Side Thought: Japanese Vs. American Endings

I usually don’t try to figure out the endings to anything I watch or read that was original from Japan. Mainly, because things from Japan never end the way a person, use to American endings would expect.

In American shows and movies, you can pretty much figure out how things are going to end; you know whose going to die, whose going end up together, and the fact that it will have a clear cut ending and won't leave you hanging (useless they are planning a sequel, but even then you can see that coming from a mile away). Japanese stuff, you never know, sometimes people you want to die don’t and people you love do. Sometimes couples don’t really become couples, or it’s just not a real ending (and this rarely has anything to do with a possible sequel), you just get this feeling that there is something missing or that there was more they could have done, or you think to yourself that they could have at least had text that said, “And, they lived happier ever after.” Or, they could of fast forward it to show where the characters are down the road. In my life time, I’ve only came across a few Japanese stuff that ended American style "Please, Teacher!", The Sailor Moon Movies, "Slayers: Season 1", the mange series "Fake". Still, this is also the reason I like anime so much, I’m always surprised by the end, it’s rarely predictable.

Examples of Japanese style endings are "Neon Genesis", "Strawberry Egg", "The Samurai X Movies", "s-Cry-ed" just to name a few. Most of the time I can deal with it, Strawberry Egg was really cute and funny, I just wished it didn't end so bitter sweetly. The Samurai X movies where just so sad, so sad that you just wanted something good to happen to the guy, which never really does. "S-Cry-ed" I'm still waiting for the second season so, I can find out who won. And, I Hated "Neon Genesis" so much that I sold my completed collection, if you haven't watched it yet, then I recommend that you stop at episode 22/23 and don't get the movie that was suppose to replace the last 2 episodes, because it doesn't really, it still leaves you all kinda messed up. They are suppose to be working on some new movies for it, so, maybe there is still hope for the series, because it started off great, really funny and then it got serious, but it was still really good, but then you get to episode 24 and it was just goes downhill fast.