Excited Episode Title!

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Anime episode titles, especially for shounen series, tend to be two exclaiming sentences (sentence fragments are also common). The sentences are typically unusually descriptive by Western standards (but see In Which a Trope Is Described), and can reveal crucial plot details or work as an out and out summary of the episode. Generally, the format is a summary of the episode with exclamation points, followed by a comment on the episode that sounds as if it was something one of the main cast would say.

In dubbing, these are usually changed to something else entirely, usually a pun of some sort.

If Western fiction used the same style of titling, we'd probably have "Battle in the Cloud City! Luke's Father Revealed!" in place of "The Empire Strikes Back". Bonus points if the title does all the revealing on its own.

A specific form of Idiosyncratic Episode Naming. See also Excited Show Title!

Compare Colon Cancer. A subtrope of Punctuated! For! Emphasis!

Examples of Excited Episode Title! include:

Anime and Manga

  • The Pokémon anime: "Explosive Birth! Cycling Road!!"[1] At least 54% of the translated Japanese episode titles are like this, while virtually none of the English dub titles are like this. Almost all of them use exclamation points at the end, though, as seen in this comprehensive list.
    • The closest that an English Pokémon episode title has ever come to outright mimicking the two-sentences-with-exclamation-points structure of the Japanese episode titles is the 38th Best Wishes/Black and White episode (695th episode overall), named "Movie Time! Zorua in "The Legend of the Pokémon Knight"!".[2]
    • Though the manga adaptation of the eleventh movie adds a random exclamation point to the end of the title: Giratina & the Sky Warrior!
  • Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Adventure, as well as many of its chapter titles.
  • One Piece is the king of the Excited Episode Title: "Monsters Appear! Don't Mess with the Whitebeard Pirates!" 298 out of 329 episodes (90.5%) of the translated titles are like this.
  • Fist of the North Star tends toward this formula, and also towards somewhat... violent terminology ("Criminals! Pray, Before You Die!")
    • "Rip Into the Nerve Cells! No Requiem for the Bad Guys!"
    • "Search Order, From Satan!"
  • Ranma ½ did this. 46 out of 173 (26.5%) of the episode titles are in this form.
  • Demashita! Powerpuff Girls Z! Even the title's excited.
  • All four Slayers series did this. In fact, the first and fourth did it alphabetically.
  • This trope remembers there was a big upset during the run of Digimon Tamers because of how spoilery these titles can be. Especially when one episode title was "The Kindhearted Hero!! Leomon Dies!"
    • In fairness, this shouldn't surprise anyone.
      • However, there was a subversion in episode 21, "Juri's Partner? My Leomon-sama!". The rumour mill from the announcement of the episode title on ran with exclamations of the most obvious interpretation, and moderators and Big Name Fans worked just as hard to calm the rumours down or squash them. Guess what? Both sides were right: Juri does become the fourth Tamer, and Leomon does become her partner—but not yet, and not for a long time.
      • the dub has "Shadow of the Beast King". As demonstrated earlier in the series, Digimon can use attacks from the Digimon they defeat and absorb data from, so it shouldn't be a big surprise when Beelzemon uses Juuouken (Fist of the Beast King).
    • Of course, this wasn't the only example of such titles in Digimon. Most third season titles were like this.
    • One episode of Digimon Frontier has the dub title "It Can't Be! Lucemon Reappears", which is roughly what its original title translates to. No dub episodes before or after feature an Excited Episode Title, though. Also, while some dub titles throughout the series are puns, overt references to songs, literature, or other works are much more common.
  • The episode titles in Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi are usually something like "Adventure! Sword and Sorcery Shopping Arcade!"
  • This is even parodied in some anime series. In Dai Mahou Touge (a Dead Baby Comedy Magical Girl Parody), there's an episode called "Holy Crap, Decisive Battle of Breakfast?! If you don't pray you'll be killed, Cuckoo-san!" The title has nothing to do with the episode. The titles in the series get progressively longer and more absurd, until "You had swept your bangs back for the first time when I saw you under the apple tree. The flower-comb in your hair, I thought you were a flower, too." Yes, that entire thing is the episode title.
  • Nearly every Sailor Moon episode had a title like that. 86% of them, to be exact. The English dub, however, replaced them all.
    • The most spoiler-filled of these being the second to last episode of the first series, otherwise known as The Sailor Senshi Die! The Tragic Final Battle! Some prefer the name "Day of Destiny", even though that particular dub episode is the definition of Macekre.
  • Naruto, in 44.6% of episode titles. The second series, Shippuuden, is much more subdued.
    • This also happens a lot with manga chapters, which often have an/multiple exclamation point(s), an exclamation point and a question mark, or two exclamation points usually with an ellipses between it and any of the actual words (i.e., "The Sharingan Revived!!", "Iruka vs. Kakashi?!", or "A Secret Plan...!!").
  • The only Yu-Gi-Oh! episodes not to have titles like these in Japan are the season-enders. A random example: "The Strongest! The Magnificent! Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon!". One of the only non-season ender titles is also spoilerrific: "Jounouchi's Death".
    • I'd call that second one an extremely clever subversion, as Jounouchi doesn't die.
  • The TV series of Ah! My Goddess has those a lot, usually starting with the exclamation "Ah!", for instance "Ah! A Demon has Come and is Creating Calamity!"
  • Maison Ikkoku also has a lot of excited spoiler-type episode titles, like this one: "Kyoko's Heart Goes Pitty-Pat! Godai is put to the Test".
  • Tokyo Mew Mew has a bunch of examples, too.
  • Blue Seed. In the French version, none of the titles are translated, but there are definitely many exclamation marks among the Japanese characters. In the American version, the titles are translated, usually three sentence fragments from the main character, and keeping the exclamation points. For example, "It's Spring! It's the Capital! I'll Do My Best!"
  • Marmalade Boy was also a repeat offender of this trope.
  • Most titles episodes for the anime adaptation of Mitsuru Adachi's Touch were in this form.
  • Several episodes of Lovely Complex as well.
  • Bleach does this very often. The English dub gives the episodes more sensible titles.
  • Sonic X does this sometimes. For example, "Clash! Sonic VS Knuckles!"
    • The Minigames in Sonic and the Secret Rings also followed this naming pattern, which was retained in the English translation, oddly enough.
  • Zatch Bell does this a lot as well, especially in its third season where virtually every episode title was made up of three phrases, two of them having exclamation marks.
  • Every Koi Koi 7 episode title is both excited and very long. "Glamor Galore! Hot Body Contest: Pierce the Skies of Odaiba" is one such example.
  • Soul Eater, every episode.
    • The manga chapters, on the other hand, are usually descriptive without being excited, and are shorter.
    • For some reason, the English dub decided that every title episode would be inquisitive instead of exciting. Every one. Leading to a lot of sentences that ended with question marks, but could in no way be construed as questions.
  • Damn, you Inuyasha titles!
    • Here would be an example. One episode is entitled "Tessaiga Breaks!" and break it does.
    • That's an incredibly short title for an Inuyasha episode. Typical titles are along the lines of "The Mystery of the New Moon and the Black Haired Inuyasha," "The Deadly Trap of Kagura the Wind Sorceress," "The Panther Tribe and the Two Swords of the Fang," and so forth.
  • Yu Yu Hakusho is similar to the previously mentioned Bleach, using exclamatory titles in the original version ("Koenma of the Spirit Realm! A Trial Toward Resurrection") and shorter ones in the dub ("Koenma Appears").
  • Virtually every episode title of Shugo Chara has at least one exclamation mark, many have two, and the !? combination is not uncommon.
  • Sometimes they'll even be complete sentences. An episode of Transformers Headmasters is entitled "The Emperor of Destruction Vanishes on an Iceberg".
    • Another example from the same series is " Ultra Magnus Dies!!". Guess what happens in that episode.
    • Then Transformers Super God Masterforce took this to its logical extreme, in which every single episode except for the very last one was two sentence fragments with at least one exclamation mark, and sometimes as question mark as well. Transformers Victory carried on this tendency, but was more restrained.
    • And it's not just the episodes. The Japanese dubbers didn't find the series title "The Transformers to be Excited enough, and inflated it to "Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformer." After the post-movie Time Skip, it becomes "Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformer 2010."
    • Even the American cartoon ran into this with the episode "Kremzeek!"
  • Azumanga Daioh indulges in this occasionally, in four episode titles ("We're 2nd Year Students!", "The Ocean, Summer Kimonos, and a Party!", "Entrance Exams Study Camp!", and "Onwards, Entrance Exams!") and four chapter titles ("Wildcat Tomo-chan!", "Go With Enthusiasm!", "Sea!" and "Fight!"). I can't speak for the Japanese episode titles, but of the chapter titles, "Fight!" is the only one whose original Japanese title is not as excited.
  • Happens occasionally in the Mahou Sensei Negima manga.
  • Saint Seiya: All episodes, except possibly for one or two. Usually following the pattern of "Verb! Something happens"
  • Dragon Ball Z
    • Dragon Ball Z Kai also qualifies, since many of the English episode titles were more accurately translated from their Japanese counterparts.
  • Mazinkaiser had the infamous episode title "Kouji Kabuto Dies in Lava!". He didn't.
  • Ouran High School Host Club has these for a lot of its episodes. The title of the first episode is: "Starting Today, You Are a Host!" Each title is also read by the host Fujioka Haruhi usually in an excited voice.
  • Future GPX Cyber Formula uses it in some episodes of the TV series and OVAS (in 2 episodes of 11 and SAGA.)
  • Episodes of Honey Honey no Suteki na Bouken were often like this, and the English dub played with it. The hammy announcer would often exclaim! every title, the first episode's being "The CAT ate the RING?!?!"
  • Kenichi the Mightiest Disciple also has a bunch of them.
  • And then we have Gintama. Episode 37 was a two-parter. Part one was called “People Who Say that Santa Doesn’t Really Exist Actually Want to Believe in Him”, while part two was "Prayer Won't Make Your Worldly Desires Go Away! Control Yourself.” Not really excited, but damn long-winded.
  • Parodied in He Is My Master.
    • "The Sawatari Izumi Contest Series!! A Daring Test of Courage!! An Express Train to a Secret Hotsprings in the Northeast, a Mother-in-law Murdered in the Mist, a Madonna Teacher from an Elite Family Burning with Desire as They Watch a Housewife Battle for Control of Her Troubled Mansion!!"
  • Many of the original episode titles from Kirby: Right Back at Ya! are like this.
  • Very common for Pretty Cure series many of which are just blatant spoilers for the episode. Heartcatch Pretty Cure has fun with this having an episode titles like "Rejected ramen! Repairing the father-son bonds!"
  • Being a Super Robot series, G Gundam has quite a few. For example, "Beautiful fighter! Dangerous Allenby!" Every episode title is yelled by Domon at the beginning, for added excitement.

Literature

Live-Action TV

  • While not every Super Sentai series does this, Juken Sentai Gekiranger is one that does. "Zowa-Zowa! Five Venom Fists!" The first exclamation of every Gekiranger title, by the way, is total nonsense, even in Japanese. They're words made up by Jan/GekiRed who was Raised by Pandas.
  • The Japanese dub of The Monkees episode "Captain Crocodile" has it's title simply written as "YUKAI!" Translation: "FUN!" ...which makes absolute perfect sense if you've seen the episode.
  • While Super Sentai and Kamen Rider titles are often down-to-Earth unless it's part of a gag, Metal Heroes titles could get insane. Some gems from Space Sheriff Gavan: "The Beauty's Cries That Cut Through the Night! The Phantom Coach in the Fog," "Mystery? Emergency Hospital! Humanity's Great Collapse Approaches," and "When I Returned From School, My House was a Makuu Base." No, not one of these was a "one kanji in Japanese makes five words in English" case.
  • An episode of Gilmore Girls was titled "Keg! Max!" because it had a house party and the return of Max Medina. However in this case both were letdowns that didn't deserve the exclamation mark (It was Jess's second last episode as a regular and Max was gone after that episode.)
  • Star Trek: Voyager had an episode titled "Bride of Chaotica!" The only episode of the series to end with an exclamation point, as it was a parody of sci-fi of the early twentieth century.
  • Stargate SG-1's episode "Wormhole X-Treme!" was a self-parody episode about a Show Within a Show. Said SWAS qualifies for Excited Show Title!

Music

  • Possibly related is the fact that the rock band The Aquabats seem to end the titles of all their songs in exclamation points: "Super Rad!", "Lobster Bucket!" "Fashion Zombies!", etc.
  • Devin Townsend has Addicted! An albums whose titles all end in !, except for the final track, which is Awake!!
  • Shania Twain also has several song titles that end in exclamation points, as well as her 2002 album Up!
  • Wu-Tang Clan: Blackout! and Blackout! 2.
  • Panic! At the Disco. Self explanatory. For awhile they took out the exclamation point, but it's back now.
  • The Blackout have an album called "The Blackout! The Blackout! The Blackout!"
  • Hellogoodbye's album "Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs!" also qualifies.
  • Thomas Dolby's song "Hyperactive!"
  • Cee Lo Green's song "Fuck You!" (though the clean version is just "Forget You")
  • Track 11, "Lions!" on Lights's first album, The Listening.

Video Games


Web Comics

Western Animation

  • Star Blazers, the American version of Space Battleship Yamato, has a slight variation of this. In the DVD collections and the straight-from-the-TV-screen illustrated comic collections from W.C.C. Animation Comics, the episode titles do indeed follow this format, but the episode titles listed in the IMDB look more like the American standard. The show itself doesn't even display the titles, so it's unclear which is considered the official titles.
  • Clerks the Animated Series may not be anime, but its titles get progressively longer with each episode, culminating in "Dante and Randal and Jay and Silent Bob and a Bunch of New Characters and Lando, Take Part in a Whole Bunch of Movie Parodies Including But Not Exclusive To, The Bad News Bears, The Last Starfighter, Indiana Jones and the Temple Of Doom, Plus a High School Reunion." I kid you not.
  • Batman the Brave And The Bold has all of its episode titles end with an exclamation mark, in reference to the Silver Age comics.
  • The Raccoons did this with Every. Single. Episode.
  • From The Simpsons: "Raging Abe Simpson and His Grumbling Grandson in The Curse of the Flying Hellfish."
  • Wonder Pets usually does this.
  • The Musical Episode of Daria was just called "Daria!"

End of Trope Page!! The Categories Revealed?

  1. ↑ Known in the U.S. as "One Big Happiny Family!", the 38th Diamond and Pearl episode; 504th episode overall.
  2. ↑ Similar to how several of the Black and White episodes have been doing lately, this title is a nearly a direct translation of the original Japanese title: "Zorua The Movie! The Legend of the Pokémon Knight!!"
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