As anime is often used as a promotional tool to boost source material and merch sales, to fall in love with an anime and expect a complete story is to usually set yourself up for disappointment. Unless your manga series is short, already concluded, or the anime series is particularly popular (in Japan), you’re probably not going to see the series fully adapted into anime.
Who can say as to why that is, other than the easy answer – money – but a good number of your favorite anime based on manga won’t ever be fully adapted to the screen. This is okay if you do actually enjoy going to read the source material, and pretty good for me, a person who run this website telling you where you can go pick up the series after the anime. Though, it is not great for closure.
If you are sick of picking up anime series that are never going to get a conclusion, I’ve compiled this big list of anime that do end conclusively.
Now that said, these anime don’t always end the same way as the manga. This list does include anime that diverged from the manga series it was based on, but I have marked those series with helpful notes.
When applicable, I have also linked to articles I wrote with more information on how and where it diverges. That said, I’ve not done all of the series that have diverged on this list yet, but I will start to make them a priority and update this list with links as I go.
If you notice errors or series that aren’t on here, you are encouraged to leave a comment and I will make appropriate updates to try to keep this as up-to-date and accurate as possible.
This list does not include anime adapted from light novels. That’s a separate list.
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*If it just says “good adaptation” below, it means there was nothing huge left out, perhaps a few skipped moments, but very little of note.
Anime That Are Full Manga Adaptations
| Series | Adaptation Notes |
| 3D Girlfriend (3D Kanojo: Real Girlfriend) | Anime leaves out the epilogue chapter |
| A Silent Voice (Koe no Katachi) | Adapts the ending and main storyline, but the movie leaves out almost every sub-plot for various characters due to time constraints. |
| Acca 13 (ACCA: 13-ku Kansatsu-ka) | Good adaptation. |
| Afro Samurai | Afro Samurai: Resurrection adapts the chapters the original anime skipped |
| Aim for Ace (Ace wo Nerae!) | Watch Final Stage OVA for the end, but the anime had changes from the manga throughout. |
| Akame ga Kill | Diverges and has an anime-original ending. |
| Akuma no Riddle | Anime cuts a number of scenes short and rushes through events to adapt the whole story. Skips a number of character moments unrelated to the main plot. |
| Angolmois | Fully adapts the original manga, but not the Hakata-hen sequel manga |
| Antique Bakery (Seiyou Kottou Yougashiten: Antique) | Good adaptation. |
| Another | The anime is a light novel adaptation, but the manga also adapts the story. |
| Aria | The Animation, The Natural, and The Origination adapt to the end of the manga, but skips several chapters. Crepuscolo, Avvenire, Benedizione movie/ovas are mostly fan service |
| Ashita no Joe | The anime has a bit of filler content, but otherwise is a good adaptation. |
| Assassination Classroom (Ansatsu Kyoushitsu) | The OVAs cover skipped chapters about various other, “not “non-main characters” in the class. |
| Astra Lost in Space (Kanata no Astra) | Speeds through a lot of the “planet exploration” sections of the story, leading to less compelling or believable results, lol. |
| Attack on Titan (Shingeki no Kyojin) | Has spin-offs you could enjoy. |
| Ayashi no Ceres | Highly abridged. Full arcs and characters are cut from the anime. Best to read from the beginning. |
| Azumanga Daioh | Skips omits some chapters/jokes, as well as changes some events, but does adapts the ending. Hoshuu-hen manga is the original series repackaged with new chapters |
| Bakuman | Good adaptation. |
| Banana Fish | The anime story is pretty abridged and set in the modern day, so the manga is a bit different. |
| Basilisk | Basilisk: The Kouga Ninja Scrolls and the sequel anime Basilisk: The Ouka Ninja Scrolls are two different manga series, but both anime adaptations adapt them fully. |
| Big Order | Anime-Original Ending and changes throughout. |
| Black Cat | A hot mess of an adaptation. Speeds through content, changes core story elements, features an anime-original ending |
| Blade of the Immortal (Mugen no Juunin) | 2008 Anime isn’t a full adaptation, 2019 anime is a highly abridged, but complete adaptation. Neither adapt the Bakumatsu Arc sequel manga. |
| Blast of Tempest (Zetsuen no Tempest) | Anime ending is a bit different, but not wholly anime-original. |
| Bleach | Thousand-Year Blood War is adapting the final arc and expanding upon it. |
| Blood-C | Need to watch The Last Dark movie for the conclusion |
| Blood Blockade Battlefront (Kekkai Sensen) | Changes the plot in the first season, but gets to the canon ending in season 2, but also has ongoing sequel manga to explore. |
| Blue Giant | Skips the first 29 chapters, but adapts the ending of the first manga. The series has a slew of sequel manga, however. |
| Bokurano | The anime diverges majorly and thus ends very differently. Best read from the beginning. |
| Buso Renkin | Sort of speeds through the epilogue chapter in the final episode, but otherwise is a good adaptation. |
| Cardcaptor Sakura | Only applicable for the original series. The sequel, Clear Card Arc, is only about half adapted to anime. |
| Chobits | Starts good enough, but divaites and changes the ending in the anime. |
| Chrono Crusade | Diverges to an anime-original ending |
| Cross Game | Good adaptation. |
| Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction | TV anime was a better adaptation than the abridged movies full of cuts and some changes to the ending (because of their short run-time.) TV anime did make is own small changes and omissions as well, but adapted far more of the manga. Regardless, if you watched Episode 0 as well, you saw the full ending. Watch Episode 0 between E16 and E17, the final episode. |
| Dear Brother (Oniisama E) | The anime is 39 episodes, the manga is 17 chapters. The anime expands on a lot and most character stories end in a “similar, but different” sort of way |
| Death Note | The anime ending is a bit rushed and had small changes from the manga ending. |
| Devilman: Crybaby | Small changes to the Devilman manga ending. |
| Dororo | The 2019 anime differs, as in fleshes out, the much older original manga. Dororo to Hyakkimaru Den is a reboot manga, but has a story that differs from both the original manga and the newest anime. |
| Dr. Ramune – Mysterious Disease Specialist | Skips two chapters. (Chapters 5 and 6) |
| Dr. Slump | Only the 1984 anime is a full adaptation, the remake is not. |
| Dragon Ball | Has a decent chunk of filler, including like the final five episodes, but is otherwise a good adaptation. |
| Dragon Ball Z | The anime inserts a good amount of filler, but is otherwise a good adaptation |
| El Cazador de la Bruja | The anime fleshes out the original one volume manga quite a bit |
| Elfen Lied | Story Diverges into an anime-original ending |
| Endo and Kobayashi Live! The Latest on Tsundere Villainess Lieselotte | Originally was a light novel, but the LN and manga are similar. Manga was abruptly canceled, but very close to the ending of the light novel, which is the ending of the anime. |
| Erased | A hot mess of an adaptation. You get the full story, but it condenses the second half and skips a bunch. |
| Fairy Tail | Has a sequel manga that is now also getting an anime. |
| Food Wars (Shokugeki no Souma) | The final season of the anime sort of zips through the last portion of the manga. |
| Forest of Piano (Piano no Mori) | Highly condensed version of the story. |
| Fragtime | Hits all the major plot points, leaves out a lot of the smaller details. |
| From The New World (Shinsekai Yori) | The manga adapts and changes the novel source. The anime is adapted from the manga. |
| Fruits Basket | Only the Fruits Basket (2019) anime fully adapts the story, the old anime drifts into an anime-only ending. |
| Fullmetal Alchemist | Only Brotherhood fully adapts the manga, the original FMA drifts into an anime-only ending. |
| Full Moon o Sagashite | The anime expanded on the ending, but it has the same basic end. |
| Fushigi Yuugi | Need to watch OVA 2 for the ending. |
| Future Diary (Mirai Nikki) | If you didn’t watch the Redail OVA that fixed the ending, read the final manga chapter for a better one. The anime did signficantly change a few of the character sotrylines for the other participants at times. |
| Gintama | Has a signicant chunk of anime-original content as well as meta jokes. |
| Good Night World | Cuts out quite a bit of character details, though the world is built out a bit better via the prequel manga Good Night World End. |
| Gosick | Anime is more adapted from the light novels, the manga is more light-hearted. Both have roughly the same story fully adapted |
| Grandpa and Grandma Turn Young Again (Jiisan Baasan Wakagaeru) | Wildly re-arranges the chapters, and skips a number of them. However, chapters are only 5 pages long, so they were able to adapt quite a bit, including the ending. |
| Handa-kun | Prequel to Barakamon, but Barakamon is not a full adaptation |
| Hatsukoi Limited | Cuts out pretty much everything that isn’t feeding into the main relationships, which is a sizable chunk. |
| Haven’t You Heard, I’m Sakamoto (Sakamoto desu ga?) | Good adaptation. |
| Heaven’s Lost Property (Sora no Otoshimono) | Pretty spotty adaptation overall. You need to watch Eternal My Heart movie for the ending. |
| Hells (Hell’s Angels) | The movie does trim off a few details |
| Hellsing | Only Hellsing Ultimate adapts the full manga, the Hellsing (2001) anime drifts into an anime-original ending |
| High Score Girl | Has an unadapted sequel manga, High Score Girl Dash. |
| Honey and Clover (Hachimitsu to Clover) | Good adaptation. |
| Horimiya | Adapts the main romance fully, but abridges many side character stories. Horimiya: Pieces covers what the first anime skipped. |
| I Can’t Understand What My Husband is Saying (Danna ga Nani wo Itteiru ka Wakaranai Ken) | Has two very short prequel manga series about some side characters. |
| If My Wife Becomes an Elementary School Student (Tsumasho, Tsuma, Shougakusei ni Naru) | Moves through 111 chapters lightning fast, skipping many details and a number of full chapters. Best read from the beginning. Adapts the final chapter, but not the 5 years later epilogue. |
| Initial D | Does skip out some non-racing related slice of lfie moments, but otherwise is a good adaptation. |
| Inuyasha | Inuyasha (2000) drifts into filler by the end. Inuyasha: The Final Act reins it back in to conclude the series canonically. It’s sequel is anime-original. |
| Inuyashiki | Sped through most events, though not really skipping much. |
| Jormungand | Good adaptation. |
| Jyu Oh Sei | Went too fast in some scenes,cutting out a fair bit of characterization, and spent too much time on others. |
| K-on | Does not adapt the single volume K-On High School manga or the single volume K-On College manga, both of which are sequels to the story. |
| Kakushigoto | The anime leaves much out, adapting select chapters from every volume, but does adapt the ending |
| Kamisama Kiss | Kamisama, Shiawase ni Naru OVA ends the series, but skips many chapters. |
| Karakuri Circus | Truly awful anime adaptation. Skips whole arcs and characters. Read this manga from the beginning. |
| Kids on the Slope (Sakamichi no Apollon) | Anime kind of speeds through the manga ending. |
| Kimagure Orange Road | Need to watch the OVA and Movie for the ending |
| Knights of Sidonia (Sidonia no Kishi) | Knights of Sidonia: Love Woven in the Stars movie adapted the manga ending, but poorly. |
| Koi Kaze | Strongly abridged the final six chapters in the final episode, among other things. |
| Koikimo – It’s Too Sick to Call This Love (Koi to Yobu ni wa Kimochi Warui) | Anime skips quite a few chapters, but does adapt the ending |
| Kokkoku | Skips chapters and dialogue that leaves some of the less important plot points feeling forgotten in the anime. |
| Kuroko’s Basketball (Kuroko no Basketball) | Season 1 and Season 2 are great, but Season 3 and movies start changing and skipping things a lot more. |
| Laughing Under The Clouds (Donten ni Warau) | Adapts the main series and has some side story movies, but doesn’t adapt the prequel manga. |
| Level E | Does not adapt the final chapter of the manga. |
| Look Back | Good adaptation. |
| Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer (Hoshi no Samidare) | Rushes through the story pretty bad. |
| Maison Ikkoku | Skips quite a few chapters |
| Magical Girl Me (Mahou Shoujo Ore) | Ends up expanding on the world of what is just a comedy parody a bit more, but is a good adaptation. |
| Major | “Major” is fully adapted, “Major 2nd,” the sequel, is an ongoing adaptation. |
| Mardock Scramble | The manga, which adapts the story of the original novels the movies were adapting, does change the story of the novels/anime a bit. |
| Maria the Virgin Witch (Junketsu no Maria) | Changes the attitude of certain characters slightly and cuts a few moments from the manga, but otherwise adapts the full story pretty well. |
| Masamune-kun’s Revenge (Masamune-kun no Revenge) | Skips the last side story volume and has a unadapted sequel manga |
| Mecha Ude: Mechanical Arms | The series started as an short ONA, technically, making it an anime not based on a manga, but a manga released before the TV anime – which was just the story of the TV anime. |
| Midori no Hibi | Anime is the basic story, but condenses events heavily. |
| Migi and Dali | Does cut some of the smaller, unrelated schemes and events not feeding into the main mystery for the sake of time, but otherwise was quite good as an adaptation. |
| Mischievous Kiss (Itazura na Kiss) | The manga ended when the author died, but the anime followed the pattern of events where it left off to a satisfying conclusion. |
| Mob Psycho 100 | Good Adaptation. |
| Monster | Good adaptation. |
| Murder Princess | The OVA makes significant changes to how some events go in the manga, but follows the same core story. |
| Murai in Love (Murai no Koi) | Cuts a lot of side character stories and character back story, but does adapt the ending. |
| Mushishi | Need to watch The Next Chapter – Drops of Bells movie for the ending. |
| Naruto | But there is always Boruto. |
| Natsuyuki Rendezvous | Has a short single-volume Bangai-Hen manga that serves as an epilogue that wasn’t in the anime |
| No. 6 | Manga adapted the light novel like the anime, but has a different ending. The anime, LN, and manga all have separate endings from each other, so each version of this story ends a different way. |
| Non Non Biyori | Skips tons of chapters, but does adapt the ending. |
| NTR: Netsuzou Trap | A “Similar, but different” anime from the manga. |
| O Maidens in Your Savage Season (Araburu Kisetsu no Otome-domo yo.) | Speeds through pretty much every girl’s storyline in order to cram the entire story in, omitting quite a bit. |
| Orange | The Orange: Future sequel manga is covered in the Orange: Future movie. |
| Orb: On the Movements of the Earth (Chi.: Chikyuu no Undou ni Tsuite) | Cuts a couple of small details, but is otherwise a very diligent adaptation of the manga story |
| Paradise Kiss | Changed the tone and skipped a number of the more controversial moments, but were technically adapting plot points. The ending of the anime was changed to account for the things they did skip, otherwise it would have made less sense. |
| Parasyte | Good adaptation, but the anime is more modernized in its setting as the manga was quite old when it was made. |
| Peach Girl | Has a short sequel manga called Peach Girl Next about married life. The anime also censored the “adult stuff” from the manga. Though the manga has nothing very graphic. |
| Pet | Good adaptation, but does focus on the main story and side character details are often cut in the anime. |
| Ping Pong | Good adaptation. |
| Planetes | Diverges majorly to an anime-original ending that many agree was actually better than the manga. |
| Platinum End | Good adaptation. (in that the manga is also as nonsensical.) |
| Pluto | Good adaptation. |
| Prince of Tennis (Tennis no Oujisama) | The original Prince of Tennis manga is fully adapted, Shin Prince of Tennis, the ongoing sequel manga, is not. |
| Pseudo Harem (Giji Harem) | Skips chapters (the chapters are only 4 pages long), but adapts the ending in full |
| Pupipo | Condensed a number of events. |
| Recovery of an MMO Junkie (Net-juu no Susume) | The manga was cancelled and ended where the anime ends. |
| ReLife | Kanketsu-hen OVA concludes the series |
| Requiem of the Rose King (Baraou no Souretsu) | Wildly terrible adaptation. Cutting out and censoring a number of things as well as speeding through some events to cram the whole story in. |
| Revisions | The anime kind of takes the concept of the manga story, and does its own thing with it. Not a direct adaptation, but does somehow spoil the story. |
| Ristorante Paradiso | The anime adapts the original manga, and because it is one volume, adapts the Gente manga sequel as well. |
| Rizelmine | The manga is seven chapters long, the anime is 24 episodes, so… |
| Romantic Killer | Yes, the manga also ends in the same unsatisfying, non-committal way. |
| Sacrificial Bride and the King of Beasts (Niehime to Kemono no Ou) | Adapts the full base manga, has a sequel series following their kid called the White Rabbit and the Prince of Beasts. |
| Saikano | Anime adds in characters, changes a number of scenes, and has a different ending from the manga |
| Sailor Moon | The 1992 anime adapts all the manga, but does so poorly. Sailor Moon Crystal (2014) is faster paced, but more faithful. You need to watch the Sailor Moon Crystal Eternal AND Cosmos movies for the ending. |
| Saint Seiya | The main series is a full adaptation, but this series is vast. |
| Sand Land | Full adaptation and MORE |
| Scum’s Wish (Kuzu no Honkai) | Abridges the ending of the manga. Short sequel manga, Scum’s Wish Decor, wraps up the open nature of the ending better. |
| Sengoku Youko | A pretty good adaptation. |
| Seven Deadly Sins (Nanatsu no Taizai) | But it has a sequel manga with an anime of its own |
| Shaman King | The 2001 anime was a messy adaptation, the 2021 anime moves through the material quickly, but is a complete adaptation. |
| Shiki | Manga is adapted from the novels, the anime adapts the manga. The last two chapters of the manga expand on the anime ending. |
| Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju | Good adaptation. |
| Silent Mobius | The anime changes the manga story, and also the manga has several sequel and prequel series. |
| Sing “Yesterday” to Me (Yesterday wo Utatte) | Cuts out a lot, including full scenes and characters from the manga and focuses too heavily on specific singular character storylines (Shinako) from this multi-character storyline series. |
| Slam Dunk | Ending is adapted in The First Slam Dunk movie, but skipped chapters to do so |
| Sola | Cuts a number of moments, which leaves a number of characters feeling flat and story moments left a little vague. |
| Somali and the Forest Spirit (Somali to Mori no Kamisama) | The manga was discontinued due to the author’s health and the anime changed some parts of the story. |
| Summertime Render | Good adaptation. |
| Summit of the Gods (Kamigami no Itadaki) | Abridged and sped through, you would get a more detailed story reading it from the beginning. |
| Taisho Maiden Fairy Tale (Taishou Otome Otogibanashi) | For more, check out the Showa Maiden Fairy Tale sequel manga. |
| Teekyuu | Skips a number of chapters |
| The Disastrous Life of Saiki K (Saiki Kusuo no Ψ-nan) | Skips a small handful of chapters, but is otherwise a good adaptation. |
| The Duke of Death and His Maid (Shinigami Bocchan to Kuro Maid) | Skips some of the fluffier chapters later on. |
| The Law of Ueki (Ueki no Housoku) | While it speeds through the initial chapters a little too quickly, overall it was a pretty good adaptation. |
| The Rose of Versailles (Versailles no Bara) | Adapts the full original story, but four additional volumes of side stories were released in 2013. The anime also skips side stories that happen within the main story. |
| To Love-Ru | The original To Love Ru is fully adapted, though skips many chapters. To Love Ru Darkness is partially adapted. |
| Tokyo Ghoul | Terrible Adaptation. Root A gets to the canon ending, but the season was mostly anime-original. :Re, the sequel, had many changes in the anime. |
| Tokyo Mew Mew | Both the 2002 anime and the 2022 anime adapt the manga ending, but the 2022 anime does do it differently. |
| Tomo-chan is a Girl (Tomo-chan wa Onnanoko!) | The chapters are very short, and often unrelated to each other. As such, they skipped quite a few of them to cover a more concise romantic progression for the main couple as well as the side couples. |
| Tonari no Yokai-san | Skips tons of chapters, but captures the core overall story while adapting the ending of the manga. Read it from the beginning if you liked it. |
| Touch | Features pretty minor differences throughout. |
| TP Bon | Skips a few chapters. The anime has an original ending as the manga was discontinued due to the author’s health. This is for the 2024 anime. The movie is likely the same, but with more skipped chapters. (I couldn’t find the movie to actually watch it.) |
| Umibe no Etranger | Has an ongoing sequel manga, Harukaze no Etranger |
| Urusei Yatsura | 1981 is a full-ish adaptation that skips bits, the 2022 anime is a more compact version of the manga. Both skips chapters and re-arrange events. All versions adapt the ending. |
| Ushio and Tora | 1992 anime diverges. 2016 anime adapts the full story, but skips many chapters. |
| Wanna Be The Strongest in the World (Sekai de Ichiban Tsuyoku Naritai!) | Good adaptation. |
| Working | You can start the WWW.Working spin-off after that spin-off anime at Chapter 40. |
| Yawara! A Fashionable Judo Girl | Ends in the Zutto Kimi no Koto ga movie |
| Your Lie in April (Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso) | Good adaptation. |
| Yugioh | Fully adapts the base Yugioh manga, the spin-offs tend to diverge early and often. |
| Yu Yu Hakusho | Got to the canon ending, but skipped a number of chapters and did minorly change some events. |
| Zetman | Adapts the ending of the series, but abridges the story a lot |
Didn’t see an anime that fully adapted its manga series on here? Leave a comment! I’ll validate the information and add it. If it is based on a light novel, that’s a different list!
See a mistake? Leave a comment! I’ll look into it further and update it.
The reLife anime doesn’t adapt the prologue/epilogue chapter, which was rleeased the year after the anime
Also there are some bonus chapters that were released years later (2021), i’m not sure what happens in them yet. I should get around to it.
Will you be slowly adding notes to the ones that haven’t been noted ?
If necessary. However, usually if I left it blank i had nothing in particular to say about the adaptation.
I’ve not seen the ReLIFE adaptation but from my understanding it never adapted the epilogue chapter, as that came out shortly after the anime did. And there are a few further epilogue chapters that came out the year or two after (that I’ve not read yet), too.
Also I’ve not read the Law of Ueki manga, but there was a sequel manga series that came out the same year as the anime that the anime didn’t cover.
Also also, does Zetman cover the manga at all?? My understanding (only read the manga) was that it uses the same characters and shares some ideas but is mostly an original setting and story. And it came out two years before the manga finished..
Endo and Kobayashi has a 3rd LN that’s an epilogue/side stories that wasn’t adapted.
The Duke of Death skipped some chapters (mangaupdates lists them)
Btw thanks for all this, truly. I come in to check a fair few series. Just now I came in to confirm if watching Touch and Cross Game would be alright or if I should go manga (was pretty sure cos they’re rated uber highly for 2 decades on anime sites but this site helps)