It is no secret that anime is often created to help sell manga, light novels, or just merch in general. It is like a 12-episode promotional commercial to help get you hooked on characters and invested in the plot. It is why you see so many anime series that only adapt fractions of the source material, never to be heard of again. Either it wasn’t received well or it didn’t boost sales enough.
But not always!
Creativity is dying, but never dead. Sometimes anime studios dare to make an original creation that has no light novel or manga to dictate its story. However, these original anime series always end up in a very Schrodinger’s Box place when it comes to their conclusion.
As they are original stories with no source material, they are both finished and unfinished. A series could end with a cliffhanger and never be picked up again, and that is how the story was meant to end because there is no source material saying otherwise.
Then you have series like, for example, Psycho-Pass. The series could have and perhaps should have ended with its very strong first season that told an interesting story to a satisfying conclusion. Yet, they made two more seasons and a series of movies in that world, because it is technically an open-ended detective story – there is always another case and another cop to solve it.
If you are looking for “complete” original anime with no source material, I’ve gathered a list. I went through 4,500+ entries in the MyAnimeList database (I saw Ex-Arm and where the ratings end o_o), clicking on everything reasonably well-known enough and that I didn’t already know had source material.
I can say that, from what have seen on this list – which is a decent portion, but not all – these stories end pretty conclusively, but again, original anime stories with no source material can end in an open-ended way just in case the studio thinks they might be able to pick it up later.
As a note, any series that do have manga or light novels – as many of the below do – had those written based on the anime, not the other way around.
Complete Original Anime With No Source Material
| Series |
| 91 Days |
| AICO: Incarnation |
| Akiba Maid War (Akiba Meido Sensou) |
| Akudama Drive |
| Aldnoah Zero |
| A Lull in the Sea (Nagi no Asu kara) |
| Angel Beats |
| Animegataris |
| AnoHana – The Flower We Saw That Day (Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai.) |
| A Place Further Than The Universe (Sora yori mo Tooi Basho) |
| Appare-Ranman |
| Aquarion |
| Arjuna |
| Astro Note |
| Ayaka |
| Bakuten |
| Bang Brave Bang Bravern |
| Basquash |
| BBK/BRNK |
| Blassreiter |
| Blood+ |
| Blue Gender |
| BNA – Brand New Animal |
| Bucchigiri!? |
| Bucchigire Bakumatsu Bad Boys |
| Buddy Complex |
| Buddy Daddies |
| C-Control : The Money of Soul and Possibility |
| Cardfight! Vanguard |
| Carole & Tuesday |
| Case File nº221: Kabukicho |
| Casshern Sins |
| Charlotte |
| Classicaloid |
| Classroom Crisis |
| Code Geass |
| Comet Lucifer |
| Concrete Revolutio |
| Cowboy Bebop |
| Coyote Ragtime Show |
| Darker Than Black |
| Darling in the Franxx |
| Death Parade |
| Deca-Dence |
| Delusional Monthly Magazine (Gekkan Mousou Kagaku) |
| Dennou Coil |
| Dog Days |
| Do It Yourself |
| Dragonaut – The Resonance |
| Duel Masters |
| Eden of the East (Higashi no Eden) |
| Endride |
| Engage Kiss |
| Ergo Proxy |
| Escaflowne |
| Eternal Boys |
| Eureka Seven |
| Extreme Hearts |
| Fafner Exodus |
| Fairy Gone |
| Fanfare of Adolescence (Gunjou no Fanfare) |
| Fena: Pirate Princess (Kaizoku Oujo) |
| FLCL |
| Flip Flappers |
| Fractale |
| Free |
| Gad Guard |
| Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet (Suisei no Gargantia) |
| Gatchaman Crowds |
| Ghost Hound (Shinreigari) |
| Giant Beasts of Ars (Ars no Kyojuu) |
| Gibiate |
| Girlish Number |
| Girls Band Cry |
| Girls Und Panzer |
| Glasslip |
| Granbelm |
| Great Pretender |
| Guilty Crown |
| Gunbuster |
| Gun X Sword |
| Hamatora |
| Hanasaku Iroha |
| Heat Guy J |
| Hell Girl (Jigoku Shoujo) |
| High School Fleet |
| Highspeed Etoile |
| Himawari |
| Housing Complex C (C Danchi) |
| Id: Invaded |
| IGPX – Immortal Grand Prix |
| Infinite Ryvius |
| Izetta: The Last Witch (Shuumatsu no Izetta) |
| Jellyfish Can’t Swim at Night (Yoru no Kurage wa Oyogenai) |
| Joran: The Princess of Snow and Blood |
| Just Because |
| K |
| Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress (Koutetsujou no Kabaneri) |
| Kado: The Right Answer (Seikaisuru Kado) |
| Kagewani |
| Kaiba |
| Kaleido Star |
| Kamichu |
| Kamierabi Godd.app |
| Kawagoe Boys Sing |
| Kemonozume |
| Kemurikusa |
| Kill la Kill |
| Kiznaiver |
| Kochoki – Young Nobunaga |
| Kurau Phantom Memory |
| Kuromukuro |
| Kyousougiga |
| Lagrange: The Flower of Rin-ne |
| Last Exile |
| Le Chevailer d’Eon |
| Link Click |
| Listeners |
| Little Witch Academia |
| Love Flops (Renai Flops) |
| Lycoris Recoil |
| Macross |
| Madlax |
| Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi (Abenobashi Mahou Shoutengai) |
| Martian Successor Nadesico |
| Mawaru Penguindrum |
| Mayonaka Punch |
| Meiji Gekken 1874 |
| Metallic Rouge |
| Michiko and Hatchin |
| Mnemosyne |
| Mobile Suit Gundam |
| Mononoke |
| Narenare – Cheer for You |
| Neon Genesis Evangelion |
| NieA Under 7 |
| Night Raid 1931 |
| Ninja Kamui |
| Noein |
| Noir |
| Now and Then, Here and There (Ima, Soko ni Iru Boku) |
| Number24 |
| Occult Academy (Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin) |
| Odd Taxi |
| Osomatsu-san |
| Otogizoushi |
| Our Rainy Protocol (Bokura no Ame-iro Protocol) |
| Overtake |
| Paranoia Agent |
| Phi Brain |
| Planet With |
| Plastic Memories |
| Please Teacher (Onegai Teacher) |
| Please Twins (Onegai Twins) |
| Princess Principal |
| Psycho-Pass |
| Puella Magi Madoka Magica |
| Punch Line |
| RahXephon |
| Rampo Kitan: Game of Laplace |
| Re-Main |
| Re:Creators |
| Release the Spyce |
| Revenger |
| Revolutionary Girl Utena (Shoujo Kakumei Utena) |
| Robihachi |
| S.Cry.Ed |
| Sakura Quest |
| Samurai Champloo |
| Samurai Flamenco |
| Sarazanmai |
| Scared Seven |
| Seiren |
| Sekko Boys |
| Serial Experiments Lain |
| Shigofumi |
| Shinobi no Ittoki |
| Shirobako |
| Showa Monogatari |
| Simoun |
| Sirius the Jaeger |
| Skate-Leading Stars |
| Sonny Boy |
| So Ra No Wo To |
| Space Dandy |
| Space Patrol Luluco (Uchuu Patrol Luluco) |
| Speed Grapher |
| SSSS.Gridman |
| Stars Align |
| Symphogear |
| Tamako Market |
| Tari Tari |
| Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagaan |
| Terror in Resonance (Zankyou no Terror) |
| Texhnolyze |
| The Day I Became a God (Kamisama ni Natta Hi) |
| The Gymnastics Samurai (Taisou Zamurai) |
| The Lost Village (Mayoiga) |
| The Marginal Service |
| The Mars Daybreak (Kenran Butou Sai: The Mars Daybreak) |
| The Rolling Girls |
| The Way of Pon (Pon no Michi) |
| Tokyo 24th Ward (Tokyo 24-ku) |
| Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 |
| Train to The End of The World (Shuumatsu Train Doko e Iku?) |
| Tsuki ga Kirei |
| Tsuritama |
| Tweeny Witches |
| Uninhabited Planet Survive (Mujin Wakusei Survive) |
| Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid |
| Valvrave the Liberator (Kakumeiki Valvrave) |
| Vandread |
| Vividred Operation |
| Vivid Strike |
| Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song |
| Waiting in Summer (Ano Natsu de Matteru) |
| Warlords of Sigrdrifa (Senyoku no Sigrdrifa) |
| Wish Upon the Pleiades (Houkago no Pleiades) |
| Witch Hunter Robin |
| Wolf’s Rain |
| Wonder Egg Priority |
| World Conquest Zvezda Plot (Sekai Seifuku: Bouryaku no Zvezda) |
| X’amd |
| Yamishibai |
| Yuki Yuna is a Hero (Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru) |
| Yurei Deco |
| Yuri Bear Storm (Yuri Kuma Arashi) |
| Yuri on Ice |
Did I miss one? Leave a comment! I did my best, but these lists will never be perfect.