Satisfactory Conclusion

A Satisfactory Conclusion is a conclusion that makes you feel satisfied.

It can either be a series finale or the last episode before cancellation.

A subtrope is Gainax Ruined the Ending for weird endings, and True ending for the best ending in the entire work. The inversion is No Ending at All for works without an ending.

If said ending is found within a movie (unless it's a movie adaptation of a television series or the final movie in a movie franchise), please don't put those examples there. It is also recommended to watch the following before you read this page, as spoilers are ahead.

## Examples

* Recess doesn't have a general plot, but it *does* end with the main characters going up to fifth grade, as well as King Bob going on to attend middle school.
* Nickelodeon's Doug, while falling short of the 65 episodes Jim Jinkins wanted, ends with Doug graduating elementary school.
* Phineas and Ferb ends on the last day of summer.
* While these are rare on Teletoon programming, several Teletoon shows have achieved this:
	+ Cybersix: The Series ends with Cybersix's evil creator dead, and Cybersix escaping. Technically, the latter was ambiguous, but considering the show was meant to get 26 episodes...
	+ Some of The Zimmer Twins' webisodes can end with this method. It depends on the writer.
	+ Atomic Betty ends with Maximus and Minimus turning into green gelatin.
	+ Grojband's "Six Strings of Evil" can count as a satisfactory conclusion (though not a happy one). However, it ends on a cliffhanger by Trina finding the evil instrument as a music box.
	+ What's with Andy? ends not only with Andy dreaming about getting 100% on a test, but making sure the exam was rescheduled *and* getting into trouble with a raccoon too.
	+ Totally Spies! ends with the Spies retiring from WOOHP. Well, the fifth season did, anyway.
* Gravity Falls ends with Bill Cipher getting erased from existence, and Dipper and Mabel leaving the titular town.
* Anime that doesn't end with Gainax Ruined the Ending will end with one of these eventually:
	+ In Kill la Kill, Ragyo kills herself and warns Ryuko that Life Fibers will still be part of the planet even when she's gone.
		- It gets even *more* satisfactory in the OVA: it ends with Honno Town sinking into the sea.
	+ Soul Eater (anime version) ends with Asura exploding.
	+ Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood has one. Since it follows the original manga, that meant Edward giving up his Gate of Truth to get Alphonse back was also in the manga.
	+ Naruto and Bleach have reached their conclusion, making One Piece the only one of the "Big Three" manga not to have reached its conclusion. This will change sometime before the end of 2024.
	+ Jewelpet: *Magical Change* ends on one (but it's not a happy ending per se).
	+ Space Patrol Luluco ends with Luluco taking on her "Miss Trigger" persona (the first appearance of Miss Trigger outside Japan). Yes, the anime was Miss Trigger's backstory.
	+ Magical girl series (with three major exceptions) will often end with a normal conclusion of a magical girl series: with the magical girl losing her powers, as they are not needed anymore. Basically, if it's not a deconstruction, chances are the magical girl would lose her powers at the end of the series.
	+ Being the long-running franchise it is, each PreCure series ends on one of these, only for Toei to bring out the next series' line of merchandise.
	+ Magical DoReMi: The Japanese version ended on one of these.
	+ The anime series *Sweet Valerian* has the televised version end at 18 episodes with one of these. The 8 additional episodes that are DVD-only end with Gainax Ruined the Ending, if you count the 8th of them being the "ending" to the DVD episodes.
	+ The Big O's Final Stage, unless you believe Sunrise and Cartoon Network ruined the ending, can count as one.
	+ Angel Beats! technically had two: one where Yuri destroys every single computer that created shadows, threatening to turn the main characters into NPCs forever, and one where they graduate, ascend, and begin new lives.
	+ Pokémon, running for a long time, actually has *two*, both in the last episodes of the original continuity:
		- After 22 years of trying, as of episode 139 of *Sun & Moon*, Ash Ketchum finally succeeded in winning a league since *Battle Frontier*, which wasn't even a major tournament. This was especially noticeable since the producers of the anime never allowed Ash to win any major tournament prior.
		- The final episode of said anime installment has Ash decide to return to Pallet Town- the same setting where the anime started- confirming the anime's True ending and setting up the soft reboot.
		- The above two episodes have since ended up the Satisfactory Conclusion for the franchise's run on linear television in North America (specifically the United States).
		- After all was said and done, *Journeys* turned out to not just be a soft reboot, but the end of Ash's journey entirely due to a win in the World Coronation Series and a series of specials leading up to his replacement as protagonist.
	+ *Dragon Ball*:
		- The original anime (and the *Dragon Ball* portion of the American printing of the manga) has Goku defeating Piccolo Jr. (who would be known as simply Piccolo in the next series). They later become acquaintances in *Z*.
		- *Dragon Ball Z* ends with two:
			* The first ending, the Cell Saga, has the eponymous villain-of-the-saga defeated. Keep in mind that this was the last saga before the second time skip and Great Saiyaman arc.
			* The True ending, the end of the Majin Buu arc, has Kid Buu defeated, Buu as a whole reincarnated as Uub, and Goku and Uub training for the World Martial Arts Tournament.
		- The end of the anime-only *Dragon Ball GT* is a flashback to many important moments from *Dragon Ball* as a whole, ending with Goku flying off on his Nimbus.
		- And in *Dragon Ball Super*, the end of the anime version has Android 17 wish for all the destroyed universes to be restored. The manga version is still running as of this writing.
	+ The end of *Inuyasha* has Inuyasha finally defeating Naraku, Kagome wishing the Shikon Jewel away, and the sexual tension between Inuyasha and Kagome getting resolved. And now the anime's getting a sequel.
* Megas XLR, while still ending on a cliffhanger, had its final episode done in a way that served as one of these while still being left open-ended.
* Motorcity also ended on one of these, being from the creators of Megas XLR.
* Pepper Ann may have been semi-obscure, but its final episode (while being a timeskip) is satisfactory to fans of the show.
* Most of the Transformers television series ended on one of these.
	+ Even Transformers: Animated ended on one of these, despite not accounting for all of the hooks left hanging.
* Samurai Jack ends with Aku being defeated, Ashi being erased from existence, *and* Jack finally getting back to his own time.
* Teacher's Pet ends with the indication that Spot will be nothing more than a regular dog for the rest of his life.
* The Weekenders' final episode seems like a pretty satisfactory conclusion, since Tino's dad was visiting him for the first time in 8 years.
* RWBY:
	+ The end of "Heroes and Monsters" serves as one of these for an antagonist (though not the series as a whole), considering Roman Torchwick was killed toward the end of volume 3.
	+ Most of the RWBY Chibi skits (though not all) end on one of these.
	+ RWBYpet, being a fanfic, has at least one of these.
* WKRP in Cincinnati's final episode, "Up and Down the Dial", can be seen as this by fans of the show, especially considering that the episode is one of only *two* where the titular failing station is actually somewhat popular (and at #6, too).
* Animal Crossing mixes this and Gainax Ruined the Ending together. Once you pay off your last debt to Nook, you get this sort of conclusion, but can continue to play as long as you want.
	+ Another satisfactory conclusion as of "New Leaf" is having your tree grow to the point that you can sit near it. In the Welcome amiibo update, this is one of the requirements for selling your town to Nook.
* The obscure series *The Mr. Potato Head Show* ends with a direct-to-video one in which the fictional show produced in the real one gets cancelled. This makes it the only cancelled kids' show in the 90s to get some form of conclusion.
	+ Speaking of cancelled shows with conclusions, both Pendleton Ward and Ian Jones-Quartey were notified of their shows' cancellations in advance so they could end their shows with one of these.

TBA.