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Sometimes when watching anime reviews, various reviewers will say a series has a read the manga ending. From context, it appears to mean the anime is incomplete, there will be no sequel, and if you want to know what happens, you have to literally read the manga. This is obviously used with a negative connotation.

I'm sure that usually this is not a planned result; due to whatever reason there ends up being no will or resources to do an additional season. What I am curious about is the alternative case -- is a read the manga ending ever decided up front? I.e. was the anime series considered by the producers nothing more than a marketing tool to drive manga sales? Some reviewers give that impression, but I wonder if there are documented cases where it has been literally part of the plan from the beginning.

RichF
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  • I am not very sure but the anime Kuusen Madoushi , Machine Doll, Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance,Seiken Tsukai no World Break and others were made with the purpouse to stimulate manga/novel sales. These shows only tell a part of the story never giving it a proper ending indicating a continuation in a second season (which has low chances to be made) or in the respective manga. The absence of a continuation may be caused by an unexpected bad reception, destroying the planned second season, meaning that read the manga end was not planed. All that I've said is not confirmed so maybe it is not true. – Fel31 Dec 05 '16 at 20:54
  • Most anime based on manga are more or less advertisements for the manga, but I don't think that's why they do cop out endings. (Though that is probably why Japanese audiences aren't more bothered by the constant cop out endings of anime--unlike the rest of us, it's well within their power to go read the manga.) – Torisuda Dec 05 '16 at 22:17
  • Related question: http://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/34468/why-dont-anime-shows-finish-the-manga – ConMan Dec 05 '16 at 22:26
  • @ConMan thanks for the link. I liked your answer, but I guess my question hits at the heart of your assertion, "The hope is _always_ that they will get to keep going and finish the story." Has a producer or other staff ever admitted publicly that they had no intention to finish the story? – RichF Dec 05 '16 at 22:53
  • @Karkoh51 Thank you for the info. Perhaps the fact that I've never heard of the anime you mention is indicative of their lack of popularity. Or more likely, my own ignorance. (Hmm, maybe I've heard of _World Break_, but I have no clue what it is about.) – RichF Dec 05 '16 at 22:59
  • @Torisuda yeah I've seen videos and pictures of Japanese stores that sell manga. Those places are huge! – RichF Dec 05 '16 at 23:01
  • @RichF Do not worry, it is not your ignorance in the slightest the cause of not knowing about the examples. Those anime are quite generic, obscure, with cliche characters and not that well made so they were forgoten easily( I watched them when I started watching anime because they caught my eye so I did not know what kind of anime they were). – Fel31 Dec 05 '16 at 23:07
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    @RichF even if they did, I don't think they will admit it blantantly. If they admit it then it will hurt the sales, so no, they won't admit it. – 絢瀬絵里 Dec 06 '16 at 01:47
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    I don't think industry figures tend to make a secret out of the fact that adapted anime are frequently just for promotional purposes - this isn't a scandalous idea by any means. One interview that discusses this: http://gigazine.net/news/20110203_square_enix_anime_business_forum_2011/. If you think about it, isn't it a little odd that fans over here get so worked up about incompletely-adapted manga? It's not quite a 1-to-1 comparison, but I've never seen a comic book fan complain about their favorite superhero story arc not making it into the movie. (I don't run in those circles much, though.) – senshin Dec 06 '16 at 03:30
  • @senshin Thanks. I read the an auto-translation of your linked page. It was interesting (if a bit awkward in spots), and does state that anime can be an integral part of a manga's promotional toolkit. I didn't find the kind of key statement I was looking for though. Something like, "We knew from the start we were only going to make 13 episodes. Our hope was that this would pique interest, and the audience for the source manga will grow." Did someone say something like that, and I just lost it with the translation? – RichF Dec 06 '16 at 04:18
  • @RichF Unfortunately, no - there were no statements to that effect about any particular anime. I do think that would be an interesting thing to find, but I also think it would be a difficult thing to find. – senshin Dec 06 '16 at 04:35

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