So, let's say you're watching a movie. As you get introduced to the characters, you might expect the title card to show up soon. However, several minutes pass without it. You wonder briefly what's taking so long, but then decide to just enjoy the film. Once the characters have completed their journey and the movie ends... the title card finally shows up.
What took so long? The answer can differ depending on the story. Maybe the title refers to something the protagonist spent the entire plot learning. Maybe it refers to something the character becomes by the time the story ends. Maybe the title contains a spoiler. Then again, maybe it just felt unique.
Contrast The Teaser, where the title takes a few minutes to appear, but still does so before the conclusion. See Title-Only Opening when the opening credits consist of only the title. If a work's title appears at both the beginning and the end, it belongs in Book Ends. If the title does not appear at all, see Title, Please!.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- The title to Episode 8 of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann does this, as not only does it reference the most pivotal moment of the entire series, it is also the last words of one of the main characters. In Japanese, it's Abayo, dachiko, translated, it means "See ya, buddy(s)".
- Puella Magi Madoka Magica:
- Episode 10 of Puella Magi Madoka Magica. The opening is shown at the end of this particular episode and doubles up as the credits screen. Fitting, since the entire episode focused on what happened to Homura before the current timeline.
- Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story: Played straight with an Episode Title Card just before the end credits. For episodes 9 and 13, the title card appears after the credits.
- The Ouran High School Host Club episode about Kaoru and Hikaru meeting Tamaki for the first time, "The Door the Twins Opened", saves its title card for the closing scene, after the twins open the door to the Host Club's room.
- The first original OVA for Ai no Kusabi shows the title right before the end credits roll.
- Episode titles for Wolf's Rain appear at the end. (This is used to poignant effect in Gunshot of Remorse.)
- Bleach chapter 416 had the title "Deicide 18: [The End]"...at the end of the chapter, when Ichigo finally emerged out of Dangai Precipice World, and after Gin's defeat by Aizen.
- Kubo did it again at the tail end of the Fullbringer arc - the standard "Bleach - Tite Kubo" tag Jump manga have in the panel gutters is there, but the title card "Bleach 459: Death and Strawberry 2" doesn't appear until the second to last page, right before Ichigo gets his shinigami powers back in full.
- Chapter 52 of Kuroko's Basketball had this. It can be considered to be a Spoiler Title, but the spoiler is not about the chapter itself, but about what the events of the chapter would lead to, since in that chapter they lose the championship, but the title is "A new challenge", giving some hope for the next competition.
- The Little Busters! anime has the episode titles displayed as the beginning of the closing credits.
- Episode 14 of the Gungrave animation. While the audience knows who is Doomed by Canon, the episode stays low key up until the violent murder of Brandon Heat, and slams the Wham Episode home by cutting to the black title card: Die.
- Done twice in I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying. The first time was done for emotional impact in episode 11 "One Person Had Survived On Her Own", which is a Flashback Nightmare to before Kaoru met Hajime. The second time was for spoiler purposes in episode 13, "Me, Her, and Another."
- Bodacious Space Pirates: Endings of anime series episodes prevalently begin on a black screen, with music playing and episode number then name appearing offset towards lower-right, followed by part of the credits up to the cast part, all in text with strong neon-pink color accents. From "cast" part onwards, credits run along with pictures or footage, and are a tamer black and white text.
- Episode titles for Macross Delta appear at the end, right before the credits.
- Chapter 39 of My Hero Academia is the climax of the battle between Midoriya and Todoroki, during all of which Midoriya has been trying to get Todoroki to overcome his trauma and use his full power. The chapter ends with Todoroki finally accepting his fire powers as his own, along with the title of the chapter Shoto Todoroki: Origin.
- Episode 78 of the anime ends with the title, "Bright Future," in the lower left-hand corner of the screen, after a Title Drop made by Sir Nighteye, as his last words.
- Episode 88 of the anime, the last episode of the fourth season, which involves Endeavor truly establishing himself as the #1 Hero by defeating the High-End Nomu, closes on the title, "His Start."
- Chapter 285 of the manga ends with Bakugo Taking the Bullet for Midoirya, and ends with the title, "Katsuki Bakugo Rising."
- Chapter 300, "The Hellish Todoroki Family, Part 2" appears at the end, when the rest of Endeavor's family, including Rei, who was unable to face him until now, comes to his room to talk about Toya.
- Chapter 306, "The Final Act Begins," appears at the end, when Midoriya has left U.A. to protect his classmates from the villains that are after One For All.
- Chapter 386 has its chapter number appear on the penultimate page, and its title "I Am Here" on the next and final one, at the same time as All Might gives a Title Drop after pulling a Big Damn Heroes.
- Chapter 132 of My Monster Secret. After the horrible revelation that in the future Shiho will be married to Shimada, she ends the chapter by shouting "Let's change the future!", which is also the title for the chapter.
- Most of the Side:Despair episodes of Danganronpa 3 do this, treating them like Spoiler Titles. Some of them appear right before the credits; others immediately afterward. One exception is episode 4, Komaeda's spotlight episode; in this case, the title's revealed after the first scene, when he resolves to find a way to stop the practical exams.
- Kaguya-sama: Love Is War:
- Combined with Title Drop in chapter 45 (I Can't Hear The Fireworks, Part 2) when Kaguya mentions how loud her heart is beating after everything Shirogane did to get her to a fireworks festival. The anime also did this for it's adaptation of chapter 44.note
- Chapter 59 (The 67th Student Council) ends this way, with a final shot of the Student Council room after Shirogane's first term as president comes to an end.
- The anime used this in its adaptation of Chapter 68 (I Want to Make Miko Iino Smile), with Miko having finally earned the respect of her peers.
- Chapter 187 (Ai Hayasaka and Kaguya Shinomiya's Friends) does this to mark the end of the class trip arc and the beginning of Hayasaka and Kaguya's new dynamic as friends.
- Episode titles for Your Lie in April only show right before the closing credits. The one exception is the final episode that both inverts this by having it right after the opening credits and plays it straight with the work's title as the one that precedes the closing credits.
- The title of the last episode of Revolutionary Girl Utena only appears after the end credits have finished rolling and a final scene plays:
Utena: Listen, if you ever have a problem, come to me first. I want us to be friends like that. And someday, together...
Anthy: Someday together...?
Episode Title: Someday, Together, We'll Shine - The episodic title cards in given are shown just before the end credits. As each episode is named after a song, the title card usually relates to the themes of the episode preceding it. For one example, episode 10 ends with a Love Confession, followed by the title card for "Wonderwall".
- In Bloom Into You, the last page of the last chapter is the title page for the chapter, as well as one of the two color pages.
- In Fly Me to the Moon, Chapter 99 ends with Nasa and Tsukasa discussing Nasa's offer to marry Tsukasa, a discussion that concludes with Tsukasa thanking Nasa for believing her. It ends with the title, "Thank You."
- Fullmetal Alchemist: Episode 45 concludes with the title card, "The Promised Day," after a message warning about the day in question makes its rounds among the protagonists.
- The anime adaptation of Super Cub does this sometimes.
- Episode 7 ends with the title card, as Koguma uses the phrase in the title to describe Shii.
- Episode 12 also ends with the title as Koguma talks about how life changed after she got her Super Cub.
- A slight variant happens in the first episode of Saikano where the title ("She, the Ultimate Weapon" in full) only appears near the end of the episode right after Shuji sees his girlfriend Chise in the form of the titular cyborg for the first time; the episode continues for about another 30 seconds as she reverts to her human form and he embraces her in shock only to realise that her heart isn't beating, before cutting to the ending credits. If you didn't actually know what the series was called before you started watching, this ending provided quite a legitimately shocking twist.
- Our Yuri Started With Me Getting Rejected in a Dream: Chapter 36, which ends with Tsukushi and Hinoka getting together ends with a Spoiler Title: "The Couple That Started with Getting Rejected in a Dream."
Asian Animation
- The titles for each season of Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf do appear in the openings, but it's also common for the titles to be prominently displayed after the seasons' end credits.
- Tik Tak Tail does this within the episodes themselves, having Tak be squashed by the series logo at the end of each episode.
Comic Books
- 100 Bullets: The series did a few, such as issue #75's "Amorality Play".
- Animal Man: Every issue of the miniseries The Last Days Of Animal Man waits until the last page to give the story's title.
- Archie Comics: Six-pages story, "A Winner Never Quits...A Quitter Never Wins," ended with its moral as the title, which was saved for the last panel. Or as they put it in their own early-70's faux-hip terms, "We're gonna lay it on you at the end of this yarn.
- Atomic Robo: The comic "Why Atomic Robo hates Dr. Dinosaur
".
- Batgirl: The early issues of the Batgirl (2000) series sort of combined this with No Title. In order to emphasize the minimalistic nature of the stories and their protagonist, writer Kelley Puckett would often stick the credits in the very last panel of each comic, and provide no title. Guest writers, such as Chuck Dixon, often broke the trend.
- Black Panther: Christopher Priest's Black Panther (1998) storyline "Seduction of the Innocent" does this at the end of every part.
- Most of Brad Meltzer's comics feature this, and they're usually just taken from lines in the issue.
- Captain America: The comic detailing The Death of Captain America, "The Death of the Dream", saved its title for the closing.
- Deadpool: The series has some stories, including the ones below, that don't show their titles until the end:
- In the last issue of Gail Simone's Healing Factor storyline, the chapter number and title appeared at the end of the story, as well as some credits and a dedication to the readers.
- In a story where his eardrums get destroyed by an explosion, and then he ends up fighting magical mimes, there are no words at all till the last page, and the punny title, Silent But Deadly, is the very last thing of all.
- The Elementals: A girl with a crush on Tommy runs away from home. He rescues her. The final panel shows them dancing together at her prom, and since we see the title is "My Little Runaway", you can't help but hear the Del Shannon song.
- Exiles: Issue #83, "It's Your Funeral".
- Green Lantern: Every issue of the John Stewart-centric comic Green Lantern: Mosaic had the story title on the last page.
- Hellblazer: The infamous story Warren Ellis wrote about the Columbine shootings that was initially pulled by DC Comics saved its title for the last page because it was the last thing one of the shooter's victims said to him: "Shoot."
- The Incredible Hulk: Immortal Hulk does this in every issue, occasionally using it for a punchline. The issue where the Fantastic Four show up to fight Hulk on the last pages is titled, So Here's The Thing.
- Spider-Man:
- Most issues being with the title on the first page, but Marvel had been teasing the death of one of Spidey's main character for months when page 1 of The Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #121 told the audience they'd have to wait until the last panel to learn that issue's title: "The Night Gwen Stacy Died"
- Peter David's The Death of Jean DeWolff did this as well.
- Superman: There was a storyline that went by the title Superman Super League, up until the end of the first issue when Superman said "I'm dying." Then the true title was revealed: The Final Days of Superman.
Fan Works
- The Reaping of Hatsune Miku: In keeping with the source material, each chapter is given its name at the end, with the chapter-title system of Archive of Our Own instead being used to name the timeframe of each chapter (The 1st Day, etc).
- A fanfic kind in the The Mummy fic Fairy Tales and Hokum. There's a couple of Title Drops, but the last line of the story is "After all, he was particularly well placed to know that you can only go so far on fairy tales and hokum alone."
- Smash King: Episode 22, "The Ruby-Eyed Draco" doesn't have its normal intro sequence and titlecard appear at the beginning, eschewing it for a Batman Cold Open. The Episode's title doesn't appear until the end, following Lizardon's Mega Evolution into Mega Charizard X. The Episode featured a Shiny matriarch Charizard who had a pair of ruby eyes, like the title suggests, but what the title refers to is Liz's own transformation, where she has her own pair of red eyes.
Films — Animation
In General:
- A common trend involves "presents" cards for the studios popping up at the beginning while leaving the films' actual title cards at the end. Examples include The Emoji Movie, Ferdinand and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
- Another common trend, mostly in adaptations, involves part of the title being shown at the beginning while showing the full title at the end. Examples include The Angry Birds Movie, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, and The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
Movies:
- The title of Big Hero 6 is the last thing to appear before the credits, following a shot of the team jumping towards the screen and Hiro narrating, "Who are we?"
- Epic (2013): The title card doesn't appear until the very end, making the movie the world's longest cold open.
- The title of Happy Heroes: The Stones reappears before the last scene in the film after having appeared at the beginning of the film, as it's a loop back to the opening of the film, the Supermen having used time travel.
- The title card for How to Train Your Dragon is the LAST shot of the movie before the credits roll. The tradition is kept alive for both How to Train Your Dragon 2 and How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World.
- The LEGO Movie and its spin-offs The LEGO Batman Movie and The LEGO Ninjago Movie build their title cards a few minutes into the end credits.
- My Little Pony: A New Generation does not have its title until the very end of the film, thus being the first My Little Pony movie in the franchise to do so.
- Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: Dunk for Future: As with the Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf TV series, the logo appears at the beginning and the end of the movie.
- Soul does not have its title until after the final shot fades out, thus being the first Pixar movie to do so.
- Storks doesn't display its title until before the end credits.
- The Super Mario Bros. Movie: The very last thing to appear before the end credits is the film's own title, just after the final scene of Mario and Luigi entering a warp pipe. This also pays homage to the 1993 live-action film which ended the same way.
- Tangled Ever After does not display its title until after Eugene and Rapunzel are declared husband and wife, and Maximus and Pascal lose the wedding cake.
- UglyDolls has its title shown at the beginning and end.
Films — Live-Action
- With the move away from films having opening credits sequences, this trope has become increasingly common in cinema in the 21st century.
- A Fistful of Dynamite. In the end the Italian title of the film, Giù la testa ("Down with the Head") is shown. It can be seen as the answer to the main hero's last words, which are "What do I do now?".
- A Wrinkle in Time has the title appear during the closing credits.
- The Amazing Spider-Man 2 focuses on the symbol on Spider-Man's back directly after the prologue, yet the title appears over the symbol only at the beginning of the end credits.
- Apocalypse Now has its title and the opening credits moved at the end.
- Arrival's title only appears at the start of the end credits.
- Avatar's title appears at the very end of the film, after Jake's subconscious is permanently transferred into his Na'vi avatar. The sequel Avatar: The Way of Water does this as well.
- Black Adam (2022): The film title appears at the end of the film, following up on the final scene where Teth-Adam (as he is known throughout the film) decides to rename himself for the new era.
- The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, which also includes shots of the gold mockingjay pin transforming into the three book/film logos.
- Cats opens without any opening credits and the film's title is stated just before the end credits roll.
- Christine, against a black background and establishing a suitably melancholy mood, as the film ends with Christine Chubbuck killing herself.
- Cinderella's title didn't appear until the very end of the film, before the credits scroll up.
- Contact likewise has the title card and the rest of the opening credits immediately preceding the closing ones.
- The 2006 film adaptation of Dreamgirls starts immediately without any opening titles whatsoever, causing the title to appear during the end credits.
- Edge of Tomorrow only has its title appear a few times during the end credits.
- Everything Everywhere All at Once. The title segments are spread throughout the movie as chapter titles, but the full title isn't shown until the ending.
- The title card for 2014 film Exists appeared before the end credits.
- Fantastic Four (2015): The film title appears at the final scene where the heroes try to decide on a team name.
- The card for Firehouse Dog appeared during the end credits.
- Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) has its title appear right before its Creative Closing Credits.
- Hairspray: Title appears at the beginning and end.
- Hoffa didn't have any credits, not even the name of the film, until the end.
- In Hot Fuzz, the title card does not appear until the very end of the film. This can be backed up by the DVD Commentary.
- Into the Woods does not have its title appear until the end before the Video Credits.
- John Wick: Chapter 4 uses this trope at the end, seguing into its Creative Closing Credits afterwards.
- The title of The Last Mimzy appears at the very end after Teacher Lena finishes the story of the attempt.
- Lion saves the meaning of its title for the very end, explaining that after the main character Saroo reunited with his mother, he learned his named was actually pronounced "Sheru", which means lion.
- Maleficent's movie title is the last thing to appear before the credits.
- Most Marvel Cinematic Universe movies from 2011's Thor onwards save their title cards for the end credits, the only exceptions being The Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy films, Thor: Ragnarok, and Black Widow.
- Les Misérables (2012) has no opening credits, causing the title card to show up during the end credits instead.
- Nachalo (Начало) - a Soviet film. It's actually playing with The End trope, as "Nachalo" means "beginning" in Russian and the film deals with the beginning of a movie star career.
- Nobody Sleeps in the Woods Tonight II: The title against a black screen cuts in at the end, cutting away from a shot of Adas getting fluids extracted from his head.
- Christopher Nolan films:
- Inception doesn't have a title card until the end credits. Where it is displayed three separate times. Of course, given the events of the film, this is probably on purpose.
- Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises also don't show their titles until the end (though they do each start with a symbolic Batman symbol in place of a title card).
- May be Fridge Brilliance when you realize that he put the title card at the beginning of Memento, a film where the events are shown in backward chronological order.
- He also did this for Insomnia, but that gets a pass due to being a remake.
- Once Upon a Time in the West has a very long, drawn-out opening scene in which essentially every possible credit is shown except for the title, which shows up when the end credits begin. Hailing from 1968, this is one of the oldest examples of this trope.
- The Passion of the Christ: Only a Bible verse is at the opening; all other credits are saved for the end of the film.
- Parental Guidance: The title card appeared during the end titles.
- A Prophet does this—probably because the lead character emerges as a metaphorical "prophet" fully only by the end of the film.
- A Michael Mann example happens in Public Enemies.
- While Quantum of Solace has the film series' traditional opening credits and theme song, an ending title still appears before the credit roll, even making use of the series' trademark Bond Gun Barrel.
- Unlike the the first and third movies, RoboCop 2's title isn't shown until the end credits.
- Rurouni Kenshin: The Final and Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning do this, in contrast to the previous Rurouni Kenshin trilogy, which always had their titles at the start.
- A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004) is a strange example: It does begin with a credits sequence... for a fake movie called "The Littlest Elf". The film's proper title doesn't appear until the end.
- The title for TRON: Legacy does not appear until during the credits. While a title does appear at the beginning, it only says TRON.
- Wanted: Though it may be argued that the film title shows up (as part of a newspaper headline) about an hour into the film, making it one heck of a teaser.
- Wes Craven's New Nightmare doesn't display its title until a few minutes into the closing credits, somewhat fitting for its status as a Real-World Episode.
- Wonder Woman: The title of the film only appears at the end of the main set of credits.
Live-Action TV
- Babylon 5: The Grand Finale "Sleeping in Light" has no opening credits, and closes on the title card and credits.
- Doctor Who:
- "Sleep No More" has a Special Edition Title-Only Opening, thus the episode name doesn't appear until after the "Next Time" trailer for the following episode.
- "The Woman Who Fell to Earth" and "Resolution" have the title card at the beginning of the credits. There's no opening credits.
- The final episode of Ultraman Orb, has the title shown before the ending credit of the show.
Music
- All of the non-instrumental songs on American Football's first album end with a Title Drop.
- Claude Debussy's Preludes pour piano have highly evocative and poetical titles. They are written after each piece, specifically to void influencing the musician with preconceptions and instead let them focus on the actual, very subtle sound effects.
- The Title Drop for George Michael's "One More Try" is the last line of a six minute song.
- Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" saves the Title Drop until the very end.
Video Games
- ANNO: Mutationem: In the original release, the game had The Stinger following the credits that closed out with a shot of the main title. Following the addition of the extended ending update, this became a Deleted Scene.
- The Bridge (2013)'s title is not displayed until after the ending sequence.
- Deltarune: Each chapter ends with the game's title.
- Doom (2016) ends with this, as well as begins with a Cold Opening.
- The title card for The World That Never Was in Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] does not appear for Riku until after he defeats the Anti-Black Cloak and Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, and just before the final boss marathon.
- School Days does this in both the original visual novel and the anime. Justified in the VN; the chapters' contents change drastically depending on player choices, so even the game doesn't know what to call the episode until it's over.
- The ending for Tomb Raider (2013) displays not only the game's name, but emphasizes its themes by showing the tagline, "A Survivor is Born".
- The World Ends with You does this with its day-by-day chapter titles, showing you the title of the chapter once a day ends. There's a reason for this.
Web Animation
- Lobo (Webseries): Most of the episodes end with the show's title.
Web Comics
- Strip titles for The Non-Adventures of Wonderella are at the bottom of the page (though also in the URL).
Web Video
- Defunctland: "The Awful Wiggles Dark Ride" ends with a Wiggles-themed version of the Decfunctland logo... followed by Kevin admitting the title card didn't show up at the beginning because he couldn't figure out a place to insert it that fit in with the video's pacing.
Western Animation
- On Disney Junior airings, every episode of Bluey starting with the Season 2 ones ends with the show's title appearing before the credits roll.
- Camp Lakebottom: The first episode's title isn't revealed until the end. It's "Escape from Camp Lakebottom".
- The Pixar Short Day & Night does not have its title displayed until the ending, after Day and Night have become friends.
- Nearly every episode of The Ghost and Molly McGee ends on a hard cut to the show's title (usually accompanied by the final line of the theme tune). There are a few times they subvert this:
- "Out of House and Home" interrupts it to reveal that the family focusing on their medical bills caused them to neglect paying their mortgage, rendering them homeless after their house is repossessed by the bank and setting up the plot of the companion segment; the episode instead ends on a Smash to Black a minute later.
- "The New (Para)Normal" seemingly ends with the usual title card before the Chen family's ghost alarm starts going off, letting them know that Brighton is indeed a paranormal hotspot. The episode then ends on the title card for their ghost hunting web series, Ghost Chaser Chens.
- "Davenport's On Demand" follows the title card with a brief scene where the CEO of a MegaCorp learns about Brighton's economic situation and starts planning to open a new location in the small town.
- Infinity Train: The first episode of Book Four: Duet does this, appearing at the end of the episode after that season's protagonists are placed in their pods and shot off to a distant part of the train.
- Kid Cosmic: The opening intro wraps up every episode. Some episodes only display the title card at the end of the episode.
- The BBC kid's show Kerwhizz ("The quiz with added whizz") has a "K" logo and a theme song which includes the title at the start, and it's referred to several times per show, but the title only appears on-screen during the closing credits.
- The first episode of The Owl House does this with the show's title card.
- The Grand Finale of Regular Show does this by way of having the series title appear at the end of the episode on a VHS tape being watched by Pops, who Died Happily Ever After and is now watching over the characters from the afterlife.
- Star Wars:
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars: The show's seventh and final season, coming out several years after the previous season, dispenses with its previous Title, Please! tactic and copies the two below-mentioned follow-up series by placing the titles early in the credits.
- Star Wars Rebels shows the card with the episode title at the beginning of the closing credits.
- Star Wars Resistance, made by many of the same people as Rebels, puts its episode title cards in the same place.
Close on Title.
