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[[File:one piece logo by ryukai san 1734.jpg|link=One Piece|thumb|425px|One Piece... or Nep Ec. Depending on how you read it.]]
{{quote|"''The first challenge one confronts with '''[[Face Off|Face/Off]]''' is the curious, I might even say ''misplaced'', 'forward slash' in the title. Are 'Face' and 'Off' separate talents on the title's resume?''"|''Mike Nelson Movie Megacheese''}}
There are many ways to name something, but if you're looking to add a bit of variety, why not throw some symbols into it in place of letters? This comes in two varieties. The first kind, extremely present in [[Anime]] and the songs within it, is adding meaningless symbols into the title. These symbols can give the show its own identity, but since you can't exactly ''pronounce'' a symbol, they just end up being there for decoration. Hearts and stars are especially common, much like the marshmallows in a bowl of Lucky Charms. These usually end up being removed when the title is brought over to the West. One is tempted to count in tildes (~), which are ridiculously common in Japanese titles, but these actually serve a function - the same function that a dash or colon would serve in a Western title (and as such tildes are often simply changed to colons for the Western release).
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May include a [[Heart Symbol]]. Apply this to speech, and you get [[Say It with Hearts]]. [[Letters 2 Numbers]] and [[The Backwards R]] are sister tropes.
{{examples|suf=s}}
==
=== Anime and Manga ===
* ''[[Lucky Star]]''
** Written らき☆すた (Raki☆Suta) in the original title.
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* ''[[Koihime Musou]]''
* ''[[Rolling☆Girls]]''
* ''Blue Dragon RalΩGrad''
* ''[[Gun X Sword]]'' (as in xxxHolic, the X is silent; it's just "Gun Sword".)
* [[Lovely Complex|''Lovely''★''Complex'']], which is the full name of the official title, ''Love''★''Com''.
* ''[[Uta Kata]]''
* [[Candy Boy|''Candy''☆''Boy'']]
* ''[[Rosario + Vampire]]'', where the "+" is actually the word "and".
* ''[[Turn A Gundam|Turn ∀ Gundam]]'', usually pronounced "Turn A Gundam". The ''∀'' is a mathematical symbol meaning "For all" (in the sense of "The following applies to every member in the set").
* The Anime/Manga ''[[S-Cry-ed]]'' is a good example. There does not seem to be any reason why the dashes are there. This leads to most Americans pronouncing it "ess(pause)cry(pause)ed". However, the Japanese announcer voice in the anime simply calls it "''Sukuraido''"
* ''[[Maria Holic]]''
* Parodied by ''[[Magical Pokaan|Renkin 3-kyuu Magical?Pokaan]]'', where the question mark is supposed to be a symbol that failed to render properly.
* ''[[Princess Princess]] +'' which is pronounced as "Princess Princess Plus".
* ''[[Fate/stay night]]''
** Even more so its parodic [[Alternate Universe|alternate continuity]] ''[[Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya]]'', which then stepped it up ''further'' with [[Oddly-Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo]] ''Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya [[Gratuitous German|2wei!]]'' (yes, the exclamation point [[Excited Series Title|is also part of the title]].)
* ''[[One Piece]]'' has a skull and crossbones in the O, a silhouette of Luffy in place of the I, and an anchor for the last E. An early volume's Q&A segment features a Japanese reader referring to the series as "NE PECE," which the author said was very common at the time.
* ''[[Chaos;Head]]'' — the first a also sports umlauts in the series logo.
* The Japanese version of ''[[Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?]]'' is titled "Quiz $ Millionaire" (クイズ$ミリオネア)
* ''[[Ojamajo Doremi]]''# (generally pronounced "Ojamajo Doremi Sharp")
* A new level in Lucky Charms Title has been reached by ''[[Hidamari Sketch]]''. Its [[Oddly-Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo|third season]] is titled ''Hidamari Sketch x☆☆☆'', pronounced "Hoshimittsu" or "Three Stars".
* ''[[+Anima]]'' is actually pronounced Plus-Anima.
* Black☆Star from ''[[Soul Eater]]'' always has his name like that, and the title of the show has Soul's logo between "Soul" and "Eater."
* ''[[Blood+]]'' the + is pronounced normally as Plus.
** When it was first airing, one person wrote in asking how to pronounce it, so they wouldn't "[[Fan Dumb|look like a fool while beating up nerds on the playground]]" (or something like that), and [[Adult Swim]] [[No Pronunciation Guide|suggested]] it's actually pronounced "Bleud Pleux".
* ''[[Romeo X Juliet]]'', Do you pronounce the x "X", "times", "and", or is it just "Romeo Juliet"?
** Just call it "Romeo and Juliet." The "x" is the typical Japanese marker of [[Shipping|romantic pairings]].
* ''Onegai☆Teacher'' and ''Onegai☆Twins''. The English versions lost the stars but picked up exclamation points, becoming ''[[Please Teacher!]]'' and ''[[Please Twins!]]'' respectively.
* ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica|Mahou Shoujo Madoka☆Magica]]''
* In ''[[Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei]]'', the Public Media Guys consider making a [[Show Within a Show]] called "π[[Pirates of the Caribbean|rates of the Caribbean"]], starring the genius kid who remembers the whole π number.
* [[The Idolmaster (anime)|The Idolm@ster]]
* [[Phi Brain: Kami no Puzzle|φBrain]] - Phi Brain
* ''[[Tokimeki Mononoke Jogakkou]]''
* The second season of the ''[[Yuru-Yuri]]'' anime is "Yuru-Yuri ♪♪".
* ''[[Risky☆Safety|Omishi Magical Theatre: Risky☆Safety]]''
=== Comic Books ===
* ''[[Richie Rich (comics)|Ri¢hie Ri¢h]]''.
* ''$crooge McDuck'' comics.
* The title for ''[[Booster Gold]]'' was written as "Boo$ter Gold" early on. Post-52, the comic title became "B∞ster Gold" (using the infinity symbol), but it's always been pronounced "Booster."
=== Film ===
* ''$'' is a film starring Warren Beatty and Goldie Hawn. It is popularly pronounced "Dollars," and in the UK is called ''The Heist''.
* The movie ''[[I ♥ Huckabees]]''. Public consensus quickly settled on pronouncing it "I Heart Huckabees"
* The movie ''[[William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet]]''.
* ''[[My Big Fat Greek Wedding]]'' replaced the Es in "Greek" with sigmas: ''My Big Fat GrΣΣk Wedding''.
* [[Jim Henson]]'s ''[[The Muppets|Muppet]]★[[Disney Theme Parks|Vision]] [[3D Movie|3D]]''.
* ''[[Slashers (film)|$la$her$]]'' is about contestants surviving [[Ax Crazy]] serial killers for fabulous cash and prizes! Appropriate, since in-universe the game show is Japanese.
=== Live-Action TV ===
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** The [[Syfy]] [[Game Show]] ''[[Cha$e]]''.
** ''[[Shit My Dad Says]]''
* Commercials for the TV show "Dirt" render the title as D!rt
* The "A"s in "[[Stargate Verse|Stargate]]" are always rendered in the show's titles as the Ancient symbol "At" (A symbol resembling the Greek letter Λ crowned by a small circle).
** Until the first one changes back to a plain ol' A.
* ''[[Greek]]'' is rendered as ''GR''ΣΣ''K''.
* [[Kamen Rider Agito|''Kamen Rider Agit''Ω]] The Omega is pronounced like an "O".
* The logo for the first and second seasons of ''[[T. J. Hooker]]'' replaced the second 'o' with a cross-hairs target.
* In Japan, ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]'' is called ビッグバン★セオリー, or "Big Bang★Theory". [[Market-Based Title]] much? They even add a subtitle that basically means "The romance laws of our geekiness".
* [[Numbers Never Lie|Numbers Never* Lie]].
* ''[[Friends]]'' has the logo of ''F·R·I·E·N·D·S''
=== Music ===
* [[Stan Freberg]]'s "Green Chri$tma$."
{{quote|"Christmas has two S's in it, and they're both dollar signs!"}}
* ''[[Black★Rock Shooter (band)|Black★Rock Shooter]]''
=== Video Games ===
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* ''[[Katamari Damacy|We ♥ Katamari]]'', in which the heart is pronounced "love".
** Not to mention that the game includes a song titled "DISCO ☆ PRINCE".
* ''[[.hack]]'', which is pronounced "dot-hack", just like "dot-com" which is what the title is supposed to be invoking. The title logo on the majority of .hack media has the "dot" as a six-sided shape with the word "DOT" clearly written in it in roman letters (in both English and Japanese logos) makes it clear what the intended pronunciation is. The party in the first set of games being called "The Dot Hackers" by other characters in the meta-series reinforces it. Each title adds a set // to the title, becoming .Hack//Title. Unlike the "dot" these are
* ''[[Half Life|Hλlf-Life]]'' The symbol is a "lambda", which is the scientific symbol for a substance's <s>half-life</s> decay constant. Pronouncing the original Greek letter would yield "Hllf-life." Once again, [[Rule of Cool]] trumps the rules of spelling.
** The sequel uses the "squared" symbol instead of a traditional 2, but then again the sheer [[Sequel Escalation|difference in scale]] between installments makes it [[Even Better Sequel|not completely incorrect.]]
* [[CROSS†CHANNEL]], the source material for the [[NANACA†CRASH!!]] flash game.
* ''[[Nanatsuiro Drops]]'' is technically ''Nanatsuiro★Drops''
* One of the ''[[Tokimeki Memorial]]'' games, ''Tokimeki no Houkago [[Nee★Quiz shiyo♥]]''
* The [[Xbox]] version of ''[[Guilty Gear|Guilty Gear X2]]'' was called ''Guilty Gear X2 #Reload,'' [[Musical Theme Naming|pronounced "Sharp Reload"]]. It had a sequel called Λ Core.
* Some editions of ''[[Street Fighter II]]'' are written as ''Street Fighter II{{'}}'', pronounced "Street Fighter II Dash" in Japanese.
* ''[[Uta no Prince-sama|Uta no☆Prince-sama♪]]''.
* ''[[Deus Ex: Human Revolution|Deus Ex: HumΔn Revolution]]''. (''Deus Ex: [[Hum Δn]] Revolution'' on some browsers)
=== Web Original ===
* ''☆dventure'', a [[Interactive Comic|forum adventure]] at the [[MS Paint Adventures|MSPA forums]] ([http://www.mspaforums.com/showthread.php?35334-%E2%98%86dventure found here]{{Dead link}}).
=== Western Animation ===
* ''[[The Simpsons]]'' episode "$pringfield"
* ''[[Transformers]]'' is an odd case. In some cases it is spelled Trans * Formers, where the * is either faction's symbol. Then there was the Japanese-only ''[[Transformers Headmasters|Headmasters]]'', whose full title is ''Transformers: The★Headmasters'' (or, rather, ''トランスフォーマー ザ★ヘッドマスターズ'')
* ''[[My Life as a Teenage Robot]]'' is known in Japan as ''ジェニーはティーン☆ロボット''
=== Real Life ===
* Otterbein College (Westerville, Ohio) has a sorority called Sigma Alpha Tau, which makes the letters ΣAT. Since the sorority was founded in 1910, it's hard to say whether the founders were aware of the now-obvious double entendre.
== Numbers In Place of Letters ==
===
* ''[[Se7en]]'', which arguably brought the whole 133t-speek numbers/letters deal into the mainstream. Damn it.
* The film ''[[Murder by Numbers|Murd3r 8y Num8ers]]''.
* ''Thir13en Ghosts'', the modern remake of William Castle's ''Thirteen Ghosts''.
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** Also, she consists of [[Zeroes and Ones]].
* ''[[Layer Cake|L4yer C4ke]]''
* Roman numeral example: ''Menace Ⅱ Society''.
* Does the punny acronym title of ''[[Men in Black (film)|Men in Black]]'''s sequel, MIIB, count?
** Only to two, [[The Firesign Theatre|Mudhead]]
* ''[[Lucky Number Slevin|Lucky Number S7evin]]'', although to convey this properly I'd have to find a way to flip the 7 upside-down. And, yes, it's upside down because it's standing in for an "L".
* ''[[Thr3e]]''
* ''TR2N'', which was renamed ''[[TRON: Legacy]]''.
* ''[[Bandslam]]'', which featured Sa7m.
=== Live-Action TV ===
* ''[[Numb3rs]]''
* The [[Syfy]] original miniseries ''[[5ive Minutes to Midnight]]'' also featured this. "5ive" is just pronounced "five".
=== Music ===
* The boyband 5ive.
** The Jackson 5ive sometimes used this one first.
* The Avril Lavigne song ''Sk8er Boi''.
* Many Prince songs. (''I Would Die 4 U'', ''When 2 R in Love'', etc.)
* [[Daft Punk]]'s ''[[Interstella 5555]]: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem''
* ''SURV1V3'' by Jonathan Underdown, one of the soundtracks from ''[[Gran Turismo]] 5 Prologue''.
* The Architecture In Helsinki song ''It'5!'', pronounced "it's five".
* Goa trance group/artist [[Merr0w]].
=== Recorded and Stand up Comedy ===
* Quoth [[Tom Lehrer]]: "I am reminded at this point of a fellow I used to know who's name was Henry, only to give you an idea of what an individualist he was he spelled it HEN3RY. The 3 was silent, you see."
=== Video Games ===
* The video Game ''Driv3r''.
* ''[[Left 4 Dead]]''
** In [[The Stinger]] of [[Zero Punctuation|Yahtzee's review of the above]], he derides this trope with "There's a special circle of hell 4 people who replace words with numbers"
* The 2014 version of ''[[Thief]]'' was first announced as ''Thi4f''. Shortly after the announcement of the above, John Walker of ''Rock Paper Shotgun'' spoofed this on [http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/05/12/4idos-gam4-nam4s-rev4al4d/ these Photoshop jobs].
* The Apocaly[[Play Station 3]], referring to the March 1, 2010 bug where the internal clock perceived 2010 as a leap year. [[Hilarity Ensues|Hilarity ensued]] if you were a Xbox 360 fan. [[Tear Jerker|If not...]]
=== Real Life ===
* [[Older Than They Think]]: Austin [[Market-Based Title|division's]] version of the Mini was originally called "Austin Se7en"
* An early internal name for the successor to Windows Vista was Windows Se7en. In a rare moment of intelligence, Microsoft simplified it to simply Windows 7 by the time the official announcement came around.
* All sen10r classes of 2010. You know who you are.
** Oops?
* Skateboard clothing company 323K13(upsidedown)7 (Ezekiel).
* [[The Ev3nt]]. Although it's more like a backwards "E".
== Names with Symbols ==
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* ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' does this a few times. Mostly it's the A-E ligature, such as Æther Storm or Æther Flash. Originally this wasn't possible to print, so Ærathi Berserker is rathi Berserker instead. During the Tempest block, they were also fond of gratuitous use of the italics, such as the ''en''-Kor or the ''il''-Vec.
* According to an urban legend, a mother named her child [http://www.snopes.com/racial/language/le-a.asp Le-a], which she insisted should be pronounced {{spoiler|Ledasha}}.
* The Poser character Near☆Me (or にあ☆みい in the original Japanese) - alas, [
== Other ==
=== Advertising ===
* Sony's ''U R Not {{color|red|e}}'' ads for the Playstation.
* The Famous, (and often parodied) I♥NY T-shirts
** Leading to the infamous I ✈ NY shirt
*** And plenty of other X ♥ Y merchandise as well. Sometimes parodied with other playing card suits, as in I ♠ My Cat or I ♣ Baby Seals.
=== Anime and Manga ===
* In ''[[K-On!]]'', the two names Mio suggests for their band are "Chocolate ☆ Melody" and "Pure ☆ Pure". (Curiously, she suggested them purely vocally, so one might wonder if she just said "hoshi" or "suta" in a way that made it clear that she intended the symbol rather than the word... or just accept that it's manga, so if it can be printed, you just pretend that they can say it somehow.)
* The ¥€$ currency in ''[[Ghost in the Shell]]''.
* ''[[Rebuild of Evangelion]]''{{'}}s English titles use the format ''You VERB (Not) X''. Yes, "not" is in parentheses.
=== Literature ===
* The novel ''Vampire$'' by [[John Steakley]]. The film adaptation, ''John Carpenter's Vampires'', eliminates the dollar sign and therefore misses the entire point.
** Sadly, [http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002HRELFE/ recent editions] of the book itself have followed suit, dropping the $ to tie in better with the movie, even thought the company the book is named after is still unchanged. Very sad.
* [[House of Leaves|{{color|blue|House}} of Leaves]].
* While presumably pronounced "slant," the science fiction novel / is somewhat disorientingly titled, particularly since it's uncertain that ''is'' the title unless you look at the copyright page (which for clarity's sake describes the situation rather than simply putting a / on the page.)
=== Live-Action TV ===
* Parodied in ''[[The Middleman]]'' with the super-addictive !!!!. Yes the drink is called !!!!. It is pronounced by stamping your foot and doing jazz hands.
* There's a ''[[Lost]]'' episode called "?" This refers to something specific in the plot, but was also so named in tribute to the episode's intended director, Darren Aronofsky, who directed the movie ''π'' (that's ''[[Pi]]'', of course). Aronofsky had to bow out of the episode, but the title remained.
* [[Earth Star Voyager|Earth☆Star Voyager]] - a [[Poorly-Disguised Pilot]] that originally aired as a 2-part miniseries on ABC's ''Wonderful World of Disney'' in January 1988. It focused on a bunch of young people from a late 21st century [[Crapsack World|Crapsack Future Earth]] as they [[Serial Numbers Filed Off|trekked through the stars]] to find a new home for the human race.
* On ''[[Top Gear]]'', the new{{when}} "reasonably priced car" is a Kia Cee'd (pronounced like "seed"). Jeremy Clarkson, however, insists on calling it the "[[I Read That As|see apostrophe dee]]."
=== Music ===
* 80s J-pop band TOM☆CAT
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* The Japanese [[Boy Band]] D☆DATE.
* Shudder To Think's "Gang Of $". It's a [[Non-Appearing Title]], but apparently it's supposed to be pronounced "Gang Of Money'.
* Some songs by I've Sound have this kind of title, for example "Otomegokoro + √[[Unusual Ears|Nekomimi]] = ∞".
* [[Sonic Youth|Thurston Moore's]] 1995 solo album is usually referred to as ''Psychic Hearts'', but the album artwork actually renders the title as ''Psychic ♥♥♥''.
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* All-female [[Visual Kei]] band [[Exist Trace]].
* ★ - [[David Bowie]]'s last album and also the titular song. Pronounced as [[Shaped Like Itself|★]], or ''Blackstar''.
* [[Korn|KoЯN]]
* BT's ''THЭSЭ HOPЭFUL MACHINЭS'' album.
* Sasha's ''Invol2ver'' mix compilation.
* Some [[Autechre]] songs, such as "90101-5|-|" (pipe dash pipe?) and "O=0"
===
* The red "Na" in ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni|Higurashi no {{color|red|Na}}ku Koro ni]]'' is officially part of the title.
** The official dub calls it ''When They {{color|red|C}}ry''.
** ''Higurashi Day{{color|red|b}}reak'' by Tasogare Frontier: The b is officially off-color, although the color depends on the material - if the rest of the text is white, the b is normally black, but if the rest of the text is black, the b is red. Spelled in Japanese, the "bu" (ブ) is treated the same way.
* The revisions to ''[[Guilty Gear|Guilty Gear XX]]'' generally had strange names: "Guilty Gear XX ♯Reload" (pronounced "Sharp Reload"), "Guilty Gear XX/" ("Slash") and "Guilty Gear XX Λ Core" ("Accent Core"). Even the "XX" part of the title is actually pronounced "Igzex".
* [[Tetris|TET]]Я[[Tetris|IS]], of course.
* [[Acclaim|A<<laim]].
* The [[Wii]]. A homophone for "we", and the i's represent two people.
* ''[[Amorphous]]+''.
=== Real Life ===
* Canal+, a French film and television studio and distributor, and TV channel. (Usually pronounced "Canal Plus", using the French pronunciation.)
* E!, the American cable and satellite television network.
* Cisco ūmi telepresence.
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* Likewise, the slur Micro$oft.
** The abbreviated form M$ft may have been suggested instead by the occasional Windows system error messages that begin "$Mft is corrupt..." (these actually refer to a Master File Table).
** More recently, Appl€ has appeared as a slight against the company
** Also NA$CAR.
** And $tarbuck$.
** Di$ney.
** 4Kid$.
*** Also acceptable is $Kids, since American keyboards will have the 4 key become $ when Shift is held.
** [[Captain Obvious|Basically any corporation with an S in the name]].
** When ''Advanced [[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' was the monster that all the small role-playing game companies contended with, it was common to refer to the company that owned it as T$R.
*** And then there's
*** See also Game$ Work$hop
*** [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|£ido$]] gets a double whammy of the dollar sign and the pound symbol.
* The now-defunct British satellite channel L!ve TV.
* The computer programming languages C++ ([https://web.archive.org/web/20110926063620/http://www2.research.att.com/~bs/bs_faq.html#name pronounced "see plus plus"]; "++" means "increment by 1" in it<ref>on numeric primitives; due to operator overloading you can never be sure what it will do on any custom type</ref> and its predecessor C, so C++ means "C incremented"<ref>or, for extra pedantry, return the value of C and then increment it - perhaps a subtle nod at its fairly large degree of backwards compatibility?</ref>) and C# ("see sharp", despite actually using a pound sign, which is subtly different from a musical sharp symbol, which has led to its nickname "D flat", or Db)
** Well, "see octothorpe" doesn't roll off the tongue.
* Toys 'Я' Us
** Made even worse by the fact that Я is a Russian letter ''and'' word (meaning "I" or "myself"). It's like the English "I", which is a letter by itself and a pronoun as well. So basically it's saying "Toys I Us".
* The Bittorrent client "μTorrent", which we're supposed to pronounce "uTorrent". Geek options: muTorrent for the linguistics geek; microTorrent for the science geek.
* The Swedish feminist party (which didn't ''quite'' take off in the 2006 elections, and now hasn't been heard from in a while) chose "F¡" for their symbol. It was, of course, impossible to stop the party's detractors from reading it as "Fi", which is the traditional Swedish military abbreviation for "enemy" ("fiende" in Swedish).
* The [http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&source=hp&q=coexist%20bumper%20sticker&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi Coexist] bumper sticker, which comes in many variations.
* Actor Laurence Tureaud legally changed his name to [[Mr. T]], reportedly so that racists would have no choice but to call him "mister".
{{quote|"First name: Mister, Middle name: Period, Last name: T!"}}
* The English seaside town Westward Ho! (exclamation mark official)
* Sm:)e Records.
* Just try finding a check cashier storefront in America which doesn't have a "CHECK$ CA$HED" sign up.
* g0y, used by gay men who don't want to identify as gay. They get amusingly pissy if you call them "goys".
** [[You Have to Have Jews|g0yim?]]
** To be perfectly clear, g0ys do identify as bi- or homosexual, but "reject" the term "gay" because of its association with anal sex; gay - a(nal) = g0y. Their website is so hateful to non-g0y gays that even someone who agrees with the basic ideals of the g0y movement could be repulsed.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Title Tropes]]
[[Category:Language Tropes]]
[[Category:This Index Is Not an Example]]
[[Category:Examples Need Sorting]]
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