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A growing phenomenon within the anime and manga community is the idea that they always have bad endings; in recent years, many high-profile stories like Attack on Titan, Oshi no Ko, and especially Tatsuki Fujimoto’s Chainsaw Man have ended with poorly paced and largely lackluster finales, and it’s created the idea that an anime’s ending will always be disappointing.
The infamously bad manga endings of recent years have done irreparable damage to the community, but not every story ends on a low note. Plenty of manga endings within the past decade were great, for example, but going even further back, there’s one manga in particular that arguably has the best ending in the medium, even after 16 years. Why Fullmetal Alchemist's Ending Is A Truly Perfect Finale Anime and manga fans will almost always say that Hiromu Arakawa’s Fullmetal Alchemist has the best ending in manga, and they’re right to do so. It’s clear that Fullmetal Alchemist essentially had its endgame in mind from day one, and with how great the pacing was, it could get there with nothing left to resolve but the final conflict. Once the final arc was underway, every major character was given time to close out their arcs, with moments like Mustang getting closure with Hughes’ death and Scar fighting Bradley especially cathartic, and with how the series didn’t give up on killing major characters at that point, it made the good moments feel all the more impactful. All of that, of course, built up to the amazing final battle with Father; the stakes escalated perfectly to sell Father as the final boss, Edward’s beatdown of Father was an immaculate spectacle, and it was all capped off with a perfectly emotional payoff of Edward and Alphonse reclaiming their bodies at the cost of Edward’s alchemy. Fullmetal Alchemist’s final arc never messed up its pacing or action, allowing it to be visually and thematically consistent from start to finish. Thanks to that, it ended in a way that gave everyone, and everything, as fitting an ending as possible, and that’s why Fullmetal Alchemist still has the best ending in all of manga. Why Is It So Hard For Manga To Have Good Endings? Fullmetal Alchemist’s ending is a masterpiece, and it begs the question of why it’s so hard for other manga to have good endings. For starters, unlike most manga criticized for having bad endings, Fullmetal Alchemist was a monthly serialization, so Hiromu Arakawa was likely afforded more time to plan out the story compared to an author in a weekly serialization. Going off of that, with Fullmetal Alchemist being monthly, Hiromu Arakawa likely didn’t suffer from burnout, fatigue, and general sickness in the same way authors of weekly serializations often do. That’s purely speculative, of course, but if Arakawa was largely healthy for all of Fullmetal Alchemist’s run, then it would explain why it was so consistent. The biggest reason, however, is probably the simplest: Fullmetal Alchemist was structured better than other manga. A big part of why so many manga endings fall flat is that their stories rarely ever do a good job of building to them, whether it’s through inconsistent pacing or them doing things no one expected or wanted to see. Related 10 Near-Perfect Anime Endings That Are Downright Untouchable, Ranked There are plenty of great anime series with decent endings, but only a few have endings so good that they make the series better as a whole. Posts By Branson Garza By comparison, Fullmetal Alchemist had excellent pacing from day one, even as it continued adding more characters and subplots to its narrative, and managed to give everything a satisfying payoff in the end, creating a finale that stayed true to the story’s themes and felt earned and organic in every regard. Fullmetal Alchemist was hardly a flawless story, but whether by accident or by design, it does a far better job of plotting out its narrative than other manga, resulting in an incredibly satisfying ending with virtually nothing to complain about. Few other manga can make the same claim, regardless of their schedules, and that’s unlikely to change anytime soon. Will Any Manga Ever Have A Better Ending Than Fullmetal Alchemist? With its excellent pacing that allowed for a cathartic finale that never compromised on its themes, Fullmetal Alchemist has always made a case for having the best manga ending of all time, and it’s to the point that many people have gone as far as saying it’s the only manga with a good ending in general. Subscribe to the newsletter for deeper manga endings insight Want more thoughtful takes on manga finales and what makes them work? Subscribe to our newsletter for in-depth analyses, comparative rankings, character-arc breakdowns, and curated reading suggestions focused on endings like Fullmetal Alchemist's. Get Updates By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime. With how many manga have suffered from bad endings in recent years, it’s understandable why people would think that, but at the same time, newer manga like Fire Force, Aoashi, and Jujutsu Kaisen Modulo did succeed at having good endings, so it’s hardly as rare a phenomenon as some people would believe. Modern manga like Blue Lock, Kagurabachi, and Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End are paced well enough to believe that they can pull off good endings years down the line, and with how perfectly plotted One Piece is, it would be stranger if it didn’t have a good ending after so many decades of build-up. That doesn’t mean that any of them will have better endings than Fullmetal Alchemist, of course, as that could be a feat that’s simply too large to surpass, but there’s plenty of evidence that Fullmetal Alchemist won’t be the only manga to have a good ending, even if it might always stand out as the best, and for good reason. Fullmetal Alchemist Created by Hiromu Arakawa TV Show Fullmetal Alchemist, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Video Game Fullmetal Alchemist: Stray Rondo, Fullmetal Alchemist 2: Curse of the Crimson Elixir, Fullmetal Alchemist: Dual Sympathy, Fullmetal Alchemist and the Broken Angel Movie Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos Character Edward Elric, Alphonse Elric, Roy Mustang, Winry Rockbell, Maes Hughes, Riza Hawkeye, Scar , Ling Yao, Lan Fan, May Chang, King Bradley, Lust , Envy , Greed Fullmetal Alchemist follows brothers Edward and Alphonse Elric, who use alchemy in a quest to restore their bodies after a failed transmutation. The series explores themes of sacrifice, the consequences of ambition, and the quest for truth in a richly developed world.
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