Where Are They Now Epilogue / Anime & Manga

"Where Are They Now?" Epilogues in Anime and Manga.

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• The ending to the Ai Yori Aoshi: Enishi anime had a series of animated and still images over the end credits, showing glimpses of the characters several years later. The manga goes into more detail, actually resolving the main romantic plotline, and ending with something of a Distant Finale.
• In ARIA, Akari explains in a letter to Ai what is going on with several characters, apparently a few years after she took over Aria Company. At the very end there is an even bigger time-skip, showing Ai as Akari's new apprentice.
  • In the manga, Akari's letter is not to Ai, but to the readers of her blog, which include Cait Sith, although the timeskip event is still the same.
• Assassination Classroom: In two phases, covering Chapters 179-180:
  • The first half of Chapter 179 focuses on the immediate aftermath of Koro-sensei's death at the hands of Class 3-E. Shiro/Yanagisawa survives being blown away into the anti-tentacle barrier, but the damage to his tentacle-infused body has left him a vegetable, while his experiments have been finally canned by the government. Public outrage over revelations of Kunugigaoka's discriminatory policies forced Asano Sr. to step down, though he not only seems to have anticipated it, but also sees it as an opportunity to start anew. Class 3-E used part of their reward to support their later education, donate to some acquaintances, and buy the entire mountain they used to call their classroom, while the rest was returned to the government.
  • The latter half of Chapter 179 and the entirety of Chapter 180 fast-forwards to seven years later. The moon has collapsed and coalesced again into a spherical form while it was pulled closer by Earth's gravity, implicitly normalizing the tides to pre-explosion levels. Karasuma and Irina are now married and work together as counterterrorist agents. And by the looks of it, Class 3-E's alumni have utilized everything they learned to lead successful and meaningful lives — Ritsu is now a fully-sentient being, Okano the leader of a university athletics club (which uses her old turf as training grounds), Kurahashi an ecotourist guide (using the same mountain for explorations), Takebayashi and Okuda developers of universal artificial blood, Sugino a college baseball superstar, Terasaka an apprentice to a powerful politician, Yoshida, Muramatsu and Itona inheritors to their family businesses, Nakamura a university student in London, Hazama a librarian, Kanzaki a caregiver, Sugaya an experimental artist, Karma an aspiring statesman, Kayano has returned to showbiz and is currently starring in a popular drama, and Nagisa is now teacher to a class of delinquents, while the rest are implied to be most likely finishing their education and starting new careers as well — even as they never forget to keep in contact with each other.
• Bloom Into You ends with the cast meeting up at the high school some time after they graduated. Yuu and Touko are still going out in a Long-Distance Relationship, Sayaka has found a girlfriend, and Koyomi got her first book published, among other things.
• The ending of Blue Drop shows Michiko on her way to a peace talk with the aliens, thirty years after her experiences with Hagino and Mari, still holding a copy of the script of the School Play she wrote and which Hagino wanted to finish playing.
• Boarding School Juliet had a Distant Finale with the wedding of its Official Couple, and only elaborated on the careers of a few of its characters. An extra chapter shows what the rest has been up to in the seven years since the story concluded.
  • Romio, Juliet and Airu are all politicians now working on reforms to further establish peace between Towa and the West. Hasuki is an actress apprenticed under Juliet's mother Rackdoll. Char is still in line to inherit the West throne. Maru is a banker, Tosa is a soldier and Kohitsuji is a photographer for a magazine (he wanted to do gravure, but he wound up working for a bodybuilding outfit instead). Leon is a teacher at Dahia Academy, Rex a fashion designer, Kochou and Teria continued their respective career choices (as a pharmacist and roboticist, respectively), Cait Sith and Sieber a pediatrician and the nurse assisting him, respectively, Somali became a pro wrestler while Aby (also a politician) looks after their infant daughters, Shuna is a policewoman, Kougi a priest and Ameria a model. All in all, all characters have been pretty well off. ...Well, except for Scott, who became Char's "pet". And he still hasn't gotten over Romio and Juliet getting together.
  • There are a few more snippets in regards to relationships. Kochou gets inspired by the wedding to try to get together with Airu, but is too shy to make a move. Sieber makes it clear that she rejected Cait's own proposal during Romio and Juliet's wedding ceremony because she wanted a serious proposal from him. As for Romio and Juliet themselves, they have bought a house in Dahlia island, but once again they have little room for time together, since they have to return to Towa and the West because of their responsibilities and can only meet again on the weekends.
• In Bokurano, the story arc before the Final Battle basically serves this purpose, with the two remaining pilots traveling across Japan to visit the families and friends of the other pilots, including the boy who was only pretending to be a Zearth pilot, giving closure to the storylines brought up in their arcs.
• Canvas 2 has one of these, including a scene which subverts Tomoko's prior supposed death a couple of minutes before.
• The collected volume of Chrono Crusade came with a bonus epilogue that functioned like this—justified by a video Azmaria recorded for Satella telling her what had happened while she was frozen in crystal. The epilogue was not released in the magazine Chrono Crusade ran in, meaning that fans had to wait for the book to come out to get a clearer idea of what happened after the finale.
• CLANNAD has this before the Fuko and Kouko portion of the final episode.
• Code Geass ends with one of these. The funniest is that Jeremiah, who had been tormented by the derisive name "Orange", ends up accepting the name and living Happily Ever After growing oranges!
• Creamy Mami, the Magic Angel: In the last episode's credits we see what happened to the characters after Mami's final concert: Mamoru went back to Hokkaido, Midori started dating another girl, Megumi and Tachibana get engaged, Snake Joe and his wife have a baby, Yū finds two new kittens that look similar to Nega and Posi and in a Time Skip Yū and Toshio watch over their kids while they play.
• Inverted in Deadman Wonderland—the Creative Closing Credits of every episode shows cheery pictures of the characters from before the series began. Sometimes this hints at things that will be revealed eventually—for example, Ganta and Shiro playing as children, hinting at their Forgotten First Meeting several episodes before Ganta remembers it.
• Digimon:
  • Last five minutes of Digimon Adventure 02, specifically the shots that show us what the digidestined's careers are, now that they've grown up.
  • Also used sort of at the end of the fourth movie (2nd in English due to the combining of the first three as Digimon: The Movie). While the credits are on we see stills of what the characters got up to more or less directly after the film.
  • Last five minutes of Digimon Data Squad (5 years later, and less controversial...yeah).
• The last episode of El-Hazard: The Magnificent World ran pastel drawings under its closing credits that showed obvious "after the series" images — Makoto and Ifurita snuggling under a tree, Allielle in a seifuku, and so on. They may simply be non-canon art pieces, however.
• The epilogue of Fairy Tail jumps ahead a year after the Final Battle, to a party celebrating an award Lucy's won for her first novel. During the party, she narrates all the various things that have happened to the Fairy Tail members and their allies in the intervening time. The next morning, Lucy, Natsu, and several others go off on a new quest.
• In the Fate/stay night anime, the last few minutes before the credits are a version of this. It shows the current antics of most the characters of the Emiya household such as Sakura, Ilya, Rin and Taiga. And then it turns bittersweet and depressing as it shows King Arthur's, also known as Saber's last moments as she dies with her hoping that she'll be able to see Shirou again after her 'long sleep'.
• The final page/episode of Fullmetal Alchemist depicts a collage of photographs to show what the characters are up to several years after the finale, including Ed, Al, and Winry finding ways to use Al's armor to help people.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) does something like this, the last half of the episode showing what everyone's up to after the fallout. That is, until the movie picks up right where the epilogue leaves off at. Whoops.
• Fushigi Yuugi has an epilogue which starts off with a letter. A montage of events that occur over approximately three and a half months—particularly Miaka's transition to high school—and then we see Miaka and Yui in high school (complete with montage-filled credits). Keisuke and Tetsuya then set them up with Tamahome's reincarnation, Taka Sukunami—or not, depending on which version you accept, and... Cliffhanger!
  • The last few pages of volume 18 (which is the manga form of the second OVA) shows few pictures of the Suzaku Seishi after their rebirth. Nuriko seems to have gotten his wish of being reborn as a girl so "he" could be there for Hotohori, Mitsukake is studying herbs with Shouka, who is the reborn version of his girlfriend, Tasuki returned back to his bandit life. Even the cat Tama started a family! Chichiri is also shown, but we don't know if he used Mitsukake's holy water to cure his destroyed left eye. Miaka and Tamahome/Taka are happily married with a toddler aged son.
• The extra ending in the final episode of Future GPX Cyber Formula SIN takes place one year after the 2022 racing season, a new racing season opens with some of the racers switching teams and new outfits for the Pit Girls and ending with the marriage ceremony of the main couple.
• Right before the closing credits of The Garden of Words, Takao details what he did after the summer had ended.
• In the Ghost Stories Gag Dub, Satsuki starts to tell a somewhat vulgar one and is cut off. Stories involved her homeroom teacher getting arrested for feeling up one of her classmates and Hajime losing his voice from getting kicked in the balls or something like that.
• Green Blood ends with an elderly Luke Burns traveling with his daughter and granddaughter to visit his brother Brad, who is buried next to their mother in New York and whose grave shows he lived to the ripe old age of sixty-eight.
• Gundam:
  • Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz ended with a dialogue-free ending credits sequence that demonstrated what each character did almost immediately following. The extended movie version had completely new sequences that remained dialogue-free, but was a bit more elaborate in what it presented.
    • Most notably including Lady Une taking Mariemaia to her "father's" gravestone (though the man in question didn't really leave a body to put in a tomb).
  • The second half of Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans's series finale reveals the fates of the surviving characters. The characters, who were prepubescent at the beginning of the show, are grown-up as young adults while a grown-up Atra narrates the political outcome after the defeat of Tekkadan. At the last part of the finale, viewers get to see Atra and Mikazuki's son, Akatsuki.
  • Both seasons of Mobile Suit Gundam 00 show the Time Skip aftermath of the last battle. The movie, Gundam 00: A Wakening of the Trailblazer, has its epilogue set after the ending credits and it shows humanity and the ELS coexisting peacefully with Setsuna, who is now a hybrid ELS/Innovator, visiting an elderly and blind Marina.
  • The finale of ∀ Gundam shows the fate of the characters and the resolution of the Love Triangle between Loran, Sochie and Dianna. Loran chooses Dianna which Sochie didn't take it very well while her sister Khiel takes Dianna's place as the Queen of the Moon with only a few people knowing her true identity.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury ends like this, showing where the main characters are three years later. Namely, Nika has gotten out of prison and finished her education there, finding her friends waiting for her outside. Shaddiq took the full blame for Quiet Zero in addition to his own crimes and is awaiting trial, Elan #5 is traveling the world looking for the lake in Norea's drawings. Petra is scheduled for getting GUND-format prosthetics, Lauda by her side, while Felsi is rebuilding Asticassia and Guel is keeping his family company afloat as the school's benefactor alongside Elan and Secelia. Miorine and Suletta have gotten married and are planning to build a school, while Prospera is spending her days in peace and Eri is in a keychain, acting as Miorine's Obnoxious In-Laws.
• The journey of Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku ends in Chapter 126, but the series concludes in Chapter 127 after showing how the rest of the cast are doing: the Chobe brothers goes to Hong Kong, where they stir even more trouble among the already chaotic state of the British-occupied city; Shion and Nurugai roam across Japan to look for a peaceful life, but keeps on running into trouble; Gantetsutai, now officially pardoned, opens a dojo specializing in medicine and swordmanship; Jikka takes over as the head of the Yamada Asaemon clan and gets to live out his carefree lifestyle; Sagiri goes on a pilgrimage and travels with Yuzuriha to visit Gabimaru and his wife, who now lives in peace. Then cut to the modern day, where Gui Fa is now a teacher living with Mei, and waiting for the others to re-grow.
• The end of the first season of Higurashi: When They Cry uses this, with what looks like the main cast all enjoying themselves after Keiichi managed to save Rena. The reader is treated to a stinger in which everyone has still died and the "Groundhog Day" Loop has -once again- begun anew.
  • Look at the ending again. That isn't even the same world. Ooishi acts like Miyo died last night and told Rika. He told Rena before and that happened days before.
• Is It My Fault That I Got Bullied?: The final chapter, through means of a conversation between Manaka and Shiori shows us what happened to the Gang of Bullies. We also get information about Shiori's future and see what eventually became of Aizawa and Shinji.
  • Shiho has custody of Shiori and the two are happily living together.
  • Shiori and Manaka end up graduating and are about to move to the same high-school together.
  • Riho Takahashi has gone into full-on paranoid depression, drops out of school and ends up becoming a Hikkikomori.
  • Reina Himekawa has also dropped out of school and was last seen hanging out with "a rough crowd", the implication being that she became a Streetwalker, given her flashing clothing and closeness to the men.
  • Nagumo Ai's life got completely destroyed after the events of the story. Her parents lost their jobs and moved out of town in shame, trying desperately to find a place where their faces aren't recognized in order to start a new life there. In the last panel we see her, she has a This Is Gonna Suck expression on her face.
  • Some schools are now installing cameras to monitor and prevent the bullying problem, meaning Aizawa's efforts have really made a difference.
  • Yumi Yoneda managed to get into a a good high school, it is still however a public one and rumors about her and will start and spread in an instant once the new term starts, since her shameful actions are still somewhere on the internet. Yumi admits she will most likely have to live the rest of her life with people constantly talking behind her back, she is however more than willing to accept that and carry on. She has one final meeting with Shiori and Yumi parts with her on good terms, the final image we see of her being a warm genuine smile.
  • Shinji is wheelchair bound after his last encounter with Aizawa and currently in recovery. Prideful and remorseless as ever, he is making huge amounts of money in the stock market. He plans on making his own company in order to Financial Abuse his way back into Shiori's life. And then Nomura-san, the person he has been putting down and refusing to financially help for the entirety of the story shows up completely broken, fully intent on ending his own life and taking Shinji with him.
  • Aizawa has cut all contact with Shiori, but still receives her messages. Even though he has put Shinji behind him, he has decided his to dedicate his life hunting down bullies and helping their victims get back at them. The last few pages showcase him helping out an adult man Driven to Suicide by his bullies and offering him a helping hand.
• Subverted at the end of Irresponsible Captain Tylor: It shows most of the crew, having quit the military, going off to do what they want as per Tylor's advice... until Captain Yamamoto calls them back to serve on the Aso... which is in of itself an epic Bait-and-Switch that is easier to watch than explain.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • Battle Tendency ended with one of these for all the surviving cast. Lisa Lisa reveals to Joseph that she's his mother and returns to life as Elizabeth Joestar, moving to America and later marrying a Hollywood screenwriter. Erina continues to work as a teacher until passing away at the age of 81, surrounded by her loved ones. Speedwagon continues his work as CEO of the Speedwagon Foundation up until his death via a heart attack at age 89, never leaving behind any children. Smokey goes to college, majors in political science, and becomes the first black mayor in his home state of Georgia. Stroheim never sees Joseph again after the battle against Kars, and eventually falls during the battle of Stalingrad, a proud German solider till the end. Jump to 1989, Joseph, now in his 60s, boards a plane to visit his daughter and grandson in Japan, setting up the events of Stardust Crusaders. Of course, given all this was scarcely 100 chapters into an (as of now) over 900 chapter manga... yeah it wasn't quite done.
  • Diamond is Unbreakable has a downplayed version in the manga, which reveals the status of a few of the characters after the end of the Part. Okuyasu decides to keep Stray Cat after his father ended up bonding with it. Joseph was never able to find Shizuka's parents, and so decides to adopt her as his own. Suzi Q is initially angry at Joseph, thinking he had another affair, but is delighted to accept Shizuka after the situation is cleared up. And Jotaro earns his doctorate in Marine Biology after writing a thesis on a species of starfish local to Morioh's bay. The final episode of the anime expands upon the ending by showing what a number of other character are up to after the Part as well. Of note, the Higashikata household is shown to have returned to a sense of normality, with Josuke and Tomoko being able to move on from Ryohei's death. Angelo is still trapped inside of the stone Josuke fused him with. Koichi and Yukako have entered a stable relationship. Okuyasu attempts to heal his father's mutation with Tonio's food, but it doesn't work, though it heals him enough that they're both at least happy with it. Rohan has returned to working on Pink Dark Boy. And by the end of the summer of 1999, Josuke, Koichi, and Okuyasu are still friends and hang out.
• Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's did this in the end, skipping the series forward six years, leaving only four more before the new season.
  • The following season, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, did the same thing, though it didn't skip forward as far.
• The second half of the final episode of Maison Ikkoku took place months after Godai and Kyoko's wedding and illustrated how the lives of the various characters continued on in the months since: Akemi has married the owner of ChaChaMaru and moved out of Ikkoku, Kozue is living in Nagoya with her husband, Ibuki is attending an all women's college, Mitaka and Asuna are raising twins, with more on the way... and Godai and Kyoko come back to Ikkoku from the hospital with baby in tow.
• The final two chapters of Medaka Box jump ahead ten years to a reunion held by the former Student Council members on the anniversary of Anshin'in-san's death and show the primary cast while telling about satellite characters.
  • Zenkichi and Tsurubami have high-level jobs in the Kurokami Foundation (which they earned on their own merits rather than relying on their connections).
  • Akune runs a highly successful toy company (though he has a habit of going into the factory and assembling the toys himself because it's too much fun) and married Wanizuki of the Not-Equals.
  • Kikaijima settled down after becoming a housewife and a mother, bringing her newborn son to the reunion.
  • Kujira runs the new Flask Plan along with most of the 13s, Mukae runs a flower shop, and Shiranui turned her family's village into a ninja village attraction.
  • Nobody's heard from Kumagawa in years, but the group assumes he's fine because he's not the kind of person to get in touch unless he needed help (and some readers thought it was implied that he's Kikaijima's husband). Additionally, Anshin'in-san left a message upon Medaka's graduation that made everyone certain she'll be coming back to life some time soon.
  • Most of the side characters have settled into adulthood well...but almost all of them have lost their superhuman abilities, including Medaka.
  • Speaking of, Medaka mellowed out over time, but is thoroughly enjoying the fact that she no longer terrifies animals. She's still the chairman of the school and is about to launch a plan to restore the moon (after all, she was the one who destroyed it). She still has the suggestion box, but it's become her "treasure box" for storing the precious memories of her youth, like the nametags from the 100 flower run.
  • The series caps off with Zenkichi asking Medaka for one last sparring match now that they're finally on a level playing field, with the stakes being that if he wins, she'll marry him and if she wins, he'll marry her.
• At the end of the Moldiver episode "Verity", Mirai Ozora works as a balloon girl along with Mao Shirase at the local theme park. Meanwhile, Kaoru Misaki continues his deep space mission, Professor Amagi/Machinegal works on repairing his Dolls at ZIC, and Mirai's brothers Hiroshi and Nozomu respectively develop updated versions of the Mol unit as well as the Moldiver suit.
• The final episode of Monster shows Doctor Tenma coming back to Germany to see Nina and Dieter, having joined Doctors Without Borders. It also shows Johan in a coma... until the ending credits reveal an empty bed. Previously, it shows that Eva overcomes her problems, Dieter lives happily with Dr. Reichwein, Nina is being successful in her laws degree and Lunge fixes his relationship with his daughter.
• My Daddy Long Legs ends with a scene where we watch various characters at Judy's wedding, but there is no dialogue. Instead, Judy provides narration, explaining what has happened to various people.
• Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water concludes with a short epilogue that takes place several years after the events of the series. The epilogue is narrated by Marie, the youngest member of the cast, now a fetching girl of about 18 or so.
• The last chapter of Negima! Magister Negi Magi is largely pictures of the time-skipped girls with a few short paragraphs mentioning how they're living now. Fan reaction to the ending was mixed, not least because of a few important plot points which took place entirely offscreen (Natsumi had another adventure in the Magic World, the twins met some princes and fell in love, Nagi was freed from the Lifemaker), and a number of other characters fans were interested in were simply not mentioned (such as Fate, Fate's girls, and Arika, Negi's mother).
• The last half of episode 11 in Nodame Cantabile Finale where it shows under the credits and the ending theme where everyone is going. Also, a case of All Love is Requited.
• One Piece doesn't have those as an epilogue (since it's still running), but it does have cover story mini-arcs that sometimes act as this, especially the post-timeskip "From the Decks of the World," which show characters who haven't been seen for dozens, if not hundreds, of chapters, and may not appear again.
• The final scene of Outlaw Star shows the crew saying their goodbyes and going their separate ways. But wait: in the post-credit stinger, surprise, surprise, they all get back together again.
• Ping Pong: The last part of the series touches on where the five prodigies went after the second tournament:
  • After beating Smile in the finals, Peco went on to rise through the ranks. After a series of commercial deals in Japan, he was drafted to the German national team and now plays in the European leagues.
  • After coming second in the finals, Smile continued to play competitively before his retirement. He now teaches ping pong to children with Obaba at her dojo.
  • Kazuma placed third in the second tournament, but returned to form with the retirement of Smile. He was drafted to the Japanese Olympic team, but was replaced by Kong soon after. He retired and now works with the family business.
  • Sakuma never returned to ping pong. Instead, he married his girlfriend soon after high school and had two children.
  • Kong became a naturalized citizen of Japan and took the name Tsujido Wenge. He continued playing ping pong and was drafted into the Japanese Olympic team, replacing Kazuma, and eventually attending the Olympic Games.
• The manga of Please Save My Earth closed with a scene showing the seven protagonists settling into their new lives several years later, as well as the circumstances of the spirits of the main couple.
• The Ruby/Sapphire arc of Pokémon Adventures ends by showing what the various side characters of the arc are doing after their brush with The End of the World as We Know It... before cutting to a scene of Giovanni picking up the remains of the shattered Red and Blue Orb, setting things up for the FireRed/LeafGreen arc. The XY arc similarly sees the protagonists moving on after their adventure.
  • Also, all of the Pokémon movies end with scenes showing what Ash Ketchum, Pikachu, and his friends are doing following the films' events along with certain characters from previous movies such as:
    • In Lucario and the Mystery of Mew when Kidd appears to be exploring Forina, we see Butler and Diane from Jirachi: Wish Maker, having apparently started a farm together.
    • In Arceus and the Jewel of Life, we see Tonio and Alice from The Rise of Darkrai enjoying a date in a hot air balloon while Baron Alberto attempts to follow them. Darkrai is then seen looking over the town. Then later we see Zero, the villain from Giratina and the Sky Warrior in prison, only to be visited by Newton Graceland who gives him a copy of Infi that survived the Megarig's wreck, much to his delight. Shaymin is also seen, looking out to a sunrise with a smile.
• The last episode of Prétear goes directly from the final True Love's Kiss to what appears to be the events occurring about half a year after, showing what the characters' lives are now like (and stuffing half of the sequence with a collection of the show's Running Gags).
• Within the Pretty Cure franchise, while a case of this first used on Heartcatch, it wasn't until Go! Princess that this trope was used in full effect.
  • On HeartCatch Pretty Cure!, the first half of the final episode shows the conclusion of the final battle while the second half shows the group a few months later - they only show the main girls, mostly that Tsubomi is now a proud older sister (and she's gone back to wearing her glasses full time) and Itsuki's finally being a girl, letting her hair grow out and wearing the girl's school uniform. It goes one step further by showing Tsubomi's little sister, standing by Tsubomi's desk, looking at the picture of the Precures and holding Tsubomi's Heart Perfume, hinting that she's next in line to be a Precure.
  • Go! Princess Pretty Cure showed that in the future, Haruka continues to pursue her own dream, Minami becomes a marine biologist, Kirara is now a professional model, Towa (along with Kanata and the mascots) returns to the restored Hope Kingdom, while Yui continues to draw a book that chronicles the Cures' story. The final scenes, set at an unknown amount of year after the show ended, showed that Yui has completed her book while the Cures got themselves a crystal version of their Transformation Trinkets. Interestingly, unlike all the other cases in the franchise, the grown-up versions of the Cures and Yui didn't show up their faces.
  • Maho Girls Pretty Cure!'s proper epilogue episode shows that approximately 5 years in the future, Mirai has entered college while the Passing the Torch episode reveals that Riko has become a teacher in the Magic World. Through a miracle, they would have a tearful reunion with Kotoha and Mofurun at the end of the proper epilogue episode.
  • The final scenes of KiraKira★Pretty Cure à la Mode's final episode showcased that Ichika now operates the KiraPati around the world, Aoi is now the lead singer of her band, Himari's now a scientist focusing on sweets, Akira continues her studies at medical school with Yukari also continuing to pursue her own studies, while Ciel also continued to operate her own patisserie shop that is now run jointly with Rio. The mascots also have now opened their own patisserie (independent of KiraPati and Ciel's shop) with Bibury as an assistant.
  • The second half of HuGtto! Pretty Cure's final episode is set 11 years in the future, a then-franchise record. It showcased that Hana is now a CEO of her own company, Saaya is now a doctor, Homare is now a gold-medalist ice skater, Emiru is full-fledged solo rockstar, while Ruru was reunited with Emiru as a newly-created robot unit created by that timeline's Doctor Traum. Meanwhile, the members of the Crisis Corporation have new jobs or are just growing up. The episode ends with Hana giving birth to that timeline's Hagumi.
  • The second half of Star★Twinkle Pretty Cure's final episode is set even further than Hugtto's epilogue, as it's set 15 years in the future. Lala is now an investigator at Starry Sky Association while Yuni continues her work to restore her home planet with the help of Aiwarn. The rest of the Knotraiders aside from the Ophiuchus Princess have converted their former base into a massive botanical garden. As for the remaining three? Well, they continued to work in relation to each other: Madoka is now the leader of Japan's first manned rocket project (with her dad as the Prime Minister), Hikaru has fulfilled her dream to be an astronaut and has been chosen to be one of the astronauts of said project's first launch, while Elena now works as an official professional translator for the United States government to cover said launch for the worldwide broadcast. The very final scene suggests that Hikaru is reunited with Fuwa.
• Princess Tutu has one in the last few minutes of the final episode of the series, showing what Kinkan is like after the story ended. It also shows that Fakir kept his promise to Ahiru.
• Done in Project ARMS, where we see that Takeshi becomes a world-famous soccer player. Keith Violet is an American politician who campaigns for world peace. Hayato inherited his grandfather's dojo and is a wrestling champion. He and Kei are taking things slowly, while Kei is now a full-time employee for the Blue Men. Carol is in college. Al is a famous professor. Ryo and Katsumi got married and their daughter is implied to be the reincarnation of Alice.
• Five years after the events of the Rurouni Kenshin manga, Kenshin and Kaoru have married and have a young son, Kenji. Yahiko is the acting instructor of the dojo, and Word of God implies that he and Tsubame eventually become a thing.
  • Megumi has gone back to Aizu to work as a doctor/search for her family, Sanosuke has left Japan and taken on the role as The Drifter, and Misao and Aoshi are still in the Oniwabanshuu. Saitou was transferred to an unknown police unit in the epilogue of the manga.
  • The non-canon and controversial Reflection OVA takes place presumably 15 to 20 years after the manga, and depicts middle-aged Kenshin and Kaoru, and their teenaged son Kenji has left the dojo to study under Hiko Seijuurou. Kenshin decides to go help out in the first Sino-Japanese war by taking care of people, despite being very ill. He and Kaoru make love one more time before he departs, and she contracts his sickness. Sanosuke is revealed to be in China and finds a very sick Kenshin and Sanosuke sends him back to Tokyo. Kenshin makes his way back to home and Kaoru is there to greet him. He later dies in her arms.
    • Some time later, Kenji is shown with a young girl named Chizuru, who appeared in one of the pilot episodes of the manga.
    • Other characters make brief appearances, such as adult Yahiko and Tsubame and an older Megumi.
• The ending of Samurai Champloo does this, showing the three protagonists walking along their individual paths after splitting up and enjoying the scenery while the credits play.
• Following the deciding battle of Sengoku Basara, time skips ahead a few months to show us the main characters back on their feet and getting ready to fight again, while Masamune and Yukimura meet for their all-important final duel, though the outcome is left ambiguous.
  • Turns out Masamune kind of won (Yukimura was being distracted), but didn't get round to finishing the job before a new Big Bad showed up.
• The last episode of Simoun is one of these as well. Paraietta and Roatreamon run an orphanage together in Mamiina's memory, Kaim and Alty have made up and live together, Floe and Vyura (who both chose to become male) are being drafted on opposite sides of a war, Morinas married Wapourif, has a child (with a second on the way), and works for Wauf, Rimone and Dominura are still in the past establishing the Simoun traditions (and it's implied that they never choose a gender), Yun takes Onasia's place as the leader of Simaulcrum, and Aer and Neviril Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence.
• The end credits in the Grand Finale of Soul Eater show what almost the entire cast got up to after Asura's defeat. They're mostly lighthearted (such as Maka improving at basketball and Joe finally getting his coffee) and the final seconds show the students together one last time.
• At the end of Space Patrol Luluco Ogikubo is back where it belongs. Keiji and Luluco are living in space now, Over Justice is the new Commissioner of the Space Patrol, and Midori has taken his place as the Ogikubo Patrol Chief. Lalaco's still terrorizing planets somewhere, as well. And finally, Luluco takes up the name Miss Trigger and wanders the dimensions in order to find Nova again.
• The Steamboy universe's alternate timeline is show in clips during the credits where Lloyd Steam continues his pontificating to Ray, eventually dies and is buried, followed by a WWI style conflict complete dirigibles burning to the ground, and Scarlett standing proudly in front of a plane she flies.
• A few examples from Studio Ghibli.
  • The credits of My Neighbor Totoro show incidents from the future, starting with the mother's return from the hospital.
  • Similarly, the credits of Kiki's Delivery Service show what happened with Tombo's aviator's club, Jiji and Lily, ect.
  • The credits for Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind show Nausicaa reuniting with her people, Kushana and the Torumekian army leaving the valley peacefully, and Lord Yupa and Asbel exploring the toxic jungle together.
• Tayutama Kiss On My Deity combines this with After the End in an ending that makes little sense whatsoever.
• In the final episode of Tenchi Universe, Tenchi recounts what happens to everyone after he defeats Kagato.
• In Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, twenty years after the events of the show, we found out Rossiu became president over the entire galactic alliance with Leeron at his side, Yoko became a principal at a school, Darry and Gimmy now pilot Gurran Lagann, Viral became supreme commander over the entire fleet. And Simon of all people was Walking the Earth, though the movie epilogue expanded on what he was doing: he was helping people in need in exchange of planting flowers, fulfilling Nia's dream.
• The movie version of They Were Eleven has a very straightforward one, detailing the future careers of the cast after the end of their Cosmo Academy exam.
• The credits to the final episode of Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 show the characters relatively shortly after the show ends.
• The Toradora! anime has one of these in the last episode.
• Transformers Victory ended with Jean narrating what happened to everybody after Deathsaurus was defeated. Among other things, we find out that Star Saber and Victory Leo survived.
• The epilogue of Your Name has one of these. Notably, it shows the creation of an alternate future in which the people of Itomori managed to survive the meteor impact, and moved to Tokyo, with brief glimpses of what everyone's been doing since then.
• The Japanese version of Yu-Gi-Oh!: Duel Monsters has one in the final episode showing the credits montage of the characters returning home and the whereabouts of minor characters.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds shows the epilogue over the last three episodes. After half a year after the defeat of Z-ONE, Jaegar became the new mayor. Aki is finishing up school and contemplates studying overseas. Crow becomes a member of the Neo Domino Police. Yusei becomes a scientist and finishes his father's work. Lua and Luca received a letter from their parents who want them to leave Neo Domino City to live with them. Jack has been traveling and training. The last episode then shows everyone eight years after. Lua is training to be the future Rising Duel champion while Luca is studying in university. Crow continued to duel as a professional duelist, while Jack becomes the King of the Ride Ace Dueling league, making him the World King. Aki is a high-ranking doctor. Yusei decides to stay in Neo Domino City to protect it.
• In YuYu Hakusho, at the end of the Chapter Black saga, the series shows what some of the supporting characters in the arc, from the three boys Genkai hired to test the heroes to Sensui's henchmen, ended up doing with their lives.

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