There is no similar feeling to the one you feel when a series you’re devoted to abruptly ends. It feels like it takes a part of your soul, lingers for a long time hoping it gets picked up and you get closure. You make your grievance known on forums, you share your feelings with other kindred spirits, and hope the studio picks the series up again.
Every anime deserves a long run, we’ll agree to that. So many anime lived to see several seasons thanks to the perfect manga basis, for e.g., the Naruto series. Naruto first started out as a manga series, with 72 volumes, finishing it off with an anime series that ran for 5 seasons. Other anime series are not so lucky. We’ll list them below:
No Game, No Life
10 volumes have been released thus far, since 2012, 12 episodes aired in 2014.
The protagonists of this story are a brother and sister, Sora and Shiro, who spend their days in front of the monitor, living a completely video game-based life where they never lose.
One day they receive a mysterious e-mail, the author of which seems to be aware of their identity, which seems impossible as their true identities have always been kept a secret. Believing they were born in the wrong and bad world, they accept the proposition to be reborn in another world, where everything is decided by games, where rules and goals are clear.
The world is governed by ten rules:
- Murder, war, and robbery are prohibited.
- All conflicts must be resolved through games.
- In games, each player wins an item of equal value.
- As long as there is no conflict with a third, the prizes and rules of the game cannot be questioned.
- The challenged party decides the rules of the game.
- All bets placed in accordance with this bet must be accepted.
- Conflicts between teams are decided by the appointed representatives with absolute power.
- If someone gets scammed, they lose everything.
- In the name of God, the former rules cannot be modified.
- Let’s play together and have fun!
Future Diary
12 volumes were released between January 2006 and December 2010, 26 episodes aired in 2011-2012.
What if you knew who you were going to meet on the street in the next 5 minutes? The aloof Amano Yukiteru acquires such a forward-looking ability through his imaginary friend, thanks to Deus Ex Machi, but all miracles last for 3 days on a principle.
Deux is a God who changes Yukiteru’s cell phone for the sake of a game. He’s not the only one who gets a diary-like that, but 11 more lucky ones receive one. Deus enters them into a bloody killing tour where only one can survive who can eventually take God’s place, thus becoming the lord of the world and time.
The 12 young people selected must kill each other in order to take Deus’ place and prevent the destruction of the world. The twist is, Deus is dying, and when he dies, the world ends with him. Thus, he needs a successor that will take his place and carry on the world.
Baccano!
22 volumes have been released thus far, since February 2003, 16 episodes aired in 2007.
Probably one of those series that could run forever, considering some of the protagonists are alchemists yielding the elixir of life throughout many timelines.
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what this series is all about, as we run into quite a few problems if we just try to approach it from the side of what’s going on in it. Not to mention whether the characters have anything to do with each other at all or have been thrown together in a completely random way, highlighted in a given situation. It’s a weird, yet immersive and unconnectable work.
It’s also somewhat hard to decide what genre it belongs to. Baccano is a bit comic, but it’s also gangster-horror, horror-comedy. This masterpiece is elusive and fairytale-like.
HighSchool Of The Dead
Seven novels were released between September 2006 and May 2013, 12 episodes aired in 2010.
Surely you didn’t believe we won’t mention an anime that’s plot is about a pandemic outbreak sweeping over the Globe. An unknown figure appears in front of the high school of our protagonist, Komuro Takashi, trying to get into the school. Those who try to stop him are bitten, thus triggering a chain reaction that soon engulfs the entire school in blood. A group of students, led by our protagonist, make it out and fight through the city. Along the way, they check their homes for survivors and pick up a little girl and a dog. Wouldn’t you want to know how this awful pandemic ends?
Toradora!
Ten novels were released between March 2006 and March 2009, 25 episodes were released in 2010 on DVD.
For a change, we bring you a romantic comedy. A character-driven anime where the premise revolves around teenagers coming to terms with their feelings.
The story is a bit conventional – two people meet, they are both in love with the other’s best friend, eventually bringing the original two together. But, when you spend 25 episodes of a series getting to know the characters that are close to our hearts, and they end up together, you, of course, want to know how they lived for the rest of their lives.
Honorable mentions
We’ll take this opportunity to mention:
- The Devil Is A Part Timer was adapted from the light novel (27 volumes) and the manga (16 volumes) of the same title and it had 13 episodes. It lived a short life in 2013. Fans have been waiting for the second season of this fantasy-comedy for 8 long years, and as of March of 2021, they announced a second season.
This anime is proof fans can bring back a series they love.
- Skip Beat! is one of the highest-rated series on various platforms with only 25 episodes, even though the manga has 46 volumes – and is still in development, that goes beyond the story of the anime.
- Knight’s & Magic was a wonderfully imagined fantasy anime based on its light novel predecessor. The novels and manga are still ongoing publications, however, the series got canceled after only 13 episodes that were based on the first volume (out of 9 novels!).
- Yuri on Ice is actually an anime that caused the manga adaptation. The series deals with the struggles of relationships in modern-day, in a country with a fair amount of issues with homophobia. Surely a 12 episode series is not enough to deal with each character’s personality and the everyday struggle they go through.
This ends the list of Top Five Anime That Need a Sequel. If an anime doesn’t get a sequel, it doesn’t necessarily mean that fans didn’t like or even love the series. In most cases, fans regularly shout out and demand a well-deserved ending. Thanks for reading.
