Anime, especially action-packed series, are known for their epic finales. Usually, the heroes defeat their nemesis with a decisive final blow, bringing countless episodes' worth of character arcs and emotional struggles to a satisfying end.
That said, not every anime ends this way. Whether it's because the anime botched its ending or the finale was meant to be a downer, these final victories aren't anything worth celebrating. In fact, some are only a win because the designated bad guy lost at the cost of everything the heroes held dear.
Warning: Spoilers ahead.
10 Soul Eater: Maka Albarn Punched Kishin Asura In The Face And Won
Everything in Soul Eater was building up to Asura's reveal as the overall villain. As Death's eldest son who even ate his own Weapon Partner, Asura was easily the most powerful foe anyone in the anime faced. So of course, he was defeated by Maka after one solid punch to the face.
To be fair to the anime, Maka's punch was humanity's endless potential symbolically telling nihilism incarnate to shut up. However, not only did this contradict the hard-won battle of the manga, but it came across as ridiculously sappy to viewers. Since then, Maka has been jokingly compared to Saitama from One-Punch Man.
9 Hellsing: Incognito Came Out Of Nowhere And Just Died
The original Hellsing adaptation deviated heavily from the manga, so much so that the overarching threat of Millennium is non-existent. Instead of vampire Nazis, it's a shady conspiracy intent on summoning a demon god to Earth. The anime ends with Hellsing fighting the cult as Alucard duels Incognito, who just randomly appears during the final arc.
On its own, the fight is serviceable. But as a finale, it fell flat, not just because Incognito isn't an interesting antagonist for Alucard to beat, but because the last episode doesn't even answer any of the series' biggest questions. The Hellsing Organization saved London, but the victory felt like a mundane bullet point on Alucard's career.
8 Bleach: Sosuke Aizen Got Sealed Away After Ichigo Lost His Powers
While not Bleach's final fight, Aizen's war was its highest point and the grandest conflict that the story built up to. Aizen was the man behind everyone's suffering, and stopping his ascent to godhood at all costs was the point of the multi-part Arrancar Saga. Because he had a contingency plan for literally everything and became a physical god, Aizen easily beat everyone, including an incredibly powerful Ichigo.
Even Ichigo's final Getsuga Tensho that cost his powers was nothing to Aizen, so Urahara just sealed him with some powerful Kido. Why this wasn't done earlier is anyone's guess. The clash ended in a draw, concluding Bleach's most famous storyline on a flat note — and making its protagonist's sacrifice feel redundant.
7 The Promised Neverland: Emma Outsmarted Everyone By Playing Tag
In The Promised Neverland, Emma, Ray, Norman, and their family use their wits to survive the unforgiving Demon World. Because of this, it made sense that their final fights would be a series of intense mind games. But if they had a clever battle of wits in Season 1, the infamously botched Season 2 made them comically overpowered.
A combination of inept Demons, contrived plot twists, rushed pacing, and the human villain Peter Ratri suddenly slitting his throat made for one of the most anticlimactic anime finales ever. In fact, a game of tag was all Emma needed to break into Grace Field House, bypass security, and gain access to the human world. What followed was a saccharine and unearned montage of the Grace Field kids hanging out in the human world.
6 Neon Genesis Evangelion: Shinji Ikari Beat His Inner Demons Through Instrumentality
After 24 episodes seemingly leading up to the apocalyptic war for reality itself in the Third Impact, Neon Genesis Evangelion suddenly dropped a two-part clip show and psychoanalysis. Human Instrumentality was actually a group therapy and intervention session for the main characters, especially Shinji, who rediscovers his will to live as a result.
Though it was nice to finally see Shinji overcome his baggage, this abstract finale was beyond anticlimactic, especially for a mecha anime. Depending on whose interpretation is taken into account, this ending was either retconned by the grand finale The End Of Evangelion or it was recontextualized as Shinji's thought process before the movie.
5 Future Diary: Yuki Won Godhood But Lost The Love Of His Life
Despite his opposition to participating in the anime's core death game, Yuki won the final round and inherited Deus' godhood. Unfortunately for Yuki, none of this was part of his plan. Originally, Yuki's intent was to make it to the game's end with Yuno so that she could kill him and claim victory.
But Yuno couldn't bring herself to kill the man she loved, so she took her own life instead. Distressed beyond belief, Yuki then spent the next 10,000 years grieving in a desolate Second World. Yuki's tragic victory was thankfully undone in the OVA Future Diary: Redial, where he and Yuno reunite and live happily ever after.
4 Assassination Classroom: No One Was Happy About Killing Korosensei
For most of Assassination Classroom, Class 3-E was hellbent on killing their eccentric alien teacher Korosensei — until they grew attached to the odd but genuinely caring teacher. As a result, none of the students looked forward to their "graduation day" or, specifically, outsmarting Korosensei and killing him to save the Earth.
Since Class 3-E was dismissed as hopeless by just about everyone, Korosensei treating them with dignity and respect came as a surprise. At first, the students wanted to kill Korosensei and return to their usual slacker routines. By the end, they killed their beloved teacher not out of anger, but as an act of mercy.
3 Attack On Titan Season 3: The Scouting Legion's Victory Only Signaled More Wars To Come
After endless torment, the Scouting Legion's biggest questions were finally answered in Season 3, but not everybody was happy with what they learned. The people of Paradis Island weren't actually humanity's last bastions, but a race condemned to isolation and death by a hateful world. To say that Eren Yeager didn't take this lightly is an understatement, since it only exacerbated his desire for vengeance.
While his friends celebrated on the beach for the first time in their lives, all Eren could do was wonder if killing everyone beyond the sea would finally free them from suffering. Reclaiming Wall Maria and beyond was the first step toward worse things to come, as seen in the final season where Eren is ready to drag the world to hell.
2 Vinland Saga: Askeladd Finally Dies But Nobody Celebrated His Death
After Askeladd and his raiders killed his family and razed his home, Thorfinn dedicates his life to killing Askeladd. This isn't as easy or straightforward as it sounds, since the designated villain adopted the murderous boy. Thorfinn gets his wish in Vinland Saga's season finale, except Askeladd dies not by his hands but by Prince Canute's.
All of this was according to Askeladd's plans, since he was forced to pick between Wales' sovereignty or killing the prince for King Sweyn. Though Askeladd died as he initially hoped, Thorfinn never got to properly exact his revenge, and also lost the man who'd been his surrogate father for the past 10 years.
1 Sword Art Online: Akihiko Kayaba Forgot What He Was Doing And Was Easily Forgiven
Sword Art Online is infamous for many reasons, including the first season's notoriously divisive ending. Here, Kirito defeated the architect of the SAO Incident and got some of the most unsatisfying answers ever heard. The game's creator, Akihiko Kayaba, trapped 10,000-plus gamers in his VRMMORPG but forgot what point he was trying to get across.
The best Kayaba could muster was that he created his dream castle but it didn't live up to expectations, leading to the SAO Incident. For this, Kirito forgave him and let Kayaba become a spiritual ally in later arcs. While some praised Kayaba's lack of a motive for being painfully human, everybody else hated how anticlimactic and empty a final threat he was.