I know most cartoonsare just a bunch of separate episodes all pretty much self contained, but there are a good amount that actually follow storylines. Not many of them ever come to an official “end,” they just get cancelled and forgotten about, but there are a few out there that stick in my mind as having an official “ending,” and leaving me VERY unsatisfied (Warning, spoilers ahead).
The first one I can remember is Dragon Warrior. It’s all about this young girl who becomes the “Protector of the Red Gem,” and her boyfriend who becomes the “Protector of the Blue Gem.” The red gem can apparently awaken this great dragon that can destroy the world, and the blue gem can put it back to sleep. The girl gets kidnapped by a big evil demon of sorts, and the series follows the boyfriend and his small band of adventurers as they quest to find her. The final episode, he gets a new magical sword, and they defeat a big bad nasty and find the map leading to where the dragon sleeps. “I wonder how we’ll find it?” “I don’t think that will be a problem…” as they look out on the horizon and see the place. Girlfriend’s still held captive, they still have to get to the dragon, and you don’t know if there’s a big conflict or what to finish it off. That’s it.
The second was Techno Man, which took place in the future where this evil alien race has taken control of this huge ring surrounding the earth and set up a base on the dark side of the moon. They kidnap people and turn them into cyborgs of sorts, who are super powerful, and of course, one of them manages to break free and help earth fight back. In the final episode, the main guy heads off to stop the earth military force from nuking the space ring and killing millions of people in the fallout. He ends up detonating the bomb in mid air, and whiping out the military base. While he’s gone, his evil twin brother shows up and destroys the place he’s been working in, killing most of the people there and trapping the rest underground. Techno manages to get back just in time to see his sister blow herself up and kill their brother as well. And that’s it.
Can anyone think of any other cartoons that just ended leaving you feeling kinda “Huh?”
They just didn’t make enough episodes of Big O. Nice subtle setup, interesting characters, then … only nine episodes made it to America that I know of, and I don’t think there were many more in Japan.
Biker Mice From Mars. Some rat kidnapped a mouse called Harley who was romantically with the biker mouse Vinnie… and we never found out what happened to them!
I blame Power Rangers for taking over television and pushing Biker Mice out!
No, the really frustrating part about that show was the dude’s necktie. Remember it? It was just a black tie with a white stripe down the center.
My friend and I got so into Big O that we went out looking for that necktie. We’ve been looking for that tie for over a year now; they just don’t sell it.
Dragonblink, actually, 13 episodes of The Big O made it to the US via Cartoon Network. They were also released on four DVDs, in case you didn’t get a chance to see them all.
But hold on to your shorts, because the rumor mill is gearing up saying that Sunrise will product more of The Big O, in conjunction with CN. I can’t find any reputable cites as to Sunrise being involved, but the following site refers to more The Big O in a offhand manner: Loading...
From what I’ve read (including on the writer of The Big O’s page), the original crew has always wanted to do more, but couldn’t get support from Sunrise. So I have to assume that the same people will work on season 2. I guess all of us fans spending $100 on DVDs goes a little way toward convincing a major company in another country to give us what we want…
Sorry to double post, but just to clarify something in your statement: All 13 episodes of The Big O made it to America. There’s aren’t any more episodes, in Japan or anywhere else.
Of course, if you’re really interested in more right now, you can order The Big O manga, or, if you don’t read Japanese, pick up English versions of some manga available from Viz.
There was one episode of Jonny Quest I saw when I was 10 years old which I never got to see the end of. I no longer remember anything about the plot, but the first half was really exciting.
The trouble was, after the commercial, the second half was from A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT EPISODE!!! Aaargh!!
I tried calling the station but the line was busy.
And a few months later, they reran the episode but they hadn’t bothered to fix it! Lazy bastards.
