New Season, New Name

"Aqua United Patrol Squad 1 is not at all a stupid title for the new season of Aqua Teen Hunger Force which everybody knows and loves and why you gonna mess with SOMETHING THAT AIN'T BROKE?!"

— Anonymous Carler, promo for Whatever-the-Hell-Title They're Calling It This Season

A title change in an ongoing series, prompted by some plot event, a break in production or switching between publishers. Frequently, but not always, involves adding a new subtitle or suffix. Despite the name, does not have to occur at the start of a new season.

In some cases, producers will pass off an essentially new series as a renamed Retool of an existing series just to preserve its distribution channel. This was once common in American comic books due to a quirk of postal regulations. Publishing a new title required a new postal code for second-class mail subscriptions and, thus, a new postal fee as well. To avoid paying the fees, instead of just canceling one book and starting up another with issue #1, they would give the old series a title change... but not too much of a title change, so as to avoid the wrath of the Postal Service.

Common in anime because of the way Japanese television works. Japanese series don't traditionally have "seasons" the way American television does; they produce either a small, preplanned number of episodes in advance - usually some multiple of 13 - or they just keep going without a break, because if they didn't, they'd lose their time slot. If the creators of a show that has taken a break want to bring it back, they need to find a time slot and pitch it as if it were a brand new show, so they generally retitle it to reflect this. Sometimes what would be considered a "second season" in America is treated as a Numbered Sequel as though it were a film sequel, as in Genshiken 2 and The Big O 2. These are sometimes marketed as "seasons" for American release.

Can be an attempt to avert an Artifact Title.

For odd sequel titles, see Oddly Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo. See also Officially Shortened Title. Compare Sequel Series, which can oftentimes tie into this.

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Examples:

Anime and Manga

• The seasons of Sailor Moon were, in order, Sailor Moon, Sailor Moon R, Sailor Moon S, Sailor Moon SuperS, and Sailor Moon Sailor Stars. It is important to note that these actually mean something, or at least the last three do (Super [the form that Sailor Moon achieves], Supers [the others upgrading to this form], Stars [a reference to either the Sailor Starlights or the fact there are hundreds of Sailor Senshi in the universe]). The R in the second season title is widely debated by fans; popular candidates are "Romance" or "Return" (the latter of which would be a logical pick as this was the season in which Usagi must return to being Sailor Moon because of a new evil that has come to Earth), but there is no concrete Word of God to answer this one.
• Black Lagoon was renewed as Black Lagoon: The Second Barrage. Then the OVA series that continued it was Black Lagoon: Roberta's Blood Trail.
• The Trigun manga was renamed "Trigun Maximum" when it continued into another magazine. This naming was kept in the American version.
• The manga Gensoumaden Saiyuki became Saiyuki Reload when it switched magazines, and then the subtitle changed again to Gunlock.
• Higurashi: When They Cry is a prime example of this. The series became Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai in the second season. Then the first OVA was renamed Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei and the second OVA Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kira. A bit of a mouthful, isn't it? Also, each arc has a different name, which surely doesn't help relieve the confusion of new audiences. The sequel, Umineko: When They Cry is sometimes accompanied by the subtitle of "When They Cry 3", but there's hardly any relationship between Higurashi Kai and this theoretical third season. This is because the original visual novels are numbered that way, Higurashi (ep 1-4) is When They Cry 1, Higurashi Kai (5-8) is When They Cry 2, Umineko (1-4) is 3, and Umineko Chiru (5-8) is 4. There are so far no outright statements that they are linked but there are hints (especially the Bernkastel/Rika and Lambadelta/Takano thing) towards a connection and there are some theories that it will be a total of 4 series (When They Cry 5&6 and 7&8) because Higurashi contained 8 episodes and Umineko is now confirmed to be finished with episode 8.
• Hetalia: Axis Powers became Hetalia World Series in its third season. It was then retitled Hetalia: The Beautiful World for season 5 and Hetalia: World Twinkle for season 6.
• Dragon Ball:
  • Invoked with Dragon Ball Z. In addition to new production staff, Toei decided to give Dragon Ball a rebrand so that they could market it as a brand new show despite little change between the two at that point. As for the name, several options were considered by Toei that focused around new addition Gohan, but Toriyama settled on "Z", the last letter of the alphabet, as he was considering ending the story soon.^note This is considered deeply ironic today as Z wound up being twice as long as the portion that came before it, causing something of a Creator Breakdown. This happened to coincide with a notably ramp up in the drama and ki-based action that made the franchise explode in popularity, such that Z is effectively a brand in and of itself. As a result, 90% of the time people outside Japan will refer to the entire franchise as "DBZ" and not "Dragon Ball".
    • In the English translation of the manga, the Z addition was also added to any volumes that the Z anime took its material from (Raditz to Boo, essentially). Everywhere else in the world it's called Dragon Ball from start to finish.
  • Occured a second time with Dragon Ball GT, this time more justified given that it was going past the end of the manga and creating original storylines. In this case, GT stands for "Grand Tour" since the initial idea was a Dragon Ball Hunt IN SPACE! This would become an Artifact Title as the story would move on from that idea when the creators couldn't make it work and fell back on the traditional "Villain Arc" format.
  • Midquel Sequel Series Dragon Ball Super also has this, although like Z before it it's become something of a brand in and of itself thanks to being used for several movies. Unlike Z and GT, there's no real reason for the name.
• After The Original Series of Lyrical Nanoha, the following seasons were titled Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, and the concurrent manga-first fourth seasons Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid and Magical Record Lyrical Nanoha Force. There's also the spin-offs StrikerS Sound Stage X and ViVid Strike!, which are named such due to Nanoha herself being Put on a Bus.
• Hidamari Sketch has four seasons thus far and starts adding subtitles with the second; subtitles to date are "×365", "×Hoshimittsu" ("Three Stars"), and "×Honeycomb", with a pair of straight-to-DVD OVAs subtitled "×SP" ("Special").
• Slayers at 26 episodes a season, with later seasons named NEXT, TRY, Revolution and Evolution-R (the latter two being a typical 26-episode season split in two).
• Digimon Fusion, known as Digimon Xros Wars in Japan, unlike the preceding Digimon series, split itself into two seasons to reflect a change in the story arc; episode 31 marked the start of said second season, retitled "Digimon Xros Wars: The Evil Death Generals and the Seven Kingdoms". After that, the third season, which covers a new story arc, was called Digimon Xros Wars: The Young Hunters Who Leapt Through Time. In the original Japanese version, the nine series of Digimon are all distinctly separate series, not individual seasons of one overarching show (thought the second series is a direct sequel to the first), so they don't fall under this trope; in the US, the first five American series, were all dubbed as individual seasons of one show, but it was all called "Digimon: Digital Monsters" with no individual season names.
• K-On!'s second season has a title with a little difference: one additional exclamation point. ^noteK-On!!
• Wagnaria!! also adds exclamation points in the third season, now with three exclamation points!!!
• Yuri manga Strawberry Shake became Strawberry Shake Sweet when it changed magazines.
• The second season of Mahoromatic is Mahoromatic: Something More Beautiful.
• Season 2 of UFO Ultramaiden Valkyrie is titled UFO Princess Valkyrie: December's Nocturne.
• Rozen Maiden: Träumend, season 2 of Rozen Maiden. The prequel is named Rozen Maiden: Ouvertüre. Ouvertüre is explained, as it means opening, as in beginning. Träumend, which means dreaming, isn't much, though.
• The Pokémon anime changes its name when it adapts the plot from the latest games released at the time. In the original Japanese, this practice actually began in Generation III, while the dub began this practice earlier with the Generation II games, with changes for every 52 episode broadcast season.
  • In Japan there's the original Pocket Monsters for the first two generations of games, then the subtitle Advanced Generation for Generation III, Diamond & Pearl for Generation IV, Best Wishes! for Generation V, XY and XY & Z for Generation VI, and Sun and Moon for Generation VII. The series following Sun and Moon subverted this and forewent a subtitle entirely; as it was more of a "world tour" season and not solely about Generation VIII, the writers thought it would have been misleading to call the season Sword and Shield.
  • Pocket Monsters was dubbed as Pokémon for two seasons, then was subtitled with The Johto Journeys, Johto League Champions and finally Master Quest, one season each.
    • Later DVD releases of the Pokémon anime gave the first two seasons new subtitles: Pokémon: Indigo League and Pokémon: The Adventures In/On The Orange Islands, respectively.
  • Advanced Generation got subtitled Advanced, Advanced Challenge, Advanced Battle, and Battle Frontier in the dub.
  • Diamond & Pearl got subtitled as Diamond and Pearl, Diamond and Pearl Battle Dimension, Diamond and Pearl Galactic Battles, and Diamond and Pearl Sinnoh League Victors in the dub.
  • Best Wishes! got subtitled as Black and White, Black & White: Rival Destinies and Black & White: Adventures in Unova.
    • Even Japan started falling into this trap for the BW series, with Season 2, Season 2 Episode N, and Decolora Adventure (which in the dub, became Adventures in Unova and Beyond)
  • XY became The Series: XY, with the following season being known as The Series: XY - Kalos Quest, and the third season becoming The Series: XYZ, matching up the Japanese subtitle of that season XY & Z.
  • Sun and Moon followed the pattern set by XY, becoming The Series: Sun and Moon, The Series: Sun and Moon - Ultra Adventures, and The Series: Sun and Moon - Ultra Legends in the dub.
  • Pocket Monsters (2019) had the subtitle W (for "World"/"Double") in the Korean dub, while the English dub subtitled it Journeys - The Series, the second season becoming Master Journeys - The Series, and the third season Ultimate Journeys - The Series.
• Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex combined this with Colon Cancer: the second season is titled Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: Second Gig.
• The second season of The Familiar of Zero was Zero no Tsukaima: Futatsuki no Kishi; the third was Zero no Tsukaima: Princess no Rondo.
• Ojamajo Doremi had a new title for each subsequent season: Ojamajo Doremi #, Mo~tto Ojamajo Doremi and Ojamajo Doremi Dokkan! An OVA titled Ojamajo Doremi Naisho came out, but it's set during the third season.
• Code Geass became ''Code Geass R2" in its second season.
• Mobile Suit Gundam 00 became Gundam 00 Second Season.
• Ranma ½: Ranma 1/2 originally aired for only eighteen episodes before being cancelled by the network for poor ratings. A month later, the series was Un-Cancelled and redubbed Ranma 1/2 熱闘編 (Nettohen), and went on for a much more successful run. When Viz Media got a hold of the rights, they split up the episodes into North American-friendly season sets—seven in all—starting from Digital Dojo to Ranma Forever.
• A borderline example, but when Strike Witches got a second season, it was named Strike Witches 2, complete with a new logo.
• Super Robot Wars: Divine Wars became Super Robot Wars: The Inspector because the first season focused on the war against Divine Crusaders while in the second season a group of aliens called the Inspectors attacked. Neither group are the final bosses of the season though.
• The last few issues of 20th Century Boys are titled 21st Century Boys.
• The second season of Squid Girl is titled "Shinryaku!? Ika Musume". Notice the question mark?
• Shugo Chara!, which was followed by the even more excited "Shugo Chara!! Doki" and "Shugo Chara! Party!".
• Although the original Japanese run of Yu-Gi-Oh! kept the same title throughout, the English dub began adding a new subtitle to it with each new season starting with the third. Season 3 was known as "Enter the Shadow Realm", Season 4 was "Waking the Dragons", the first half of season 5 was "Grand Championship" and the second half of season 5 was titled "Dawn of the Duel."
  • The manga version went through something similar: while the Japanese release was all one series, Viz split up the North American release into three different series, with Yu-Gi-Oh covering the beginning through the Monster World arc, Yu-Gi-Oh Duelist covering Duelist Kingdom through Battle City, and Yu-Gi-Oh Millennium World covering the ending. This was mostly done to allow the series to be released more quickly by publishing the latter two parts simultaneously.
• The Genshiken anime is followed by Genshiken 2, adapting the last few volumes of the manga, which is simple enough. Then, just to complicate things, the manga and anime continue with Genshiken Nidaime in Japan, which is released in America as Genshiken Second Season. So for those keeping score, it goes Genshiken -> Genshiken 2 -> Genshiken Second Season.
• Cardfight!! Vanguard started adding subtitles for each season after the first. Season Two was Asia Circuit, Season Three was Link Joker, and Season Four was Legion Mate. All four are even listed separately on the official release on Cruncyroll.
• The second season of Coffin Princess Chaika has "Avenging Battle" added to the title.
• Darker Than Black: The Black Contractor became Darker Than Black: Gemini of the Meteor for its second season, and Darker Than Black: The Black Contractor Gaiden for the Interquel OVAs.
• Every new installment of the Bakemonogatari series is some form of the word monogatari ("Story") with some prefix attached to it (Bakemono = monster, ergo, Bakemonogatari = "Monster Story"). "Bakemonogatari" was just the first instance of the thematic title used to mark the starting point of the series (well, one of them, at least), so arguably, the umbrella title for the whole shebang is "Monogatari".
• Tamagotchi did this four times, all later on in the show. What's technically Season 7 of the series as a whole is the first season to be called Tamagotchi! Yume Kira Dream, and the following season continues on with this title; the 9th season changes the title again, this time to Tamagotchi! Miracle Friends; the 10th and 11th seasons are labeled GO-GO Tamagotchi!; and the 12th and final season is titled Tamagotchi! Tamatomo Daishu GO!.
• The second and third seasons of Dog Days were named Dog Days' and Dog Days''. The apostrophes are supposed to be pronounced as "Dash" and "Double Dash".
• The second season of Kaguya-sama: Love Is War is titled Kaguya-sama: Love is War? (Love is War is crossed out on the logo proper).
• Zombie Land Saga, following its unexpected success in 2018, was followed up by a second season titled Zombie Land Saga Revenge, which started in April 2021.
• BREAK THE BORDER dropped the subtitle rebirth of ECHOES when it resumed serialization on IMAZINE.World.

Asian Animation

• Boonie Bears: The seasons' names, starting from Season 2, are Boonie Bears or Bust, Forest Frenzy, Spring Into Action, Snow Daze, Sunsational Summer, Autumn Awesomeness, The Adventurers, The Adventurers 2, and Monster Plan.
• Doby & Disy has five seasons, which are individually titled Exploring Journey, Detective Kubi, Learning Chinese with Doby & Disy, Sing with Us, and Hello Dream.
• Flower Angel:
  • Season 2 doesn't really have a unique name, instead simply being called Flower Angel Season 2.
  • Seasons 3 and 4 are titled Flower Angel: Guardian Angel.
  • Season 5 onwards is titled something like Flower Angel: Four Seasons Flower Language.
• Each season of GG Bond has a different subtitle appended to it. Just to name a few examples, Season 1 is called Magic Jurassic, Season 2 is Martial Arts 2008, and Season 3 is Adventure in the Future.
• Every season of Happy Heroes beyond the first one has a special name appended to it, such as Season 2 being titled Happy Heroes and the Happy Superhero, Season 3 being titled Happy Heroes and the Battle, Season 4 being titled Happy Heroes and the Adventure, etc.
• A lot of Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf seasons tend to have unique titles, such as Mighty Little Defenders, The Little Detective, Around the World in 20 Days, etc. Its spin-off Pleasant Goat Fun Class follows the same formula.
• Every season of Roco Kingdom Adventure beyond the first one has a unique name. Season 2 is Roco Kingdom Adventure 2: Enzo's Diary and Season 3 is Roco Kingdom Adventure 3: The Eight Medals.

Comic Books

• Comic Books will sometimes continue the numbering of an old series with a new series. One example was The Incredible Hercules taking over numbering from The Incredible Hulk when Hulk relaunched with a new #1.
• EC Comics had one of the most infamous examples of this, as they tried to meet the changing tastes of comic book readers.
  • Moon Girl started as a title about a superheroine. The title became Moon Girl Fights Crime in issues #7 and #8, because "crime" comics were hot. Romance books were also selling, so the book became A Moon, a Girl...Romance from #9, until finally abandoning Moons and Girls altogether and becoming Weird Fantasy with #13.
  • "The Crypt of Terror" and the Crypt-Keeper were introduced as part of Crime Patrol #15. Issue #16 was entirely dedicated to horror, and with issue #17 The Crypt of Terror displaced Crime Patrol. The title was further altered to Tales from the Crypt with issue #20, so as to be less scary to sellers.
  • The Haunt of Fear took over the numbering of Gunfighter from #15, but since the Post Office objected in this case, the fourth Haunt of Fear had to be issued as #4 instead of #18.
• The final two issues of Captain America's Golden Age series were titled Captain America's Weird Tales, because horror was selling and superheroes weren't.
  • Once Iron Man graduated to his own title, Tales of Suspense subsequently changed its title to Captain America at issue #100.
• X-Men:
  • When the original X-Men book began publishing new stories in 1975 with a new team line-up, its cover title from issue #94 was All-New All-Different X-Men. As of issue #116 the cover title changed to Uncanny X-Men, which ended up becoming the comic's official title as of issue #142 (halfway through the famous Days of Future Past story).
  • The second volume of X-Men, begun in 1991, changed its title to New X-Men in 2001 from issue #114 when Grant Morrison took over as writer to emphasize the new tone of the book. Not long after Morrison left it went back to just being called X-Men with issue #157. Then in 2008 it was renamed X-Men: Legacy from issue #208 to emphasize more on the fact that it was less of an ensemble book and moreso focused on a central character and their history in the X-Men universe.
  • The teen superhero team book New X-Men: Academy X was rebranded as simply New X-Men from issue #20.
• Azrael was retitled Azrael: Agent of The Bat starting with issue #47.
• She's Josie changed its name to Josie starting with issue #17, only to change its name to (the obviously most famous title) Josie and the Pussycats starting with issue #45.
• In 1989 DC Comics launched a Present Day version of Legion of Super-Heroes called L.E.G.I.O.N. '89. When the year changed, it became L.E.G.I.O.N. '90. This continued, with the annuals sometimes playing with it (like L.E.G.I.O.N. '01 for the Armageddon 2001 crossover, or a Tuxedo and Martini Elseworld called L.E.G.I.O.N '007) until the book was relaunched post-Zero Hour: Crisis in Time! as R.E.B.E.L.S. '94, which was R.E.B.E.L.S. '96 when it was cancelled.
• Superman:
  • When the character's history was rebooted in 1986 following Crisis on Infinite Earths, the original namesake title Superman was changed to The Adventures of Superman as of issue #424, while a second volume of Superman started up the same month. This lasted twenty years until Infinite Crisis when the second Superman volume was cancelled and Adventures became Superman once more as of issue #650.
  • During the late 80s, Action Comics became an Anthology Comic with a weekly release schedule. To reflect that, issues #601 through #642 were branded Action Comics Weekly.
• Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes:
  • The Superboy comic book changed its cover title to Superboy starring the Legion of Super-Heroes with issue #197, as it shifted focus to Superboy's adventures with the 30th-century superhero team. Three years later, the title officially changed to Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes as of issue #222.
  • The title changed again to Legion of Super-Heroes with issue #259, as Superboy left the team and began starring in his own new book, The New Adventures of Superboy, set back in Smallville.
  • In 1984 the title changed once again to Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes as of issue #314, while a new volume of Legion of Super-Heroes started up at the same time (set sometime after the events of Tales, and printed on higher-quality paper). After one year, Tales caught up to the beginning of the new Legion volume and began reprinting its stories until eventually being cancelled.
  • In 2006, the "Threeboot" incarnation of the Legion had their comic's title change from Legion of Super-Heroes (vol. 5) to Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes from issue #16 as Kara Zor-El joined the team. After she left the team, the title reverted back to Legion of Super-Heroes with issue #37.
• Spider-Man:
  • Spidey's second title, Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man, got shortened to The Spectacular Spider-Man with issue #134.
  • The fourth title, the adjectiveless Spider-Man, was changed to Peter Parker: Spider-Man with issue #75, coinciding with the ending to The Clone Saga.
• The name of the World War I serial "Golden Eyes" and Her Hero "Bill" changed to "Golden Eyes" and Her Hero "Bill" Over There after a handful of installments to reflect that Golden Eyes had enlisted as an ambulance driver and that the action had moved to France - the serial would retain the new title for the remainder of publication.
• When Stray Bullets finally returned from a 9-year hiatus, it was retitled Stray Bullets: Killers and given a new #1 despite continuing the plot of the original series and keeping the same creator. The following arc did the same thing, with the series now being called Stray Bullets: Sunshine & Roses.
• Teen Titans:
  • In 1984, The New Teen Titans changed its name to Tales of the Teen Titans with issue #40, while a new volume of The New Teen Titans started up at the same time (set sometime after the events of Tales, and printed on higher-quality paper). After 18 issues, Tales caught up to the beginning of the second New Teen Titans volume and began reprinting its stories until eventually being cancelled.
  • The New Teen Titans vol. 2 changed its title as of issue #50 to The New Titans, as it was increasingly clear that the main characters were not teens anymore.

Fan Works

• Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series was renamed Yu-Gi-Oh! The Cancelled Series for the first half of season 3, to fit with LittleKuriboh's altered plot line. The second half of the season subsequently called itself The Renewed Series as well. It went back to its original title in Season 4.

Literature

• The Warrior Cats series. Each subseries has a different name: Warriors, Warriors: The New Prophecy, Warriors: The Power of Three, Warriors: Omen of the Stars, and Warriors: Dawn of the Clans.

Live-Action TV

• 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter became 8 Simple Rules after the death of John Ritter.
• 19 Kids and Counting started out as 17 Kids and Counting in 2008, but the Duggars had two more kids since then (and have another on the way).
• The BBC's US-focused news show 100 Days was meant to cover the first 100 days of Donald Trump's presidency, but quickly gained a reputation for the quality of its coverage so that instead of ending after 100 days as planned, it was kept on and simply retitled Beyond 100 Days.
• The Adventures of Superboy was originally known only as Superboy for the first two seasons. It became The Adventures of Superboy starting with season three, in which many changes took place, including a change of setting and a significant shift in tone.
• After it was expanded from 30 minutes to a full hour, Alfred Hitchcock Presents was renamed into The Alfred Hitchcock Hour for its final three seasons.
• All in the Family was renamed Archie Bunker's Place following its ninth season. CBS wanted the show to continue indefinitely, while series creator Norman Lear was eager for it to end before it got stale. To keep Lear happy without sacrificing their cash cow, CBS agreed to relaunch the show under a new title and drop his creator credit.
• All Quiet on the Preston Front became simply Preston Front after its first season, since everybody called it that anyway.
• Anne with an E went by Anne for its first season in Canada, but changed to Anne With An E to match its international branding for season 2 onwards.
• Each series of Babylon 5 has its own subtitle: 'Signs and Portents', 'The Coming of Shadows', 'Point of No Return', 'No Surrender, No Retreat' and 'The Wheel of Fire'. However, this subtitle does not appear in the credits and was strictly informal until the DVD releases, when the subtitle was included on the front cover packaging. The Sequel Series Crusade would have been named 'To The Ends Of The Earth', after the Wham Episode that never happened due to cancellation.
  • The season titles were also the titles of the most significant episodes in that season, which did appear on screen. Thus, Season I was named Signs and Portents after the episode that introduced Morden and really kicked off the Myth Arc, and so on.
• An easily missed example: Blake's 7 was renamed Blake's Seven in the new opening titles for its fourth and final season.
• Big Bad Beetleborgs became Beetleborgs Metallix once they ran out of Juukou B-Fighter footage and switched over to B-Fighter Kabuto.
• Billy the Exterminator Season 7 (which takes place in Canada instead of Louisiana) is officially titled Billy Goes North.
• The first season of Blackadder was known as The Black Adder. The next series would be called Blackadder II, Blackadder The Third, and Blackadder Goes Forth. Proposed ideas for a fifth series sometimes seemed to start with a new play on Blackadder 5 and work backwards to a setting. These included a rock band called The Blackadder Five, a spy spoof called Blackadder 005 or Blackadder MI-5 and a school story called Blackadder in the Fifth.
• Bunk'd: In Season 6, the show gained the subtitle Learning the Ropes to reflect that the setting moved from a camp in the woods to a dude ranch.
• The Celebrity Apprentice became The New Celebrity Apprentice in 2017 for its new host, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
• By the end of the first season of Cougartown, the producers felt that the name no longer fit the show's premise, but couldn't come up with a new name. So in the first episode of the second season, the title card reads (Still) Cougartown. The subtitle became a Couch Gag in subsequent episodes - (Badly Titled) Cougartown, (Titles Are Hard) Cougartown, etc. It finally changed to Sunshine State... for the last episode of the series.
• Deutschland 83 got two sequel seasons, respectively called Deutschland 86 and Deutschland 89 after the years in which they are set.
• Dragnet's run starting in 1967 was called Dragnet 1967, Dragnet 1968, thru 1971.
  • And the 2003-2004 series starring Ed O'Neil as Joe Friday (yes, really) changed its name from Dragnet to L.A. Dragnet.
• The third and fourth seasons of Engrenages/Spiral got individual subtitles in English-language marketing, being titled The Butcher of La Villette and State of Chaos.
• The fifth series of Fantasy Football League, broadcast at the time of the 1998 World Cup, was actually called Fantasy World Cup - although most people carried on referring to it by its original name.
• Russian Rescue show Five Minutes of Silence has different subtitles for each subsequent season. Season 2 is Five Minutes of Silence: The Return, season 3 is Five Minutes of Silence: New Horizons, and season 4 is Five Minutes of Silence: Siberian Frosts.
• James Earl Jones played a private detective in a critically-acclaimed series called Gabriel's Fire which premiered in 1990 and won four Emmys. For its abbreviated second and last season, the show was retooled and renamed Pros and Cons.
• The TV adaptation of Goosebumps (1995) was renamed Ultimate Goosebumps for seasons 3 and 4. The show was named Goosebumps when it aired on Cartoon Network during Halloween (including the "Ultimate Goosebumps" episodes).
• Gotham added the subtitle "Rise of the Villains" in Season 2, switching to "Wrath of the Villains" for the second half. For Season 3, they used "Mad City" and "Heroes Rise". All of Season 4 used "A Dark Knight".
• The Gruen Transfer blurs the line between this trope and Spin Offs (The Other Wiki goes with the former interpretation), changing its title as it has shifted in focus: from The Gruen Transfer (advertising) to Gruen Planet (spin and PR in general) to simply Gruen (somewhere in between). It has also temporarily rebranded several times as Gruen Nation (elections advertising, spin and PR) and once as Gruen Sweat (Olympics advertising, spin and PR).
• When the famous Australian variety show Hey Hey It's Saturday moved from Saturday mornings to nights in 1984, the show was renamed Hey Hey It's Saturday Night. In 1985, the title went back to Hey Hey It's Saturday and stayed that way until the show ended in 1999.
• Hannah Montana became Hannah Montana Forever for its fourth and final season.
• Homefront: Inside Out dropped the "Inside Out" part of its title after the original Homefront show it spun off from was axed.
• After undergoing a bit of a retool halfway through, Inazuman's first series ended at 25 episodes and a new season started up immediately after, entitled "Inazuman Flash".
• After being Revived by Spike TV, the COPS Spin-Off Jail's fourth season was titled Jail: Las Vegas, and the fifth season was titled Jail: Big Texas.
• While it's not technically a sequel, the short-lived TV series James at 15 was renamed James at 16 as of the episode wherein he celebrated his 16th birthday.
• The second and final season of Jonas became Jonas L.A., from moving the setting of the show to Los Angeles.
• The Sentai homage Kanpai Senshi After V^note Cheers Warriors After V, for its second season, was renamed Shin^note New Kanpai Senshi After V
• Lab Rats gained the subtitle Bionic Island for its fourth season Retool.
• The fourth and final season of Liv and Maddie gained the subtitle Cali Style, referring the the family's relocation to California.
• When Channel Four decided the magazine show Light Lunch wasn't working in an actual lunchtime slot, the early evening version was Late Lunch.
• Moribito: The three seasons are subtitled Guardian of the Spirit, The Anguish of the Destroyers, and Balsa's Fate respectively. In Japanese, though, the series has the same title as Guardian of the Spirit and only the latter two have subtitles.
• The Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nóg was going to take a page out of the Power Rangers book by renaming itself Mystic Knights Battle Thunder for the next season. It was cancelled after its single season instead, however.
• Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet dropped its subtitle for season 2.
• The New Pope is the "sequel" to The Young Pope. Might as well be considered its second season.
• Season 3 of Odd Squad has the subtitle Mobile Unit.
• The Orville was announced as The Orville: New Horizons for its third season.
• The second series of Paris Police 1900 was titled Paris Police 1905 to indicate the Time Skip.
• Parker Lewis Can't Lose was shortened down to just Parker Lewis for the third and final season.
• Power Rangers:
  • Part of season 3 of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers was titled Mighty Morphin' Alien Rangers, which goes under dispute as to whether it's its own identity or not. Following the third season of Mighty Morphin' we had Power Rangers Zeo, Power Rangers Turbo and Power Rangers in Space. After In Space tied up all the loose ends and Power Rangers Lost Galaxy serving as an epilogue/transition, the seasons continuing from there (beginning with Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue) became Sequel Series.
  • In the Neo-Saban era, a storyline and cast sticks around for two shorter seasons instead of one longer one; and the second season gets "Super" stuck in the title somewhere to represent a Mid-Season Upgrade: Power Rangers Samurai was renamed Power Rangers Super Samurai, Power Rangers Megaforce turned into Super Megaforce, Power Rangers Dino Charge became Dino Supercharge, and Power Rangers Ninja Steel became Super Ninja Steel.
• After being just known as Red Dwarf for its first two series, the third series had an Opening Scroll that dubbed the series "Red Dwarf III", although the main title sequence and new logo did not incorporate the number (a few fans also list the third season as having a subtitle "The Saga Continuums", also taken from the crawl). For some reason the listings magazines picked up on this and from then on the show was renamed each series ("Red Dwarf IV", "V" etc). even though the opening titles did not reflect this. However, the covers of the video releases did. In fact, the later video releases of the first two seasons retitled them 'Red Dwarf I' and 'II', respectively. This numbering was finally acknowledged in the opening titles of Series VII, and every subsequent series has also been numbered onscreen (Series VIII used tally marks, reflecting that series' prison setting, and "Back to Earth" was a three-part miniseries, but every other series has used the roman numeral).
• The Transatlantic Equivalent of Saturday Night Live was called Saturday Live until it got rescheduled to Fridays and renamed Friday Night Live.
• Saturday Night Live: Yes, the show that has saw many changes in cast, crew, directors, and writing teams has had its title changed a few times.
  • Back when the show first started, it was called NBC's Saturday Night. Lorne Michaels wanted his show to be called Saturday Night Live right off the bat, but ABC already had a variety show called Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell(Cosell later hosted the last episode of SNL's tenth season).
  • In its second season, the "NBC" part was dropped and the show was just called Saturday Night, at which time, the ABC version of Saturday Night Live had already been cancelled and Bill Murray (a cast member from that SNL) was hired as a replacement for Chevy Chase (who left the NBC SNL for a girl and a movie career). By the end of season two the NBC show finally started using the name Saturday Night Live.
  • During the 1980-1981 season, the show was retitled Saturday Night Live '80 to separate this season from the first five. This, much like Jean Doumanian's tenure during that season, didn't last and wasn't looked at favorably among fans. When Dick Ebersol was hired as Doumanian's replacement, the show was changed back to being called Saturday Night Live, though its Weekend Update segment went through many title changes under Ebersol's reign as executive producer (it was called SNL Newsbreak in season seven, then Saturday Night News in seasons 8, 9, and 10).
    • From season seven on, Saturday Night Live has kept its name, though most fans today (and in a lot of commercial bumpers from season 22 to now) refer to the show as SNL due to ease of reference.
  • Saturday Night Live in its 15th, 20th, 25th, and 35th seasons have been referred to as Saturday Night Live or SNL plus the respective number (SNL 15, SNL 20, SNL 25, and SNL 35) to commemorate the show staying on the air for 15, 20, 25, and 35 years.
• Schmigadoon! adds the subtitle Schmicago in the second season's intro, due to the change in setting.
• Scrotal Recall was re-titled Lovesick after being picked up by Netflix.
• Bill Lawrence urged for Scrubs to be renamed Scrubs Med for its ninth and final season, given the cast changes and altered status quo.
• The Canadian sketch show SCTV became SCTV Network 90 in 1981 when it expands to 90 minutes and broadens its audience to Americans.
• SeaQuest DSV was rebranded as seaQuest 2032 for its third and final season due to the changes in main character, the Time Shift, and the Darker and Edgier setting.
• Seven Color Mask, after 31 episodes comprising four arcs, was renamed New Seven-Color Mask for the remaining 26 episodes and three arcs to reflect the change in leading actor.
• Sonny with a Chance was changed to So Random! in its most recent season, focusing on the Show Within a Show that is titled as such. This was done due to the lead actor Demi Lovato going to rehab.
• Spartacus has a different subtitle for each of its seasons. Many people assume that the title of series as a whole is Spartacus: Blood and Sand, but that's only the title of the first season. In fact, it's still listed under that title in this very wiki.
• Stargate SG-1 was nearly renamed Stargate Command for its ninth season, in recognition of its major cast changes (including a new lead actor) and new main villain (the Ori). Ultimately they kept the original title.
• Originally, the name of the fifth live-action Star Trek series was just Enterprise. They added "Star Trek" back into the title in the third season. ^note The original broadcasts of the first two episodes of season 3 retained the Enterprise title, with Star Trek added for the third episode. This was changed on later screenings.
• Downplayed example with Stranger Things. All seasons after the first are titled as if they were sequels to a film; Season 2 is Stranger Things 2, Season 3 Stranger Things 3, Season 4 Stranger Things 4, and Season 5 Stranger Things 5.
• BBC series Supersizers started as a one-off special Edwardian Supersize Me. Its first series is called The Supersizers Go... and the second one is known as The Supersizers Eat... — each episode name also includes the time period they go to or eat.
• Due to Disney's three/four seasons/65 episodes rule, after The Suite Life of Zack & Cody hit that mark, Disney Channel retooled the show, renaming it The Suite Life on Deck due to the new setting (a ship rather than a hotel).
• A lot of location-based Reality TV shows do this to reflect the change in location for the new season: Survivor: Africa, Survivor: Thailand, etc. Survivor later started using titles that reflected a theme, such as Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains or Survivor: Winners at War, before latter reverting to simply using numbers for seasons that didn't have a theme, as the show stopped moving locations.
• Almost-example: Had Threshold not been cancelled, series two would have been called "Foothold" and series three "Stranglehold". Both names would have represented the progress of the aliens in taking over the world.
• In 1955 CBS retitled its long-running Sunday night Variety Show, Toast of the Town, to The Ed Sullivan Show after its eponymous host.
• When The Torkelsons got a Retool in its second season, it was also renamed Almost Home.
• Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place became Two Guys and a Girl with the third season, which abandoned the pizza place setting.
  • This prompted the Saturday Night Live sketch, And a Pizza Place.
• Valerie, originally named for its star, Valerie Harper, became Valerie's Family: The Hogans in the third season after Harper left the show. Thereafter it was called The Hogan Family.
• Among the many changes that came with the second season of War of the Worlds (1988) was to relabel it War of the Worlds: The Second Invasion.
  • The rub is that while this made a kinda sense at first, poor writing led to a continuity collapse that ultimately showed that there was never a "first" invasion.
• The later seasons of Yes, Minister were renamed Yes, Prime Minister, to reflect Jim Hacker's promotion to PM.
• The Canadian sci-fi show Zixx appended Level One, Level Two and Level Three to its title to represent the current season.
• Season two of Zoe Duncan Jack And Jane got renamed to Zoe..., pronounced "Zoe dot dot dot".

Magazine

• Analog: As a long-time member of the same magazine racks as comic books, Analog has changed names several times over the decades. It began in 1930 as Astounding Stories of Super-Science, but was shortened to Astounding Stories starting with the February 1931 issue. Later on, the name changed slightly to Astounding Science-Fiction for the March 1939 issue. Many years later, the name was changed to Astounding Science Fact & fiction (the lowercase is used to emphasize Fact in the magazine) in the February 1960 issue, and spent the next several months fading down Astounding and fading up with its replacement Analog. Legally speaking, the magazine has both names (check the index page), but the cover has been Analog ever since (with occasional tweaks to the subtitle).
• The Red Dwarf Smegazine initially started off as Red Dwarf Magazine before it changed to it's more well known name from the third issue onwards.

Radio

• Moribito: The radio drama changes from Guardian of the Spirit to Guardian of the Darkness in Season 2.

Video Games

• Subverted by the Myst series, which had Riven instead of Myst II, but returned to the series' title from Myst III onward.
• The Bokujo Monogatari series was translated by Natsume as Harvest Moon from Harvest Moon to Harvest Moon: A New Beginning. Afterwards, Marvelous decided to translate the series in-house with X Seed Games as Story of Seasons starting with Story of Seasons (2014). Natsume was left with the Harvest Moon name but no games. They ended up making their own original title using the Harvest Moon name and some of the characters (which understandably wasn't released in Japan). Since then, the series has been split into the In Name Only Natsume Harvest Moon games, while the original series now goes under Story of Seasons. Alas, this name change hasn't been understood by many casual fans. Even news websites and retailers get confused, causing some retailers to reject the Story of Seasons games for being an "unknown" series while the Harvest Moon games have brand recognition.
• The Deception franchise has something of a problem with keeping a consistent name, both in Japan and abroad. The first game is called Deception: Invitation to Darkness in English and Kokumeikan in Japanese, with the first sequel becoming Kagero: Deception II and Kagero: Kokumeikan Shinsho. Then the third game starts the craziness: Deception III: Dark Delusion here, Soumatou in Japanese. This Completely Different Title is reversed with the fourth game, Kagero 2: Dark Illusion in Japanese, Trapt in English. Finally, the fifth game splits the difference with the English title being Deception IV: Blood Ties and Kagero: Darkside Princess in Japanese. Phew!
• The Soul Series had an issue with the name of its original game “Soul Edge” when it was released on consoles (the story goes deeper than just this game, look up a man named “Tim Langdell” for more details). Namco worked around this by renaming the console release as “Soul Blade” in North America but then come the sequel, the entire series was renamed “Soulcalibur” so they could just sidestep the problem entirely.
• Sega's Ryū ga Gotoku series was first localized outside Japan as Yakuza. That stayed the series' English name until 2022. In 2020, the seventh numbered game, Ryū ga Gotoku 7: Hikari to Yami no Yukue, was released outside Asia as Yakuza: Like a Dragon, with the name intended to help transition the English series to the new name; the game's logo◊ notably has Like A Dragon take up significantly more space than Yakuza despite ostensibely being a subtitle. In 2022, the series officially changed its English name to Like a Dragon, with the announcement of Like a Dragon: Ishin!, Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth.

Web Animation

• Each season of Battle for Dream Island after the first takes on a different title, relating to the current competition at hand.
  • Battle for Dream Island Again, the same competition, but done again.
  • dnalsI maerD roF elttaB is the inverse, where instead of eliminating contestants, they get placed back into the competition.
  • Battle for BFDI (later Battle For BFB), in which the prize is another proper season of the show.
  • The Power of Two, as it's hosted by Two and the prize is becoming a Reality Warper.
• Red vs. Blue, once the first story arc was finished, did this for the following three seasons (known as Red vs. Blue: The Recollection): Reconstruction (Season 6), Recreation (7) and Revelation (8). While the following seasons were simply numbered again, if grouped into arcs, Season 16 went that path again with Red vs. Blue: The Shisno Paradox, which in turn was followed by Singularity. Season 18 again had a subtitle, Red vs. Blue: Zero.

Webcomics

• Kris Straub's sci-fi webcomic was initially named Starshift Crisis. When he realized this could lead to a copyright problem (with the video game Starshift: The Zaran Legacy), he renamed it Starslip Crisis—and even changed every in-comic mention of "starshift" to "starslip", using alternate universes to justify this Orwellian Retcon. Later, the story arc "The End of the End" resulted in another huge Cosmic Retcon and an Art Shift with it, so the title was changed again to just Starslip.
• GastroPhobia remained that for the first three volumes of its life, named after the parent-child duo of Gastro (child) and Phobia (parent). When Volume 4 hit, the series changed to PepsiaPhobia, to reflect Gastro realizing that she's a trans girl and renaming herself Pepsia.

Web Videos

• From "The Day of the Eternal Song" onwards, KateModern changed its name to in the name of ...KateModern.

Western Animation

• All Hail King Julien became "All Hail King Julien: Exiled" for its fifth season because of the titular character losing his crown to Koto who then took over his kingdom. Oddly, Netflix puts it as a separate show from the main series. After the fifth season ended it goes back to just being the normal title.
• The final season of Alvin and the Chipmunks was retooled to have its episodes focusing on movie parodies. To reflect this, the title was changed to The Chipmunks Go to the Movies, complete with a new theme song.
• The Norwegian dub of The Animals of Farthing Wood changed from "Escape from Farthing Wood" (translated title) to "Animals of White Deer Park" in season 2.
• Aqua Teen Hunger Force:
  • Starting with season 8 (10), the show became Aqua Unit Patrol Squad 1, as discussed in the page quote source video, two related videos, and the first episode of the season.
  • The season after that, the show was again renamed to Aqua Something You Know Whatever, complete with "call it whatever you want" commercials.
  • The next season renamed it Aqua TV Show Show.
  • And the final season was renamed Aqua Teen Hunger Force Forever.
• Archer:
  • Season 5 went with the title Archer Vice, shaking up the plot a bit by having ISIS disbanded and the principle cast forming a drug cartel, trying to sell a literal tonne of cocaine. After the season ended and the spy premise of the show was reinstated, Archer went back to its original title.
  • Seasons 8, 9 and 10 are called Archer Dreamland, Archer Danger Island and Archer 1999 respectively. They are all set in alternate universes, which are actually part of Archer's coma dream.
• Atomic Betty's third and final season was titled Atomic Betty: Mission Earth due to a retool of the series' formula that took the action from outer space to Earth.
• Season 3 of Avengers Assemble was titled Avengers: Ultron Revolution. Season 4 was Avengers: Secret Wars. Season 5 is Avengers: Black Panther's Quest.
• The second season of The Babaloos was titled The Babaloos On Vacation, to go with the focus on bringing the characters into more outdoors environments.
• The Crumpets: Outside of the show's native French, its title in seasons three and four is Teen Crumpets, which reflects the narrowed main cast to the teenagers. This is also a Market-Based Title.
• DC Animated Universe: Batman: The Animated Series became The Adventures of Batman and Robin, then The New Batman Adventures (though reruns don't use this title, instead using the original BTAS intro; these episodes originally ran alongside Superman: The Animated Series as The New Batman/Superman Adventures with a combined open). Likewise, Justice League became Justice League Unlimited.
• Season 2 of The Adventures of Blinky Bill was renamed to Blinky Bill's Extraordinary Excursion, and season 3 was called Blinky Bill's Around the World Adventures (in marketing, at least, the season's onscreen title was simply Blinky Bill).
• When Doug moved from Nickelodeon to ABC, it was retitled Brand-Spanking New Doug, then Disney's Doug.
• Dragon Booster was going to do this in season 4 with Dragon Booster: Academy, even going as far as emblazoning the new title on the final scene of season 3... then it got Screwed by the Network(s) and cancelled.
• Dragons: Riders of Berk became Dragons: Defenders of Berk for its second season to reflect the more action-oriented direction, and then Dragons: Race to the Edge from the third season onwards after the Channel Hop from Cartoon Network to Netflix.
• After season 1, each season of Fast & Furious: Spy Racers has a different subtitle depending on the plot's overall location. Seasons 2-5 are titled Rio, Sahara, Mexico, and South Pacific, respectively. Season 6, Homecoming, is titled after the story's return to the first season's main setting, Los Angeles.
• When Gargoyles entered its third season, it became part of ABC's Saturday morning lineup as Gargoyles: The Goliath Chronicles. Though some would claim it didn't.
• The second season of Happy Monster Band renames the show Happy Monster Band: World Tour.
• Harvey Street Kids is now called Harvey Girls Forever! starting in season 2.
• The Incredible Hulk (1996) was renamed The Incredible Hulk and She-Hulk for its second season.
• Jake And The Neverland Pirates was renamed to Captain Jake and the Neverland Pirates for its fourth season.
• The Un-Canceled season of A Kind of Magic is now fittingly titled A New Kind of Magic.
• Mix Master: King of Cards become Mix Master: Final Force in its second season.
• Mickey and the Roadster Racers was retitled Mickey Mouse Mixed-Up Adventures in its third season, to reflect how the show was becoming less about racing and more about the Slice of Life adventures of Mickey and pals.
• For its third season, ¡Mucha Lucha! gained a subtitle and was called ¡Mucha Lucha!: Gigante, with the theme song being updated to reflect the change as well.
• Ninjago turned into Ninjago Rebooted for its third season because of the Cyberpunk setting.
• PJ Masks: As of season 6 the show is now called PJ Masks: Power Heroes to emphasize that the recurring extra heroes that were gradually introduced over the previous seasons are now promoted to main characters forming a team along with the original core trio the show started with.
• Pucca's third season received the subtitle "Love Recipe". Although it is subverted in the Korean dub, where the name for the 2008 series was "Jjajang Girl Pucca", whereas the third season is simply named "Pucca".
• The Redwall cartoon was known as Redwall for the first season, then Mattimeo: A Tale of Redwall for the second season, then it became Martin the Warrior: A Tale of Redwall for the third season.
• A partial example: The Finale Season of Regular Show was advertised on-air as "Regular Show in Space" due to the events of the previous season's finale. The show itself remained as "Regular Show" in its own title cards, television guides, digital releases, etc.
• Sabrina: The Animated Series was followed by Sabrina's Secret Life.
• The sixth and final season of Steven Universe earns the title Steven Universe: Future. Future, like the movie, acts as an epilogue miniseries to the show, almost like a different series.
• Super Friends was succeeded by The All-New Super Friends Hour, Challenge of the Super Friends, The World's Greatest Super Friends, Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show, And The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians. These name changes brought along various modifications to the show's format, added and dropped heroes and villains, etc.; the final season, Galactic Guardians, dropped the Super Friends name as the show got a bit Darker and Edgier and also tied-in with Kenner's Super Powers Collection toyline to an extent.
• The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! was renamed to The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 and then Super Mario World as the plot changed to reflect the then-new games.
• The last two seasons of Tangled: The Series are entitled Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure, due to the show's shift of focus from Slice of Life affairs to larger adventure stories.
• The final two seasons of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003) respectively added Fast Forward and Back to the Sewers to the title.
• The fifth and final season of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012) lengthened its title to Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
• Every Total Drama season has a different name in the form, Total Drama X. Season 1 is Total Drama Island, a Survivor parody satirizing reality show and teen drama conventions; Season 2 is Total Drama Action, satirizing movie conventions; Season 3 is Total Drama World Tour (called Total Drama Musical in development), featuring a Hollywood Atlas and the cast singing Once per Episode; Season 4 is Total Drama Revenge of the Island, returning to the original island (now a toxic waste dump) with a new slate of contestants; Season 5 is Total Drama All-Stars, an All-Stars season; Season 5.2^note Pahkitew Island is officially considered to be the second half of Season 5 rather than as the 6th Season is Total Drama Pahkitew Island, set on a new island with another all-new contestant roster.
• From season 3-5, Totally Spies! added the word "Undercover" underneath the title in the opening and its Eye Catch. The subtitle was dropped for its sixth season revival.
• Transformers: Prime became Transformers Prime: Beast Hunters for its third season.
• Transformers: Robots in Disguise became Transformers: Robots in Disguise Combiner Force in it's fourth season.
• True and the Rainbow Kingdom changes its name to True: Magical Friends for the first half of its second season and True: Wonderful Wishes for the second half.
• Ultimate Spider-Man (2012):
  • Season 3 is subtitled Web Warriors.
  • Season 4 has been retitled Ultimate Spider-Man vs. The Sinister Six.
• Wabbit: A Looney Tunes Production became known as New Looney Tunes in season 2 due to adding more Looney Tunes characters to the show's roster.
• The second season of Young Justice (2010) is entitled Young Justice: Invasion, while the third season is entitled Young Justice: Outsiders and the fourth season is Young Justice: Phantoms.

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