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Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Difference between revisions
M*A*S*H pothole, moved Ranma example from Western Animation to Anime, added links, pothole texts, copyedits
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{{trope}}
Most prominently noted in ''[[Friends]]'', many shows utilize quirky episode naming conventions. Though the episode title is usually not even broadcast with the show (usually only [[Animated Series]] do this), this information is gleaned from press releases, closed captioning, and the guide information. Of course, in literature it [[In Which a Trope Is Described|can be more obvious]].
[[Pilot]]s are exempt from this, as pilots do not usually have titles, and are usually made before anyone on the production staff comes up with the idea to name episodes idiosyncratically. (Although ''[[Futurama]]'' did call its pilot "Space Pilot 3000", just to be different, and as a nod to [[Mystery Science Theater 3000|MST3K]] since Groening is a fan).
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*** Though not an unbreakable rule, ''[[Digimon Adventure]]'' tended to have titles of the form [Sentence!] [Name or reference]. "Lightning! Kabuterimon," "Roar! Ikkakumon," "Clash! The Freezing Digimon." The titles were also mercifully short, whether following the naming trend or not.
** Almost all of the ''[[Digimon Frontier]]'' dub episode titles were clever manipulations of a popular catchphrase, idiom, or song title. Examples include: "Can't Keep a Gumblemon Down" (Can't keep a good man down); "Fear and Loathing in Los Arboles" (after the novel and movie Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas); and "Glean Eggs and Scram" (Green Eggs and Ham). Note the pilot episode is called "All Aboard" and the finale is "End of the Line".
* ''[[Kaleido Star]]''{{'}}s episodes all have the word "sugoi" (which translates to "amazing" or, colloquially, "wow") in the title, and are related to the main plot of the episode. For example, the very first episode is "Hajimete no! Sugoi! Stage" (or "First time! Amazing! Stage", which was titled "Amazing Stage Debut!" in the dub), and the fifteenth is "Utahime no Sugoi Ai" ("The Singing Princess' Amazing Love" or "The Diva's Amazing Love", which deals with the backstory of a character who works as a singer at the Kaleido Stage).
* Each episode of ''[[Nerima Daikon Brothers]]'' starts with "Ore wa" or "My"...and, judging by the dub's translations of the episodes, they're often made to sound like vague innuendo.
* Every episode of the anime version of [[Girls Bravo]] started or ended the title with "Bravo" and included a descriptor ("Bravo From the Bathroom!", "Bravo at School!", and "Cooking is Bravo!", to name the first three episodes). Given some of the titles, it begs the question: just what does Bravo mean...?
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* Every chapter in ''[[Ame Nochi Hare]]'' is suffixed with hPa, which stands for hectopascal, and is used by meteorologists as a unit of measurement for air pressure. This is relevant to the [[Gender Bender|plight]] of the five protagonists who will [[Involuntary Shapeshifting|transform into girls]] whenever it [[Hostile Weather|rains]].
* ''[[A Channel]]'' has a regular title in Japanese, and a [[Either or Title|second title]] in English that always starts with an "A".
* ''[[Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex]]'' employed two conventions. The first was that each episode (in the Japanese iteration) had an English title and a Japanese title, the English title being all caps and often only vaguely relevant to the episode at hand, while the Japanese title is more descriptive. The other convention is that in the first season they label each episode as a Standalone episode (title screen green) or a Complex episode (title screen blue), to show whether or not they fall into the overlying arc of the first season, while in 2nd Gig, they label they episodes as Individual, Dividual, or Dual, to show that episode's relation to the arc.
* ''[[Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai]]'' uses the characters for the show's own canonical portmanteau name -- "Haganai" (はがない), itself derived from "Boku '''wa''' Tomodachi '''ga''' Suku'''nai''' ("wa" and "ha" are interchangeable in Japanese) -- on its episode titles, followed by a ShiftJIS [[Emoticon]] frequently seen on Japanese [[Message Board]]s.
* ''[[Rosario + Vampire]]'' uses the hella predictable + sign in the name to make it's episodes. X + Vampire.
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* The anime adaptation of ''[[Daily Lives of High School Boys]]'' have all skits' names start with "High School Boys and..."
* ''[[Ben-To]]'' uses the name of a bento box featured in its respective episode, followed by its calorie count. For example, Episode 1 is called "Sticky Natto Okra Rice with Cheese Topping Bento, 440kcal"
* ''[[Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai!
* ''[[The World God Only Knows]]'' has every title be some sort of reference, with the topic changing every few chapters. For example, part of the Ayumi re-capture arc used the names of Westerns.
* ''[[To Love Ru Darkness]]'' has every title fit into "Topic in English~A Flowery Description About Said Topic in Japanese~", except for the first four chapters (which repeat the same thing in English and Japanese) and the prologue (which is called "Prologue[[Prologue and Activation]]"). An example is "Past[[Memories Leading to Tomorrow]]".
* Every episode of ''[[Lotte no Omocha
* Each chapter of ''[[My Lovely Ghost Kana]]'' uses the word "Life" rather than "Chapter." It also has a title with no particular pattern. ''[[Omamori Himari]]'' uses "Menagerie" the same way, and ''[[Tasogare Otome x Amnesia]]'' similarly declares each of its chapters to be "The _th Mystery."
* Probably related is Viz Video's practice of giving its ''[[Ranma ½]]'' releases—first on videotape and later on DVD—names that were puns on or parodies of the titles of other works well
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== Fan Works ==
* The subtitles of chapters of ''[[Through the Eyes of Another Pony]]'' all work in "chapter" (Revenge of the Chapter, Son of a Chapter, The Bride of Chapter...).
* In ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7344852/1/Marik_and_Bakura_333_Ways Marik and Bakura 333 Ways],'' each chapter is titled [[In Which a Trope Is Described|"In Which [blank]"]], where [blank] is a very brief overview of the chapter.
* Every title in ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5999251/1/The_Reprint_and_Repackaging_of_Evangelion The Reprint and Repackaging of Evangelion]'' is a song lyric.
* Instead of numbered chapters,'' [[Fuck the Jesus Beam]]'' uses named chapters with titles. For example, "Chapter Rape: Holocaust."
* ''[[Hunting the Unicorn]]'' names its chapters after characters in ''[[The Last Unicorn (novel)|The Last Unicorn]]''. The three exceptions so far are "The Midnight Carnival," "The Quest," and "The Clock." The last two are ''very'' important, plot-wise.
* Every chapter of ''[[Of Love and Bunnies]]'' is named for an episode in which a member of the ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'' or ''[[Power Rangers Dino Thunder]]'' appeared. It was initially confined to just those two shows, but [[Long Runners|then the writers starting running out of names]].
* In ''[[Winter War]]'', the chapter titles are of the format "[POV character]: [Title]", or "Ensemble: [Title]" if there are several POV characters- e.g., "Nanao: Winter", "Ensemble: "The Day Before". The few exceptions are things like "Karakura: Waiting" (actually the first ensemble chapter) and a very few chapters that list multiple narrators in the heading, like "Momo, Isane: We Have Met The Enemy".
* ''[[Drunkard's Walk]]'': Each story has a different convention for chapter naming:
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* The pilot episode for ''[[Caroline in The City]]'' used the same title as the series itself, but every subsequent episode title used some variant of "Caroline and the _____".
* Every episode of the short-lived sitcom ''Alright Already'' had a title of "[[Oh God With the Troping|Again with the _____]]".
* A considerable number of ''[[
* Each episode title in ''[[Harper's Island]]'' is onomatopoeia associated with a death that occurs in that episode. They are also all one word, except for one episode, which is three ("Thrack, Splat, Sizzle").
* Every episode of ''The [[George Carlin]] Show'' was a sentence in the form of George (Predicate): "George Goes Too Far", "George Helps a Friend", etc.
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* Every ''[[Pink Panther]]'' short made in the 1960s and 1970s has the word "Pink" in the title. Similarly, every short in DFE's ''The Inspector'' series has some French wordplay in the title.
* Sav! The World's series ''[[Oban Star-Racers]]'' names most of its episodes in the form "X Like Y", where Y is the name of the [[Monster of the Week]]. X is always an adjective that begins with the same letter or sound as the antagonist's name -- "Playful Like Para-Dice", "Agile Like Aikka", et cetera. Unfortunately, this meant they were forced to use the word "Cruel" twice.
▲* Probably related is Viz Video's practice of giving its ''[[Ranma ½]]'' releases—first on videotape and later on DVD—names that were puns or parodies of the titles of other works well known at the time in North America. For example, the theatrical film ''Ranma 1/2: Kessen Tôgenkyô! Hanayome o torimodose!!'' (literally, ''Ranma 1/2: Battle at Togenkyo! Get Back the Brides!'') was released as ''Nihao My Concubine'' (referring to the 1993 Chinese film distributed in the United States as ''Farewell My Concubine''). Other such titles included ''Like Water For Ranma'', ''Smells Like Evil Spirit'', ''One Grew Over The Kuno's Nest'', and ''Big Trouble in Nekonron, China''.
* ''[[Skunk Fu!]]!'' uses "The Art of ____". There was even an episode where they did "The Art of Art".
* Almost every episode of the first season of ''[[Sonic Sat AM|Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' had the word 'Sonic' in it, despite how little it would have to do with the actual plot. This was discarded in season 2.
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