The Show Must Go On

Your reaction to the ending of a series can be as varied as stars in the sky. By the end some  shows will make you laugh, cry, scream, scratch your head, or even wonder what feeling you have at all. At times you will fondly find catharsis in a series that comes to a satisfying conclusion while others will make you glad you never have to watch another episode of such a train wreck. But since anime can be nothing more than very elaborate commercial for a manga series you will sometimes get a show that just abruptly ends and assumes that you will run down to your local book store and get the conclusion there. Other times production decisions will cutting off a story before it can reach its scheduled resolution. This week we will be looking at five anime that for one reason or another ended at a place that left us both wanting more. We will also each pick one series the other has not seen as bonus as well.

In my earlier days, I remember watching shows and not knowing if there was more, or often assuming there was more because how could you end the story there! Of course I have since come to realize this happens a lot, you get just a taste, wish for more, and never do get it. So this is a celebration of titles that we want more of being aware that it might or more than likely might not happen. This is just the beginning of a list that certainly has many more titles to come.

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Contest + Riding Bean, The original transporter.

hisuiconRiding Bean has an fascinating back story. Although it might seem that Riding Bean is a spin off of Gunsmith Cats it turns out that Riding Bean was the original concept and Gunsmith Cats is the continuation of the project. But when various problems that I have never seen clearly stated occurred everything was canceled and Kenichi Sonoda took Bean’s side kick Irene Vincent and altered her a bit to create the Gunsmith Cats manga. Bean Bandit would later show up in Gunsmith Cats as a reoccurring guest star but sadly this is the only piece of animation showing off the Road Buster himself. But what a ride this one OAV is.

narutaki I remember vividly from my youth trying to rent this from the video store on multiple occasions. When I did finally get my hands on it, I was overwhelmed with joy at its lovely 80’s OVA-ness. I didn’t really have access to much information at the time, so I was in denial that there wasn’t anymore of the adventures of Bean and Rally. Much to my joy years later I learned of Bean’s appearance in the Gunsmith Cats manga, but still there is a little hole in my heart that Bean was relegated to just a side character.

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