Exciting Episode Title! The Classic Anime Trope!

[matt0044]

You all know what I mean. What do you think of this trope? Is it cool or just plain silly to you? What are some noteworthy examples of this?

[Jolteon91]

Noteworthy examples? Every episode of Gintama.

[Vern]

It's silly. I would use the trope in my response as a point but that would be as silly as the exciting episode title itself.

[Charizard Champion#06]

Slayers does this all the time. The first season and Revolution+Evolution-R's English release take advantage of having 26 episodes by making each one start with a different letter of the alphabet (in order).

My all time favourite one of these is when they give away the entire plot of the episode in the title. I'm not even kidding. It's called:

Give up! But, Just Before We Do, The Sure Kill Sword Appears!

[ForeverFlame]

I love what Darker Than Black did.

A New Star Shines in the Dawn Sky... (Part 1)

Red Giant over Eastern Europe... (Part 2)

A Heart Unswaying on the Water's Surface... (Part 1)

City Under Crackdown, Moist with Tears... (Part 1)

God is In His Heaven...

Does the Reaper Dream of Darkness Darker than Black?

Black Cats Do Not Dream of Stars...

The Ark Adrift on the Lake...

The Doll Sings in the Winter Wind...

They Met One Day, Unexpectedly...

Ark of Stars

Those, for example. They're all so philosophical and they make me overanalyze every episode.

[Charizard Champion#06]

Of course how can I go without mentioning Gurren Lagann's episode titles? Not only are they taken from the best representing lines from the episodes, they are taken from a certain character during each story arc. It goes from Kamina to Nia to Rossiu to Simon. Each character change is done in a shift in the story and the text is stylized to reflect who says each line. Kamina's best represent the aforementioned trope of exciting episode titles.

I believe I've also mentioned before how each number of episodes decreases by 1 in each arc. Kamina's has 8, Nia's has 7, Rossiu's has 6, and Simon's has 5. Now this may just be me looking too far into things but if you line those up it forms a certain shape:

88888888
7777777
666666
55555

No, not a trapezoid. Keep going and it forms a drill.

[ForeverFlame]

Horror Anime also do some interesting things with their titles.


All of Shiki's episodes have to do with death ("Sixth Skull" and "Ninth Coffin").

All of Mirai Nikki's episodes have to do with cell phones (most of the titles are awesome puns, like "Family Plan," "Deleted Memory," and "Breach of Contract").

Another's have to do with dolls ("Blueprint," "Build limbs," "Sphere Joint," and "Body Paint").


None of those really fit into the trope, but I still think they're noteworthy because of how unorthodox they are.

[Jolteon91]

All of Tari Tari's episodes have たり (tari) twice in the title.

[Charizard Champion#06]

Almost all of Cowboy Bebop, Eureka Seven, and Eureka Seven AO's episode titles are musical references.

[Shine]

You don't even have to go that far - even the Pokemon anime has this trope.

Almost every single Pokemon episode title ends with "!".






To be honest, it's silly more often than not, especially when the title excitedly refers to something that happens at ONLY A FEW SECONDS OF THE EPISODE.
Waiting for what the title said, and then when it happens it turns out that it was......just that??

Like in that one episode of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds, title of the episode is "Burn! Phoenixian Cluster Amaryllis" and guess what? Amaryllis does almost nothing in the Duel. In fact, it gets to use its Burn effect just ONCE, and gets removed out of the field in just ONE TURN after it was Summoned. And that happened at the BEGINNING of the Duel.

[RLinksoul]

I like it when it comes to shows with action. It makes you feel like something awesome is about to happen.

Episode Title: "Amazing Power! Cure Moonlight!!"

Me: Things are about to get awesome up in here.

While not the same, it's kind of related... I noticed that Japanese episode titles tend to be made of two sentences, while dubbed titles are usually one.

Japanese: "At Last, a Direct Confrontation!! Captain Ginyu Takes the Field"

Dub: "Ginyu Assault"

I thought it was interesting that DBZ Kai uses the Japanese style of episode titles, since it's a much more faithful translation than the dubs of the original series.

[ForeverFlame]

Speaking of DBZ, I thought it had some insane episode titles:

Goku Dies! There's Only One Last Chance

Yamucha Dies! The Terror of the Saibaimen

Farewell Ten-san! Chaozu's Suicide Strategy

The Dragon Balls are All Found! Piccolo-san Will Also Come Back to Life

Dodoria Dies by Explosion! Vegeta's Fearsome Shockwave

Surprise!! Goku is Ginyu and Ginyu is Goku

Kami-sama Also Returns to Life! Piccolo is Resurrected by Super Shen Long

Such Regret...!! Vegeta, Pride of the Saiyans, Dies

Transformed At Last!! Son Goku, the Legendary Super Saiyan

Son Goku Survived — The Z Warriors All Resurrected!!

[Charizard Champion#06]

Oh wow those are ridiculous. I'd have to make a habit of plugging my hears, closing my eyes and going "LA LA LA LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU" if I was watching it and didn't already know what happened.

[matt0044]

Oh wow those are ridiculous. I'd have to make a habit of plugging my hears, closing my eyes and going "LA LA LA LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU" if I was watching it and didn't already know what happened.

Yeah, I mean what do you think will happen in "The Tragic Final Battle! The Sailor Soldiers Die!"?

[Charizard Champion#06]

Yeah, I mean what do you think will happen in "The Tragic Final Battle! The Sailor Soldiers Die!"?

Obviously dice are involved in that episode.

[Izanagi]

Hey, I know I have done this twice already but for more Idiosyncratic Episode Naming go to here!

[Lugion]

Speaking of DBZ, I thought it had some insane episode titles:

Personally, I always liked Defeat the Invincible Vegeta! Work a Miracle, Gohan!.

[matt0044]

Obviously dice are involved in that episode.

I don't think Usagi's dumb enough to choke on them.

[funrush]

Speaking of DBZ, I thought it had some insane episode titles:

Yeah. I also hate how they spoiled everything in the title cards.

[Autis-misc]

Every japanese version of 4kids shows is basically this. for example, almost every japanese episode of Dinosaur King (Kodai Ouja Kyouryu King) does something like this:

The Companions have Increased! Ace and Parapara