Examples:
- act-age was cancelled overnight at 123 chapters in the middle of a non-concluded arc (and with a stage play adaptation underway) when its writer Tatsuya Matsuki was arrested for sexual misconduct. The manga was pulled from physical and digital distribution, the stage play was cancelled, and the artist Shiro Usazaki promptly removed any mention of the series—which was the first commercial work to bring her success—from her Twitter account.
- The anime adaptation of Ai Yori Aoshi only covers up to volume 12 of the manga, leaving the "Kaoru and Aoi" plot thread unresolved. (The manga ran for 17 volumes and did have a proper ending.)
- The manga series Asklepios by Tooru Uchimizu ends like this when the main characters are shocked that their ally turns out to be alive without any explanation how it happened.
- Baccano!'s anime adaptation ends with a set up for future plot points that would be explored in the original light novels. Unfortunately, despite the anime's popularity with North American anime fans, in Japan it did poorly in both ratings and sales and thus didn't receive a second season.
- Barrage ended with only 16 chapters as it was going through its first story arc. The finale sees Astro beating Mr. Black, the man who had inspired him to look out for others, and continuing his training to be a proper prince. Luckily, the creator's next manga was more successful.
- This actually happened to Beelzebub for both the manga and its anime adaptation.
- For the manga, it was suddenly cancelled due to poor rankings during the last several months of its serialization. The final chapters were forced to rush the section of the Ishiyama Upstart arc to end the fight against Fuji, and then capped the story off by jumping two years ahead to a Distant Finale in the final chapter.
- As for the anime, it rushed through the climax of the Akuma Academy arc to create a Gecko Ending.
- The 1997 anime adaptation of Berserk notoriously ends at the conclusion of "Band of the Hawks", a very long flashback that explains How We Got Here for the first few episodes. Not only does this leave the series with a massive Downer Ending, it isn't clear how they'd get out (even though you know they do because of the opening episodes), because the Skull Knight - who rescues Guts and Casca in the manga - isn't in the anime. After 18 years of retreading the same material that the 90s anime covered, a sequel series that finally continues the story beyond the "Band of the Hawk" arc finally premiered in summer 2016.
- Atsuhi Ohkubo's first manga B.Ichi has an intense build-up to the final confrontation: Big Bad Friend Emine starts the Gathering of the Masks, the protagonist Showtaro has taken a level in badass and is ready to jump in, determined to save his friend… and a big END is splashed at the bottom of the page. The series ends abruptly just before the final arc, with several questions unresolved and others only vaguely answered. It's safe to assume that it wasn't meant to end this way.
- Depending on who you ask, The Big O qualifies. Some will argue that they tried to wrap it up when they discovered they wouldn't get a third season, others believe they left the end of season two as is in the hopes of getting a season three.
- Bleach:
- The anime regularly Overtook the Manga prompting filler arcs lasting up to a full year. When the anime caught up to the manga again at the end of the Lost Agent arc, it was unceremoniously cancelled rather than going into filler while the final Thousand-Year Blood War arc was still in publication. An animated adaptation of the final arc was finally announced in March 2020 and premiered in October 2022.
- In interviews, Kubo Tite stated the final arc would run at least as long as the 26-volume Arrancar Arc to tie up all loose ends in the story. However, 19 volumes into the final arc, Bleach announced it would be ending, and the finale coincided with its fifteenth anniversary. Kubo had been suffering increasingly ill health since 2010, which made continuing the manga a struggle for him. Although he had known what the final chapter would be back when he began the manga, he wrapped up the story much faster than he had originally planned. The extremely rushed conclusion left many questions, and didn't even resolve the fates of many key characters.
- The anime adaptation of Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo ended so abruptly, even the characters (and narrator, though this is only the case in the English dub), bar Dengakuman, who announced that this was the finale, were shell-shocked; the show was pretty popular despite the Moral Guardians in Japan finding it controversial, but the reason the show ended early was due to one of its sponsors being in a financial crisis at the time.Dengakuman: This is the finale! Bye-bye!Everyone else: THIS IS HOW OUR SHOW ENDS?!
- The original Bubblegum Crisis OVA is rather infamous for this. It got to episode 8, which was a big Character Development moment for Nene Romanova and the Midseason Upgrade for everyone, and then... a combination of internal politics and budget issues caused a schism between the two companies that produced the show, ending production abruptly before the remaining planned 5 episodes could be completed. Bubblegum Crash! tried sometime later to tie things up, but didn't have everyone on board, and the result was... not well-received by fans.
- Cheat Slayer was canceled after the first chapter was released due to an extremely poor reception from fans and the author being sued for copyright infringement because the villains are all blatant rip-offs of protagonists of other works.
- Poor Cutey Honey has had this happen to her plenty of times over the years.
- The original 1973 anime series got cancelled after 25 episodes due to its, at the time, racy content. The only consultation is that Sister Jill is finally defeated, but Panther Zora is still out there.
- New Cutey Honey started out as a 4 episode OVA that ended up being so popular, eight more episodes were ordered. Unfortunately, it ended up being cancelled after airing four of the eight promised episodes. Again, Panther Zora remains undefeated by series' end.
- Cutie Honey a Go Go! was cancelled right in the middle of the story after 10 chapters due to the series reaching the limit of an average serial manga series. Another reason was that the manga was meant to be an adaptation of the 2004 live-action movie, but the author decided halfway through to change it up and do his own thing, taking multiple elements from the original manga.
- Daily Lives of High School Boys abruptly ended
in September 2012, with a final chapter that doesn't remotely look like a finale. No reason was given for this. - The manga adaptation of Date A Live gets cut short just before Shidou's first date with Tohka, which is in the middle of the first volume of the light novel. However, the reason why it ends there isn't because of Executive Meddling or for unknown reasons, but because of the artist's health issue.
- Daimos was originally supposed to have 50 episodes, but the network that aired it wanted to produce the sentai series Battle Fever J instead and forced the crew to scrap the original plot in favour of the messy Bittersweet Ending it has. Tadao Nagahama expressed his disappointment of this in the Roman Robo Anime Climax Selection, giving more details on what could have been had Daimos finished its run.
- Dangaioh was supposed to be longer than 3 episodes and was supposed to have a sequel, but that never happened, resulting in the OVA's ending on a cliffhanger. It later got a sequel named Great Dangaioh which was supposed to be 26 episodes, but it was so poorly-received by both fans and critics that the series was cut to 12 episodes and once again ended on a cliffhanger, effectively ensuring that the Dangaioh series as a whole would never get a proper ending, let alone resolve the OVA's events.
- D.Gray-Man: The anime stops after Lenalee and Allen defeat the Level 4 Akuma, with Lenalee discovering the new Crystal Type Anti-Akuma Weapon. Afterwards, there's a shot of the main cast, who have survived the attack, and the Noah Clan with different appearances, indicating a time skip. The show ends with Allen and the Millennium Earl preparing for the inevitable fights ahead. The last thing we get is a cut to black with the word "FIN" covering the screen. The show was cancelled due to a combination of low ratings and the anime getting close to overtaking the manga.
- Domina no Do!, where the manga just suddenly ends with no Character Development and nothing resolved.
- Double Arts had just finished setting up its premise, characters, the Big Bad, even debuted the titular fighting style, and it was really starting to distinguish itself from its generic beginnings... when the person writing the tale closed the book saying, "I may continue it... some other time", ending the story after only 24 chapters. Creator Naoshi Kimi would have better luck with his later work, Nisekoi.
- The 90s hentai manga series Dragon Pink by ITOYOKO had nothing after its fourth volume; it stopped on a cliffhanger of Pink, its main female protagonist, being impaled by a sword, the sort of cliffhanger you'd expect a series to follow up on. ITOYOKO himself is still active in the H manga drawing scene, making it strange how he hasn't yet finished the story. In a private email to a troper, ITOYOKO said he wants to continue the series and may in fact do so someday, but he has no time right now. Hopefully this example will eventually be removed & get replaced with a description of the Grand Finale.
- The Durarara!! anime was this for a long time. By the time the initial series ended, Celty still hadn't found her head, two major characters from the light novels were introduced in the very last episode, and it still hadn't been revealed what Izaya's ultimate plans are. It finally got another season after 5 years which finished off the story, making this a very rare example of a light novel series that received a complete anime adaptation.
- The Elfen Lied anime ended early due to marketing and broadcasting issues. Instead, the anime propels itself to a Gecko Ending, while the manga goes for a complex Grand Finale.
- Faeries Landing started off slow and then built up to ramming speed with the plot, finally hitting important and very well put together plots and scripts, introduced a new love interest, finally had the main heroine meet her parents completely and both the main villain of the heroine and the main villain of the hero attack their respective targets and just as the hero and heroine go towards their targets for battle...... the volume ends. What makes this a problem? The author dropped the series to start on another promising to come back for it and never doing so. Effectively the series ENDS on a cliffhanger just before the resolution!
- Final Fantasy: Unlimited was cut short from a planned 52 episodes to only 24 due to low ratings (along with the financial failure of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within), resolving the latter parts with voiced dramas, books and a web novel that never saw the light outside Japan.
- Fire Candy ended with a particularly violent Cliffhanger after only nineteen chapters, leaving the biggest part of the plot entirely untouched.
- Food Wars!: After the manga's reception became increasingly cold, with sales dropping after each volume and a very poor reception to the last two major story arcs, the manga was rushed to the ending, with a 3-parter epilogue special being published later that year to try to tie loose ends.
- Full Metal Panic!'s anime adaptation got a third season after 13 long years. However, the season was only twelve episodes long and as of now, there are no further plans to continue it. At least fans can turn to the light novel or the manga adaptation to learn the rest of the story.
- The Galaxy Angel anime parodies this. At the end of every single season, a huge cliffhanger is set up, and the next season makes absolutely no mention of it whatsoever.
- Gantz, or rather the anime version: due to the very slow updating of the source manga, only the first three arcs were adapted before a confusing filler ending concluded the series.
- The second series of Genshiken stops at a point in the storyline just before the eighth manga volume begins. It had previously added to and extended the manga's material in order to have enough for a third series. The final nail in the coffin is that the Second Generation manga (volume 10 onward) has now been adapted to anime, leaving the ending of the original series likely never to be covered, outside of the odd flashback in the new series.
- Getter Robo had the original manga come to an abrupt end during Getter Robo Arc due to the sudden death of Ken Ishikawa. Subverted as Arc got an anime adaptation in 2021.
- Gun Blaze West was cancelled after only eight months of serialization due to low volume sales; the story ends with the heroes managing to pass a test and allowed to be shown a secret way to the fabled location, but never actually showing them reaching there. The final parts of the story show an earlier character who was thought to be killed coming upon the gun he gave to the main character, who left it as sort of a bread crumb to follow him.
- This has happened to at least two separate shows in the Gundam franchise:
- Mobile Suit Gundam was meant for 50 episodes, but due to poor ratings the network cut them down to 39. However, the staff asked for an extension in order to wrap everything up properly, resulting in an unorthodox 42 episode run. They arguably succeeded, since the show resolved most of its plotlines well enough and didn't leave any major threads hanging.
- After War Gundam X was originally meant for 50 episodes, but was cut down to 39, resulting in the last arc being only 3 episodes long, and extremely rushed.
- Highschool of the Dead's manga had already been having issues with years-long delays between chapters because of writer Daisuke Sato's poor health, but it was effectively cancelled after he passed away from heart disease in 2017, four years after he and artist Shouji Sato had posted HOTD's 30th chapter. The artist later confirmed that they would not be continuing the series, so it ends with the main characters about to meet a group of survivors at an elementary school.
- High Speed Galvion was canceled on a cliffhanger, but its creators found an interesting workaround regardless - after the main story of the final episode ends, The Narrator gives a short summary of how the never-made final arc would have gone, accompanied by clips from past episodes that vaguely approximate the events described. The actual content of the "ending" isn't particularly revolutionary (The Heavy kills off his co-conspirators, then falls to the heroes), but the way in which it was communicated certainly ranks among the oddest.
- Hikari no Densetsu: The anime did not do well in Japan and was cut off after 19 episodes. It was originally planned to run for 26.
- Hinowa ga Crush! was cancelled after its 8th volume due to low sales.
- The anime adaptation of His and Her Circumstances got cut off after one season for several reasons, among them Studio Gainax having the usual Studio Gainax problems and, rather more importantly, the manga's author reacting very badly to the direction the anime took and pulling the rights.
- Happened twice with the 1999 Hunter × Hunter anime, at first immediately after a big reveal right in the middle of an intense story arc due to overtaking the manga. Needless to say, fans weren't pleased and as a result the animation studio released a series of OVAs that covered the rest of the arc and the one after that. Unfortunately those ended in the middle of a chapter. This had an even worse effect on the English dub since, due to low DVD sales, Viz Media didn't bother dubbing the OVAs.note
- Honoo no Alpen Rose: The anime was originally meant to have 56 episodes, but the ratings it received were so low that the studio was forced to end the anime at 10 episodes and skip large chunks of important material from the manga. Ironically, the series as a whole has been Vindicated by History and is better received in many places like the Middle East and Italy.
- Hybrid × Heart Magias Academy Ataraxia: The anime only covers the first four volumes of the 14 light novels and ends on a cliffhanger, not counting 5 non-canon OVAs and one OVA that was basically a deleted scene. They wanted to make more seasons to cover the remaining volumes, but its studio Production IMS filed for bankruptcy and closed down. The manga is even worse; it only covers the first three volumes before an And the Adventure Continues style ending.
- Idol Angel Yokoso Yoko was originally slated for 60 episodes, but the ugly squabbles behind the scenes led to the eventual output being 43. The scenarios not used in the anime would be re-used for Magical Princess Minky Momo.
- Ie Naki Ko Remi was eventually pulled off Fuji TV because of low ratings. The final 3 episodes were only available on DVD. Luckily, while Japan hated it, it became one of Saudi Arabia's favourite anime and also enjoyed popularity in the Philippines.
- Ero-manga story Junk Story, featured in Eros Comix's Silky Whip Extreme ends with the heroine ?_, waiting for a rescue by a character who appears to have been Killed Off for Real. This would just be a Downer Ending combined with No Ending, except for the fact that it leaves every single plot thread unresolved, and even introduces new plot threads that will never be resolved.
- The Kill la Kill manga not only doesn't adapt the second half of the story, but is noticeably more and more rushed as it goes on. The first volume is pretty much an 1:1 adaptation, but then two whole episodes are skipped and the rest is abridged.
- The Last Saiyuki was cancelled only five months into serialization, leaving the remaining chapters to wrap things up.
- The Love Hina anime finished its first season, and began setting up a second...before getting canceled a few episodes in and with zero resolution. Eventually, a few OVAs came out that tried to rush through the missing plot arcs.
- The Left Hanging nature of Martian Successor Nadesico was intentional. The non-ending of its movie continuation was not, since it was a planned trilogy that had its second and third installments canceled.
- Mx0 was cut short because of low rankings in Weekly Shonen Jump. How the guy was able to continue illustrating after those is an incredible feat altogether.
- The official fourth season of the Lyrical Nanoha franchise seems to have gone this way, while no Word of God has confirmed the series cancelation, considering the fact that there has been a prolonged hiatus since September 2013 the future isn't looking so bright- even more so with the magazine it was serialized in ceasing publication. Thus, the season ends without the Huckebein being defeated or any cure for the Eclipse Virus being made, with the final chapter ending on a cliffhanger as Thoma is ambushed by Arnage.
- The Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan manga wasn't doing too hot in the rankings and ended up getting canceled shortly after chapter 207 was released. However, the mangaka was allowed to publish the three final chapters in the monthly magazine Jump Next! to at least give the final battle against Seimei, and the rest of the Gokadoin household, some form of a conclusion. The anime also never went further than the Kyoto Arc.
- Panzer World Galient: After twenty-six episodes, the anime sort of just... ends abruptly, without a final confrontation among the hero and the Big Bad or his Dragon.
- Pet Shop of Horrors only had FOUR episodes made, with no introduction of the plot from the manga or any explanation of why Count D does what he does; for a ten-volume manga (which is complete and with a sequel in progress) it is very disappointing that the anime didn't get into any of it.
- Phantom Seer: The manga was canceled in its 30th chapter. This leaves the story with only one out of the Big Bad's five Co-Dragons defeated, and the main villain still at large and her plan not explained.
- Pokémon:
- While not the whole anime obviously, a storyline that happened during the Unova saga of Pokémon: The Series was cut short by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Said storyline involved Team Rocket searching for the Meteonite and was going to conclude with them clashing with Team Plasma (the episodes were even made) before the tsunami occurred. Because of that, the arc was never resolved and Team Plasma didn't show up in the anime until after the Unova League, and when they finally did in the Episode N arc, the two unaired episodes were Retconned into having never happened for the English dub. TV Tokyo still holds the two-part arc conclusion and has maintained that they will be broadcast in Japan someday, but when that someday is no-one can say. Various trailers and a synopsis based on leaked information show that it went pretty much how one would expect it to go - with Team Plasma stealing the Meteonite from Team Rocket, the two teams fighting over it, and Ash intervening and having Pikachu destroy it to end the conflict.
- A Pokémon Gold and Silver manga, Pokémon Golden Boys, ended abruptly after three volumes. It didn't finish the Johto arc. Despite numerous references to Red, we never see him.
- On a more obscure note, the second installment in Takeshi Shudō's novelizations of the anime included a "to be continued" note in the afterword, but the third volume was never released before Shudo died in 2010.
- Pokémon RéBURST was cancelled after only a year and a half of serialization, likely because it deviated too much from the typical Pokémon formula; instead of using actual Pokémon to fight, the characters transform into human-Pokémon hybrids.
- Presents ends without the main plot thread resolved — after we finally get a hint how it might be a few chapters before the end — and the final collection ends with a piece that doesn't even match the theme of the rest of the series.
- Pretty Face was cut short a little over a year after it started. While the ending was clearly intentional, only one of the major plot points was resolved on screen, and a whole additional year passed with the basic premise, with no clear reason why that didn't deserve to be shown, whilst the year we did see did.
- Princess Rouge was supposed to be six episodes long, but funding ran dry, and it got cut off at two episodes, with the second episode even going so far as to hint at a new villain for the third episode... which does not exist.
- Prism was put on an indefinite hiatus and eventually cancelled due to scandals involving the mangaka and plagiarism.
- The anime of Psychic Academy ends after the Beach Episode, barely a third of the way through the manga storyline. Not only does it not resolve the love triangle, it barely managed to finish defining it!
- The Rave Master anime just ends right after the introduction of Lucia, the true Big Bad of the series, is shown. The show had promptly been canceled due to low ratings and it's assumed this was a gambit to get readers to check out the manga to see what happens next.
- The Reborn! (2004) anime ended this way, right after the Future Arc when they come home; all they do is say that Tsuna needs more training before becoming a boss and just stare at the sky right when the credits roll.
- The manga adaptation of Record of Grancrest War ends on a cancellation-induced cliffhanger at the end of volume 7, in the middle of the Forest of Eternal Darkness arc, only about a third of the way through the full story. The anime, at the very least, completed things.
- Rookie Policewoman Kiruko-san got a lot of attention early on, with Kiruko's attractive design earning her a huge amount of fanart, but interest gradually waned as the manga continued and it was ultimately cancelled after only six months.
- Rozen Maiden, whose anime Overtook the Manga and whose manga tragically ended with a Deus ex Machina (and an apology) following a dispute between the producers and the publishers. The manga did get a sequel that picks up almost right where the original left off.
- The Shadow Star anime ended at about halfway through the manga's story, giving next to no closure. But that may be a merciful choice.
- Anime based upon Rumiko Takahashi's manga series are usually subject to this. The anime versions of Urusei Yatsura, Ranma ½, Inuyasha, and RIN-NE were all Cut Short. Possibly because Takahashi's series are so long. However, Urusei Yatsura did get a theatrical wrap-up (and eventually a 2022 reboot) and Inuyasha was eventually finished with a second anime series called Inuyasha: The Final Act, which covered the manga from the point where the first series left off to its conclusion, albeit in abridged form.
- School Zone ends with the lead characters discovering what they have to do to put an end to the thirteen ghost stories... and ending the current crisis at the school as they start on it. It ends without their actually finishing their new task... and without fully resolving the subplot regarding the mystery of twins Mako and Miko.
- Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro's original Weekly Shonen Jump manga Seikimatsu Leader den Takeshi! was cut after five years due to his conviction of soliciting an underage prostitute.
- Shindere Shoujo to Kodoku na Shinigami ran for only 20 chapters before going on indefinite hiatus due to its writer Masaki Himura's illness. Himura passed away a few years later, leaving the story unfinished.
- Silent Möbius ends like this. The manga, however, completes the story... and was released before the series, so it's a rare case of the trope working in reverse.
- Somali and the Forest Spirit doesn't have a conclusive ending; the manga went on hiatus in October 2019 due to creator Yako Gureishi dealing with health issues, but Gureishi's health worsened to the point that the manga was officially discontinued in December 2020.
- Tatsunoko Productions' '90s remake of Speed Racer was planned to be 52 episodes, but a change in directors and a significant drop in ratings caused the series to wind up overhauled midway through production. It wound up being pulled after 34 episodes were produced. A dub of this version titled Speed Racer X would air on Nickelodeon in 2003, but only got through 13 episodes before it was abruptly cancelled due to Speed Racer Enterprises filing a lawsuit against DiC over ownership rights to the dub.
- Seems to be a curse with Spider Riders. The manga ended after 10 chapters, when the magazine which serialized it was discontinued. It was never picked-up elsewhere. As for the anime itself, original plans for the show revealed that it would have an actual conclusive ending. However, to make room for a second season, the ending was made open instead. That second season never came, and viewers are still left wondering about Aqune's past/whether her memories will return, whether Hunter ever intends to go back to his own world, and any romantic resolution, among other things. As for the novels, there were supposed to be five. Fans get... three and a half?
- Anime original Stars Align was planned for 24 episodes, but less than six months before broadcast, it was trimmed to 12note , leaving the staff no time to adjust it to 12 episodes. Instead the show cuts off with a double-whammy cliffhanger at the end of episode 12.
- Strawberry Panic!: The manga adaptation ended after two volumes, in the middle of the Etoilé competition.
- The Sweet Blue Flowers anime cuts off right at the crucial moment at which Fumi realizes Akira was her first love. Originally more seasons were planned, but due to disappointing DVD sales it's highly unlikely any more will be produced.
- SWOT ended rather abruptly at chapter 20 due to low ratings, right after the conclusion of a fight that would've been building up to a Tournament Arc.
- Tekkaman was intended to air for 52 episodes, but it was cancelled after only 26, ending on a Bolivian Army Cliffhanger of the titular hero staring down the villains' entire fleet while buying time for the civilian characters to escape. Its later revamp, Tekkaman Blade, was much more successful and well-received.
- The Testament of Sister New Devil: The two seasons of the anime and the various OVAs only cover the first 8 of the 13 light novels. The last OVA was the final work produced by Production IMS before it filed for bankruptcy and shut down.
- Time Stranger Kyoko ended prematurely with a rushed conclusion after only a year of serialization; according to creator Arina Tanemura, this was due to the manga being unpopular with her editors, as well as Kyoko's strong personality not being well-received by the manga's readers. Tanemura has remarked that the story "just wasn't released at the right time" for a strong-willed heroine like Kyoko to be considered acceptable for a shoujo manga.
- The Tokkô anime ends on a cliffhanger with no resolution to the story. The manga also ends with no real conclusion, only a brief monologue by Ranmaru saying that the world ended two years later, with no further explanation.
- The manga Tokyo Shinobi Squad got hit with the axe at 27 chapters.
- To Love Ru, which had a very very unsatisfying ending due to the Creator Breakdown the artist Kentaro Yabuki went through — his wife sleeping around on him, kidnapping their daughter, selling the daughter back to him, and stealing his computers and life savings. The ending was extremely, extremely abrupt, solved no plot threads, and generally pissed off the fanbase — until Nico Nico Douga and 2Channel put together the news articles about the divorce and figured out what happened.
- Even though the story has taken a rather drastic change in tone and major characters, it has seemed to successfully subvert this trope and is now continuing with the sequel, "To-Love-Ru Darkness".
- Kentaro Yabuki's other series, Mayoi Neko Overrun, was Cut Short as well, and far, far worse than To-Love-Ru was - at least that had an ending of sorts. The last chapter of Overrun is the beginning of an arc and it even tells the reader to check the next month for the continuation. Which doesn't exist.
- While Wild Knights Gulkeeva does end with the heroes having a showdown with the Big Bad, it's made clear that the main crisis befalling earth hasn't been averted yet and that the Big Bad's spirit still lingers in the parallel world the heroes hail from and needs to be defeated before earth is totally safe. In addition, The Dragon becomes The Unfought because he doesn't see The Hero as worthy of a battle yet (The Big Bad's physical form was defeated by a Deus ex Machina partially powered by a Heroic Sacrifice), and on top of all that, a minor supporting character reveals his Face–Heel Turn and there's a conversation with The Dragon vaguely talking about an Artifact of Doom MacGuffin. It's clear the show was setting up for another story arc, but was cut due to poor ratings.
- Yui Kamio Lets Loose: The manga was cancelled after only 36 chapters due to low popularity rankings, causing the ending to abruptly jump to an epilogue with the Big Bad being defeated offscreen and Yui's guardian stated to just suddenly disappear.
- Zatch Bell!'s anime adaptation fell victim to a downright uncanny bit of bad luck, with creator Makoto Raiku being forced to put the manga on several months' hiatus to recover from a broken arm, just in time for the anime to catch up to it. Rather than wait for Riku, the anime staff decided to do their own conclusion, resulting in, essentially, an abridged version of the manga's penultimate arc that leaves multiple questions unresolved because Raiku hadn't written the answers yet. Raiku did return to finish his version of the aforementioned penultimate arc while the anime was still running, resulting in a brief period where there were two alternate versions of the arc running at the same time, and later wrote a true finale arc which has yet to be adapted.
- Zombiepowder. ends at only 26 chapters without a conclusion or resolution to the story. Creator Tite Kubo mentions in interviews that he was going through a difficult period in his life when drawing it, which (along with low volume sales) makes it likely that it was cancelled due to a Creator Breakdown.
