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So you finally made it to the end of the level. Now to fight the boss... wait, where is he? This room is empt—whoa! Suddenly the boss jumps out from nowhere, laughing evilly or snarling menacingly. That's when you see the Boss Subtitles, usually found in the following format:

Descriptive Sentence Boss Name

If not that, then:

Boss Name Followup Description

That's pretty much it. Found in most 3D Console RPGs, as well as in certain anime and manga (where it's a handy way to introduce new characters), it has been parodied from time to time. Despite the name, this is not limited to video game bosses.

See Dramatis Personae.

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Examples

Anime and Manga

• Yu Yu Hakusho did this even with special attacks. Practically every new character introduced was given a name in this fashion, even Yusuke himself.
• The Law Of Ueki does this with opponents, detailing their powers, number of talents, and miscellaneous information such as hobbies and such.
• Samurai Girl Real Bout High School did this in the final volume (descriptive sentences and everything) as a sendoff to all the characters, handily inverting the common usage of this trope.
• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann applies this to both the Quirky Miniboss Squad as well as its leader and whenever the heroes combine into a new and bigger kind of Humongous Mecha, the name of the new form is displayed onscreen.
• One Piece. Tends to be a necessity when characters are being introduced in rapid succession, and is almost always used when a major character is introduced (in the format of Title - Name - Bounty).
• The early episodes of the fifth season of Digimon did this with newly-encountered Mons instead of the usual Digimon Analyzer scene. Tradition prevailed and the analyzer scenes were back by episode eight or so.
• Eyeshield21. Practically every new character introduced.
• Vampire Princess Miyu TV series. Every single episode.
• Great Teacher Onizuka slipped in and out of this depending on how many new characters were being introduced. The manga also had more detailed versions for primary antagonists like Principal Uchiyamada and Teshigawara.
• All characters in Bobobobo Bobobo receive a captioned name when they first appear, no matter how irrelevant they are to the plot. One character in the American dub lampshades this. "Get those Japanese words off of me!"
• Mahou Sensei Negima occasionally made use of this trope. It's even lampshaded at one point when Misora is trying to maintain a secret identity... a task which might've been easier if a caption displaying her full name and even her seat number hadn't shown up. An annoyed Misora immediately asks what it's doing there and tries to shoo it away.
• Tentai Senshi Sunred, being a parody of Sentai shows, has these for everybody — hero, villain and human alike. They're accurate, but goofy considering the creatures they're describing are just going about their daily lives.
• The Prince of Tennis manga does this whenever new players are shown. Not that it helps, considering there's Loads And Loads Of Characters.
• Rosario To Vampire has these for new species of monster.
• The first episode of Hayate The Combat Butler's second season uses these to get the audience up to speed with the rather large cast, all of whom appear.
• Lampshaded in Cromartie High School, where all the main characters and bosses are introduced with subtitles in every single segment.
• New characters (i.e., potential victims and suspects) get introduced this way on Case Closed.

Comic Books

• Happens in Scott Pilgrim, with "bosses" like The Evil League of Ramona's Ex-Boyfriends, since the book's plot is halfway between a romance manga and an old-school Role Playing Game.
  • Plus a fighting game. And a comedy. And pure awesome.

Film

• This apparently is (or perhaps used to be) fairly common in Japanese films. This troper has actually seen it in a broadcast of The World Is Not Enough on Japanese TV, with the character names and actors displayed with each character's first appearance.
• In The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, the three titular characters are introduced by this as well as a freeze frame, and Leitmotif
  • And at the end, too.
• Done in the opening scenes of Zoolander with the main characters. Played with later on when David Bowie (playing himself) also gets a subtitle despite being little more than a cameo.
• Hugo Stiglitz from Inglourious Basterds randomly gets some, just to show how Badass he is.
  • Later, some important Nazi figures are pointed out, but in a much more subdued way.

Live Action TV

• Until Boukenger, Super Sentai did this for every villain, from Monster Of The Week up to Big Bad. The same goes for the heroes' and villains' Humongous Mecha.
• Burn Notice often makes use of this, usually switching to a second, humorous description about a second later.

New Media

• Red Vs Blue does this when the character Doc is introduced.
  • Church even subtly lampshades it.
  • They did this in the trailer for Rv B, so it would appear that they didn't want to leave Doc out (the only soldier not to make an appearance in the trailer).

Video Games

• Ocarina of Time (the picture is taken from a Fan Game tribute) is possibly the Trope Codifier. Every 3D Legend Of Zelda game except The Wind Waker has used it. Sometimes, a common adjective appears in each of the standard bosses' descriptions. In Majora's Mask, it is "masked". In Twilight Princess it is "twilit".
  • Arguably subverted to great effect right at the end of Ocarina of Time when the final boss rears up in front of you and the bold letters plainly and simply state: GANON
    • Although this might be because describing him- "Dual-wielding Manbearpig" - would look silly.
    • Well, that, or it's a You Should Know This Already. Though King of Evil would be a pretty sick subtitle.
    • Actually, in the previous fight he was introduced as Great King of Evil: Ganondorf. For his One Winged Angel appearance any description was effectively redundant.
    • That didn't stop them from giving both Ganon and Ganondorf Boss Subtitles in Twilight Princess.
    • Pretty much a You Should Know This Already. Remember that in every dungeon, it'll be a surprise what exactly the boss will be (except for, you know, fire dungeons having fire bosses et cetera), if not the name, then at least the look. Ganon has been seen and talked about loads of times in the game, and stating his name is only a sort of "you know, after this it will finally be over".
• Played with in Banjo-Tooie with unusual bosses like "Giant Wobbly Inflatable Thing Mr. Patch" and "Visually-Impaired Welding Torch Weldar".
• Used in Sonic Adventure 2 and the DS Sonic games, as well as Sonic The Hedgehog on Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 (where it's particularly annoying because you have to wait for about ten seconds for the Boss Subtitle to pop up... and then another ten seconds to start fighting).
  • The two versions of Sonic Unleashed do it differently: The HD version by Sonic Team merely shows the bosses' names, all of them using the same font, while the Wii/PS2 version by Sonic Team and Dimps takes a cue from their DS Sonic games and read "Boss Battle: vs. [Boss]", using a different font for Sonic bosses and Werehog bosses.
• Seen with the bosses in Brave Fencer Musashi and its sequel Musashi: Samurai Legend.
• Dark Cloud aka Dark Chronicle also does this. Both games have stuff like "Divine Djinni Dran", "Ice queen La Saia", "eater of memories, Memo-Eater" or "Dark Ruler Emperor Griffon."
• Used to introduce every character (except Mr. Game & Watch) in the Subspace Emissary mode of Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
  • You'll notice the bad guys get a different sound effect for this than the good guys.
  • Oddly enough, it doesn't happen for most of the non-playable Subspace bosses, except Master Hand and Tabuu. Master Hand technically isn't even a boss in that mode.
  • While it's just in the menu, the stage locations in Melee can also count ("[in-game location]: [stage name]", such as "Planet Zebes: Brinstar", but with some terrible instances - "Mushroom: Kingdom" and "Hyrule: Temple").
  • When you've gotten the conditions to unlock a hidden character, their fight will be presaged with WARNING! CHALLENGER APPROACHING! (complete with silhouette)
• Likewise used for almost all characters in Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne.
• Done for party members in Final Fantasy VI, except it only shows the description. You get to name the characters yourself.
  • Similiarly, the DS remake of Final Fantasy IV does it for all party members the first time you meet them, while the boss encounters show the name of the boss at the beginning.
• Viewtiful Joe
• Wild ARMs 2, with a silhouette against a blood-red screen and an ominous intro theme to go with them.
• Beyond Good And Evil, too, since it's inspired by the Zelda series.
• Throughout one of the bonus mission pack missions in Guild Wars, which was a pastiche of kung-fu movies, every boss character is introduced in this way.
• Metal Gear Solid loves this to bits, following the 'Character Name' - 'Voice Actor' format. Main characters like Snake or Raiden even get big music stings to go with them. Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance parodied it with the more standard boss variation and 'The Monster From Another Dimension - Gurlugon'.
  • Holding a button when this occurs will display the character's motion-capture actor instead of the voice actor.
• Many racing games do this with each course.
• Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon makes good use of this. A personal favorite is "Wartime Kabuki Robot KASHIWAGI." The final boss is "The Fairy of Love and Dreams D'ETOILE."
  • From Goemon's Great Adventure there's "Ukulele Hawaiian GODS OF WIND AND THUNDER." What else would you expect from a series like Ganbare Goemon?
• Every normal stage in the Mega Man and Mega Man X series opens like this, with just the boss name. Later installments in the X series add a descriptive subtitle.
• Every boss and playable character in Touhou gets one of these. Characters fortunate to show up in more than one game even get a new subtitle for each appearance.
  • Some keep their old subtitle, though, through multiple installments, i.e. Reimu Hakurei's "Shrine Maiden of Paradise" title.
• Taito's widescreen shooter Darius (and its sequels) introduces the stage's boss with this: "WARNING! A HUGE BATTLESHIP (boss's name) IS APPROACHING FAST."
• The .hack videogames show special animations before you fight the eight phases, the first of which is Skeith: The Terror of Death.
• Before a boss appears in Gunstar Heroes, you're given a warning that names the boss and their attacks. A lot of them tend to have silly names and attacks, but that won't stop them from beating the crap out of you if you don't know what you're doing.
• Okami has Boss Scrolls, with a illustration of each enemy (including bosses) when fighting them for the first time along with their name in Japanese (regardless of whether the game is the English version), right when Boss Subtitles would normally occur.
  • It also has this for many characters when you first meet them.
• The MMORPG Mabinogi does this when you reach the boss of an instanced dungeon.
• When someone important shows up in Killer7, they get one of these. Even if they're scheduled to die in a few moments (take a bow, Toru Fukashima and Trevor Pearlharbor).
• The Warriors introduces each new gang with a quick shot of the gang and their tag
• Every installment in the House Of The Dead series does this with its bosses, having a name (Until Overkill, taken from Tarot cards.) and picture of the boss come up, with its weak points helpfully pointed out. Justified in the first two games as being a file collected at the beginning of the game, and even shown as opening the file or book to the relevant entry. In The House Of The Dead 4, James stores boss data in a sleek PDA.
• Fable II introduces new enemies using little cutscenes, going from standard "Bandits" when the hero is young and "Commandants" when things get tough.
• Every boss in From the Abyss. Most of them will also have a pre-fight taunt after the subtitles fade, the only exception being the penultimate boss, the Abyss Cocoon (which is a giant beating heart).
• The first Darkstalkers did this with each character and their monster template/inspiration (e.g. Anakaris — Mummy). The sequels didn't.
• Every boss encounter in Avalon Code.
• Ikaruga: Before encountering a stage end boss, a red warning is displayed on the screen stating "The big enemy is approaching at full throttle. According to the data, it is identified as [boss name]. NO REFUGE"
  • I Wanna Be The Guy does a parody of an Ikaruga boss fight with Mecha-Birdo, complete with the same warning screen and BGM.
• Thunder Force V and VI.
  • For Thunder Force V: "ALERT! The enemy is dead ahead! Area Guard Name: _____", and for the final boss: ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! ALERT!
• Radiant Silvergun has boss battle complete with message "Be attitude for gains:" followed by 3 tips which don't, for the most part, seem to make any sense.
  • 1. BE PRAYING 2. BE PRAYING 3. BE PRAYING
  • For shmups, the trope might as well be called the "Warning screen", though not all warnings give a title for the boss.
• The Yakuza games do this almost every time an important character is introduced, boss fight or otherwise. Of course, this being a series set in modern-day Japan, most of the subtitles are fairly mundane, which sort of makes it funnier.
• Borderlands. Even the heroes get one in the intro.
  • It's incredibly funny when it gets to the bosses though, like with this one:
    9 Toes. (Also, he has 3 balls)
    Sledge. PS. You aren't friends.
• Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2
• Not typical in World Of Warcraft, but happens sometimes. Mainly, Illidan Stormrage, "The Betrayer". Also, Kael'thas Sunstrider, "Lord of the Blood Elves" or Kil'jaeden "The Deceiver".

Webcomics

• Chapter 12 of Drowtales used this during a fight when over a dozen new characters were introduced.
• Spoofed like so many other things in Girly.

Western Animation

• Road Runner "Acceleratii incredibus" and Wile E. Coyote "Carnivorous vulgaris".
  • It's different every time... including one instance of the actual scientific names (and again in a special many years later.)

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