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  • Another very popular trick is using music-related terminology or music piece/song titles in episode naming:
    • Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040 uses 1970s heavy metal/hard rock song titles as episode titles.
    • Carole & Tuesday used the titles of 20th century pop songs; each title had also something to do with the titular characters' journey of taking on Mars's music scene with little more than a keyboard, a guitar, and their songwriting (much like how music was made in the 20th century).
    • Cowboy Bebop used episode titles designed to be reminiscent of song titles (sometimes actual titles) or styles: "Waltz for Venus", "Jupiter Jazz", "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Mushroom Samba", etc. The finale was titled "The Real Folk Blues", also the name of the show's end Theme Tune, and the movie is called "Knockin' on Heaven's Door".
    • The chapters of the Cromartie High School manga were all references to song, albums, or lyrics. Similarly, the four volumes of the DVD in the American release were named after song and had covers parodying the names of albums.
    • Eureka Seven likewise uses variations of song titles for most of its episodes, with electronic music being the most common genre. AlternativeSoundtrack
    • Kyoto Animation's adaptation of Kanon used a classical music subgenre in each episode title, ending with "Kanon". Studio Toei's version used track titles from the original game.
    • Each chapter of The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service is titled after a song. They try to arrange it so that all the chapters in a particular tankoubon are songs by the same artist.
    • The Legend of Black Heaven uses the names of famous rock and roll songs as episode titles.
    • The episode names of Piano are Italian musical terms, starting with "con", which indicate how something should be performed—for example "con amore" (with love).
    • Every episode of Scrapped Princess' anime adaptation starts with a musical movement style ("Elegy", "March", "Concerto", etc.) and usually ends with a short description of a major character or event to be introduced in that chapter. The closest thing to a deviation ("Distant Ricordanza") still makes sense because the narrative featured multiple locations set some distance from each other.
    • While the individual episodes of Simoun weren't named idiosyncratically, the DVDs were, using musical terms: Choir of Pairs, Orchestra of Betrayal, Rondo of Loss, Crescendo of Lamentation, and Song of Prayer. It makes sense, since the teams of pilots that flew the titular aircraft were called chor (choir).
    • Hentai artist Black Dog names a lot of his Sailor Moon works after Stands from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure—most of which are themselves named after songs or bands from the 70s and 80s (others like Hierophant Green are named for Tarot Cards).
    • Shinyaku Ookami Ga Kuru uses song titles from Rammstein.
    • Rolling Girls uses song titles by a Japanese punk rock band Blue Hearts. All the songs in the show are also Blue Hearts covers.
    • given names its episodes after various song titles, primarily from Alternative Rock artists. The exception to this is episode 9, which is named after an original song that is performed in that episode.
    • GTO: 14 Days in Shonan has the name of a Japanese pop song for each chapter title.
  • A handful of series strictly use only proper nouns by themselves.
    • Nearly every episode of Scryed is a proper noun, the name of some character, place or thing within the series, without any predicates or verbs.
    • Every chapter title of World Trigger is the name of the most relevant character in that chapter. This series is not afraid to use the same name repeatedly, in which case it becomes "(character name): Part 2," "(character name): Part 3," etc. The one exception so far has been "The Invasion."
  • Viewtiful Joe had "no Maki" or "Episode" fitting the theme of Viewtiful Joe as a Kamen Rider parody.
    • This convention is often used in comedy manga. Some specific examples are Doctor Slump (both the manga and anime), Kochikame, and the manga version of the aforementioned Sgt. Frog.
  • Every Chrono Crusade episode has two different titles: one in Japanese and one in English.
  • The Japanese episode titles for The Vision of Escaflowne always emphasize one kanji by coloring it while leaving the rest in white. Example: Episode 1 is titled "運命の告白" in Japanese (translation: "Fateful Confession"), and the "命" (emphasizing fate) is colored.
    • The first season of Durarara!! also used the emphasized Kanji in color concept. In the second season, only the next-episode previews kept the pattern while the titles within the episodes switched to all-white.
  • Princess Tutu, Rozen Maiden, and Elfen Lied all have episode titles in German. Each episode of Princess Tutu is also titled after the piece of classical music that's most prominent in the episode.
  • All the titles of Doujin Work's work episodes are some form of sexual joke or phrase.
    • Kanokon also uses something that sounds sexual for its episode titles.
    • DearS as well.
  • The title of each chapter of Yankee-kun to Megane-chan is a quote from that chapter.
  • Some manga and anime use lines from the episode, often the one that is most significant or best sums up the events of the episode.

Individual Examples

     A 
  • A Channel has a regular title in Japanese, and a second title in English that always starts with an "A".
  • Every episode of the Accel World anime is a word that ends with -ion. For example, the first episode is "Acceleration," the second is "Transformation," and the third is "Investigation."
  • The anime of Akame ga Kill! has its episodes formatted as "Kill ___________", with a noun ("the Mad Scientist", "the Religious Organization", "the Demons") or a concept ("the Darkness", "Authority", "Seduction") filling in the blank. The Odd Name Out is the Grand Finale, which is a Title Drop.
  • Akudama Drive titles every episode after the name of the movie it was inspired by - with the exception of the Grand Finale, which is titled "Akudama Drive".
  • Aldnoah.Zero uses sci-fi novel titles.
  • The 24-episode version of Ah! My Goddess used "Ah! ____________" for all its titles, much less common in the original manga and its other adaptations.
  • 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 plight of the five protagonists who will transform into girls whenever it rains.
  • Argento Soma's episode names are two words that progress from each other. "Rebirth and Death", "Death and the Maiden", "The Maiden and the Meeting", etc. It comes full circle with the last episode.
  • The ARIA anime episode titles all begin with sono ("that") in Japanese. Given the differences in syntax, this is not always carried over in the English translations, though they usually manage to include that (or those) in the title.
  • In addition to the above manga ordering example, all chapters of Assassination Classroom have the word "time" in the title (e.g.: "Assassination Time", "Fundamentals Time", "Karma's Time"). It is an allusion to the school theme ("time" is synonymous to "period") and the time limit to kill Koro-sensei.
  • Assault Lily: Bouquet: Episodes titles are taken from Japanese names of flowers.

     B 
  • 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"
  • Black Butler: Chapters and episode titles are all "His Butler, _______"
  • Black★Rock Shooter uses lyrics from the song Black★Rock Shooter, like "How Much Louder Do I Have To Shout?" and "The Hope From Where It Shouldn't Have Existed".
  • All the episodes of Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan have two-part titles that end with "Dokuro-Chan!".
  • Bokurano just has the current Zearth pilot's name followed by a number as titles.
    • The anime adaptation gives each episode a simple one-word title, a noun related to the episode's themes. The flashback episode detailing a character's troubled past is called "Scars" (Kizu), "Self-Destruction" (Jimetsu) has suicide as a recurring theme, and so forth. The only exception is episode 12, "Related by Blood" (Chi no Tsunagari), perhaps because "Family" had already been used. Translation sometimes throws more hiccups into this pattern as well. The aforementioned "Self-Destruction could be seen as a bit of a stretch, and the final episode's title, Monogatori or "Story", is sometimes rendered as "The Story".
  • Likewise, the Bakemonogatari anime has the name of the girl attacked, followed by the name of the monster, followed by the number of the episode in the story arc, as titles.
  • Bakuman。 always names its chapters "X and Y", like "Dreams and reality", "A smile and a blush", "Friends and rivals",...
  • Baka and Test: Summon the Beasts
    • The anime's first season's episode titles follow the same pattern as the series' Japanese title "X and Y and Z" (Ex. Maps and Treasure and Striker Sigma V)
    • For the first ten episodes of season 2, "X" is "boku" (the first person pronoun Akihisa uses) for most of the episodes, with episode 8 using "uchi" instead (since the episode is focused on Minami's past). In episode 11, "X and Y" are "Yuuji and Shouko" since it's another flashback.
    • Both season finales are named after the show itself (Idiots, Test, and Summoned Beasts)
  • Each episode of Black Cat uses the word "cat" in the title. Most of the titles are in the form of "The _____ Cat" or "A(n) _____ Cat", with the _____ being an adjective.
  • Tite Kubo tends to attach the same chapter names of Bleach to similar events.
    • Ichigo gets an important power-up? Death and Strawberry.
    • Ichigo and Rukia reunite? Deathberry Returns.
    • Ichigo realizing facts about his Zanpakuto? The Blade and Me, and finally The Blade is Me.
    • Any attempt to break into either Soul Society, the Seireitei or Las Noches? Intruderz.
    • Ichigo is in his mindscape? First The Dark Side of the Universe, then Black and White.
    • Kenpachi is fighting? The Undead.
    • Ichigo using Kukaku Shiba's rocket? The Shooting Star Project.
    • Sad flashback? Memories in the Rain/Everything but the Rain.
    • Sometimes he uses this to denote consecutive events as well. The yearly day of paying respects to Masaki, when Ichigo fought Grand Fisher? 6/17. Orihime's power awakens? Princess and Dragon. Ichigo trains to unlock his own Shinigami powers? Lesson 1/2. The events of the day of Rukia's Execution up until her being freed by Ichigo? Countdown to The End. Aizen's conspiracy revealing piece by piece? end of hypnosis. And these are only examples from before the Arrancar Arc, by the way.
  • All episode titles in Blue Drop are scientific names of flowers.

     C 
  • The episode titles of [C] – Control start with the letter C, like "Cultivation", "Collapse", and "Conspiracy".
  • Up until season 5, nearly all of Case Closed's anime titles would be "(insert victim/event) murder case".
  • Cardcaptor Sakura's episodes all started with "Sakura and..." or "Sakura's..."
  • Each episode of Celestial Method (Sora no Method) has the particle "no" ("of") in the title.
  • Change 123's chapter titles are always some kind of mathematical term.
  • Chi's Sweet Home begins every episode title with the titualar character's name and a comma, resulting in ungrammatical titles such as "Chi, Frolics About," and "Chi, Goes Outside." The passive voice is often used to shoehorn titles into the naming convention, as in, "Chi, Is Invited In." The English translation of the manga changes it to "a cat [does something]".
  • Except for the last one and the specials, Chobits titles tend to follow the formula "Chii <verbs>".

     D 
  • The anime adaptation of Daily Lives of High School Boys have all skits' names start with "High School Boys and..."
  • The Dangers in My Heart: The title of every main chapter is a first-person statement beginning with either "I" or "We", such as "I Met Up With Her" or "We Got Separated". This emphasizes Ichikawa's typical status as the sole POV character. The titles of Chapters 30 and 113, however, indicate Yamada as the one in making a statement.
  • Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody ends all titles with "... that began with a death march".
  • All episode titles in the Death Note anime are single words written as two kanji, except for the final two.
  • Every chapter of Delicious in Dungeon is named after the food the party make in it, e.g. "Hotpot" and "Tart".
  • Destroy All Humankind. They Can't Be Regenerated.: The title of each chapter starts with the word "Our".
  • Aside from the first one, the name of every episode of Didn't I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?'s anime adaptation is a question beginning with "Didn't I say...".
  • Every Japanese Digimon Data Squad's title (not carried over into the dub) is of the form, "[Excited Title! Two-Part Episode Name!]: [Hero or Monster of the Week Digimon] [does something]!" Such as "Recover the Bond between Parent and Child - Evilmon's Bewitchment," "Yoshino Gets Her Cinderella Story?! Chrysalimon's Shadow," or "Genius Tohma has Returned! Beat Meramon."
    • There's some of this in the other odd-numbered seasons, as well. (For some reason, it's only done with the odd-numbered ones.)
      • Digimon Tamers has two-sentence titles, either of which could serve as a title alone ("Crisis for Guilmon! The Adventure in my Town," "Protect the Light of the Town! Dangerous Camp of the Digimon," "The Order to Capture the Digimon! The Sinister Foreboding.")
      • 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".
    • While not prevalent in every series, it is common that final installments of a Digimon series incorporate the word "Our" ("Bokura no") in their Japanese titles, such as "Our Digital World" for the final episode of Adventure 02 and "Our Singularity" for the final episode of Appmon. Tamers is an example incorporating the "Our" theme into a larger Excited Title! type name for its finale episode, and the Adventure tri. film series plays with its own idiosyncracy of two-kanji subtitles by naming its final film "Our Future" ("Bokura no Mirai"), the catch being "bokura no" is merely written in hiragana while "mirai" is written with two kanji.
  • Dirty Pair Flash has a different naming pattern for each of its three parts:
    • The first part's episode titles are follow this pattern: <English adjective> Angel. (The last episode is titled "Lovely Angels" - plural. This is important.)
    • The second part's episode titles are in mixed Japanese and English, and contain at least one English word each.
    • The third part's episode titles follow this pattern: <color name in Japanese> ? <noun in Japanese> [<approximately the same noun in English>].
  • Early chapters in the manga version of D.N.Angel start with "A Warning of _______", referencing the fact that Dark always sends warning letters before he steals something. This was dropped later in its run, and didn't carry over to the animated adaptation.

     E 
  • The first episode of 801 T.T.S. Airbats is titled DEFCON I, with subsequent episode titles counting up to DEFCON VI.
  • Every episode title in El Cazador de la Bruja contains the word "Man" or "Woman", usually referring to the character in the focus of a particular episode. The only exception is episode 14, which is also the biggest continuous Mood Whiplash in the show.
  • The Elusive Samurai: The title of each chapter is always followed by the year it took place in.
  • The OVA El-Hazard: The Magnificent World also played on its title (神秘の世界エルハザード—Shinpei no Sekai El-Hazard). In Japanese, every episode replaced "神秘"/"Shinpei" with another descriptive noun (like "混戦"/"Konsen" for "Confusing Conflicts" or "美女"/"Bijou" for "Beautiful Girls"). For some reason, English translations don't follow the convention too closely.

     F 
  • Each volume in the Finder Series is titled "Finder no ____" ("Finder no Hyouteki", "Finder no Ori" etc.). Digital Manga's translation opts for a similar format: "____ in the Viewfinder" ("Target in the Viewfinder", "Caged in the Viewfinder" etc.), while Sublime's translation drops the format entirely ("Target in Sight", "Caught in a Cage" etc.).
  • The Japanese titles of all six episodes of FLCL are written with four katakana morae, possibly as an imitation of the yojijukugo style, but using abbreviated English (or nonsense) words in place of Japanese words.
  • Every Future Diary anime episode title is in some way related to phones.
  • Through all 4 seasons of The Familiar of Zero every episode is "X no Y" ("X's Y", or "[The] Y of X"): following the pattern of the series title itself (Zero no Tsukaima/The Familiar of Zero).
  • Futari Escape has each chapter end in escape. For example, the first chapter is "Offline Escape."

     G 
  • Episodes of Galaxy Angel are phrased as titles to very strange recipes, such as "Milfeulle's Special made Cake for Surprise & Hug Hug Hug Pot," "Ambition and Poverty BBQ Chicken & Chain-linked Noodles without the Link" and "Dried Pork Legs & Top-Gun Fried Tofu mixed with Vegetables." Keep in mind that the series has Edible Theme Naming concerning the girls.
  • Each episode of Genshiken has a long, convoluted, scholarly sounding title (e.g., "The Sublimating Effects of the Dissimilation Brought on Through Makeup and Costume on Mental Obstacles", an episode about cosplay). It turns out that the former President of the club was a graduate student in sociology and was secretly studying the club members as part of his thesis, and presumably, each episode title corresponds to an academic article he wrote based on the events of the episode. After he graduated, the titles become more normal sounding.
  • 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 the episodes as Individual, Dividual, or Dual, to show that episode's relation to the arc.
  • Gintama is full of this. Episode titles are generally whole sentences (if not paragraphs), often things like "When you're tired, eat something sour!" or "A life without gambling is like sushi without wasabi." They often constitute a bit of Fridge Logic, since they seem completely random until you really think about the episode. (Some are a bit more obvious though.)
  • 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...? It seems to be a Sexual Euphemism.
  • All episode titles in Glass Fleet are similes, always going "Like (something)".
  • Gourmet Girl Graffiti episode titles are descriptions of food taste like "warm, juicy".
  • Gundam
    • Gundam X derives its titles from lines spoken within the episode, typically critical lines. Examples include "Can You See The Moon?" (said by Jamil Neate) for the first episode, "My Mount is Fierce" (said by Shagia Frost) for the episode introducing the major antagonists, and "The Moon Will Always Be There" (said by the narrator/D.O.M.E. for the finale.
    • Mobile Suit Gundam We're Federation Hooligans has each chapter named after a western song or album, ranging from glam rock albums, Jay-Z albums, rock songs, or even "The Eye of the Tiger".
  • Gunslinger Girl's episode titles are in Italian (emphasizing that Gunslinger Girl is set in Italy).

     H 
  • Haibane Renmei has titles composed of three different nouns or phrases for every episode other than eight, such as "Cocoon — Dream of Falling From the Sky — Old Home" (From Episode one). Episode eight's title is just "The Bird."
  • Haganai uses the characters for the show's own canonical portmanteau name — "Haganai" (はがない), itself derived from "Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai ("wa" and "ha" are interchangeable in Japanese) — on its episode titles, followed by a ShiftJIS emoticon frequently seen on Japanese Message Boards.
  • Handa-kun, the prequel to Barakamon, has chapters all titled "Handa-kun and ___".
  • Every chapter in Hayate × Blade has the word "baka" (idiot) in it somewhere, in reference to its eponymous Idiot Heroine.
  • Hanayamata episode titles are English phrases written in katakana.
  • The Hellsing manga uses (famous) game titles as their chapters, such as Warcraft or Final Fantasy.
  • The arcs of Higurashi: When They Cry are in the format of "two-kanji word" + shi-hen: (Onikakushi, Watanagashi, Tatarigoroshi, Himatsubushi, Meakashi, Tsumihoroboshi, Minagoroshi, Matsuribayashi).
  • Highschool of the Dead replaces a word in famous names and titles with dead, eg. The Girl Next Dead, Dead Storm Rising, and so on.
  • Holy Corpse Rising: Each chapter title goes "Thou Shalt Not" and then a phrase involving witches. For example: "Thou Shalt Not Raise A Witch" and "Thou Shalt Not Give Thy Heart To A Witch".
  • The first Hunter × Hunter anime episodes all follow the scheme of "(word) X (word)" or "(word) X (word) X (word)." The manga will often also use single-word titles towards the end of story arcs or the exact day the chapters take place if there is a deadline.
    • The second anime has titles in the form of "(word) × (preposition) × (word)" with words sounding somewhat similar in Japanese. In addition, they use katakana-only spelling.
  • Hyakko drops the word "tiger" in every single episode title, since the title of the series is a reference to Byakko, the white tiger of The Four Gods.

     I 
  • THE iDOLM@STER: Cinderella Girls' episode titles all reference some aspect of the Cinderella fairy tale. For example, the first episode mentions pumpkin carriages, the second episode mentions castles, and the third episode mentions balls.
  • Titles in Ill Boy, Ill Girl are given blocky splotches to mirror a recurring motif in the manga regarding censoring names and faces.
  • I My Me! Strawberry Eggs does this on two levels: Each episode title has something to do with makeup (appropriately enough), and each DVD volume is called a "Quarter".
  • The episode titles from Is This A Zombie? are responses to the question "Is this a zombie?" like "Yes, I'm a Magical Garment Girl", "No, I'm a Vampire Ninja", etc.

     J 

     K 
  • K has all of its episode titles begin with the letter K, except for the 12th, which features it as a character's middle initial.
  • Kaleido Star's episodes all have the word "sugoi" (which translates to "amazing") 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).
  • Karin's episode titles always end in "is so embarrassing", sometimes to the point of sounding like a "Blind Idiot" Translation. In the manga, each chapter is named with the pattern "X's something and Y's something" (for example "The vampires' meeting and Karin's Christmas").
  • Kaguya-sama: Love Is War:
    • Chapters of the main series and its "Offical Doujin" spin-off usually follow the pattern of "[Character] Wants to XXX". If they don't, it's a fair bet that it's either a break in the usual formula or features some major plot developments.
    • The other spin-off series ''We Want to Talk About Kaguya", follows the pattern "We/I Want to Talk About XXX".
  • Although it's not apparent from the English translation, all episodes titles of Kemonozume contain references to taste and various flavors. (The first episode is titled "The First Taste" and the last one is "The Flavor Doesn't Matter.")
  • Kiddy Grade had the form of <word>/<usually related word>, except for episode 24. "Depth/Space" is an example.
  • The episodes in Kill la Kill are named after classic J-Pop songs.
  • In a case pertaining to the theme songs of a show, the titles of the ending themes of KiraKira★Pretty Cure à la Mode both end with the word "Time".
  • Not only does the manga Kitchen Princess call each chapter a recipe, but the title chapters all follow the "Najika and [food]" pattern. The food mentioned is always one she makes in the chapter, even if it's tangential to the actual chapter's plot.
  • In KonoSuba's anime adaptation, barring the first episode, all of the episodes' Japanese titles follow the same pattern: "この___に___を!" (Kono ___ ni ___ O!)
  • "Kase-san" is not actually the title of the manga—it's just something everyone uses to refer to it, as every single chapter of it is titled "Something and Kase-san". Tomoko Kase is the main character's love interest, and the chapter titles reflect how she views everything in her life in relation to the girl she loves.

     L 
  • Ladies versus Butlers! also mirrors the series name with the episodes all being "X Versus Y"
  • Every episode of In the Land of Leadale follows the formula "[Noun 1], [Noun 2], [Noun 3] and [Noun 4]"
  • Lagrange: The Flower of Rin-ne puts "Kamogawa", the name of the main setting for the series, in all episode titles. This continued into season two.
  • Last Exile names its episodes after Chess terms.
  • The Law of Ueki episodes all are named "The Law of ___". Example: "Episode 16: The Law of the Awakening Organ".
  • All the episode titles for Little Busters! come from a line said in the episode itself, usually by the character the episode focuses on, and the titles are shown at the end of each episode rather than at the beginning.
  • All 24 episodes of Love Hina have (Japanese) titles that end with "na", in several cases actually being part of a word.
  • Every episode of Lotte no Omocha includes the name of a punctuation mark: exclamation, semicolon, parentheses, etc. (That and a few suspiciously shaped objects leads one to suspect a typography fetish is at work here.)
  • Almost all the episode titles of Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions! have for some reason an ellipsis (...) in them, save for the last two. That's probably because Rikka is forced to grow out of her delusions in those episodes.
  • Lyrical Nanoha:
    • Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha used to end its episode titles with "nano", meaning "it is" or "is it". For example, the first episode translates to "Is This a Mysterious Encounter?" and the second episode translates to "'Lyrical' is the Magic Word?" The series drops this practice mid-way into season two (starting with episode 9, "Christmas Eve"; and disregarding season one finale "Say My Name") and hasn't used it since.note 
    • Also, the various manga use different words for "chapter":
      • Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid has "Memory;XX☆", a play on the words "vivid memory".
      • Magical Record Lyrical Nanoha Force has "Record XX:" followed by the chapter title. The chapter titles also come only in English.
      • Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Movie First The Comics uses "Sequence : X-Y", where X is the arc number, starting with 0.
      • The Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's manga uses "Report XX".
      • Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha INNOCENT uses ""Duel XX"
      • Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS THE COMICS uses has the most elaborate naming system. The first two arcs, which are a prequel to the anime, have "Episode - XX [A's to StrikerS] Phase Y" and "Episode - XX [Starting Stars] Phase Z", respectively, where the numbering is not continuous between Y and Z. After the manga catches up to the anime's plot, it switches to "Episode - XX (Striker S #NN.5) followed by the chapter title, followed by the Roman numeral (II) for two-parters. The non-integer number indicates where the chapter fits between the anime's episodes. The final chapter, which takes place after the end of the anime, is simply titled "After Days [The After]" with no numbers at all.
  • Lycoris Recoil: Episode titles are taken from pieces of advice ("The more the merrier", "More haste, less speed", etc.)

     M 
  • In Maburaho's anime adaptation, every episode title is a verb in past tense (in Japanese, always ending with "~ちゃった……"). The English dub takes some liberties and makes this pattern somewhat less noticeable.
  • Several of the later episodes of Macross Frontier are named for songs from the show. In three cases ("Triangular", Diamond Crevasse", and "Blue Ether"), the song is used as the ending theme.
  • Every original Japanese episode title of Madlax consists of two kanjis making a single word and an English word, which more or less precisely describe the events of the episode. Sadly, it was Lost in Translation.
  • Magical Girl Raising Project's anime adaptation names all of its episodes after features or phrases related to the titular game. As things get darker, the titles begin to get darker also.
  • Magical Witch Punie-chan episode titles tend to run on a bit. With two episodes per OVA, the preview screens are just filled with text.
  • Magikano episodes always ask a question. Example: "Are They Really Cursed Cat Panties?!"
  • Majikoi! Love Me Seriously! uses the form of "Seriously _______!" ("Maji de _____ nasai!")
  • Martian Successor Nadesico's Japanese episode titles were all references to cliche phrases or words in Anime, or Science Fiction in general, that were relevant to the episode: for instance, the second episode's title could be translated "Leave 'The Blue Earth' to Me", while a later episode was "A Lukewarm 'Cold Equation'", as a shout out to the original short story.
  • The chapters of Mashle: Magic and Muscles follow the pattern "Mash Burnedead (or in some cases a different character) and the...", which doubles as a reference to Harry Potter.
  • Every episode title of Mashiro-iro Symphony has something to do with colors. Most are of the form "X-colored Y," where X and Y are things that have no obvious meaning in this context: "Annoyance-Colored Anxiety," "Search-Colored Bath Time," etc.
  • Since Michiko & Hatchin is set in Brazil (or a version of it), the episodes have Portuguese names.
  • Every chapter of Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid is titled "[Character] and [Subject of Chapter]". The character in the title is almost always one of the dragons, even if the main focus is on one of the humans. The anime had conventional titles that describe the overarching theme of the episode, followed by a snarky comment in parenthesis. Chapters in Kanna's spin-off are titled "Time for [Subject of Chapter]".
  • Episode titles in Mnemosyne always follow the pattern "subject negation verb". Excepting the final episode, "Then, to the Gates of the Kingdom".
  • The titles of Monster Musume are always "Daily Life With [plot descriptor/name of characters introduced]".
  • Every episode of Modern Magic Made Simple is named after a computer programming term. Sample episode titles include "hello, world", "Dragon Book" and "jini".
  • The six-episode OVA series Moldiver titles the episodes such that the first letter of each of the first five episodes (ex. Episode 1 is titled "Metamorforce!") plus the first three of the last episode ("Verity") spells out "Moldiver".
  • Each episode of Mushishi is named using a poetic description of something related to the mushi of that episode: like its effects or the people affected by it. Example, #3 is "Tender Horns," which refer to the horns growing on the victim.
  • My Monster Secret: All chapter titles are in the form "Let's __!". Also, when two chapters form a Two-Part Episode, instead of being titled "part 1/part 2", the second part's title will have two exclamation points instead of one.

     N 

     O 
  • Every episode title of Oh, Suddenly Egyptian God begins with "Oh, Suddenly" and then the subject of the episode (eg. Oh, Suddenly Anubis).
  • The Series 1 episode titles of Ojarumaru often end with "de ojaru" (an archaic polite copula). After Series 1, "de ojaru" is rarely used in the episode titles. Also, a few episode titles use "ja no" or "tetamo" (an archaic version of "kudasai" used by Heian era aristocrats). There are additionally two episodes that end with "de gonsu" (an archaic polite copula).
  • Omamori Himari uses either the kanji, katakana, or hiragana for "cat" (猫, ネコ, ねこ) in its chapter/episode title. Also, the chapters themselves are called "menageries".
  • One Piece episodes usually follow an "Excited Episode Title! Inquisitive Subtitle?" format.
    • There are also some themes within the titles of the certain chapters. Whenever the crew arrives on a new island, the title will typically be "Adventure in/on ________". For example, "Adventure in the Kingdom of Sand", "Adventure on God's Island", and "Adventure in the Great Prison". This doesn't apply to locations where there is no actual adventuring, though.
    • Whenever the crew officially gains a new member, the chapter will usually be called "The (First, Second, etc.) Person". On some occasions, this doesn't occur when the crew member initially joins. For example, Nami's "The Second Person" chapter is after Sanji's "The Fourth Person" because she had temporarily betrayed the crew, only to join for real later on. Likewise, Franky's chapter is called "The Third Person and the Seventh Person", since Usopp, who was a longtime crew member, had quit the Straw Hats two arcs ago and is now rejoining them. So far, the only members not to continue this trend were Chopper and Robin.
      • The VIZ Media translation is inconsistent about this. Zoro's chapter was called "Number One", Sanji's chapter was called "The Fourth Person", Nami's chapter was called "The Other Villain" (the title now referring to Nezumi), Franky and Usopp's chapter was called "Third and Seventh"note , and Brook's chapter was called "Eighth Person".
  • My Little Sister Can't Be This Cute! follows variations of "My Little Sister Can't Be ________!" for every episode.
  • Oruchuban Ebichu ends its titles with "dechu", a baby-speak version of "desu", which roughly translates as "it is".

     P 
  • Almost every episode of Penguin Musume Heart is a thinly disguised spoof of another anime's title. Sample titles include "Mae, Otome", "Roze no Tsukaima", and "Marie-sama ga Miteru".
  • In Pet Shop of Horrors every chapter is named with a D word as if guessing what the D in Count D's name stands for.
  • Every episode/chapter of Pita-Ten is named "How to ________".
  • Chapter titles in Please Tell Me! Galko-chan are already phased as a question starting with "Is it true that...?"
  • Pokémon Adventures titles every chapter (or rather, "round"; as explained above, "chapter" is used for story arcs) "VS. [Pokemon name]". The Pokemon name is always one that shows up in the chapter, usually fighting against the heroes, but sometimes not.
    • This was abandoned in the Japanese version of the X and Y chapter, which instead features "<Pokémon's name>,<imperative verb>", for example "Garura(Kanghaskhan),Wait". In the English translation, though, they use puns or wordplays, and later chapters from the Sun and Moon chapter ownards have more generic-sounding anime episode titles.
    • Most of the English-language anime episodes include the name of a plot-important Pokemon as part of a pun. Or some other pun relating to the episode's plot.
  • The first episodes of each season of PriPara are called "I Became A (insert thing relevant to the season in question here) Idol!?".
  • To fit with the long title of Problem Children are Coming from Another World, aren't they?, all its episode titles seem to be lengthy question-mark-terminated sentences?
  • Every episode title of The Promised Neverland is a compressed form of the episode's date in-universe, written in a DD/MM/YY format; the first episode is titled "121045" because it's the 12th of October 2045, the next episode is titled "131045" because it takes place the following day, etc.

     R 

     S 
  • Every episode of Samurai Champloo is written with four kanji that form a Yojijukugo (four-character idiomatic compound is one translation), which would never translate, so the dub uses alliteration (ex. "Bogus Booty", "Hell Hounds for Hire").
  • The anime based on the Sands of Destruction video game has all of its episode titles begin with "There are Two Kinds" (except for Ep. 10: "There Are 108 Laws of Clockwork Robotics").
  • Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei's chapter titles are not "_______ has left me in despair!" as one would expect, but paraphrased or Punny Name versions of quotes and titles of various novels.
  • Every chapter of the School Rumble manga bears the title of a movie, which is often (at least vaguely) related to the plot events of that chapter. For example, in volume 9 one may read such chapters as "#117 MRS.DOUBTFIRE" or side stories such as "b25 MONSTERS INC". The 'b' in that example is a musical flat symbol (♭); there have also been, oddly enough, chapters designated with a natural mark (♮).
  • A Scummy Gap Student With A Hard Live Calls Upon A Lady of the Night has "Scumbag" or some variant thereof in each chapter title, to drive home that the Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist lead is far from a good person.
  • Slayers, like W.I.T.C.H., uses the alphabet: each episode of the anime's first season follows an alphabetical pattern. Each title is a short exclamation, followed by a longer explanation, and the exclamations are alphabetical: "Angry! Lina's Furious Dragon Slave!" is the opening, continuing with "Bad! Mummy Men Aren't My Type!" and so on, through "Zap! Victory Is Always Mine!"
    • This is dropped for Next and Try, but revived with Revolution ("AMAZING - The Astonishing Dragon Slave!?" to "MISTY - The Blades Are Brought Down!") and Evolution-R ("NEW COMER? A new adventure begins!" to "ZERO HOUR! Those heading to destruction!"), which has 26 episodes between them.
    • Despite not using the alphabet motif, Next and Try still have their own forms of idiosyncratic episode naming - with Next, episodes 2-25 all have each episode title beginning with the last kana of the previous episode's, and with Try, the first and last kana of each episode title form the Iroha.
    • Additionally, multi-part episodes use "verse (number)" instead of "part (number)".
  • Sgt. Frog (the anime version, specifically) uses the format of "[Character(s) who the episode is centered on], [Episode theme], de-arimasu".
    • Additionally, the English dub titles would always be parodies of or have references to popular phrases, songs, movies, TV shows, and video games.
  • Soul Eater anime episode titles have two parts: a regular title, followed by a sub-title, which is always asked as a question i.e. "I Am the Star! The Big Man Is Showing Up Here?" Meanwhile, the manga names some consecutive chapters based on which events or characters are featured, like "Remedial Lessons", "The Demon Sword Ragnarok", "Uncanny Sword", and more, though there're some exceptions.
  • Squid Girl chapters are all questions or requests like "May I Invade You?" or "Aren't you burnt?". The reason being that in Japanese all the chapter titles end in "naika", with 'ika' in katakana. Ika means squid, and the main character is basically a squid-girl, so......
  • The English titles of Space☆Dandy end with the word "baby".
  • The anime adaptation of Spice and Wolf's names all of its episodes "Wolf and [X]" with the rest of the title referring to one or more elements within the episode (e.g. "Wolf and Best Clothes" is about Holo and Lawerence looking for clothes for Holo so she won't have to steal Lawerence's).
  • Splatoon: Squid Kids Comedy Show: Each series of gags are given a title in the format of “X Time” or “Time to X”
  • The episode titles of The Story of Saiunkoku are all common proverbs. During the first season, someone always Title Dropped the proverb in dialogue, though the practice was mostly abandoned for the second season (probably because of how forced some of the Title Drops were).

     T 
  • Tenchi Universe uses "No Need for..." ("____ Muyo!" in Japanese) as its episode titles, usually followed by a noun relating to the plot of the episode and an exclamation point. For instance, "No Need for Swimsuits!" was the episode focusing on the group's trip to a beach-like planet and the girls' subsequent entry into a bikini contest. This is significant because "Muyo" from the title of the OVA, Tenchi Muyo (and part of all the series' Japanese titles), literally means "No Need For" - in other words, "No Need for Tenchi". (Among several other meanings.)
    • Similarly, the original Japanese titles for Tenchi in Tokyo take on the form of haiku, which wasn't carried over in the English version.
  • Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann uses a line of dialog from each episode as it's title. Each Story Arc uses a different character's dialog — first Kamina, then Nia, then Rossiu, and ultimately Simon. The episode titles are also written in a font appropriate to their speaker (Kamina and Simon's titles are in a graffiti style, Nia's are extremely cutesy, and Rossiu's are angular and futuristic.)
  • In Tiger & Bunny, the title of every episode except the last one is an English-language proverb or common English phrase.
  • Time Stop Hero: Fitting for a story about Time Stands Still, each chapter goes "[Word] and Stop". For example, the first three chapters are "Shift and Stop", "Search and Stop", and "Disarm and Stop".
  • Tokyo Mew Mew's episode titles all end in "nya~!" (Japanese onomatopoeia for a cat's meow.)
  • 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~".
  • The Japanese episodes of Transformers: Armada were all in the form "Word in Kanji (Other Word in Hiragana) - title of the English version, which is also different".
  • A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow: Chapter titles have the following three words or phrases: the character's full name, a negative verb (e.g. "Won't," "Can't," "Doesn't"), and a description of a certain action. For example, the first chapter is titled, "Komatsu Amano Isn't Sad," while the second is "Koyuki Honami Isn't Happy." Also, they're called "tanks" (as in fish tanks) instead of "chapters."

     U 
  • Umineko: When They Cry numbers each episode "episode x-y." This presumably was fine in the visual novels, but in the anime, this gets a little confusing; if someone says, for example, "Episode 2," are they referring to the second 23-minute episode, or the second arc?
    • Alongside this, each episode's name is a reference to chess, with the episodes that mark the ending of a particular "arc" named after types of checkmates.
    • Regarding the visual novels, every new release is titled "_____ of the Golden Witch" (Legend, Turn, Banquet, Alliance, End, Dawn, Requiem and Twilight).
  • Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out!: In the manga, all chapter names begin with "Kouhai and [...]" ("Kouhai" referring to Hana, whose Senpai/Kouhai relationship with Shinichi is the whole premise of the series). For the anime, all episodes have the verb "want" in their title. (i.e: "The Master Wants a Glimpse", "I Want to Meddle in My Friend's Business!", etc.)

     W 
  • In Weiß Kreuz, episode titles begin with a single Gratuitous German word. Weiss Kreuz Gluhen, meanwhile, uses the titles of the Weiss's previously released Image Songs as episode titles.
  • Every episode of Welcome to the NHK (and every chapter of the manga) is titled "Welcome to the _______!", which leads to such strange constructions as "Welcome to the Lolita!" and "Welcome to the no hope!"
    • The dub titles did away with the word 'the' when it seemed more appropriate, which made those titles just a little less awkward.
  • For the anime adaptation of When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace each episode title consists of 2 kanji and their reading as 9 katakana characters.
  • 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.

     Y 
  • The So Bad, It's Good show Yoake Mae Yori Ruriiro Na Crescent Love started every episode with "The Princess": ex. "The Princess is here for a homestay?". The final episode was simply entitled "The Princess and...".
  • Many Yo-kai Watch episodes follow a title pattern, though it depends on the character(s) who is in the main role and what they do in the episode. Most episodes that feature Nate dealing with the problems caused by Yo-Kai and trying to earn their medalion are titled "Yo-Kai [insert name]". The episodes featuring Manjimutt's life in prison and his attempts to escape from it follow the "Manjimutt: The Great Dog Escape: Episode [insert number]" pattern. Many of the Komasan shorts also follow a pattern, depending on what job he has at the moment.
  • Yotsuba&! gets its unusual name from its chapter naming format, where each chapter is named "Yotsuba & (whatever)," with the latter part being something relevant to the chapter's plot. For example, the first chapter, where Yotsuba and her dad move into their new home, is "Yotsuba & Moving." The sole exception is Chapter 14, which is focused on Yotsuba's neighbor Asagi and her family; thus, it has the name "Asagi's Gifts."
  • Yuri is My Job! has each chapter as "Shift #". Extra chapters are usually titled, "(Activity) is (Character Name)'s Job!"

     Z 
  • Every chapter in the manga Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead and every episode of its anime adaptation is titled "[X] of the Dead". This even extends to the anime's opening and ending themes, titled "Song of the Dead" and "Happiness of the Dead", respectively.
  • Zombieland Saga fits in the word "Saga" into its titles (i.e. "Good Morning, Saga")

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