Shows That Need Sequels

Screw you, Darker Than Black.

Darker Than Black

Oh, hey, look who it is – little Miss “Oh, I didn’t answer any of the questions in my show, did I? Oops, my bad! Here, have this OVA”.

Yeah, thanks a lot, assholes – your OVA was a crappy side-story that was intended to be humorous, but just pissed off your fans because it didn’t freaking answer any of the questions you failed to.

Ok, legitimately, Darker Than Black did answer a few of the questions it created during its existence (although I actually don’t remember which ones). However, it left much of its threads hanging completely loosely in the breeze, something that was deeply irritating, especially to folks like me who actually did like the show – and were desperately trying to defend it against its detractors.

Dark Than Black is the show that used to get brought up in Fullmetal Alchemist sequel rumors, as they were both done by the same studio, but unlike FMA, no dice here thus far. And, well, the further we get from its original airing, the less likely it seems we’ll ever actually get told what the hell any of it was.

FAKE

Oh, FAKE – my first yaoi manga… the first manga I bought that had a plastic wrap on one of it’s volumes… ah, memories.

FAKE got an OVA back in the nineties of one of its arcs. I think the entire thing needs a full-fledged, late-night TV adaptation. Admittedly, its a bit dated, but it also features the most awesome/awful imagined-90’s era police outfits ever. It also had gotten a manga sequel somewhat recently, although that’s been in suspended animation since the manga-ka, Sanami Matoh, got ill.

Anyway, enough with the Junjou Romantica bullshit, bring us something that’s actually good… like FAKE. The OVA was certainly fun, but it always begged a full season’s worth.

Jigoku Shoujo Mitsuganae

Me a loser Jigoku Shoujo fan? Never!

Normally I suppose I’d say this didn’t have a chance, but I thought it was done with Futakomori, so I’d say there actually is still a slim possibility of a fourth season happening.

Kite Liberator

Ok, so Kite Liberator somehow manages to be pretty cool despite having this weird mutated monsters in a space station thing happening in the background, but then when our lovely lead, the Angel of Death, runs into one of the monsters after realizing its her dad it… ends. Which worked in the original Kite, but in the original Kite it made sense to leave you hanging, wondering what exactly happened to Sawa and Oburi, whereas here it just feels incomplete.

But, hey, guess what folks? This isn’t going to get a sequel clearing things up – technically this was a sequel to the original Kite, and it answers only half the question of Sawa and Oburi’s fate (well, definitively – you could speculate on what happened to Oburi based on stuff in Liberator, but there’s no exact answer). So even if it does get a sequel, expect Yasuomi Umetsu to gank us out again.

Maria-sama ga Miteru 4th

There are several light novels worth of material yet to be covered, and I have no doubt that it could fill up a thirteen-episode span. We know that Yumi and Touko will become souer and petite souer, but we haven’t actually gotten to see it happen – the season closed out with Yumi deciding to present her rosary again, but also delaying it until later.

We all want to see Touko actually becoming Yumi’s petite souer, along with the current roses graduating. Yoshino’s developing friendship with Nana is also in dire need of coverage. This story isn’t fully over yet, and it really needs to get an anime adaptation of the full thing.

Strawberry Panic

Strawberry Panic set itself up for a sequel by not finishing with Nagisa just making out with Shizuma, instead showing her returning to her room and bummed-out Tamao, who welcomed her home like a wife who knows her husband is cheating. And, what, we’re supposed to just accept that as the end? The two clearly have some issues to work out, since they didn’t do so during the series (unlike Yaya and Hikari), and it’d be nice to see how things develop since Tamao hasn’t really evaporated as a romantic rival completely because of it.

Other things a sequel could cover: Kaname and Momomi rebuilding their relationship, and Yaya and Tsubomi getting together. They could also introduce Makoto, who didn’t appear in the anime adaptation, and whom it is implied is the object of Chikaru’s affections in the light novels and manga. So there actually is some legitimate material from which they could make a second season… and, really who would object to more of such awesome crap?

Tenpou Ibun Ayakashi Ayashi

You’re looking at one of Bones’s failures. TIAA had a lot of potential, and managed to squander most of that away by having serious pacing issues for the first ten episodes or so, despite having a truly engaging cast. Originally slated for a fifty-two episode run, it got slashed to twenty-five because of horrible ratings generated by its crap pacing. But, the thing is, if you stuck through the bad pacing, it got its act together halfway through, and truly displayed a lot of potential once again.

Sadly, it got hacked in less than half, and quality declined once more as the creators scrambled to finish off storylines in the remaining ten episodes that were meant to play out across thirty-five more episodes. I was beyond disappointed.

There was a five episode OVA, something impressive for a show that did so poorly (although I suspect it was partially due to the fact that Bones suddenly had half their budget lying around still), though it did little to really advance any of the TV series’ core plot, as the show had finished it off, albeit abruptly. What I would truly want from this would be a remake with better pacing and with the story completely played out properly, as the entire sin and retribution angle never got its full share. But since it tanked the first go-round, and no one has talked about it since, that’ll never happen.