who doubt it and that doubt allows for a theoretical possibility for a continuation. Could Spike have survived that wound and fall out that window? You can certainly conceive a means for that to happen, but it’s not particularly likely given the situation or the way the ending was shown. Even more with Geass with the role of supernatural elements in the story, you can drive yourself nuts trying to come up with a way that the story keeps going and play with the fact that a glimmer to survival is given. But the reality is that any reasonable attention paid to the plot of the series and the ending doesn’t leave anything but that tiny glimmer, which might as well be the glint of light off a piece of fools gold.
In these two cases, and in many others throughout anime, there isn’t a whole lot ambiguous or left unfinished by the end of the anime. Nevertheless, because the show itself was so beloved there are those who will always want more. That desire for more creates the illusion of a cliff, when all that’s really there is a first-floor window.
Many anime by nature lend themselves to this. For example, the Gundam series technically will never have an ending. Why? Because the goal usually stated at the outset of each series in the many universes of Gundam is an end to war, and the story revolves around characters in their teens to early twenties, it is forever possible to continue that story. You cover the end of a single war with the anime, but it’s impossible to say another won’t start after some time. That is how you end up revisiting the Universal Century so many times – there is always some other conflict that can be covered.
In a sense this can befall any anime. Most events covered in any anime are not in themselves once-in-a-lifetime events that can’t be replicated one way or another. The fact that the characters are often so young, ostensibly any story can therefore tell the story of that character’s life years later. That leaves a small cliff to all but a rare few anime series. Add the potential for kids or grandkids in the shadows of their predecessor’s antics (if for instance Kagome and Inuyasha actually had kids) you end up with a positive feedback loop of possible cliffs based on the very simple setup.
Cliffs have the potential for amazing beauty. But like any literary device, such as the twist, if overused or not used properly, it can doom a series. Here’s hoping no series this season winds up on someone’s list of shows that end on a bad, jagged, cliff.
Not too long ago I would have certainly put Inuyasha at the top of my list. As a long running series that I enjoyed, it irked me to no end how it stopped. It wasn't even so much as the fact it stopped, but where it stopped. And the damage was done as, despite Final Act being made I still haven't seen it, so to me it still feels incomplete. But this raises an important point for discussion; namely, mitigating factors.
For one, I have to say there is a difference between a cliffhanger from an ending, and a cliffhanger from a stoppage. What’s the difference? Inuyasha was a stoppage. It wasn’t that the series “ended” in so far as it reached a reasoned conclusion, as much as it stopped because of other circumstances. In other words the end of the original Inuyasha season wasn’t meant to be the end of the story, it simply stopped because they couldn’t make the end.
This phenomenon is increasingly common for two reasons. First, you have a lot more series in general which are based on manga and light novels. This produces its own set of consequences, including the fact that many series are made as promotions for the written medium that predates the anime. In this way the anime highlights the manga or LN and helps boost its sales. But that means that it cannot deviate too much from the source, and certainly can’t supersede its story. That means if it catches up to the source material, it has to stop and wait for that source to build a new lead. If it takes too long for that to happen, people forget the series or get caught up in new things. They may not have the patience or ability to wait around for the story to pick up again. I deem this not as an ending to an anime, but the anime’s stoppage. It didn’t end, it simply failed to continue.
Likewise consumers/fans play a major role now. Fans are potential consumers. They are very vocal. The sale of DVDs and Blu-rays have a huge impact on judging the failure or success of a series. If people don’t pay for the videos, or sales of source material to appreciably increase, the anime is easily deemed a failure. As such criticism can doom a series. Stuff like complaints over how closely it follows source material or the choice of voice actors can negatively impact an anime series even before it gets going. As a result, while a story may have an ending in mind, it may not last long enough to get to it. It may be a series that gets clearance for a first season, but the story needs two or more seasons to tell. It doesn’t get a good response, it ends before it gets to that rest of the story. It becomes a cliffhanger in the technical sense, but it’s not as deliberately jagged as it seems.
Many series nowadays are unintentional cliffhangers like the ones I described above. They end on a cliff, the expectation being that the series will continue one day. But for whatever reason it doesn’t get that continue and so it simply stops, its story left unfinished. Yumekui Merry is one such show in recent memory. It’s anime ended long enough ago that the fact there isn’t a sequel announced by now means the series is dead. If you want to know the rest of the story, you’ll have to hunt down the manga. Deadman Wonderland, Claymore, and Tenjho Tenge are other good examples along those lines that were mentioned in the ANN comments section and high on my personal list of jagged cliffs. Another similar situation is Pandora Hearts, although with the caveat that they half-a**ed their way to a pseudo alternate ending.
The last series’ I’ve mentioned have mangas that continued (and in the case of Deadman and Tenjho Tenge have ended) so the material is there for a continuation should there be enough support for it. Others, such as High School of the Dead or D.Gray-Man have done little in the way of fleshing out the manga at all, so even if the will were there for the anime to continue, there’s no story to animate. Arguably if there was a will the author would be writing that story, but sometimes they simply aren’t able to. I know that in the case of D.Gray-man the mangaka was sick for a time and simply couldn’t continue on. Don’t know their status at the moment, but it’s not hard to imagine they simply have no drive any more for the story after having to take a break from it for so long. In the case of HotD the mangaka simply got caught up in doing other stuff. Either way, you’re stuck in a situation where there is no more story available.
There’s of course another type of cliffhanger; the deliberate one. These are more common of original anime – anime that are anime first, not benefitting of a manga or light novel predating it. The cliffhangers on these can be for similar reasons to the ones I mentioned for those that do have those source materials. They start as once season, hoping for enough approval to get a second, but never get that needed popularity or support. More of often than not, however, they simply end as a cliffhanger because that’s the way the writers and creators intended it.
Valvrave is a good example of this. The show ends with a ton of unanswered questions after completing its two season run. Aside from the choice of ending there was never any indication that there was meant to be another season to follow. The story was supposed to be wrapped up with season two. While the major storyline was more or less resolved (even that wasn’t exactly done up right) they introduced so much through that second season that they didn’t put much if any time into addressing.
This raises the next question – is it a cliffhanger or just a bad ending? The two are not the same, though one is often a result of the other. Sometimes a story simply has a bad ending. Either the writers simply wrote with the expectation of another season, or they just didn’t do a good job of finishing the story. This results in a cliff formed not with intent for stylistic purpose or anything like that, simply a badly written ending. They just ended it without much added thought.
This gets to one final point; a real cliffhanger versus just a good series. Every story, and every cliffhanger, terminates at the same idea – leave the crowd wanting more. A cliffhanger when used properly is a means of teasing the audience by showing enough to hook them, but leaving enough for the story to continue later and have that audience want to come back to see the rest. A good series does the same thing. It tells a great story and is so well done, so engaging, so entertaining, you don’t want it to end and you’ll look forward to the next production by the group that put it together.
The pseudo cliffs to Cowboy Bebop and Code Geass are along those lines. Bebop’s ending is a little bit more clear-cut than Geass, but there are still those who doubt it and that doubt allows for a theoretical possibility for a continuation. Could Spike have survived that wound and fall out that window? You can certainly conceive a means for that to happen, but it’s not particularly likely given the situation or the way the ending was shown. Even more with Geass with the role of supernatural elements in the story, you can drive yourself nuts trying to come up with a way that the story keeps going and play with the fact that a glimmer to survival is given. But the reality is that any reasonable attention paid to the plot of the series and the ending doesn’t leave anything but that tiny glimmer, which might as well be the glint of light off a piece of fools gold.
In these two cases, and in many others throughout anime, there isn’t a whole lot ambiguous or left unfinished by the end of the anime. Nevertheless, because the show itself was so beloved there are those who will always want more. That desire for more creates the illusion of a cliff, when all that’s really there is a first-floor window.
Many anime by nature lend themselves to this. For example, the Gundam series technically will never have an ending. Why? Because the goal usually stated at the outset of each series in the many universes of Gundam is an end to war, and the story revolves around characters in their teens to early twenties, it is forever possible to continue that story. You cover the end of a single war with the anime, but it’s impossible to say another won’t start after some time. That is how you end up revisiting the Universal Century so many times – there is always some other conflict that can be covered.
In a sense this can befall any anime. Most events covered in any anime are not in themselves once-in-a-lifetime events that can’t be replicated one way or another. The fact that the characters are often so young, ostensibly any story can therefore tell the story of that character’s life years later. That leaves a small cliff to all but a rare few anime series. Add the potential for kids or grandkids in the shadows of their predecessor’s antics (if for instance Kagome and Inuyasha actually had kids) you end up with a positive feedback loop of possible cliffs based on the very simple setup.
Cliffs have the potential for amazing beauty. But like any literary device, such as the twist, if overused or not used properly, it can doom a series. Here’s hoping no series this season winds up on someone’s list of shows that end on a bad, jagged, cliff.
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