

I have been frustrated recently when I watch the last existing episode of a
given anime only to find out that the story is not over yet, and I will have
to wait for another season (and who knows when that would be). Examples:

  * _No Game No Life_
  * _Ao no Exorcist_
  * _Made in Abyss_
  * _Gakusen Toshi Asterisk_

Checking _No Game No Life_ in
[MyAnimeList](https://myanimelist.net/anime/19815/No_Game_No_Life), for
example, I can see:

>   * Status: Finished Airing
>   * No other anime listed as "sequel"
>

I went to watch it, thinking it would be a full story in those 12 episodes,
but guess what? The story is not over at all. Now here I am waiting for
another season, that I don't even know when will come, if at all...

I know that whether a next season will be produced or not can't be predicted.
The producers might decide it's not worth it for whatever reason. But some
animes simply frustratingly end **in the middle of the story**. I was hoping
that there was a place I could search for this information (if the anime is
currently completed or "paused/canceled" in the middle of it). For example, I
wouldn't have watched _No Game No Life_ if I knew beforehand it was like that.

Since MAL's status of "Status: Finished Airing" is not what I want, **how can
I check that an anime is really over?**

Notes: for my purposes, animes like _Code Geass_ and _Steins;Gate_ are to be
considered complete, even though both of them have a new season coming, the
already existing story is 100% complete (of course I only know this because I
already watched them).


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How can I check that a given anime is really over?


My suggestion would be to look if there is source material. While I am not
100% sure, I think all the anime you list in the first list are based off the
manga.

This process would involve a lot of wild speculation as such it may or may not
be accurate and as such would only be served to guide.

To start using _No Game No Life_ as an example, look on
[Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Game_No_Life) to see what it's
first media form was, in this case

> No Game No Life (Japanese: ノーゲーム・ノーライフ Hepburn: Nōgēmu Nōraifu) is a light
> novel series by Yū Kamiya.

as such it's very likely it would be following the Light Novels. Next, in the
infobox on the right, look for the _"Original run"_. If it's officially
finished, it would have listed an end date. In this case, the Light Novel has

> April 25, 2012 – present

However, if possible, see also if you can find another source. [Baka Updates
Manga](https://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=101992) has info on the
Light Novel and under _"Status in Country of Origin"_ it says

> 9 Volumes (Ongoing) + 1 Gaiden

**Conclusion:** _No Game No Life_ 's anime will not be the end of the series
as its source material is still ongoing.

* * *

However, what happens if the source material is complete? Or you want to know
if the anime is up to date with the source material? Well, this is simply
looking up to the Anime airing dates to the source material's release dates.
While not accurate, since anime takes time to produce and the source material
could be coming out while it's being developed, it can help you see how much
of the story isn't going to be told.

Using _No Game No Life_ as an example, we see the anime's run-time was

> April 9, 2014 – June 25, 2014

looking at the list of [Light Novel
Volumes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Game_No_Life#Volume_list) we see
that Volume 6 came out April 25, 2014, the only volume to come out in 2014.
Since it also came out after the anime started airing, we can assume that
there won't be any content of Volume 6 in it.

But can we narrow this down expecting 5 volumes of the light novel? Yes we
can. For _No Game No Life_ , Wikipedia has information on [the
anime](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Game_No_Life#Anime_adaptation)

> On July 27, 2013, Monthly Comic Alive announced the anime adaptation for No
> Game No Life was green lit. It is directed by Atsuko Ishizuka and animated
> by Madhouse. The series premiered on April 9, 2014 on AT-X;

going back to our volume list for the Light Novel, it seems we can rule out
Volume 5 as it was released after the announcement of the anime, so now we
have 4 volumes.

**Conclusion:** _No Game No Life_ 's anime at most should cover 4 out of 9
volumes that have been released to date.

Keep in mind however that the story content might be less, or it might deviate
from the source material (e.g. the 2003 series of _Full Metal Alchemist_ and
fillers in long running anime)

* * *

Another title you mention in your question is _Steins;Gate_. It's a bit more
complicated because its source material is a Visual Novel with multiple
endings and routes. These tend to be a bit more complicated as sometimes an
Anime inspired from a Visual Novel with multiple endings will only adapt one.

There are other times the source Visual Novel (or game) is linear, like _Tears
to Tiara_ and _Utawarerumono_. But if there are multiple games, it will only
adapt one game, i.e. currently the _Tears to Tiara_ anime only adapts the
first game (particularly the PS3 release) and not the second game while there
are multiple _Utawarerumono_ anime as there are _Utawarerumono_ games (some of
the later games I think were inspired by the more recent anime. However, I'm
not 100% sure)

However, sometimes this is made easy like with _Fate/Stay Night_ with each
route having been named and the more recently anime being named the same, such
as _Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works_ by Ufotable. We can assume it
follows the Unlimited Blade Works route of the game while the upcoming
_Fate/Stay Night: Heaven's Feel_ movies, also by Ufotable, will follow the
Heaven's Feel Route. While this won't tell you which ending they may choose,
knowing that there are 3 routes in _Fate/Stay Night_ , you can get a rough
guess that each of these is really just 1/3 of the whole story you have in the
game.

* * *

The above however only works if your anime is based off a source material like
a Light Novel, Manga or Game and can still be inaccurate without knowing the
content of the source martial and the anime.

You can, however, ask a question here. For instance, [I asked if _Spice and
Wolf_ followed the manga](https://anime.stackexchange.com/q/5495/1587) and
learned that it actually follows the Light Novel and it adapts 1,2,3 and 5,
skipping Volume 4.

for original anime like _Code Geass_ , you can assume that it has finished.
However, there are times where you can ask a question if it does continue but
not asking when it'll come out. For _Code Geass_ , while there was no _R3_
manga, there was _Jet Black Renya_ and _Akito of the Exiled_ manga which,
while not _R3_ , did expand on the _Code Geass_ Universe.

* * *

In the end, this comes down to doing research on the release, airing and
announcement dates, and making assumptions based on these and asking here if
you want a definite answer on things like how loyal an anime follows its
source material, exactly where it adapts to and which are filler content.


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In addition to [Memor-X's great
answer](https://anime.stackexchange.com/a/43110/2516), **Japanese Wikipedia**
tends to have more info about this on their anime articles (and I have used it
often as the source when [referencing my
answers](https://anime.stackexchange.com/search?q=user%3A2516+japanese+wikipedia+cover)
here). Almost all anime articles on Japanese Wikipedia has テレビアニメ (TV anime,
if it's media-mix) section and its 各話リスト (List of episodes). _Sometimes, it
also includes the original source cover on that table_.

For example:

  * [_No Game No Life_](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%8E%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B2%E3%83%BC%E3%83%A0%E3%83%BB%E3%83%8E%E3%83%BC%E3%83%A9%E3%82%A4%E3%83%95#.E5.90.84.E8.A9.B1.E3.83.AA.E3.82.B9.E3.83.88): on the last column (使用原作), it shows that the last volume of the original source (Light Novel) is **Volume 3**. However, since the LN goes beyond Volume 3, it concludes that the anime doesn't cover the whole story.

  * [_Ao no Exorcist_](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%9D%92%E3%81%AE%E7%A5%93%E9%AD%94%E5%B8%AB_\(%E3%82%A2%E3%83%8B%E3%83%A1\)#.E5.90.84.E8.A9.B1.E3.83.AA.E3.82.B9.E3.83.88): on the second-to-last column (原作), it shows that the last volume of the original source (Manga) is **Volume 9** (including some anime original story). However, since the manga goes beyond Volume 9, it concludes that the anime doesn't cover the whole story.

But again, this is just another alternative, since it doesn't always have this
information (e.g. [_Made in
Abyss_](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%A1%E3%82%A4%E3%83%89%E3%82%A4%E3%83%B3%E3%82%A2%E3%83%93%E3%82%B9#.E5.90.84.E8.A9.B1.E3.83.AA.E3.82.B9.E3.83.88)
and [_Gakusen Toshi
Asterisk_](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%AD%A6%E6%88%A6%E9%83%BD%E5%B8%82%E3%82%A2%E3%82%B9%E3%82%BF%E3%83%AA%E3%82%B9%E3%82%AF#.E5.90.84.E8.A9.B1.E3.83.AA.E3.82.B9.E3.83.88))

* * *

Also, apparently **MyAnimeList** itself sometimes has this information on
their **Background** section:

  * [_No Game No Life_](https://myanimelist.net/anime/19815/No_Game_No_Life):

> _No Game No Life_ adapts the first three volumes of Yuu Kamiya's light novel
> series of the same title.

  * [_Ao no Exorcist_](https://myanimelist.net/anime/9919/Ao_no_Exorcist):

> Due to the fact that the source material is on-going, the anime adaption of
> _Ao no Exorcist_ diverges from it at key points, leading to an anime-
> exclusive ending.

  * [_Gakusen Toshi Asterisk_ (1st season)](https://myanimelist.net/anime/30544/Gakusen_Toshi_Asterisk):

> It adapts the first three volumes of its light novel source material.

Although it doesn't mention the latest volume, at least it gives some clues
that can be completed by researching about the current volume.

Also, it can also be used to make an assumption, such as "the 1st season of
_Gakusen Toshi Asterisk_ adapts the first 3 volumes, the 2nd season might
adapt the next 3 volumes" (might be true or not, but if the current volume
already went far enough, then the anime will _probably_ not finish)

* * *

However, of course this only applies to animes that have finished airing
unless there's already an official statement beforehand. For on-going series,
it would be more difficult to guess if the anime will cover the whole story or
not.


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