Summary
- Naruto's finale left fans unsatisfied due to excessive plot armor & lack of character development.
- Demon Slayer's ending disappointed with lackluster final fight and a school-life twist.
- My Hero Academia's conclusion was deemed unfair by fans, leaving the main character back at square one.
Shōnen manga have something special that makes them particularly appealing to younger audiences, as well as young adults and mature viewers as well. It's easy to say that this is the most popular genre, or one of the most accepted among fans of Japanese comics. However, shōnen is also infamous for one thing: unsatisfactory endings.
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Many of the series that end up slowly but steadily wrapping up after years, or even after a whole decade, have been struggling to meet that concluding sweet spot between character development and "hope for the future." Something that all fans eagerly await in the last chapter of their favorite series: Closure. The shōnen manga series in this list have such unsatisfactory endings that fans might be grinding their gears for years to come thinking about how their favorite series ended like that.
Spoilers Ahead for all series listed
6 Naruto
When Plot Armor Ruins The Ending
- Author(s): Masashi Kishimoto
- Initial Release Date: September,1999.
- Ending Date: November 10, 2014.
- Genres: Martial Arts, Battle Manga, Adventure, Mild-Fantasy, Action, Adventure
Every Naruto fan is familiar with the Fourth Ninja World War Arc and how it failed both as a finale for the series, and as a War story. Though it had its moments (like Asuma's reunion with Team 10), it cannot be denied that the narrative itself was swamped with the effects of plot armor, activated when convenient to save the life of several characters that had poor development, while taking the lives of others who deserved a happy ending.
As a closing Arc, and the unavoidable outcome of it, the last Naruto Shippūden Arc before Generations did nothing but leave the fans unsatisfied, and also furious with its creator.
5 Demon Slayer
The Lackluster Final Fight, And The School-life Ending
- Author(s): Koyoharu Gotōge
- Initial Release Date: February 15, 2016
- Ending Date: May 15, 2020
- Genres: Supernatural, Terror, Dark Fantasy, Action, Drama, Adventure
Contrary to Naruto, the ending Arc of Demon Slayer does what the former didn't do: it shows the consequences of war, with a lot of sad deaths to be grieved by the fans of the manga. Even with that said, the Battle Against Muzan Arc was noticeably short and had its flaws. The main issue is the huge difference in the combat scenes, specifically the Kokushibou and Muzan fights. While Kokushibou had a seriously deep origin and also put up one of the best fights in the whole series, Muzan (who was supposed to be the demon progenitor) fell short and didn't really feel like the BBEG.
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Not to mention that unsatisfactory ending: all that happened was a dream (a storytelling faux pas even among amateur writers), and the dreamer was a descendant of Zenitsu and Nezuko, who just so happens to be the spitting image of Tanjirō. To top it off, that school manga ending was, if nothing else, suspicious. Was it a spoiler about a future Demon Slayer manga set in modern days? Or just senseless fan service? Either way, this left fans furious.
4 The Seven Deadly Sins
The Poor Pacing And Loose Ends Kill The Mood
- Author(s): Nakaba Suzuki
- Initial Release Date: October 10, 2012
- Ending Date: March 25, 2020
- Genres: Action, High Fantasy, Battle Manga, Adventure
While the end of The Seven Deadly Sins wasn't that bad in terms of overall quality, it left a huge information gap and so many loose ends that the fans are still trying to wrap their heads around it. It is perhaps, as many fans think, a foothold that the author left in order to give meaning to the eventual sequel series.
Plus, this ending featured yet another failed war Arc, where the consequences are tremendously sugarcoated, and there's barely any fighting. The plot focuses too much on the main fight (The Sins Vs The Demon King) and other characters are sidelined, like Gilthunder, who had great character development, but so much wasted potential. Ultimately, the pacing was all off, and felt like the last Arc was unnecessarily elongated just for the sake of prolonging the unavoidable. Considering that the war didn't last years but just a few days, it doesn't make sense that it spans so many manga chapters.
3 Fairy Tail
Stagnated Due To Fan Service, Characters Showed No Significant Growth
- Author(s): Mashima Hiro
- Initial Release Date: August, 2006
- Ending Date: July 26, 2017
- Genres: Action, Battle Manga, Fantasy, Adventure, Comedy, Drama
Throughout the overarching saga of Zeref, Fairy Tail showed true potential to become a classic dark fantasy shōnen manga, with one of the deepest and darkest plots yet, and implying a great secret origin story for the fan's favorite Dragon Slayer: Natsu. What fans didn't like at all, was that the War against Zeref ended up being so anti-climatic, and was resolved in such a poor manner that it disappointed every follower of Mashima's shōnen.
The fights against Dark Mages are all tremendously clumsy, and while all the characters had been showing a little growth (both in maturity and character development), what we see in this final Arc is nothing but improvised headbutting against the allegedly "most powerful Mages in history." Even an ancient and powerful Enchantress (and Dragon Slayer) like Irene was defeated in such an anti-climatic and senseless battle that it left fans thinking: Where is this going? Of course, the follow-up series' 100-Year-Old Quest surely was already in the makings, but honestly, fans have a hard time calling that final Arc Fairy Tail's ending.
2 The Promised Neverland
Everyone Gets What They Want, No Sacrifice, No Pain
- Author(s): Kaiu Shirai - Posuka Demizu
- Initial Release Date: August, 2016
- Ending Date: June 15, 2020
- Genres: Action, Drama, Dark Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Terror
Every fan of The Promised Neverland recognized that this series was great in all respects; its overall quality and depth of characters was above the norm. The first Arcs of this incredible (though short) series went very well, until the Imperial Capital Battle Arc. That's the exact moment when things derailed. It all started with Norman's redemption after committing some seriously heinous acts, when Emma simply convinces him to "turn back to the light side" as if nothing had happened.
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After a few other lackluster stories, then comes the thing that everyone feared: the manga was slowly but steadily becoming sugarcoated. It was made tremendously obvious when the ending basically gave every character what they wanted, without requiring any meaningful sacrifice in the process. Of course, there was no equivalent exchange in this series, as all fans know, but the ending came crashing down like a wrecking ball. All things considered, it was lackluster and anti-climatic, and the series deserved better closure.
1 My Hero Academia
The Most Unfair Ending Of All Time? Fans Say Yes
- Author(s): Kohei Horikoshi
- Initial Release Date: July 7, 2014
- Ending Date: August 5, 2024
- Genres: Action, School Life, superheroes, Battle Manga
The story of My Hero Academia basically begins with the premise: "This is the story of how I became the greatest hero in the world." By now, fans should be seriously pissed about how Deku's happy ending was naught but a facade, a consolation prize after all that struggle, character development, and sacrifice. He is back at square 0, with nothing to show.
His friends have moved on, he is seriously depressed (though he fights really hard to not let it show), and he "allegedly" has the job that he always dreamed of. A paradox in itself, or perhaps a metaphor, what the writers wanted to show their fans was that "Teachers are the true greatest heroes in the world." Nevertheless, fans have some real bad blood with that ending, and it was so unsatisfying that it might eclipse Attack On Titan's Pidgeon-Eren flop.
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