Summary
Shōnen mangahave 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.
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 betweencharacter 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
6Naruto
When Plot Armor Ruins The Ending
EveryNarutofan 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 lastNaruto ShippūdenArc before Generations did nothing but leave the fans unsatisfied, and also furious with its creator.
5Demon Slayer
The Lackluster Final Fight, And The School-life Ending
Contrary toNaruto, the ending Arc ofDemon Slayerdoes 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 Kokushibouhad a seriously deep originand 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.
Not to mention that unsatisfactory ending: all that happened was a dream (a storytellingfaux paseven 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 futureDemon Slayermanga set in modern days? Or just senseless fan service? Either way, this left fans furious.
4The Seven Deadly Sins
The Poor Pacing And Loose Ends Kill The Mood
While the end ofTheSeven Deadly Sinswasn’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 to give meaning to the eventual sequel series.
Plus, this ending featured yet another failed war Arc, wherethe 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.
3Fairy Tail
Stagnated Due To Fan Service, Characters Showed No Significant Growth
Throughout the overarching saga of Zeref,Fairy Tailshowed 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 Questsurely was already in the makings, but honestly, fans have a hard time calling that final ArcFairy Tail’s ending.
2The Promised Neverland
Everyone Gets What They Want, No Sacrifice, No Pain
Every fan ofThe Promised Neverlandrecognized 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) serieswent 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.
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.
1My Hero Academia
The Most Unfair Ending Of All Time? Fans Say Yes
The story ofMy Hero Academiabasically 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’shappy 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 eclipseAttack On Titan’sPidgeon-Eren flop.
