Compared to many other entertainment mediums, anime is fairly prone to being incredibly dramatic, with selections like Death Note and Bleach offering a lot of twists and turns. However, there’s a difference when it comes to being an anime with a lot of twists and thrills, and an anime that offers such a surprising twist that it changes the perception of the entire story.
When an anime features a pivotal twist at the end of its run, it forces the audience to rethink every event in the show before it. Most of the time, to make the most of the broken suspense, these types of surprises in anime will occur close to the middle or end of the series. At that, some animes are more noteworthy than others for their endings, causing viewers to have a completely different viewing experience the second time.
These entries include important details regarding the conclusions of their respective anime, and therefore, will include spoilers.
10 Kill La Kill: Satsuki And Ryuko Are Sisters
Kill la Kill is a fairly strange anime in general, featuring a main character that both fights with half a pair of scissors and has powers associated with her (fairly revealing) school uniform. However strange the series is, it does hold a lot to be enjoyed: the characters are lovable and funny, the eccentric nature of the show does a lot to make the series interesting, and above all, the cast has a lot of interesting relations to each other lore-wise.
Particularly, the audience is introduced fairly early on in the series to the main character's rival, Satsuki Kiryuin, the president of Honnoji Academy’s Student Council and apparent antagonist. However, come the series’ conclusion, audiences are let in on a secret — Satsuki is actually the main protagonist’s sister, and like her, is motivated to find the killer of her father (and her little sister).
9 Higurashi: The Series Is A Time Loop
The story of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, at least in the first season, seems fairly straightforward. The group of friends in the small town of Hinamizawa, centering around the recently moved-in protagonist Keiichi, are forced to try and kill each other due to a mysterious syndrome surrounding the town.
Each episode feels disconnected, with every “arc” starting with all characters alive, and ending with the vast majority deceased — all of this would lead audiences to believe that the series is simply showing different scenarios based on the fact that time does not move forward. However, audiences will be surprised to learn that all of the events do happen in an infinite time loop, and the young shrine maiden of the group Rika is forced to live remembering every moment.
8 Assassination Classroom: Koro-Sensei Didn’t Destroy The Moon
The thrilling world of Assassination Classroom easily made the anime one of the most popular series of the decade. The plot was (seemingly) simple: there is a teacher responsible for destroying the moon, and a classroom of remedial students tasked with assassinating him before the end of the year to stop him from destroying Earth (and also to win a large cash prize).
Just as simple as the anime seems, it also features its own set of twists and turns surrounding the many mysterious characters found throughout its plot. The biggest surprise comes with the anime conclusion, as audiences figure out the teacher’s deep dark secret — he didn’t destroy the moon, nor does he plan to destroy Earth. The assassination game was a ploy to kill him before his condition could manage to do any harm to the Earth.
7 Angel Beats!: Kanade Has Otonashi’s Heart
Animes that feature amnesiac protagonists always seem to hold a lot of twists and turns as the plot goes on. Angel Beats!, one of the most famous key adaptations, is no exception, with the anime answering a lot of questions (and creating a lot of new ones) as the audience learns more about the Afterlife.
The series focuses on the story of Otonashi, a boy reincarnated into a school-like afterlife with the added bonus of guns, and an angelic girl named Kanade (who seemingly acts as the series’ main antagonist). However, being the end of the anime, Angel Beats! fans are left with a surprising conclusion — Otonashi saved Kanade’s life in the real world by donating his heart. However, what is more surprising than this twist is the plotholes that it leaves: why was Kanade in the Afterlife before Otonashi if he died first? This question seems to leave more to be explained, hidden in the depths of the beloved romance series.
6 Fullmetal Alchemist: The Philosopher’s Stone Requires Human Souls
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (contrary to its less popular predecessor) is considered to be one of the most successful anime franchises in recent history. The story is exciting, featuring a world run by a mix of alchemists and power-hungry military officials, as Edward and Alphonse Elric look for a means to return their limbs and bodies respectively.
In order to do so, they are on the search for the legendary Philosopher’s Stone, an item that can perform powerful alchemic reactions without being held to the principle of Equivalent Exchange. However, despite what rumors say about the stone, by the end of the anime Edward and his brother are in for an unexpected twist — the Philosopher’s Stone requires human souls to operate (leading to the ultimate question of morals).
5 School-Live!: Megu-nee Isn’t Real
Gakkou Gurashi!, aka School-Live!, puts the entire zombie apocalypse genre on its head by offering a unique take on how to deal with a disaster. The series follows the activities of the school’s titular School Living Club, a group designed to help others and live in the school, with its members Kurumi Ebisuzawa, Miki Naoki, Yuuri Takeya, Yuki Takeya, and their teacher, Megumi (Megu-nee) Sakura.
However, it’s revealed early in the show that the happy atmosphere of school life is actually a delusion of Yuki’s, with the club being a means of securing and surviving in the zombie-infested school while holding Yuki’s delusion intact. While this is surprising as is, the surprise is multiplied by midway in the adaptation, in which the audience learns that Megu-nee had died early on — she had been a delusion of Yuki’s the whole time (and likely knew more about the zombie incident than she was letting on).
4 Tokyo Magnitude 8.0: Yuuki Is Dead
Delusions were fairly central to the plot of Gakkou Gurashi, however, there’s a lot more variety to twists associated with this mechanic than audiences would believe. Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 delves into this trend, as the series does not utilize point-of-view changes and delusions quite as often as the former.
After a massive earthquake that devastates the entirety of Japan, Mirai and her brother Yuuki are forced to try and find safety by traveling Japan. Audiences, however, are surprised by the end of the anime, when they discover that the entire series was not quite as it seemed — rather, Mirai had been imagining Yuuki who had died early in the plot. This fact is easy to see during a rewatch, as Yuuki lacks a shadow and many of the other traits that realistic people display.
3 Fairy Tail: Natsu And Zeref Are Brothers
During its lifetime, Fairy Tail rejuvenated the love of fantasy comedy in the anime community. So, it might come as a surprise that the lighthearted adventures of Natsu, Lucy, and the rest of the gang, would end with a massive twist that reframes the entire familial mechanics of the world.
In the latter half of the series, audiences were introduced to what seemed to be Fairy Tail’s main antagonist: the adrift yet destructive dark mage Zeref, who could seemingly cause death and destruction without much thinking. However, fans were thrown for a loop when it was revealed in the final episodes of the anime that Zeref was in fact Natsu’s brother, reframing the entire backstory of the Dragon-Slayer upon rewatching the anime another time from the beginning.
2 Code Geass: Everything Was Staged
Few anime released in the last few decades have included more surprises and thrills than Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion. The popular mecha anime offered a compelling premise — a Japan which was taken over by the Britannian Empire, and a boy (also unknown heir of Britannica) who suddenly has access to the power he needs to bring an end to the tyranny.
However, it is soon revealed that Lelouch, the madman with the power to make anybody do what he says, actually plans to take over the entire world (not just Japan). The series finale ends with Lelouch’s own public assassination, when audiences are given yet another twist — the entire assassination was planned. It’s revealed that Lelouch planned everything in the series, even playing the role of a conquesting tyrant, all to unify the world against him and bring about world peace.
1 Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Homura Is A Time Traveler
Among anime in general, Puella Magi Madoka Magica is the god of twists and turns, from learning the infamous third episode (featuring one of the most shocking deaths in anime) to learning the true nature of the Law of Cycles. It wouldn’t be incorrect to say that nearly every episode featured some twist that redefined the events before it.
However, the biggest twist for the dark magical girl anime series revolves around the character Homura. As a mysterious transfer that seems to know more than she lets on in the first episode, audiences were surprised to learn that Homura is actually a time traveler in the final episodes — and that her real goal is to protect Madoka from harm, not to stop her.