the cousin of the “gainax ending”
Categories: commentary, moe
Tagged: moe:ponytail, moe:thighhighs, toradora, toradora:ami, toradora:minori, toradora:taiga
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I was looking for blog posts concerning the finale to Battlestar Galactica (and highly disappointed no one wrote a halfway decent one) when I stumbled across the mention of the Gainax Ending. Whoa. I don’t know why, but it caught me off-guard. Anime terms to describe non-anime entertainment… and people understanding it! What a world we live in.
(Though Galactica is nothing like a Gainax Ending– it tried, if anything, to be an Gainax Ending, but ultimately finished as a predictable product. A real Gainax Ending would be the end to the original series… though I still think Galactica should have ended with Lee Adama entering the Illusionary World, meeting his future daughter there, and then being sent back to a happier life with Starbuck. The original Starbuck, not the reimagined one.)
Toradora‘s final sprint to the end kind of caught me off-guard, more so than Galactica. Taiga’s mom was abruptly introduced, which made no sense to me whatsoever except to give Taiga a reason to run as well. Minori did put up a show, but Ami-chan, like always, seemed more like a secondary characters on par with Tomoyo in After Story. But the thing is, I don’t think Toradora‘s alone. It’s not uncommon for anime studios to rush a story to fit it in the allotted number of episodes (i.e. Gundam is always rushed, but there’s no source material to find out what Sunrise’s true intentions are… if they have any to begin with), but why does it seem like it happens more often than not with JC Staff?
A few of my readers were dismayed at how hurried the end of Shana was… and I didn’t think twice about it then since I never read any of the light novels until recently, and I think JC Staff cut out a lot of the love-love slice-of-life school days type of stories so they could make Shana anime action-packed and always going forward, much like what Kyoto did with The Second Raid. Except JC Staff never bothered to make a Fumoffu-like collection of those love-love slice-of-life school days type of stories. The thing is, those love-love slice-of-life school days type of stories aren’t just filler. They are, but they space out the action arcs and make the action arcs seem grander than the next so it won’t be just a continuous monster of the week kind of thing.
I see that effect now with Toradora. JC Staff pretty much sped through the last few volumes of the light novel to compress the entire series into 25 episodes. From what I’ve read of the light novel, they basically tried to cover all ten volumes with 25 episodes. No wonder something felt off about Toradora. Since maybe the Christmas arc, Toradora never slowed down. It just went full throttle plowing through major plot point after major plot point. But it never seemed to slow down and smell the roses. It’s even more jarring watching it against After Story, which too is going fast, but it at least slows down from time to time. I like the slower Toradora, the one that crossed the t’s and dotted the i’s.
Yes, I banged my fists against my coffee table when I saw Taiga push Takasu over the bridge. That was the Nagisa getting hit by a tennis ball moment– realizing that they would never bear Tomoya’s children even if Nagisa died, Kyou and Ryou weeped and weeped and weeped– moment of Toradora. Basically, the series is done. Yes, there’s still stuff going on, but aside from Kitamura pulling a Lee Adama with Starbuck on the dining room table with Takasu in the Zak passed-out-on-the-sofa role, the core focus of the series is done.
(Honestly, that’s not a hard call seeing Minori and Ami-chan bawling after that scene… and the marriage proposal… it’s late, okay? I’m tired. And I’m still trying to digest Galactica and the recent Yuno-related twist. Oh fuck it, I’ll post this tomorrow and toss up Mirai Nikki now.)
And seeing Takasu introduce Taiga as his waifu… well… I was wondering what kind of blog post I wanted to write… and JC Staff Ending kept popping in my mind. The bridge scene didn’t feel right and was definitely missing a kiss… let alone the Minori and Ami-chan sex scene. (Oh wait, that’s just a figment of my imagination? The kiss or the Minori and Ami-chan part? But I’m pretty sure they left one of the two out.)
Oddly enough, this isn’t happening with the other big JC Staff franchise going on– Toaru Majutsu no Index— which is on pace for 24 episodes covering 6 volumes of light novels. The big difference is that Index‘s stories are more compact and have less side stories that can be discarded, and Index will probably get a sequel (which will probably be rushed, but whatever).
Then I thought back to Mahoraba— Mahoraba!– about how the main Kozue-chan storyline got resolved in two episodes. I mean, that was only the meat of the series and spanned two volumes of manga, and it only got two half-assed episodes. Mahoraba ended up being 26 episodes for 12 volumes of manga… compare that to Kemeko DX which was 12 episodes for 3 volumes of manga and Mushishi which was 26 episodes for 6 volumes of manga. JC Staff really skimped on some important stories towards the end, like Sayoko finally being useful and the epic conclusion to the “Reiko” plotline. I’m sure all my remaining broken readers miss Reiko. JC Staff’s treatment of the end to Mahoraba was half-assed, and I felt rage we didn’t see the conclusion in the manga that should have been a ef-level catharsis. And that’s not even getting into the epilogue where we see the Narutaki gang timeskipped in the future.
I don’t know if it’s better to do things like Mushishi that just kinda stopped without resolution or half-ass it like Mahoraba, but if JC Staff is involved, get ready for a half-assing.
Then I thought about Nodame Cantabile. And then my blood pressure rose again. The first season JC Staff did was okay, and it ended at an appropriate point. The second Paris season… well… remember the high-speed train wreck that was at the end of Under Siege 2: Dark Territory? Yeah, like that. I thought the live action series was bad in pacing when they spent over 600 minutes covering the first 9 or so volumes of manga… and then spent 240 minutes covering the next 7 volumes (and glossing over Rui and other arcs). But JC Staff’s Paris trumped it by going about 300 minutes… and managing to just barely touch on everything in those same 7 volumes and feeling even less complete than the live action version (which will probably revisit some of those arcs in the next special / season). I hated how they went so fast through the plot, not stopping to play more than 15 second snippets of classical music. A big part of the manga is that there were whole chapters devoted to music… gone. It’s not a question of stopping and smelling the roses at this point– it was more like “Wait, there were roses? There was a Minori and Ami-chan sex scene?”
I don’t know enough of the originals of other recent JC Staff works, but their recent endings do feel rushed. Admittedly, I never got this impression until recently. In the past, shows like Ai Yori Aoshi, Spiral, and Excel Saga all felt right in terms of pacing, but short. Maybe once upon a time, JC Staff got burned thinking that they would be doing sequels and finishing up shows like Ai Yori Aoshi, Spiral, and Excel Saga but those final seasons never came and all three of those series are unfinished anime-wise. And all three deserved an ending, so now they overcompensate and just end it when they still can on their terms. And for that, let’s welcome the “JC Staff Ending” to the family.
23 Responses to “the cousin of the “gainax ending””
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Any thoughts on how JC Staff might handle Hayate?
Well, the Mahoraba criticisms are kinda unfair, given how the manga only ended over a year after the anime had finished airing (tv series aired: 2005-01-09 to 2005-06-26, manga vol 12: 2006-07-27 ) . Sure they made something up, but it was because they had to as the material for the manga ending simply did not exist at that point. (also I liked the anime ending, though the ending manga was superior.. overall for the rest of it the anime was nicer than the manga for me)
willowywicca, you are forgetting that the serialization of the manga in Gangan Wing ended in spring 2005. There’s an 18 month lag between the magazines and the tankoubons, and 12 did release in 2006. Irregardless, by 2005, Kojima knew how he was going to end the story.
“Mushishi that just kinda stopped without resolution”
the only way it could of stopped that way would be ginko finally turning into a toko no yami which would just be depressing
oh yes, Mahoraba… I always thought your comment about shooting yourself at denying the existence of traps was from chuyuri…
‘fine, i dont care… boy, girl, makes no difference. this is all your fault. youre so cute! It is exactly as you said.. it doesnt matter if theyre boys or girls.
I believed this day would come. Yes, until the end, I must. You need to be corrected!’
such great memories..
I think is much better an anime with an ending, even if a little rushed, than something open in the end, without any conclusion at all, unless of course, we know that will be another season. =]
This suggests that Taiga will be the one Kugimiya tsundere (Shana-type) to get somewhere with her man/slave. She’s gone farther than Shana, Louise, and (thankfully) Nagi.
I wholly agree. Takasu’s sudden change of stance from a big brotherish/dad one to a “suki” one felt rushed and forced, like he was being prodded into a cage. I persoanlly would have liked to have seen a Minorin ending, and if they coulda pulled off a Ami ending. That would have been epic.
I gotta give J.C. Staff credit for one thing: they never put us in any real danger of a Kitamura ending.
Despite being ‘half-assed’ as you say, Mahoraba was still one of if not the most entertaining show the seasons it was running.
As for Mushishi, they ran out of material to adapt. There should be enough now. Second season plz Japan.
Given the way that that show is structured, if it had had an ‘ending’ it would have been a copout and not worth watching.
Doesn’t Ai Yori Aoshi ~Enishi~ count as a sequel? Am I missing something here?
I actually perferr the gainax ending so i can go wtf all the time. At least the ending of Casshern was good just like Gurren Lagann. Almost every gundam show (except U.C. timeline “And except ZZ gundam”) felt kind of rush like Sunrise didn’t know how to pace when a series was about to end.
I agree. Mushishi was so episodic in nature that it would have destroyed a lot of the story by trying to put in an overriding plot to conclude. I’m personally very glad it stayed true to what it was showing how the mushishi affected humans.
On one hand rushing is bad, but on the other it could be really long and drawn out like any of the shonen anime’s like bleach or one piece. So little happens every episode that I get really bored. Still they have a limited amount of time and a vast amount of material to cover. If they were assuming that they wouldn’t get a second season than they would have to rush at some point and if they rush the beginning to much we might not know why they reacted the way they did at the end. I don’t really like the Toradora ending but I’ll survive. It could have been worse and at least he chose.
Yikes. That last episode was a doozy. I for one had actually liked the pace at which the plot was progressing, the twists and turns kept me interested waiting for what happened next. However on reflection they could have given the plot a little time to settle and sink in. Too much drama was compacted into the last episode, the developments that took place ended up having less of an impact than perhaps they should have.
But I digress. One more episode to go. JC Staff end it right.
>> Doesn’t Ai Yori Aoshi ~Enishi~ count as a sequel? Am I missing something here?
I meant to include Enishi… this is what happens when I write posts when I’m tired. But really, there’s still like 20 more volumes of manga to go.
>> I gotta give J.C. Staff credit for one thing: they never put us in any real danger of a Kitamura ending.
When Kitamura gave Takasu the money, it was one of the great bromance moments.
>> I think is much better an anime with an ending, even if a little rushed, than something open in the end, without any conclusion at all, unless of course, we know that will be another season.
I rather not have a rushed ending that made the series worse. Yes, I’m looking at you 2003 Full Metal Alchemist!
And what about Potemayo, Shigofumi, Asatte no Hokou, Ghost Hunt, Kimikiss, Azumanga, and I’m sure at least a half dozen more? Can’t you name at least as many JC Staff shows with solid endings as you can with bad ones?
Frankly, I’m with the people who say that any ending is better than no ending.
Besides, Toradora still rocks in my books.
>> And what about Potemayo, Shigofumi, Asatte no Hokou, Ghost Hunt, Kimikiss, Azumanga, and I’m sure at least a half dozen more? Can’t you name at least as many JC Staff shows with solid endings as you can with bad ones?
– Azumanga is the only series that I felt was paced properly in the list.
– Potemayo never finished. I’ll lump it in the Ai Yori Aoshi / Excel Saga group.
– Shigofumi skipped a lot of the filler stories and crammed 4 volumes into 12 episodes. Actually, worse yet, some of those filler stories became 3 minute DVD extras…
– Kimikiss was based off of a VN, so I’m not counting it. That’s a more complex beast to figure out.
– Asatte no Hokou crammed 5 volumes into 12 episodes.
It’s not about solid endings or good endings or bad endings. It’s about rushed anime. And, in the rush, a lot of side stories or stories that could be used to flush out the narrative get lost. I’m not saying these endings are terrible, but they aren’t as satisfying as a proper ending. Let me go back to Nodame… the first series had a proper conclusion. If they left it with Megumi headed to France with Chiaki, I’d be down with that. They covered the manga properly and didn’t drop or skim over any major plot arcs. For Paris, they definitely rushed to get to Chiaki’s concert, and they left basically just announced rather than told Rui’s arc during the process. Not the mention they shortened the conductor competition that was almost two volumes long to 10 minutes of screentime. Sure, they fit in Chiaki’s concert, but it was a cost to get there.
BTW, for longtime readers of my blog, you know that I don’t often defend my posts. But I’m feeling that through the comments so far, you guys didn’t get what I was trying to write, and that’s my failure. Either that or you guys just lost all blood to the brain, and that’s my bad for image selection.
I would love it for Spiral to get a proper ending.
A second season is fine too.
Oh man is Hayate season two going to be disappointing. I was really hoping SynergySP would still produce it…. but JC Staff likes hogging Rie Kugimiya, apparently.
Oh, a lot of us “got it”, actually. If it counts, I totally agreed with you, even if I don’t really have the JC Staff show viewing experience to back it up. The negative posters were either newcomers, readers who worship JC Staff, Rie Kugimiya, or combinations thereof.
My issue would be why haven’t you been blogging Index? I’ve started watching it a few weeks ago, and it’s actually quite fun.
And also: Knowing JC Staff’s track record, are you still deadset on having them animate Mirai Nikki?
Ah my bad then, while I did of course realise there was a gap between publication in a weekly/monthly magazine and the eventual tankobon publication, I though it to be a matter of 5-7 months, not 1 1/2 years. (The manga scanlations being years behind didn’t help with knowing either). And re: missing the point, I’m probably just being defensive as Mahoraba is one of my favourite animes lol.
I think you’re right about animes often rushing and trying to cram too much of the source into too limited an episode space. For me the main offender would be the original Negima! where Xebec went and crammed 3 entire volumes of the Kyoto Arc into just 2 episodes in the middle. >< But more often, due to poor planning, they tend to go through earlier things slower, then the cramming occurs right at the end when they seem to realise how much more they want to show and how little time is now left to them.
That being said, the final episode of Index was the complete opposite, it ended about 1/2 way through, and then the rest was them merely setting up future plot and opening up new loose ends instead of closing any, while probably whispering “buy the dvds, we’ll make a series 2 if you do, buy them!”. That being said, I’m greatly looking forwards to the Railgun anime, and hopeful that MISAKA will appear often!
You want a good blog post on Battlestar Galactica’s ending?
Try this blog:
http://wrongquestions.blogspot.....0galactica