Oddly Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo

aka: Oddly Named Sequel

Splinter Cell: Adjective Noun

"...couldn't we just call it Amnesia: Revelations or something?"

— Zero Punctuation review of Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs

Sequels have a tendency to be burdened with bizarre subtitles or inconsistent naming.

This is sometimes to distance it from more conventionally Numbered Sequels of low quality, but just as often seems to be applied at random.

A subset of the trope is when later installments drop the affix of earlier installments, commonly creating the illusion that a series is smaller than it really is. The reverse of this is, of course, when earlier installments are retroactively renamed to better fit in with their descendants.

Bonus points if the sequel is actually named some variation of "Electric Boogaloo".

Adding multiple subtitles is likely to cause Colon Cancer. When it is added in translations, it is called The Foreign Subtitle. May overlap with Numbered Sequels, Lettered Sequel, Sequel Goes Foreign. Combining Colon Cancer and Numbered Sequels or Lettered Sequel can lead to Capcom Sequel Stagnation. Sometimes they don't even bother with adding subtitles or numbers and just re-use the same title with a non-remake; see Recycled Title.

When a bizarre phrase is the title, see Word Salad Title. For more literal subtitles, see In Which a Trope Is Described. For odd title changes in an ongoing series, see New Season, New Name. Supertrope to Sequel: The Original Title.

And just in case you're wondering: Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo.

Example Subpages:

• Video Games

Other Examples:

Trope Namer

• The trope is named for the movie Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo, the sequel to the movie Breakin'. The term "Electric Boogaloo" for an oddly-named sequel picked up currency quickly, especially for sequels perceived to have unwieldy subtitles, inferior quality, and no real reason for existing to begin with. This particular sequel caught the public's eye because it happened to be released in the same year as the original Breakin', so it fit all of those categories beautifully. The "electric boogaloo" is a real dance style, but not everyone picked up on that and thought it was a Word Salad Title.
• The second MST3K fan convention was called "Conventio-Con Expo-Fest-A-Rama 2: Electric Bugaloo" [sic].
  • At least one episode of MST3K has used the "Electric Boogaloo" name as a riff, for instance, the second half of the short Hired! starts with Tom Servo going "Hired! 2: Electric Boogaloo!"
• Fans were deeply, deeply saddened when no amount of letter writing could convince Michael Bay to name his sequel Transformers 2: Electric Boogaloo.
• In an episode of the Clerks animated series, Randall described Dante's relationship as "Caitlin and Dante 2: Electric Boogaloo."
• In an episode of Teen Girl Squad, Strong Bad was about to sic "Arrowed 2: Electric Boogaloo" on The Ugly One before realizing he had drawn her too hot to bump off.
• Also referenced in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX of all things, when Chazz plays "Beatron 2: Electric Bugaloo, uhhh, what I meant was Beetle Turbo".
• Naturally references in Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series when Jean-Claude Magnum ends the list of movies he's starred in with "and Devil Ninja 2: Electric Boogaloo."
• Used by Kevin Bishop on his Channel 4 sketch show, when spoofing unnecessary sequels: Schindler's List 2: Electric Boogaloo
• One of the tutorials in Badman 2 is titled "Demons 2: Electric Boogaloo".
• The English adaptation of the Pokémon manga The Electric Tale of Pikachu that roughly follows the plot of the TV show's second volume was Electric Pikachu Boogaloo.
• In an episode of Mr. Show, a director is described as "the best thing to come out of Hollywood since sliced bread, not to mention its sequel, Sliced Bread II: Electric Boogaloo."
• In the Grand Finale of How I Met Your Mother, Barney reveals that he wrote a sequel to his book of outlandish seduction schemes: “The Playbook II: Electric Bang-a-loo”.
• Clone High's second episode is titled "Episode Two: Election Blu-Galoo".
• The Great Luke Ski has a song about bacon, titled “Bacon”. Devo Spice wrote a parody about Kevin Bacon, titled “Bacon 2: Electric Boogaloo”.
• An episode of Phineas and Ferb parodies this with the title "Phineas and Ferb's Quantum Boogaloo". It was the second episode to feature time travel. It was also the second episode to feature Phineas and Ferb's giant roller coaster. For the record, the original title the creators wanted to go with was "Time Machine 2: Quantum Boogaloo".
• Parodied once again in Calvin & Hobbes: The Series; the in-universe sequel to The Incredible Hulk (2008) has this subtitle.
• In the History Matters video on the Cod Wars between the United Kingdom and Iceland, Cod War II is subtitled "Electric Boogaloo".
• Five Iron Frenzy named one album Five Iron Frenzy 2: Electric Boogaloo after this trope. It was their fourth full-length studio album, and the only one to be self-titled. By contrast, their actual second album is called Our Newest Album Ever.
• The Kingdom of Loathing parodies this by naming a skill for the Disco Bandit class "Disco Dance II: Electric Boogaloo"
• The Order of the Stick references it. Belkar mentions the possibility for Thanh to become "Miko 2: Electric Bugaloo".
• Referenced in Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 of all places. If you finish all the movies in Pokéstar Studios, you get access to your own dressing room containing some old scripts, one of which is Galvantula's Travels 2: Eelektrik Boogaloo.
• Dr Steel's second album was, of course, "Dr Steel II: Eclectic Boogaloo". The album art, a parody of the poster art for Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo, also has to be seen to be believed.◊
• Minus the Bear's first album, Highly Refined Pirates, contains a song called "Get Me Naked 2: Electric Boogaloo" — the supposed sequel to the song "Hey Wanna Throw Up? Get Me Naked" which appeared on their first EP called This is What I Know About Being Gigantic. Remaining true to the form of this trope, the "sequel" is not related to the original at all, and neither song has any correlation to its title.
• In an issue of the comic book miniseries Loners, Ricochet points out that he's technically the second Ricochet, and refers to himself as "Ricochet 2: Electric Boogaloo."
• Ensign Sue Must Die: One of the considered titles for the sequel was Ensign 2: Electric Sue-galoo. While the final product was titled (probably more appropriate to the subject matter) Ensign Two: The Wrath of Sue, the former was used as a promotional image
• Team Fortress 2 had an update called "Robotic Boogaloo", consisting of mostly robotic-themed items.
• Referenced in Twitch Plays Pokémon Red. Since the starter was released early on, during most of the run the Mob depended solely on a Pidgeot, who had grown powerful enough to gain the nickname "Bird Jesus". When they captured Zapdos, who was similarly high level and also extremely powerful, one of the most popular nicknames for it was Bird Jesus 2: Electric Boogaloo◊. (Hilariously enough, Zapdos is actually an Electric type).
• The Trollpasta Wiki renamed Sonic.exe Round 2 to Sonic.exe 2: Electric Boogaloo.
• One of the many fake names OAFE gave for Age of Ultron was Avengers 2: Electric Bugaboo.
• There was a proposed Ghostbusters sequel called Ghostbusters 3: Electric Gozer-loo
• In an interview, Ryan Reynolds joked that the crew considered 'Untitled Deadpool Sequel' and 'Deadpool 2: Electric Boogaloo', before settling on Deadpool 2.
• Rational Wiki refers to World War II on its article for it as 'Great War II: Electric Boogaloo', among other names.
• When Ferris from Eugenius! is trying to impress Carrie, he tells her he's an actor working on a movie called "F To The Erris Electric Boogaloo".
• There's even a Real Life "boogaloo" group of white supremacists trying to start a race war, clad in Hawaiian shirts. ("Boogaloo" in this case comes from the notional "Civil War 2: Electric Boogaloo", and the Hawaiian shirts come from a mutation of "boogaloo" into "big luau.")
• In Terraria, one of the title messages that can appear is "Terraria 2: Electric Boogaloo".

Anime & Manga

• The various .hack installments have suffixed names as well; none of them are exempt from this, because the first few (tasogare no udewa densetsu, SIGN, and the first games) ran at the same time, so there is no true "original".
• The second series of the Ah! My Goddess TV series was dubbed "Ah! My Goddess: Sorezore no Tsubasa" ("Many Wings"); the English subtitle is Flights of Fancy. The third OVA was subtitled Tatakau Tsubasa, or "Fighting Wings", and was never released outside of Japan.
• The second series of Ai Yori Aoshi was "Ai Yori Aoshi: Enishi", enishi being the word for the bonds between people.
• The Appleseed movie was followed up by Appleseed Ex Machina.
• The Arachnid sequel is called Blattodea to reflect the new protagonist having a cockroach theme, much like how the spinoff was called Caterpillar. Curiously, the title was first unveiled as if it was temporary.
• The sequel seasons of ARIA are called The Natural and The Origination.
• Bakugan started out with the name Bakugan Battle Brawlers for two seasons, then followed it up with a third season called Bakugan: New Vestroia, then a fourth season called Bakugan: Gundalian Invaders and a fifth called Bakugan: Mechtanium Surge.
• CLANNAD's second season is called CLANNAD ~After Story~ (tildes mandatory).
• The Familiar of Zero titled its follow-up seasons Knight of the Twin Moons and The Princess' Rondo. "Rondo" being a musical movement that repeats a key idea three times.
• The anime of Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA tacked on "2wei" for the second season, and "Herz" for the third. That is, the third season was called Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA 2wei Herz. Despite its apparent weirdness, both the base title and its additions make sense: In the Fate verse, a girl named Illya uses a "kaleid liner" (a Magic Wand/Empathic Weapon) to become the Magical Girl Prisma Illya. Meanwhile, "2wei" is a play on the German zwei, meaning two, and a reference to Illya's family's German origins. "Hertz" is German for hearts, and is used because 2wei Herz, despite being the third season of the anime, continues to adapt the second part of the original manga that 2wei also covered. The third part of the manga is called 3rei, from the German drei, meaning three, and that is what a season of the anime adapting it is called.
• The second season of Freezing is called Freezing Vibration, which at this moment doesn't make sense.
• The Japanese name of the second anime adaptation of Fullmetal Alchemist is Hagane no Renkinjutsushi: Fullmetal Alchemist. They used the English name for the first series as a subtitle for second one. Obviously this would make no sense in English, so it was christened Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. Which makes even less sense considering that the 2003 anime Overtook the Manga and went off on its own tangent about 1/3rd of the way through, and yet carries the same name as the manga, whilst the second anime is based entirely from the manga storyline, but has a different name. Hmm...
• Full Metal Panic! was followed by Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu, which in turn was followed by Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid, making it the third series, not the second. On the other hand, Fumoffu was more of a side story anthology than a true second chapter. In fact, following the manga reveals that the sidestories in Fumoffu should have taken place during the first season, interspersed with the more serious episodes, so it's not really a sequel at all.
• After the TV series ended, Future GPX Cyber Formula has four OVA sequels: 11 (pronounced "Double One" instead of "Eleven") Zero, Saga and Sin. For example, 11 refers to Asurada's upgrade to the even more powerful Super Asurada AKF-11 and the title for 2 consecutive championship wins, and Zero refers to the Super Mode.
• The Galaxy Angel sequels are named in this order: Z, A, AA, S, X. Just try making sense of that. Not that the order you watch them in matters the slightest.
• The Gate Keepers sequel series is named Gate Keepers 21. The story occurs in the 21st century as opposed to the main story, which occurred during 1969.
• Gundam:
  • The clearest example is Mobile Suit Gundam, which begat a whole host of series and Alternate Universes, many of which are distinguished by letters, years, or combinations of one or both: Zeta (Z) Gundam, Gundam ZZ (Double Zeta), Gundam 0080, Mobile Suit Gundam F91, Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory, Victory (V) Gundam, G Gundam, Gundam Wing (W), After War Gundam X, ∀ Gundam, Gundam SEED and its spinoffs, Gundam 00, and Gundam Unicorn.
  • Z, ZZ, Char's Counterattack and arguably Unicorn are in a direct line of sequels to the original series, and if you ignore the huge leaps and new casts so are F91 and Victory. 0080 and The 08th MS Team are side-stories to the original series that take place at the same time, while 0083 is considered a sidestory but is technically an interquel taking place between the original series and Zeta, giving a brief origin to the Titans at the end. G, X, Turn A and AGE are alternate universe series without any other media besides manga and compilation movies (only for the latter two). 00 had a movie, A Wakening of the Trailblazer, whereas Wing got an OVA (Endless Waltz) that was later compiled into a movie. SEED remains the only alternate universe to get a sequel television series, SEED Destiny.
  • It's worth noting that in many cases, the series are named for the latest variant of the eponymous Mobile Suit.
• Haré+Guu begat two OVA series, Haré+Guu DELUXE and Haré+Guu FINAL.
• Hell Girl has three follow-up seasons, each with a title incorporating its number.
  • Season 2 is Hell Girl: Futakomori. This means something like "The Two Prisoners", but there's no consensus on which two are intended. They could be Ai and Kikuri, who are both used by the King of Hell; or they could be Ai's parents, whose souls are held hostage to keep Ai working; or they could be "the hater and the hated", a duality that's emphasized in the intro. We don't know.
  • Season 3 is Hell Girl: Mitsuganae, which means "Cauldron of Three". Wanyuudou explains this one for us halfway through. "Hatred, suffering, and envy: like legs of a cauldron, they say these become a support for people's hearts." (Kikuri protests, "They don't say that!")
  • Season 4 is Hell Girl: Yoi no Togi, which means "Fourth Twilight". This is probably a vague reference to how Michiru died and became a lingering ghost: Out of four children, she was the only survivor of an accident. When the townsfolk killed her in misplaced revenge, she pulled an Ai and destroyed the town.
• The second season of Hidamari Sketch is Hidamari Sketch x365 (pronounced "san-roku-go" or "three-six-five"). The third season is "Hidamari Sketch x***" (pronounced "hoshimittsu" or "three stars").
• The second season of Himawari! was differentiated from the first season with the addition of a second exclamation point. As was the second season of Hayate the Combat Butler and the second season of K-On!
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure's story is split into several parts, with each one given a very Electric Boogaloo-ish title. Starting from the beginning we have: Phantom Blood, Battle Tendency, Stardust Crusaders, Diamond is Unbreakable, Golden Wind, Stone Ocean, Steel Ball Run, JoJolion, and JoJo Lands''.
• Knight Hunters does this in both original and dub. The series has two sequels, an OVA and a sequel series; in the original Japanese version, the OVA's two parts are titled Weiß Kreuz: Verbrechen ("crime") and Weiß Kreuz: Strafe ("punishment"), and the sequel series is Weiß Kreuz: Glühen ("glowing" — in German, "weiß glühen" or "weißglühend" means "white-hot"). The series was dubbed as Knight Hunters, and although the OVA has not been licensed, Glühen has been released in English as Knight Hunters: Eternity.
• Similar to CLANNAD above, Little Busters!'s second season is named Little Busters ~ Refrain. Which makes even less sense as nothing in the anime has anything to do with music or any other definition of refrain. There is, however, a symbolic meaning in that a refrain is a verse that repeats through a song, and Refrain is when it's made clear that the characters have been caught in a repeating time loop.
• The Movie for Love Live! had the pretty sane title of "Love Live!: The School Idol Movie". When its spinoff sequel, itself titled Love Live! Sunshine!!, got its own movie, that movie received the notably less sane title of Love Live! Sunshine!!: The School Idol Movie: Over the Rainbow.
• Lupin III has a bit of a history with this, due to Recycled Title and Franchise-Driven Retitling.
  • The New Lupin III manga was released in English as Lupin III: World's Most Wanted, and was then promptly cancelled halfway through its run.
  • The second and third Lupin III TV series were released in Japan as New Lupin III and Lupin III: Part III. Since the first series was never released anywhere outside the country (except for Italy) until Discotek released it on DVD in North America in 2012, when most people are talking about "Lupin III", they mean the second series. The US DVD release acknowledges that it's not the first Lupin series, but none of the animation does. To clarify which series is which, TV Tropes uses the Fan Nickname for the original three series, which identifies the colour of the sports jacket Lupin primarily wears. (Green, Red, and Pink.) Lupin III: The Italian Adventure was labeled in Japan as "Part 4", ignoring The Woman Called Fujiko Mine as it was a separately titled series focusing on, as the title says, Fujiko instead of Lupin (which was tonally different from previously released Lupin animation). Part 4 has since been followed by a Part 5 and Part 6, which interestingly marked a shift to a more continuity-heavy era in a franchise known for Negative Continuity.
• The first three seasons of Lyrical Nanoha are named as follows: Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha (Season 1), Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's (Season 2), and Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS (Season 3). Currently there are two manga titles that are considered its fourth season, which coincidentally are sort of oddballs in the series itself, namely Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid (a Lighter and Softer Tournament Arc starring Nanoha and Fate's adopted daughter Vivio from Season 3) and Magical Record Lyrical Nanoha Force (a less popular Darker and Edgier series with a male protagonist).
• Macross:
  • Super Dimension Fortress Macross was followed by Macross II. That was logical enough, but since the series' creators were not consulted for it, to avoid accepting II's existence the "official" sequels have followed this trope ever since: Macross Plus, Macross 7, Macross Zero, Macross Frontier, Macross Delta. Yes, that's in order.
  • Macross Frontier is also something of an in universe example. The New Macross Class long range colony fleets are numbered at least up to eleven (this is where Macross 7 gets its title) but at some point after that they start naming them, hence the twenty-fifth fleet is the title Macross Frontier Colony Fleet, rather than the Macross 25.
• Maria†Holic's second season is called Maria†Holic Alive. While never explained, it's probably a hat-tip to Monthly Comic Alive for serializing the manga.
• Meine Liebe has a second season that goes by the name of wieder. "Meine Liebe wieder" just means "My love again" in (broken) German, so perhaps that's just a case of Gratuitous German.
• Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch tacked on "Pure".
• The Minami-ke anime was followed by a sequel series called Minami-ke: Okawari (literally meaning "Seconds") immediately after. A third season, Minami-ke: Okaeri ("Welcome Home"; it's what people in Japan say when someone else comes home) followed a year after that. Most recently, there was an OVA called Minami-ke: Betsubara ("second stomach", an idiom used for someone who can eat dessert even after a huge meal). The fourth season is called Minami-ke: Tadaima ("We're Home"; it's what Japanese people say when they themselves return home). Confused yet?
• My-Otome:
  • The OVA sequel was named My-Otome Zwei, the most obvious rationale for which is because "zwei" (German for two) starts with a Z, allowing the logo designers to superimpose it with the Z-like kanji (乙) in the original title. An oddly named prequel was also later announced, titled My-Otome 0~S.ifr~.
  • In fact, My-Otome itself qualifies despite not strictly being a sequel, if the original Japanese titles for My-HiME and My-Otome are compared (舞-HiME and 舞-乙HiME, respectively).
• The Naruto anime after the Time Skip has the new name Naruto Shippuden (roughly translated: Hurricane Chronicles), even though there was no break between the original series in Japan and this one (as opposed to the manga where it was just Naruto: Part II). Was mostly likely done to notify that the 85 filler episodes were over.
• The second season of Natsume's Book of Friends had Zoku tacked on to the beginning of its name, similar to the second season of Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion:
  • Rebuild of Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone and Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance.
  • And in 2012, Evangelion 3.0: You Can (Not) Redo. The aptly-named finale, Evangelion: Final, was originally set to be released in 2015. And actually named Evangelion 3.0+10, after Schedule Slip and the COVID-19 Pandemic reared its heads in, was released in 2021.
  • At the end of the DVD Commentary for The End of Evangelion, Taliesin Jaffe and Jason C. Lee joke about the (un)likelihood of Eva 2: Electric Boogaloo, which now that the Rebuild films and in particular the increasingly popular "sequel theory" exist is particularly Hilarious in Hindsight.
• The second season of Haiyore! Nyarko-San is called Haiyore! Nyarko-San W in yet another of the series' many tokusatsu references (this time to Kamen Rider W). The precursor flash series also used this trope, with Haiyoru! Nyarani followed by Haiyoru! Nyarani Remember my Love(craft-sensei).
• Ojamajo Doremi was renewed four times, and the following seasons were called Ojamajo Doremi # (Sharp), Mo~tto! Ojamajo Doremi, Ojamajo Doremi Dokkan! and Ojamajo Doremi Naisho, respectively.
• Pokémon: The Series:
  • The anime is notable for the fact it gets a new subtitle every season starting with Season 3 in the dub version. The original Japanese series has only changed its name twice. Pocket Monsters added the subtitle Advanced Generation when it began the storyline based on the Pokémon games released for the Game Boy Advance (Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald). The subtitle then changed to Diamond & Pearl when the storyline became based on said games, although it adapted elements of Platinum and the DS remakes of the Gen II games as well. The adaptation for Pokémon Black and White takes the cake, though, for being subtitled Best Wishes!
  • The original 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.
  • The seasons based on Pocket Monsters Advanced Generation was subtitled Advanced, Advanced Challenge, Advanced Battle, and Battle Frontier
  • The seasons based on Pocket Monsters Diamond & Pearl is subtitled as Diamond and Pearl, Diamond and Pearl Battle Dimension, Diamond and Pearl Galactic Battles, and Diamond and Pearl Sinnoh League Victors
  • Pocket Monsters Best Wishes! is dubbed as Pokémon Black and White, Pokémon Black and White: Rival Destinies (Season 15), and Pokémon Black and White: Adventures In Unova and Beyond (Season 16).
  • The DVD releases remedied the problem for the first two seasons: Season 1 is now "Indigo League" and Season 2 is now "Adventures on the Orange Islands."
• Pretty Cure:
  • The second season of Futari wa Pretty Cure had MaX Heart tacked onto the end of the title. Similarly, Yes! Pretty Cure 5 continued with the rather punny Yes! Pretty Cure 5 GoGo.
  • Similarly, the Pretty Cure All Stars series is like this. The original five-minute short was just called "Pretty Cure All Stars". When it became a movie franchise, it became "Pretty Cure All Stars DX". When they rebooted the franchise, it became "Pretty Cure All Stars New Stage".
• The first season of Ranma ½ was technically a separate show from Seasons 2 through 7 which was called Ranma ½: Nettohen.
• Rosario + Vampire's second season is titled Rosario + Vampire Capu 2, a play on the onomatopoeia "kapuchuu~".
• Saber Marionette J:
  • Saber Marionette J Again and Saber Marionette J to X. The logical follow-up Saber Marionette X never made it to an Animated Adaptation, however. There was also a Saber Marionette R.
  • Some of the suffixes actually make sense. The "J" stands for Japoness, one of the six nations (yes, Wutai, a clone of Medieval Japan) and the main theater in the first series. The "Again" is just an OVA follow-up. The "X" stands for Xian, another nation (representing China), which plays some role in J-X, and the "R" stands for Romana (representing Italy), the center of the R series.
  • J to X can also refer to the X chromosome since this season deals a lot with the marionettes' desires to become human girls.
• Sailor Moon:
  • Seasons 2 through 5 of the anime are titled Sailor Moon R (nobody can agree what this stands, with popular choices being either "Romance" or "Returns"), Sailor Moon S (Super), Sailor Moon SuperS (i.e. multiple supers), and Sailor Moon Sailor Stars. And while not official, many fans call the original series Sailor Moon Classic.
  • The Italian dub goes balls to the wall with fancy subtitles. Starting from R on, we get Sailor Moon - La Luna Splende ("The Moon Shines"), Sailor Moon e il Cristallo del Cuore ("Sailor Moon and the Heart Crystal"), Sailor Moon e il Mistero dei Sogni ("Sailor Moon and the Mystery of Dreams"), and Petali di Stelle per Sailor Moon ("Star Petals for Sailor Moon"). At least, from S on they're indicative, if in a needlessly flowery way, of the general theme of the current season.
  • Then there's the 2014 anime series, a Continuity Reboot named Sailor Moon Crystal. While jokes ensued about possible sequels being named after that gem, the second and third seasons saw no changes to the titling. Instead, the manga's final two arcs would each receive two-part theatrical adaptations for the Crystal continuity, Sailor Moon Eternal and Sailor Moon Cosmos respectively.
• The manga Gensoumaden Saiyuki became Saiyuki Reload when it switched magazines; the anime also included this distinction, as the second anime series was produced quite some time after the first one ended, and the animation and artwork styles between the two are noticeably different. The anime then took this a step further, by producing the final season as Saiyuki Reload GUNLOCK. There's also the movie Saiyuki Requiem, and the OAV, Saiyuki Reload -burial-.
• Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei was quickly followed by a second season, with the full title (Zoku:) Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, where Zoku is a dictionary term used to designate slang words and vulgarities, but is also a pun on the word for "continuation". Then there's the OVA, Goku: Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, where Goku means "prison." And a third season, Zan this time.
• SHUFFLE! and SHUFFLE! Memories, though most fans discard Memories as a sequel because Episodes 1-11 were merely thematic recaps of each character's relationship with Rin a la To Heart 2, with Episode 12 being the only episode having original material.
• Shugo Chara! went with Shugo Chara Doki. "Doki" is the Japanese word for a heartbeat sound. Also, Shugo Chara Party.
• Sister Princess's anime adaptation was later followed up by Sister Princess Repure.
• Slayers:
  • For the TV anime adaptation, seasons 2, 3, 4 and 5 were named NEXT, TRY, REVOLUTION and EVOLUTION-R respectively.
  • The movies are titled Slayers Perfect, Slayers Return, Slayers Great, Slayers Gorgeous, and Slayers Premium.
  • The OVA prequels are titled Slayers Excellent and Slayers Special.
  • The original novels are titled Slayers Special, Slayers Smash, Slayers Delicious, and Slayers VS Orphen.
  • Tha manga adaptations are named Slayers Medieval Mayhem, Slayers Super-Explosive Demon Story, Slayers Special, Slayers Premium, Slayers Knight of the Aqualord, Slayers Revolution, Slayers Evolution-R and Slayers Legend.
  • The radio dramas are named Slayers Extra, Slayers N'extra, Slayers Premium, Slayers VS Orphen, and The Return of Slayers Ex.
  • The video games were Slayers Royal for Sega Saturn, Slayers Royal 2 for Sega Saturn and PlayStation, Slayers Wonderful for PlayStation.
• The second half of the Sorcerer Hunters anime was initially released by ADV Films as "Spell Wars" and marketed as a separate sequel series; both halves were released as a single series on DVD.
• The manga versions of Tenchi Muyo! and Shin Tenchi Muyo (New Tenchi Muyo), released in English as "All-New" Tenchi Muyo. This is not to be confused with the anime versions, which are Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki, Tenchi Muyo TV (or Tenchi Universe in the US) and a completely-unrelated-to-the-manga Shin Tenchi Muyo (which was Tenchi in Tokyo in the US).
• Tokyo Mew Mew a la Mode where "a la mode" is supposedly used in the sense "with ice cream" and refers to the signature color of the new team leader.
• Although not another season, Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE- had two sets of OAVs released. The first was titled Tsubasa TOKYO REVELATIONS, and the second was Tsubasa Shunraiki. Other than to differentiate them from the original animated series another production company had been given the rights to Tsubasa after CLAMP was displeased with Bee Train's work on the television series.
• Vampire Hunter D:
  • In Japan, the 1985 film was known as Kyuuketsuki Hunter D. When they released a second film 15 years later, they simply titled it Vampire Hunter D in Japan. To avoid confusion, the second film was retitled Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust for its English release.
  • In Japan, the 2nd film is referred to as Vampire Hunter D: The Movie, as it was released theatrically. The first Vampire Hunter D was an OVA.
• Vampire Knight, and its second season, Vampire Knight Guilty. This one probably happened because Japanese people really like the word "guilty" (Guilty Crown, Guilty Gear...).
• Wangan Midnight spawned two sequels, Wangan Midnight: C1 Runner and Ginkai's Speed Star, with the latter without the Wangan Midnight name.
• The second season of WORKING! is called WORKING'!!^note Which would be pronounced "WORKING DASH!!"
• Yu-Gi-Oh! has several spin-offs, all of which with their own odd titles. However, these titles tend to be important in the setting somehow, and it always results in a Title Drop.
  • The Yu-Gi-Oh! (first anime series) was just named "Yu-Gi-Oh!". The popular and well-known series, which is also the sequel, is named Yu-Gi-Oh!: Duel Monsters in Japan after the Plot Tumor.
  • The interquel manga Yu-Gi-Oh! R takes place between the Battle City Arc and Millennium World.
  • The first Spin-Off — and proper sequel — is called GX. It stands for "Generation Next", but it also refers to the GeneX tournament that happens in the second season.
  • Third — and even more loosely connected — is 5D's. It stands for "five dragons", and it's both a reference to the five Signer Dragons and the name of the Turbo Dueling team the characters form.
  • Fourth series, ZEXAL came with a huge Continuity Snarl, as it references the events of DM and GX, but there's absolutely no hint of 5D's. In this case, "ZEXAL" is the Golden Super Mode that Yuma obtains.
  • ARC-V can be seen as somewhat of a subversion, since one of the meanings behind "Arc V" is "Story Arc 5" (and if you count the aforementioned Season 0 and Duel Monsters as one show, Arc V is the fifth Yu-Gi-Oh! series). However, this trope is played completely straight when it's revealed that Arc-V is a giant machine meant to fuse the four dimensions together and create the fifth one, all powered by Life Energy.
  • VRAINS, the title of the sixth series, stands for Virtual Reality Artificial Intelligence Network System. All the duels take place in there.
  • SEVENS averts this trope, appropriately being the seventh series.
• The second season of YuruYuri is named YuruYuri♪♪ (apparently pronounced Fuwa Fuwa Yuru Yuri).

Card Games

• Magic: The Gathering:
  • The TCG publishes "Core Sets," collections which provide a foundation of basic cards for players to build off of. These Core Sets were called "Limited," "Unlimited" (which went out of print relatively quickly), "Revised," then switched to numbers (4th Edition - 10th Edition), and then switched to model years ('10, '11, etc., through to '15), and then came the seventeenth core set, "Magic Origins", which was intended to be the final core set at time of publication... but three more core sets have been published since, starting with Magic 2019 (released July 2018).
  • Just to add to the confusion, there is both a 10th edition and a Magic 2010 (though at least one uses the Roman numeral X as its symbol, the other a stylized "M10" icon).

Comic Books

• Batman: The Dark Knight Returns^note Technically the name of the original mini-series was just Batman: The Dark Knight, with only the first issue carrying "Returns" in the title. was followed up years later with The Dark Knight Strikes Again. In the same decade, it received a prequel known as All-Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder, or ASBAR for short. Then there was a sequel, Dark Knight III: The Master Race. Not to mention the book even DC Comics refused to publish (which used an unlicensed ripoff to get around that), Holy Terror, which is ASBAR filtered through... well, just go look at that page.
• The Eyeball Kid miniseries by Eddie Campbell was later subsumed into its spin-off, Bacchus.
• The miniseries Kev was followed by More Kev, The Magnificent Kevin and, finally, A Man Named Kev.
• The earliest Tintin albums went: Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, Tintin in the Congo, Tintin in America and... Cigars of the Pharaoh. From that point on, though, the "Tintin in Geographic Location" formula was discarded for many years until Tintin in Tibet.

Fan Works

• In addition to a reference to the Trope Namer above, Calvin & Hobbes: The Series has another In-Universe example: "Tornado Sharks 2: I Think Things Just Got A Little More Windy".
• The sequel to the Devil May Cry and Five Nights at Freddy's crossover Dante's Night at Freddy's was confirmed to be named Dante's Night at Freddy's 2: Animatronic Boogaloo in reference to this trope.
• A video spoof of Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening is aptly named Dragon Age: Origins: Awakening: Part 1: Genesis.
• The sequel to The Intercontinental Union of Disgusting Characters is titled The Sick Kids. And the sequel to that is called The Intercontinental Proliferation of Disgusting Characters.

Films — Animation

• Any Pokémon movie! Except the third (Pokémon 3 — technically Pokémon 3: The Movie) and fourth (Pokémon 4Ever).
• The sequel to A Goofy Movie was called An Extremely Goofy Movie.
• The An American Tail sequels did this. An American Tail: Fievel Goes West wasn't such a bad title, the later direct-to-video titles became just a little too long; An American Tail: The Treasure of Manhattan Island and An American Tail: The Mystery of the Night Monster.
• The sequel to The LEGO Movie is very appropriately titled The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part.
• Lilo & Stitch has a 2005 direct sequel called Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch. However, it's actually the franchise's third film and an interquel. The 2 is referring to the fact that it is chronologically the second film in the franchise, not the second released; Stitch! The Movie (an odd title in itself, but that was for unintentional reasons) was released first in 2003. Going further, Lilo & Stitch 2 is also the only film in the franchise to receive a subtitle, which Rhymes on a Dime here. Oddly enough, the subtitle Stitch Has a Glitch does not appear within the film itself, which suggests that it was a marketing decision for the video release.
• Wreck-It Ralph's sequel was initially titled Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2, which was not only long, but it made the phrase "Wreck-It Ralph 2" the subtitle. However, Disney decided months before its release to just drop the subtitle altogether, making the film's final name just Ralph Breaks the Internet. It still sort of counts for this trope as the phrase "break the internet" had fallen out of style by the time the movie came out.

Films — Live-Action

• The sequel to Airplane! was the aptly titled Airplane II: The Sequel.
• The Alien film series goes: Alien, Aliens, Alien³ ^note Yes, "Alien to the third power", NOT "Alien 3", and Alien: Resurrection. The Spin-Off \ Prequel is called Prometheus... and followed by a sequel returning with the franchise name, Alien: Covenant.
• The American Pie films: American Pie, American Pie 2 ... then American Wedding.
  • Although the international release was called American Pie: The Wedding.
  • The subsequent direct-to-DVD films then went back to the original Pie name but replaced the numbers with subtitles (American Pie Presents: Band Camp, American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile and American Pie Presents: Beta House).
  • And now going back to the original cast with American Reunion. (Which was retitled American Pie: Reunion in the international release.)
• When Christopher Nolan gave the Batman films a Continuity Reboot with Batman Begins, the film's title appeared to be following the format set by the earlier Burton/Schumacher series (Batman, Batman Returns, Batman Forever and Batman & Robin^note with the cancelled fifth installment Batman Unchained). Then the sequel to Batman Begins was titled The Dark Knight. Followed by The Dark Knight Rises. A new continuity went by The Batman (2022), so what will follow is up in the air.
• Both Blade Runner and Wonder Woman (2017) were followed by a movie where the number after the title was the year it was set in, Blade Runner 2049 and Wonder Woman 1984.
• The loose sequel to Suicide Squad (2016) is just called The Suicide Squad. In between was Birds of Prey (2020), which was more of a spin-off following Harley Quinn after the events of Suicide Squad. This one was originally titled "Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn", but the marketing was changed to "Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey" due to many people who were fans of Harley from Suicide Squad not knowing who the Birds of Prey were. It doesn't help that Harley is the main character of the movie, and the Birds of Prey aren't technically formed until the very end.
• Jason Bourne has become the first film from The Bourne Series not using the Mad Lib Thriller Title scheme The Bourne [X].
• Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo is the Trope Namer.
  • "Electric boogaloo" at least has the excuse of being a style of dance. Breakin' 2 had its own sequel, Rappin', which was known in some regions as the completely nonsensical Breakdance 3: Electric Boogalee to keep the rhyme.
• The Chronicles of Riddick, has somewhat different issues. It all started with the 2000 film Pitch Black. This was followed by a sequel called The Chronicles of Riddick in 2004 and an accompanying video game and animated special subtitled Escape from Butcher Bay and Dark Fury, respectively. A second video game subtitled Assault on Dark Athena was released in 2009. All other entries aside from the second film at least style themselves as "The Chronicles of Riddick: Title of Entry", even Pitch Black retroactively. This is set to be followed by a third theatrical film in 2013 simply called Riddick. Word is still out on how this will play out, since it has also been called The Chronicles of Riddick: Dead Man Stalking by the creators.
• Apparently, deciding to make a sequel to Cube wasn't silly enough. They had to call the sequel Cube 2: Hypercube. Which is surprisingly a real geometric term, not something the creators just made up because it sounded cool, although that certainly factored into picking the title. The third movie was called Cube Zero.
• In order, Die Hard, Die Hard 2 (with the tagline/unofficial subtitle Die Harder), Die Hard with a Vengeance, Live Free or Die Hard — which was released outside the US as Die Hard 4.0 — and A Good Day to Die Hard. Can Die Hard Another Day or Live and Let Die Hard be far behind?
  • In French, Piège de cristal^note Crystal Trap, 58 minutes pour vivre^note 58 Minutes (in order) To Live, and Une journée en enfer^note A Day In Hell — and going the Colon Cancer way with Die Hard 4: Retour en enfer^note Return to Hell.
  • In the European Spanish version, the first film was called "La jungla de cristal" (The Glass Jungle). Of course, the second one is "La jungla de cristal 2" while the third one is "La jungla de cristal 3: la venganza". The fourth film bettered it by removing the "glass" part of it and was called "La jungla 4.0", and the second and third films' names were retranslated as simply "La jungla 2" and "La jungla 3" (with the relevant sub-titles) in DVD releases.
• Edge of Tomorrow is planned to have a follow-up titled Live Die Repeat and Repeat, a longer version of the first movie's tagline, "Live. Die. Repeat." The Edge of Tomorrow DVD/Blu-Ray cover already displayed that phrase in larger text than the movie's name, so incorporating it in the sequel's title probably targets viewers who actually read it as the name, and/or thought it sounded more intriguing than Edge of Tomorrow.
• The Exorcist was followed by Exorcist II: The Heretic and The Exorcist III, then got prequels in both Exorcist: The Beginning (done by Renny Harlin after Paul Schrader's film was relegated to The Shelf of Movie Languishment) and Dominion: Prequel To The Exorcist (Schrader's film), the last of which is probably the only movie in history to have a declarative statement in the title informing you that it's a sequel/prequel to another film.
• The Fast and the Furious franchise takes this to the point of absurdity, as no two movies use the same numbering system. It goes The Fast and the Furious, 2 Fast 2 Furious, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Fast & Furious, Fast Five (known as Fast & Furious 5 in the UK), Fast & Furious 6, Furious 7, The Fate of the Furious, Hobbs & Shaw, F9, and then Fast X.
  • Just to confuse things further, every film between Tokyo Drift and Furious 7 are midquels chronologically fitting between 2 Fast and Tokyo Drift, and the main characters are inconsistent across the series as well.
• After two numbered sequels, the fourth Final Destination movie - in somewhat of a similar vein to what happened to The Fast And The Furious series is called The Final Destination. And yes, it's not a Remake/Reboot either. The following film, Final Destination 5, went back to numbering.
  • To further confuse things Final Destination 5 (originally titled F5nal destination) was a prequel, ending with the crash of flight 180 in the first film, you even get to see the main characters of the first film as they leave the plane. Which makes the title of the fourth movie kinda accurate given it's The Final Destination chronologically.
• The first 5 Halloween films were ordered numerically until 1995's Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers. The following film was then titled Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later, killing two birds with one stone by commemorating the franchise's 20th anniversary while also making you think of the molecular composition of water. The only follow-up before a reboot was Halloween: Resurrection.
  • An alternative tagline to H20 even makes a humorous allusion to it: "Blood is thicker than water".
  • Halloween (2018) is a direct sequel to the 1978 original, ignoring any other sequels, but has the same title as the original, giving the impression it's another remake. It was followed by Halloween Kills, and then Halloween Ends, with the intent of finishing the series.
  • Also, Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers is not a sequel to Halloween III: Season of the Witch, but to Halloween II (1981), due to III having been a dropped experiment in switching to an anthology format.
• Hammer Horror is the patron saint of this trope. Their Horror of Dracula begat The Brides of Dracula, followed up with Dracula: Prince of Darkness, which brought Dracula Has Risen from the Grave, and so on.
  • These, of course, were following in the footsteps of the older Universal Horror (Bride of Frankenstein, Son of Frankenstein, The Ghost of Frankenstein).
• If there is a more iconic example than the Hammer/Universal series, it would have to be Planet of the Apes. They started with Planet of the Apes (1968), followed by Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Escape from the Planet of the Apes, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, and finally Battle for the Planet of the Apes. Then there was a more or less standalone remake under the original title, followed by a reboot/prequel(?) series which are, in order, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, and War for the Planet of the Apes. We'd try to explain the internal chronology, but that way lies madness.
• Oh dear, the Highlander series. Highlander II: The Quickening, Highlander III: The Sorcerer, Highlander: Endgame and Highlander: The Source... Depending on what you count, those make up at minimum three different continuities.
• Hot Shots! was followed by Hot Shots! Part Deux. Note that the announcer in the trailers specifically pronounced that "Deux" the way many English speakers trying to speak French would: "Duh".
• The sequel to The Howling has two different subtitles, both equally ridiculous: Stirba: Werewolf Bitch and Your Sister Is A Werewolf. Shame that they didn't catch on.
• Kingsman franchise had a good start with first two movies, Kingsman: The Secret Service and Kingsman: The Golden Circle. The third installment, however, serves as the prequel and bears the name of The King's Man.
• Rian Johnson's hit thriller Knives Out got a sequel in 2022 titled Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. The subtitle for the latter is usually ommited in promotional materials.
• Bollywood franchise Krrish films, in order: Koi... Mil Gaya, Film/{{Krrish} and Krrish 3. Hrithik Roshan, the main star, even said that they decided the name of the third film by taking cues from the Rambo series.
• The Marvel Cinematic Universe only used Numbered Sequels for Iron Man and Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) (and in the latter it's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, alluding to how one of the main characters likes mixtapes), and thus all follow-ups in the Modular Franchises use subtitles. A big case is Spider-Man, who in previous iterations only had numbered movies, and then the MCU instead had subtitles with a single word shared between them: Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man: Far From Home and Spider-Man: No Way Home.
• The Mummy Trilogy: The Mummy (1999) was followed by The Mummy Returns and then The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.
  • The Mummy Returns spawned a prequel: The Scorpion King, which in turn spawned a prequel of its own and yet another sequel).
• The full title of the first The Naked Gun movie is The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!, to identify it as a TV-movie spin-off of Police Squad!. The sequels were numbered "2½: The Smell of Fear" and "33⅓: The Final Insult," spoofing both this and Numbered Sequels (which led to The Angry Video Game Nerd jokingly wondering how the second film incorporates half the plot from the third, and where the other 31 Naked Gun movies can be found).
  • Subsequent to the release of Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult, long before speculation of a continuation gave way to the concept of the inevitable reboot, the unmade fourth installment was tentatively titled "Naked Gun 5."
  • Also bandied about — "Naked Gun 4 Score: And 3 Sequels Ago". Now sadly impossible due to Leslie Nielsen's death.
• Night of the Living Dead (1968) followed by Dawn of the Dead (1978) and The Return of the Living Dead as separate branches, followed respectively by Day of the Dead (1985) and Return of the Living Dead Part II, and so forth.
  • And then there are the Italian Dolled Up Installments, Zombi 2/Zombie Flesh Eaters and sequels.
  • George A. Romero at least started to follow a form. Night. Dawn. Day. Then he came with... Land of the Dead? Then Diary of the Dead. And Survival of the Dead.
• The original The Pink Panther films never used numbers. The first three films all had completely separate titles (The Pink Panther, A Shot in the Dark and Inspector Clouseau). Then the fourth film (The Return of the Pink Panther) reintroduced the Pink Panther diamond, and after that all the sequels worked the phrase "Pink Panther" into their titles even when the actual Pink Panther diamond didn't figure in their plots (with Son of the Pink Panther being a particularly nonsensical title). Then the Continuity Reboot with Steve Martin started numbering its sequels, with no subtitle. Keeping all nine films in order can be tricky.
• Predator, Predator 2, Predators, and The Predator. And then came Prey, inverting the subject so to say.
• The Rambo series: First Blood, Rambo: First Blood Part II, Rambo III, Rambo (known in other regions as Rambo IV or John Rambo), and Rambo: Last Blood. Yes, in that order. In Brazil, the second film is called Rambo II - A Missão. Since then, "A Missão" ("The Mission") has become the Brazilian equivalent of "Electric Boogaloo." The same goes for the Italian title of the second film, Rambo II - La Vendetta ("The Revenge"), which was often used to mock bad sequels.
• The first five Rocky sequels are numbered. The sixth is simply titled Rocky Balboa. And it was followed by a Spin-Offspring of sorts in Creed (Rocky training the son of his rival-turned-friend), which itself had two numbered sequels.
• Considered titles to The Rocky Horror Picture Show's sequel were Rocky Horror Shows His Heels and The Brad And Janet Show but they ended up naming it Shock Treatment after one of its songs.
• Another movie that inexplicably felt the need for such a subtitle would be Sharknado 2: The Second One. The third goes somewhat meta - Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No!. The remaining films continued the self-aware subtitles: Sharknado: The 4th Awakens, Sharknado 5: Global Swarming, and especially the final entry to the franchise, The Last Sharknado: It's About Time.
• Star Trek has gone through several title formats as the source material changed:
  • The movies based on The Original Series started with Star Trek: The Motion Picture and were thereafter numbered with clear and consistent Roman numerals: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
  • Subsequent movies based on The Next Generation were not numbered: Star Trek: Generations, Star Trek: First Contact, Star Trek: Insurrection and Star Trek: Nemesis.
  • The 2009 film is just called Star Trek with no qualifier or subtitle, because it takes place in a different continuity. Its sequel is called Star Trek Into Darkness, with no colon (meaning it's pronounced Star Trek Into Darkness — that's an awkward title in its own right). And the third in that series is Star Trek Beyond.
  • On the early theatrical prints, the second movie's opening title said simply "Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan", presumably to help people forget the first film. The "II" was added later in the theatrical run (though the film was promoted as "Star Trek II" from fairly early on).
  • Curiously, for several years the only print of the fourth movie doing the rounds in the UK had the title card The Voyage Home: Star Trek IV, although no-one actually called it that. (Brazil\Portugal also inverted the 12th movie, called there Além da Escuridão^note Beyond the Darkness: Star Trek)
  • The Next Gen films don't continue the numbering to differentiate between their films and the original cast (and also, one suspects, because the numbering was getting a bit high). However, DVD releases from around the time the 2009 movie came out inserted the numerals VII through X into the titles.
• Upon its release in 1977, Star Wars was called simply that. Its first sequel was titled Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, and a re-release (in 1981) of the original retroactively added the subtitle Episode IV: A New Hope. This was all decades before Lucas got around to making the Prequel Trilogy (note that none of these movies were referred to by episode number anywhere but the opening crawl until the prequels came out). It is worth noting that Lucas had always intended for the original film to be called Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, but 20th Century Fox shot it down due to concern that the subtitle would confuse audiences, as no Star Wars movies existed prior to 1977.
  • This always leads into Title Confusion when trying to mention one of the movies not by subtitle or number. For example, the "first Star Wars movie" is either Episode I or Episode IV.
  • Although excitedly anticipating its release back in 1999, plenty of fans were admittedly somewhat befuddled by the subtitle The Phantom Menace.
  • The prequels had the episode number in the title. The eventual third trilogy only use the number in the opening scroll - the official titles are Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
• The sequel to Step Up was Step Up 2 The Streets. This could also be considered a Numbered Sequel.
• The Superman films were simply numbered up until the fourth installment, Superman IV: The Quest For Peace. A partial reboot of the series and quasi-sequel to Superman II was Superman Returns, which was followed by the full-fledged reboot, Man of Steel, because Batman proved you don't need the superhero's name in the title anymore. Then its sequel goes back to naming Supes while making sure to point out it's a crossover (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice).
• The Terminator was followed by rather plain Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. The fourth drops the numbers entirely (Terminator Salvation), the fifth follows suit (Terminator Genisys), along with sixth, which also ignores movies 3-5 (Terminator: Dark Fate).
• The "Thin Man" referred to in the title of the Dashiell Hammett novel and William Powell-Myrna Loy screwball comedy-mystery film The Thin Man was actually a missing person that Nick Charles was retained to find, and turns out to be the victim of the murder Nick and Nora wind up solving. For some reason, audiences started associating "the Thin Man" with Nick Charles (note that Nick isn't thin at all in the book, while William Powell was quite thin indeed), and the Thin Man sequels pretty much gave in to this and became references to the erroneous "Nick Charles" = "Thin Man" equation. This is most obvious in the fifth movie in the series, The Thin Man Goes Home, in which Nick Charles returned to his boyhood home to visit his parents (and, of course, managed during that visit to get involved in a murder case).
• X-Men Film Series:
  • X-Men, X2: X-Men United, and X-Men: The Last Stand. The second film goes by a few different titles, perhaps because "X-Men United" sounds like a soccer team to viewers outside the U.S.
  • Then there's the prequels and spinoffs: X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), a prequel, was intended to start a spinoff "X-Men Origins" franchise which never materialised; The Wolverine (2013) was a mostly stand-alone story set after the original trilogy; and Logan (2017), a Distant Finale of sorts named after Wolverine's street name. However, the sequential films X-Men: First Class (2011), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)^note which also partially follows on from the original trilogy and The Wolverine and X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) all have a consistent title-subtitle format. Then this pattern was broken with Dark Phoenix (2019), although it was marketed as "X-Men: Dark Phoenix" in some countries.
• This happened to Jackie Chan films in the USA a lot, because they were originally released only on home video here, where they were underground cult favorites, but not part of mainstream culture. Then his film Rumble in the Bronx was released theatrically and became a hit, so many of his earlier films got re-released on video or finally given a theatrical release. However, several of his films were part of long-running series, the earlier films typically had cheap sets and special effects, were shot on poor-quality film stock, and/or were not originally written with worldwide release in mind, and so the studios and distributors didn't think American audiences would understand the Chinese cultural concepts. So the later films in those series, which had better production values and more universal appeal, got theatrical releases under new titles, with the earlier films re-released on home video... retitled as if they were follow-on sequels to the later films that got theatrically-released first here in the states.
  • Armor of God 2: Operation Condor was released theatrically in the US first, so it was re-titled Operation Condor. When that did well, the earlier film in the series was retitled from Armor of God to Operation Condor 2: The Armor of the Gods.
  • Police Story 3: Supercop was similarly released theatrically as simply Supercop, leading to the several other films in the series being re-titled "Supercop 2" through Supercop 5 for home video releases.
  • Drunken Master 2 was retitled Legend of the Drunken Master when released in the US. You could be forgiven for thinking there wasn't a Drunken Master 1, given that nobody these days really associates Jackie Chan with his earliest fare.
• Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel. The others just have punny subtitles without pointing out they're follow-ups (Chipwrecked and The Road Chip).
• The Godzilla series has a fairly consistent Godzilla vs. Whatever or Whatever vs. Godzilla formula, but strange titles pop up from time to time. In Japan, there are two films called Godzilla, one of which is the original and the other of which is its direct sequel that erases the movies that came in between. Also, some of the later movies replaced the "vs." in the titles with an "X" for no apparent reason.
  • Before they settled on the "Vs." format, though, the filmmakers got somewhat...creative...with the titles. The fifth film, Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster dropped Godzilla from the title entirely, and the international titles for 3 of the next 4 films didn't reference Godzilla at all (Son of Godzilla, the 8th film, being the exception).
  • When the 2014 American version got a sequel, it was called Godzilla King Of The Monsters... which had the slight problem of being the exact name the original 1954 movie got upon its US release (some countries at least alleviated by adding a "II"). At least third installment Godzilla vs. Kong was an inverse of the first time he faced the great ape (King Kong vs. Godzilla).
• Surprisingly averted for almost the entire run of the Saw series, which were simply consistently numbered with successive roman numerals and no subtitles. The filmmakers explicitly noted that they were not going with sequel names like Saw 2: Hacksaw or S4w to avoid this. This lasted until the seventh film, which instead of being Saw VII is Saw 3D. The DVD release has renamed it Saw: The Final Chapter.
  • Then came the eighth overall film in the franchise, 2017's Jigsaw, set ten years after John Kramer's death(!) And follow-up Spiral (2021), which technically is Spiral: From the Book of Saw.
• Michael Bay said Transformers wouldn't have Numbered Sequels. It was followed by Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Transformers: Age of Extinction and Transformers: The Last Knight. It was at least consistent all throughout, but this does create the obvious problem of not being able to know the correct order without any prior knowledge or research.
  • Soft reboot Bumblebee will be followed by Transformers: Rise of the Beasts to restore the pattern.
• Mission: Impossible had two numbered sequels. The fourth drops them: Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation, Mission: Impossible – Fallout and Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning (in two parts!) followed suit.
• The sequel to Piranha 3D is titled Piranha 3DD.
• A Very Brady Sequel certainly makes an odder name than The Brady Bunch Movie 2 would have, especially since "Brady" isn't usually an adjective (though this marks neither the first nor last time that Paramount would use it as one).
• Almost played straight with TRON's sequel, TRON: Legacy, which was originally going to be called TR2N. How it was supposed to be pronounced is anyone's guess.
• Gradually happened with Leprechaun. There's Leprechaun, followed by Leprechaun 2 and Leprechaun 3, then introducing subtitles with Leprechaun 4: In Space, followed by dropping the number for Leprechaun in the Hood and ending with Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood by mimicking 2 Fast 2 Furious's ridiculous title.
• Camp Blood, Camp Blood 2 and... Within the Woods.
• Parodied in an early opening of Gremlins 2: The New Batch, in which Daffy Duck attempts to rename the film "The Return of Super-Daffy Meets Gremlins 2 Part 6: The Movie".
• Home Alone got a Setting Update sequel (Home Alone 2: Lost in New York). Then came a sequel with another character, Home Alone 3. Then one that's supposedly with the same character from the original, Home Alone 4. The following two dropped numbers altogether.
• Truth or Dare?: A Critical Madness was followed by Wicked Games, Screaming for Sanity: Truth or Dare 3 and Deadly Dares: Truth or Dare Part IV.
• The fifth Paranormal Activity movie, the "Latino Spin-Off" set in Oxnard, California is called Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones. Originally it was to be titled The Oxnard Tapes, with no mention of the Paranormal Activity name. The next official film, Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension was released in March 2015.
• There's very little consistency in the sequel naming used by The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise. The first sequel was just a Numbered Sequel, but the next movie went the Rambo direction by calling itself Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III. Part 4 then switched the numbers for subtitles. The remake series has too few entries to really say it's inconsistent, but 2013 saw the release of Texas Chainsaw 3D, which also ignores every film after the original. The next film in the series was titled simply Leatherface, and is an origin story of our hero. It is followed by Texas Chainsaw Massacre (no “the”), which will again disregard everything since the original.
• Evil Dead: The original The Evil Dead spawned two sequels, Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn and Army of Darkness. The remake is simply titled Evil Dead. The sequel television series is Ash vs. Evil Dead.
• Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie followed by... Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie.
• The Left Behind film series of 2000-2005 had Left Behind: The Movie, Left Behind II: Tribulation Force,...and Left Behind: World At War, justified in that case since World At War was simply the Movie Multipack second half of Left Behind II, both of which covered the second book.
• The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia. Maybe the ghosts took a road trip...?
• Tetsuo: The Iron Man was followed by Tetsuo II: Body Hammer, reflecting the Adjective Noun style of sequel naming.
• The Blair Witch Project has a sequel entitled Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2. This uses the odd Sequel: The Original Title format. The title also makes no sense as no "Book of Shadows" is ever mentioned, or alluded to, and it pretty much has nothing to do with anything in the movie. It got worse when the series was revived, with the plain title Blair Witch.
• The sequels to Jurassic Park aren't very cohesive. The second is The Lost World: Jurassic Park, then the third is Jurassic Park III, and the fourth is Jurassic World. The fifth shows it's mostly tied to the predecessor: Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. The sixth took a page from Star Trek and dropped the colon, Jurassic World Dominion.
• The sequel to the erotic thriller Wild Orchid is called Wild Orchid II: Two Shades of Blue.
• Venom (2018) was followed by Venom: Let There Be Carnage.
• Top Gun had a sequel that used the protagonist's callsign as the subtitle, Top Gun: Maverick.

Literature

• Lorien Legacies has a series of (important) supplemental e-novellas called "The Lost Files". The first title in this series, which sets the insanely high bar for story title-age everywhere, is I Am Number Four: The Lost Files: Six's Legacy. The rest of them (Nine's Legacy, The Fallen Legacies) follow this trend. A fifth collection (13-15) was released in May 2016 as Zero Hour. (I Am Number Four: The Lost Files: Zero Hour — Lorien Legacies: The Lost Files... we may need an oncologist in here.
• Terry Pratchett's second book, The Light Fantastic, was originally subtitled "The Sequel to The Colour of Magic" in its UK print. As Pratchett became more prolific, it was changed to "A Sequel to The Colour of Magic" and, later, "A Discworld Novel." For a while, they were all subtitled as "The nth Discworld Novel" until the numbers got ridiculous and "A Discworld Novel" was born.
• Similar to the Discworld example, the Dresden Files books were labelled "Book n of the Dresden Files" for about the first six books. Since Dead Beat, the seventh installment, they've been "A novel of the Dresden Files".
• American Gods has a sequel named Anansi Boys. Narrator in Anansi Boys has a fun with this trope at one point.
  Narrator: Nothing was happening. Still nothing was happening. Another Nothing. The Return Of Nothing. Son Of Nothing. Nothing Strikes Back. Nothing, Abbott and Costello Meets The Werewolf.
• The Thursday Next series contains seven books to date, with no discernible naming convention. The fifth one is called First Among Sequels.
• Return to Planet Tad isn't an example, but the title page has "Revenge of, "Beneath the," "Beyond the," "Attack of the," "Escape from" and "Son of" above the title, each of them crossed out.
• Chaos Fighters has a few novels with such titles. Chaos Fighters II is a major offender with subtitles Cyberion Strike and its sequel Chemical Siege. However, it helps that the former is the name of the final attack launched by the big bad of the novel while the latter refers to the chemical hollows which pollutes the city of Murio. Both titles are set as a Time Skip to the main series.
• Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Supervillain has several sequels, all of which follow the same naming pattern. However, while (for example) Please Don't Tell My Parents I Blew up the Moon hints at large-scale adventure, much like the first book, Please Don't Tell My Parents You Believe Her sounds more like a story of small-scale heartbreak.
• The original novel series that becamse The Animals of Farthing Wood has a confusing title history to say the least! The original story was originally published as two separate titles; Escape from Danger and The Way to White Deer before being compiled as The Animals of Farthing Wood. These were then followed by five sequels — In the Grip of Winter, Fox's Feud, The Fox Cub Bold, The Siege of White Deer Park, In the Path of the Storm and Battle for the Park — and finally a prequel, Farthing Wood: The Adventure Begins. Then there's the Farthing Wood Omnibuses, of which two were published — but The Animals of Farthing Wood Omnibus actually lacks the original Animals of Farthing Wood novel, instead containing the first three sequels, and the Second Omnibus only contains the fourth through to sixth sequels and doesn't contain the prequel.

Live-Action TV

• While some teams returning to Robot Wars give their robot a numbered sequel name (Chaos 2, for example, which was much more successful than Chaos) others use an Oddly Named Sequel name (for instance Scutter's Revenge being followed by Spawn of Scutter, which in turn was followed by Spawn Again).
• Each season 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 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.)
• Ashes to Ashes (2008) is a sequel series to Life On Mars set in London, eight years later. Both are David Bowie song titles. The ironic thing is that the song "Ashes to Ashes" is a sequel to the song "Space Oddity," which is not the name of a TV show. Yet.
• The British musical comedy/drama series Blackpool had a two-part sequel, Viva Blackpool. The original Blackpool series was called Viva Blackpool for US distribution.
• Grace and Favour, the short-lived sequel series to Are You Being Served?, was marketed in the U.S. as Are You Being Served? Again! Some believe that this is due to Viewers Are Morons, but others (including cast member Frank Thornton) argue that if it were more clearly identified as a sequel to Are You Being Served?, it might not have been short-lived.
  • Well, it would still have been as short-lived, but you may be right in the sense that it may have been more popular. Billy Burden (Mr. Moulterd) died just after the series ended.
• M*A*S*H was followed by After M*A*S*H.
• Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers was followed by Power Rangers Zeo. "Zeo" was the name of the crystal that gave the Mighty Morphin' heroes their new powers. From then on, the default name for any series, whether connected to the previous series or not, has always been Power Rangers X, with X characterizing the Rangers' power source or function, or in some cases the setting (one series was literally and titularly Power Rangers in Space!).
  • In Japan, Himitsu Sentai Gorenger was followed by J.A.K.Q. Dengekitai and Battle Fever J before every Super Sentai season followed the same "[Adjective] Sentai [Name]" template (with only two exceptions).
• Parodied by the Portuguese comedy show Paraíso Filmes, about a Toilet shop/Movie studio (no, that's not a typo) where the plot of every episode revolves around shooting a Z-grade movie. In one episode they shoot their newest production, a ninja movie entitled The Return of the Vengeance of the Red Dragon 6.
• The Mole 2: The Next Betrayal
• Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome
• iCarly: The blooper episode "iBloop" had a Sequel Episode called "iBloop 2: Electric Bloopaloo".
• It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia gives us "CharDee MacDennis 2: Electric Boogaloo" (both the episode title and the name of the in-universe board game), courtesy of Frank... much to the group's chagrin.
• Community discussed this in the episode "Pillows and Blankets", where Abed compares the nonsensical nature of war to the Rambo movie titles.
• Survivor: Most early seasons were named after their location, but then we have the returning-contestant seasons of All-Stars and Heroes Vs Villains. Panama is also known by the subtitle Exile Island, its gimmick. (Micronesia similarly used to be known as Fans vs. Favorites, but with Caramoan using the same gimmick and subtitle the location is now necessary to differentiate.) Eventually, due to most seasons filming in Samoa or Fiji, titles based on the gimmicks became commonplace and are no longer "odd". Then, in a first for the series, the season after Winners at War was simply titled Survivor 41.

Music

• Danza II: The Electric Boogaloo by The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza.
• The first three LPs released by Led Zeppelin were called simply Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin II and Led Zeppelin III. Their fourth album, which has No Title aside from a sequence of unpronounceable symbols, is informally referred to as Led Zeppelin IV in keeping with this pattern.
  • The fourth album is also sometimes called "Zoso" due to the fourth unpronounceable symbol looking vaguely like that word.
• Early in their career, Franz Ferdinand had intended to title all their albums simply Franz Ferdinand, and differentiate them only by their cover art. Their producer talked them out of the idea.
  • Their second album, You Could Have It So Much Better, was originally going to be called You Could Have It So Much Better...with Franz Ferdinand, which is a much better title. Specially as the third had the band in its title (Tonight: Franz Ferdinand).
  • Similarly, Weezer currently has four (out of ten) self-titled albums. They're identified by the colors of the cover: blue, green, red, and white.
  • That's most likely a reference to The White Album. Weezer released its own White Album in 2016.
• Peter Gabriel's first four solo albums were all named Peter Gabriel. To avoid insanity, the first three were given nicknames based on their covers: Car, Scratch, and Melt. The fourth, meanwhile, was retitled Security in North America at the behest of Geffen Records, and it stuck in the public consciousness. Gabriel said he wanted each cover to look like the next issue of a magazine (thus the identical typeface/layout on those four LPs).
• Fleetwood Mac released two self-titled albums — one during the years when Peter Green was the frontman, and another during their decidedly more successful Buckingham-Nicks years.
• The Soviettes subvert the usual practice of bands naming their albums with actual titles, and made LP I, LP II and LP III.
  • Portending at least a six-album career, these Minnesotans strove to create a "rainbow" of album art. LP I sported a red scheme, LP II featured orange, and LP III was yellow. Theoretically, LPs IV-VI would have been green-, blue- and violet-themed (indigo having been stricken from the spectrum long ago). This was confirmed both in an interview and in the fact that the band's post-career online-only release, Rarities, had the green color scheme LP IV would have had.
• Seal's first two albums were self-titled.
  • His third self-titled album (but fourth album) is called Seal IV.
• The supergroup Traveling Wilburys' first album was called simply Volume One; their second and final album was named, of course, Volume Three.
  • Volume One was given this name for deliberately ironic reasons; i.e., the unlikelihood of there ever being a Volume Two. Of course, when a new album was in the works, that would have ruined the joke, so they had to give it an equally ironic title.
  • In the late Nineties, George Harrison said that if there was ever another Wilburys album, it would be called "Volume Five."
  • Spoiling the joke somewhat, a Russian label put out Tom Petty's "Full Moon Fever" as "The Traveling Wilburys, Volume Two." This actually works - the album was released between Volumes One and Three, and has Harrison, Orbison and Lynne making appearances.
  • She & Him titled their first album Volume One in tribute to Traveling Wilburys. However, in their distinctly non-ironic style, they decided to call the next album Volume Two.
• They Might Be Giants' self-titled debut album has been nicknamed "The Pink Album" because of its cover art. And as a Beatles reference.
  • And to differentiate it from the band's widely-known 1985 demo, which was also titled "They Might Be Giants."
• Coheed and Cambria's entire discography thus far is full of this. In order: The Second Stage Turbine Blade, In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3, Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV, Vol. 1: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness, Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV, Vol. 2: No World for Tomorrow, and Year of the Black Rainbow. There is an explanation for all this: Their whole discography is basically one long Concept Album broken up into parts, and they started with "two" because they intended from the beginning to eventually make a prequel album. Year of the Black Rainbow is that prequel album, and while it broke with the chronological album titles altogether, the first track is titled "One".
• Chicago has subverted this numerous times, making album titles with nothing but roman numerals. They're up to XXXII; that includes the greatest hits but DOESN'T include a few non-numbered releases like "Live in Japan" so they really have closer to 40 releases over the years.
• Killswitch Engage's second self-titled release was known among fans as Killswitch Engage II even while the title was just rumored.
• Metallica's 1996 album Load was followed the next year with ReLoad.
• The Beastie Boys latest album is called "Hot Sauce Committee Part 2". There is no "Part One", though there was supposed to be. Supposedly the boys were busy making "Part One" when MCA was diagnosed with cancer, thus the album was delayed. Part 2 was released because the boys said they were going to release it on a certain date, so it kind of makes "Part One" a case of "The Missing Floppies".
• Also boasting two self-titled albums is the band Rancid. The first was released in 1993, the second in 2000.
• Periphery followed up their self-titled debut album with Periphery II: This Time It's Personal.
  • There third and fourth album formed a double album called Juggernaut, consistenty of Juggernaut: Alpha and Juggernaut: Omega. Afterwards they resumed the pattern Periphery II started with Periphery III: Select Difficulty and Periphery IV: Hail Stan.
• Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses by SlipKnot is actually the band's fourth. SlipKnot is their second. Their first was a limited, self-issued album called Mate, Feed, Kill, Repeat, released in 1996.
  • Likewise, their sixth album is called .5: The Gray Chapter.
• The Cure's list of albums are not numbered (though Robert Smith tried to claim at least three were a trilogy). However, it took over twenty years and twelve albums for them to finally have a Self-Titled Album. It was not quite fittingly their last one, only second to last, as of 2013; the last (as of now) is 4:13 Dream.
• Korn's 2010 album release was named Korn III: Remember Who You Are despite being the band's 9th album. The reason for this name was because the band wanted to return to their mid 90s Nu Metal roots (and retroactively saying that their second album, Life is Peachy, is now considered "Korn II") after going through years of experimentation that caused some older fans to drop off (their previous attempts at trying to draw back older fans, including an album that actually has no official name, yielded mixed results).
• Meatloaf had a classic album titled Bat Out Of Hell after one of its songs. Decades later, he released the sequel album, Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell and third, Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster is Loose.
• Epik High's albums "Map the Soul" and "Remapping the Human Soul." Guess their cartography wasn't on point the first time.
• Subverted with Santana's 2016 album Santana IV. They've had well over 30 albums prior to this one. But it is the fourth album featuring nearly all of the Classic Santana lineup.
• AJJ frequently parodies this in their titles. "People II: The Reckoning," "People II 2: Still Peoplin'," and "Gift of the Magi 2: Return of the Magi." In addition, "People II: The Reckoning" comes before "People," the song it's a sequel to, on People That Can Eat People... The band has joked that their next album will feature "People II 2 Act II: The Peoplening." Hasn't happened yet, but they did make an album called The Bible 2.
• When the Santa Clara Vanguard used Scheherazade for their 2004 show, they titled the program "Attraction: The Music of Scheherazade". They brought back the work for their 2014 show, which they titled "Scheherazade: Words 2 Live By".
• Van Halen II was their second album. Van Halen III their eleventh, but the one with their third singer.

Pinballs

• Williams Electronics' Pin*Bot was followed by The Machine: Bride Of Pin*Bot and Jack*Bot: A PinBot Adventure.
• The Getaway: High Speed II is the sequel to High Speed.

Podcasts

• Irregular Podcast #17: "Arlington Wolfe 2: Parachronic Boogaloo"

Pro Wrestling

• In 1985, the World Wrestling Federation held a pay-per-view called WrestleMania. Since then, they've bounced back and forth in number conventions for each year's edition of the show. Each show name, in order:
  • WWF WrestleMania, followed by WWF WrestleMania 2, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, 13, XIV, XV, 2000 (the 16th incarnation), X-Seven (pronounced "Seventeen"), and X8 (pronounced "Eighteen").
  • After the name-change to World Wrestling Entertainment, they had WWE WrestleMania XIX, XX, 21, 22, 23, XXIV, "WWE The 25th Anniversary of WrestleMania" (aka XXV), XXVI, XXVII, XXVIII, 29 (aka "NY NJ"), and XXX.
  • Following WrestleMania XXX, the event logos stopped using numbers altogether (elsewhere they are distinguished using Arabic numerals) and instead used symbols, resulting in fans calling the events "WrestleMania Play Button" (31), "WrestleMania Star" (32), "WrestleMania Sun" (33), "WrestleMania Fleur-de-lis" (34), "WrestleMania Liberty Crown" (35) and "WrestleMania Pirate Flag" (36).
• In 2005, WWE held an Extreme Championship Wrestling reunion event called ECW One Night Stand. The event was held again the next year under the same name as the first show of the newly-relaunched ECW brand. The year after that, WWE decided to drop the ECW-exclusive nature of the event, and it became WWE One Night Stand. Two years later, it was again renamed WWE Extreme Rules.
• Every year from 2001 to 2006, WWE held an event called "Vengeance." The 2007 edition was called "Vengeance: Night of Champions," and for 2008 through 2010, the show was just "Night of Champions." To confuse matters further, 2011 saw both "Night of Champions" and "Vengeance."
• WCW's Super Brawl event was pretty consistently called "WCW Super Brawl [Roman numeral]" aside from WCW Super Brawl 2000 and the next year's WCW Super Brawl Revenge.
• When WCW ran a motorcycle-themed pay-per-view in 1997 called Hog Wild, they ran afoul of a Harley Davidson group which owned that name. All subsequent editions of the show were called Road Wild.
• WWE's "interactive pay-per-view" event (where viewers could vote on elements of the matches) was originally branded as "Taboo Tuesday" (unusually happening, as per the title, on a Tuesday; presumably simply for the Alliterative Name potential). This lasted for two years until 2006, when the event was shifted to the more sensible Sunday and rebranded "Cyber Sunday" until it went defunct after 2008. As the original title made no reference to being related to Internet voting whatsoever (adding more credence to the notion that it was chosen just because it started with the same letter as "Tuesday"), this may be an inversion (as the later sequels were sensibly named).
• NXT has produced five specials: NXT ArRIVAL, NXT Takeover, NXT Takeover: Fatal Four Way, and NXT Takeover: R Evolution (pronounced like R Evolution or "our evolution"), and NXT Takeover: Rival. The IWC was so confused by the Takeover specials at first (before they realized that they were a callback to the old In Your House specials) that Cageside Seats even jokingly called Fatal Four Way NXT Takeover: Electric Boogaloo.

Roleplay

• Discused in Super Mario Guy RPG:
  Mario/Peter Griffin: By the way Mallow, which movie had the exploding arrows?
  Mallow/Chris Griffin: Rambo.
  Mario: Rambo, OK, it was Rambo, and then was Rambo 2, right?
  Geno/Brian Griffin: Actually its full title is Rambo: First Blood Part II.
  Mario: First Blood Part II? That doesn't make any sense.
  Mallow: Yeah, they should have called it Second Blood.
  Mario: Seriously, why do movie sequels have to screw around with the titles?
  Geno: You mean how Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is actually Call of Duty 5?
  Mario: Yeah, exactly.
• The Darwin's Soldiers short story Card of Ten is supposed to have a sequel. The sequel is named Ship of State.
• The forum roleplay A Shock to the System uses these as attack names during battle sequences when the players suggest the same attack several times. Attacking a spider with a Fiber-Optic Cutlass three times? "Laser Sword", "Laser Sword II: Electric Boogaloo'' and "Laser Sword III: Revenge of Laser Sword". Shooting an Undead Child in the head four times? "Boom, Headshot!", "Boom Headshot II: Moar Headshots!", "Boom Headshot III: Revelations", and "Headshots IV: We Have Run out of Sequel Names".

Softwares

• Microsoft has a history of these:
  • Windows NT started at version 3.1, to coincide with Windows 3.1.
  • Microsoft Windows 7 is an oddly numbered release. Since Windows 3.x, Microsoft abandoned the numbering system but released more than four iterations of Windows, including Windows 95, NT, 98, 2000, Millennium Edition, XP, Server 2003, Vista before returning to the numbering system with Windows 7. Even if we are selective in which editions we count as actual significant releases, it should still have been higher than the 7th major release.
  • From Windows 3.1, Windows development split into two branches, each with its own version number system. Windows 95, 98, 98SE and ME (collectively Windows 9x) were all technically the same operating system for the purpose of internal version numbers, 98 and ME just being feature added versions (95 = 4.0, 98 = 4.10, ME = 4.90). Meanwhile, NT isn't a single release (not even the versions marketed as NT: NT 3.x was concurrent with Windows 3.x and looked the part, while NT 4.0 was concurrent with Windows 95 and looked the part), and the last Windows version that wasn't another NT version was ME. Even once the "NT" tag was dropped from the branding, new versions continued to be given NT version numbers internally: Windows 2000 is NT 5.0; XP is NT 5.1; Server 2003 is 5.2; Vista is NT 6.0, hence the selection of the number 7 for the next release. However, Windows 7 is internally NT 6.1. None of this is clear from the labelling, as the release names are driven by Marketing and not technical concerns. Still counts as Oddly Named Sequels of course.
  • The numbering of NT has gone weird for technical compatibility (programs that look at the NT version to decide if they work on that version of Windows). Windows 7 is NT 6.1, Windows 8 is NT 6.2, and Windows 8.1 is NT 6.3.
  • Microsoft has announced that Windows 8.1 would now be followed by Windows 10, thus bypassing 9 altogether. This was actually done somewhat pragmatically to avoid conflicts with legacy programs designed for older versions that would identify 95 and 98 with strings such as if(version.StartsWith("Windows 9")). The name "Windows One" was floated to provide consistent branding with their many other products with "One" in the name such as Xbox One, OneDrive, OneNote, etc. but decided against because of confusion with Windows 1.0 and likely based on the response to the Xbox One name.
  • 10 effectively created a clean slate as it moved towards semi-annual feature updates rather than an entire new version every few years but there are still some oddities with the branding of these as well. Each update has a development codename^note Threshold 1 and 2 followed by Redstone 1-5, a version number using the release date similar to Ubuntu, and a branded name such as the Anniversary Update and two iterations of Creator's Update^note  not to mention the individual build number 10.0.xxxxxx. While the regular consumer generally only hears the branding name and version number, developers and insiders need to stay familiar with the others. 1804 was released simply as the April 2018 Update and the scheduled first update for 2019 is being seeded to testers as simply 19H1 so it appears they are moving away from the branded names for both release and development.
  • Windows Server releases are generally titled "Windows Server" followed by the year of release (in 2003, 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2019 so far). Except that sometimes there will be a release which has the same name as the previous one with "R2" appended to it (Windows Server 2003 R2 was released in 2005, Windows Server 2008 R2 was released in 2009, and Windows Server 2012 R2 was released in 2013).
  • DirectX 4 was skipped due to it being a stopgap version and all the developers were waiting for DX5 to ship.
  • The names got confusing between the 9x and NT kernels in the 2000 releases. The 9x releases first go Windows 95 -> Windows 98, and NT goes Windows NT 3.1 -> Windows NT 3.5 -> Windows NT 3.51 -> Windows NT 4.0. So far so good. After that, we got Windows 2000 which, despite its name being a clear continuation of the 9x naming convention, is a continuation of the NT kernel and is not intended for the general public, being a high-end OS like previous NT versions. And right after that, we got Windows ME, which was the next 9x-based version, even though its name is somewhat closer to the NT naming convention ("Windows" followed by a two-letter acronym).
• Ubuntu uses a version name based on the year and month of release, with major releases every six months. This is then followed by an alliterative adjective-noun name with the first letters going up through alphabetical order for each release. For example, 10.10 Maverick Meerkat was released in October of 2010, followed next April by 11.04 Natty Narwhal and then 11.10 Oneric Ocelot.
• macOS X is usually more known by its code name more than its version number (which just increments past the decimal). Except they started with big cats. As of 10.9, they're using locations in California starting with the odd-sounding Mavericks (after a major big-wave surfing area in San Mateo County).

Tabletop Games

• Dungeons & Dragons:
  • Due to a disagreement between the game's two creators, the RPG was split into two games, a stripped-down "introductory" version also called Dungeons & Dragons, and an expanded version called Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. AD&D was later revised into Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2^nd Edition, while the Dungeons & Dragons line was still being published in parallel. Then the publisher folded and the rights were bought by Wizards of the Coast, who unified the two lines as Dungeons & Dragons 3^rd Edition. So is this the 3^rd edition of Dungeons & Dragons, or is it the 3^rd edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, making it the 4^th edition in order (since the original AD&D was a sequel to the original D&D, with the second version of D&D'' as a Gaiden Game)?
  • Then they followed 3^rd Edition with a fairly minor revision called Dungeons & Dragons 3.5, which was not so much "confusing" as "stupid" naming.
  • Then followed a reversion to whole numbers, with a very revised rules system released as the 4^th Edition. Meanwhile, former publishing partner Paizo took the style of D&D's 3^rd Edition and 3.5 rules and revised it into a system they call Pathfinder; the deliberate similarities have earned Pathfinder the nickname "D&D 3.75", especially among players who disdain the alterations made for 4^th Edition D&D.
  • Now a new edition of Dungeons & Dragons very unlike the 4^th edition has been published called simply "Dungeons & Dragons" but semi-officially "Dungeons & Dragons 5^th Edition", even though it's really more like the 11^th incarnation of the game, depending on how you count all the revisions ^note Original D&D, D&D Basic (first revision), Advanced D&D, Revised D&D Basic-Expert-Companion-Masters Edition, AD&D 2^nd Edition, AD&D 2^nd Edition Player's Options (sort of AD&D 2.5), D&D 3^rd Edition, D&D 3.5 Edition, D&D 4^th Edition, D&D Essentials (sort of D&D 4.5).
  • Credit where it's due, Wizards of the Coast is 'aware of how silly the naming conventions have gotten, and are attempting to head them off with the latest revision/edition, which they are calling "One D&D" though most players are sticking with either 6th edition, or 5.5 depending on whom you ask ^note The playtest material released is deliberately more like tweaking 5th edition's rules, the same way 3.5 did to 3rd edition, as opposed to the completely new systems of other editions, so it's debatable which is more accurate.
• Rolemaster was followed by Rolemaster Standard System, which split the fandom to the point that the publisher re-released the original as Rolemaster Classic, at the same time renaming the Standard System to Rolemaster Fantasy Roleplaying. They also released a stripped-down set of light rules as Rolemaster Express, after creating a completely different and incompatible stripped-down, simplified game as HARP.
• Paranoia has had (in order) 1st edition, 2nd edition, 5th edition (later declared an "unproduct", 3rd edition (unpublished), XP (formally dropped after Microsoft complained, so this version was just called "Paranoia"), and 25th Anniversary Edition (a reprint of XP with some additional material). In the interest of fairness, 5th edition was an intentional spoof of this very trope.
• The editions of Traveller are, in direct line: Traveller, MegaTraveller, Traveller: The New Era, Marc Miller's Traveller, Traveller, Traveller 5. Note that Traveller 5 is really the 6th version. That progression also doesn't count the ports of the setting to different generic rules systems: GURPS Traveller, Traveller 20, and Traveller HERO, which were all released between Marc Miller's Traveller and the second Traveller in the list above. If you do count them then Traveller 5 is really the 9th version of the game.

Toys

• CSToys The Alternatives is an oddly named spinoff of a live show done by a toy store in Japan.

Visual Novels

• Ace Attorney:
  • While the Japanese sequels are Gyakuten Saiban 2-4 and Gyakuten Kenji for the spin-off, they were translated as Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice for All, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, and Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth. We may need an oncologist in here.
  • Probably has to do with the fact that the localization staff chose the title for the first game before learning that the fourth game would have a new protagonist. Thus, the Ace Attorney part was promoted as the main title for the rest of the series, while Phoenix Wright was demoted to a subtitle in the sequels. This continued on with GS5 and GS6 (Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice, respectively), and presumably the same would've been true of Gyakuten Kenji 2.
  • The Great Ace Attorney duology avoids this, being known as The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures and The Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve.
  • In-universe, one of the sequel series to The Steel Samurai is titled The Zappy Samurai: Electric Bugaboo.
• Danganronpa, in release order, consists of: Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls, Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School (an anime), and Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony.

Web Animation

• Homestar Runner's parody of such trends was Dangeresque 2: This Time, It's Not Dangeresque 1. And Dangeresque 3: The Criminal Projective, which was released as part of Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People. Not forgetting the original, which was titled Dangeresque 1: Dangeresque, Too? and the prequel Dangeresque 0: The Prequel Begins.
• A variation occurs in the "Tenth Issue-versary" of Teen Girl Squad: When the "ARROW'D" guy from issue 1 pops up out of nowhere to kill The Ugly One again, Narrator Strong Bad announces his arrival with...
  ARROW'D: ARROW'D 2! ELECTRIC-- wait a minute. Not this time, Buster!

Webcomics

• Parodied in this Hark! A Vagrant. Kate Beaton apparently wants "The Legend of Curly's Gold" to be the next "Electric Boogaloo".
• I present to you: Ensign 2: Electric Sue-galoo. The final product was titled (probably more appropriate to the subject matter) Ensign Two: The Wrath of Sue, the former was only used as a promotional image. And the announced third part will be titled Ensign³: Crisis of Infinite Sues (yes, not 3, cubed).
• Awful Hospital: The 'Deathly Dungeons' subplots, (all of which are divisions of the larger 'Inert Vessel' story arc.) Thus far, they include 'Deathly Dungeons,' 'Deathly Dungeons II: The Fungus Forest,' and 'Deathly Dungeons III: Even Dungeonier.'
• New School Kids has Johnny Keyfeet II: The Keyfeeting.
• In The X-Files parody comic Monster of the Week, the strip based on "Kitsunegari", which was a sequel to " Pusher", riffs on Modell's trigger phrase "cerulean blue" by having the title "Cerulean Blue 2: Cerulean Bluegaloo".

Web Original

• A Running Gag on OAFE is giving Avengers: Age of Ultron fake titles - including "Electric Bugaboo."

Web Videos

• The Angry Video Game Nerd gives a long diatribe about both this topic and Market-Based Title.
• In an OOC Q&A, Jadusable replied to a question asking about the name of the movie he's filming with "ben 2: electric boogaloo." Here is a transcript of that Q&A if you want it.
• Chuggaaconroy used these as the titles for the videos in his Phantom Hourglass LP, poking fun at the infamy of the Ocean King's Temple.
  • Ocean King II: Turning Over.
  • Ocean King III: The Backtrackening.
  • The Backtrackening's Revenge: Ocean King IV
  • Ocean King Gaiden: Gold Edition
  • Ocean King V: Now Just Backtracking
• Ashen reviewed a garbage game called Oriental Hero on his Terrible Old Games You've Probably Never Heard Of segment and pointed out that the title had nothing to do with the game's forerunner Ninja Master (and indeed, they are very different games from one another).
• Dragon Ball Z Abridged: The second movie with Cooler is titled Cooler 2 The Return of Cooler's Revenge The Reckoning. Probably because the official movies are titled Revenge of Cooler and Return of Cooler, making it unclear which one is supposed to be the sequel.

Western Animation

• Avatar: The Last Airbender:
  • The sequel was going to be called The Last Airbender: The Legend of Korra. Not only did it make no sense whatsoever because Korra isn't the last Airbender (she's not even a native airbender), it's a mouthful. Stranger yet, it was originally going to be called Avatar: The Legend of Korra (which would have made a lot more sense), but they had to change it due to legal issues with a certain movie. Prior to release, it was shortened down to simply The Legend of Korra.
  • In the UK the original show was always known as Avatar: The Legend of Aang (probably to avoid using the word "bender" which has... implications in the UK) so the sequel series being called The Legend of Korra fits very well.
• Happened to The Transformers in Japan; while Headmasters had sense, there's no excuse for Super-God Masterforce or Victory. They did this very often, spawning no less than fourteen differently named series (not all televised, or even given fiction at all; Operation Combination is a toy line only, for example.) in Japan, though "only" seven in English-speaking countries.
• Played for laughs in Danny Phantom. When the family temporarily get filthy rich, they move. Jack wants to call their new home "Fenton Works 2: This Time, it's Personal".
• Total Drama's second season was called Total Drama Action (shift to movie-themed challenges on an abandoned film lot) and the third season was named Total Drama World Tour (traveling the world and spoofing musicals). Season four is titled Total Drama Revenge of the Island (original location, different cast).
• Originally named Aqua Teen Hunger Force for no particular reason, the show was 'rebooted' (to exactly the same thing) and renamed Aqua Unit Patrol Squad 1, then 're-rebooted' (to exactly the same thing again) and renamed Aqua Something You Know Whatever. And then again to Aqua TV Show Show. And then finally to "Aqua Teen Hunger Force Forever". The only real change is the opening credits.
• Archer: In-Universe, Krieger mentions that he and his holographic girlfriend are having a "mushi" night, sushi and movies. The movies they're watching are called The Fisherman's Wife and The Fisherman's Wife 2: The Retentacling.
• On The Simpsons, Rainier Wolfcastle starred in Frankenberry the Movie 2: The Frankenberry Wears Prada.
• Phineas and Ferb: In-Universe, Doof lists a sequence of popular horror movies: The Grievance, Grievance 2; The Gripe, Grievance 3; Bone to Pick, and Grievance 4; Revenge of the Italian Jug Band.
• Milo Murphy's Law: Parodied with the Krillhunter movies. Some of the subtitles are Good Krill Hunting, House On Haunted Krill, and The Day the Earth Stood Krill. The studio eventually reboots the franchise as Lady Krillers.

Real Life

• The Xbox, followed by the Xbox 360, probably to suggest equivalence to the PlayStation 3 and Wii (at the time still known by its code name, Revolution). Microsoft's third console followed the trend with the Xbox One, which actually confused people due to the seeming chronological regression and "Xbox 1" having been a retronym for the original Xbox, and had the side effect of making it impossible to give the next Xbox a sensible name. The fourth Xbox console line, consisting of the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, is thus simply named "Xbox".
  • And of course the Nintendo series of consoles: Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo 64, Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo Wii, and Nintendo Wii U. The Wii U name actually caused confusion since it followed Wii accessory naming trends, and since advertising focused too much on the GamePad, too many people thought it was an accessory for the Wii rather than a new console, which, combined with several other factors, had a catastrophic effect on sales (though at least it hadn't been a retronym for the GameCube). And then there's the portables (Nintendo GameBoy Advance SP Micro DSi Lite XL?). The Nintendo Switch bridges these categories, but the naming of its successors remains to be seen.
• Similarly, try to figure out how old a camera is by model numbers. Sometimes these model numbers will change depending on what country the camera is being sold in. Even for the more expensive Digital SLR cameras such as the Rebels, the 60D, and the 1DmkIV, the model numbers don't seem to do much to tell you the cameras' relation to each other, aside from additional digits in the EOS model numbers implying that the camera is progressively cheaper (A few years ago, a Canon Rebel EOS 450D ran for about seven or eight hundred bucks. The Canon 1DmkII at the time ran for something close to five thousand dollars.)
  • Canon's release scheme is: the more numbers in a name, the cheaper the camera (the 1000D or XS is the cheapest option, where the 1D is the most expensive); the higher the number in the series, the newer (20D is older than the 60D). The single-digit cameras are the top of the line pro-bodies with top of the line tech at the time of the release, many of which have had multiple iterations (7D; 5D vs. 5D Mk. II; 1D vs. 1D Mk. IV vs. 1Ds Mk. III)
• Unlike every other manufacturer of diesel locomotives in the United States, ElectroMotive assigned model numbers without any reference to their product's capabilities i.e. horsepower or number of drive axles, except for the very earliest models and a few switchers. Numbers were skipped without any apparent pattern, resulting in the FT being followed by F3, F7, and F9, although there were models E1-E9. The GP series had 7, 9, 15, 18, 20, 28, 30, 35, 38, 39, 40, 49, 50, and 60, while the SD series model numbers are 7, 9, 18, 24, 28, 38, 39, 40, 45, 50, 60, 70, 75, 80, and 90. And this doesn't even begin to cover the variations within each model, designation for rebuilt models, special features, or models built for export.
• After the Radeon 9000 series, ATI changed to card numbers beginning with X. When Direct X 10 came around and ATI redesigned their chips from the ground-up, the numbering started at HD 2000 and went from there. And then after the HD 7000 series, they redid the numbering to an even more confusing level: the Radeon Rx 200 series. Also applies to the names given to the GPU chips themselves: with the Evergreen/HD 5000 series, ATI dropped the rXXX chip naming scheme in favor of just using the development code names.
• Nvidia's GeForce cards are just as confusing. The first one was "256," then there were some 3000s and 4000s followed by "FX [number]," then more numbers up to 9800, after which the 9XXX cards were rebranded as 1XX, and later releases counted up from there. Many of them have "GT," "GTX," "Ti," etc. stuck on to indicate improved performance or...something. The top card at time of writing drops the number part entirely in favor of the ambiguous word "Titan," apparently because it's in the 6XX series but they already released a "GTX 690."
  • The desktop version skips the 800 series, due to NVIDIA jumping the gun on releasing the Maxwell architecture for laptops. When the next generation of Maxwell came out, rather than have an 800 series for Desktops and possibly a 900 series for laptops, they just bumped the desktop series up to 900.
    • They also skipped the 300 series. Technically there was a 310 which was actually just a rebrand of the 210 (kind of like how the 900 series sounds like a two generation leap over the 700 series, which is very misleading), then they went straight to the 400 series.
• The Palm series of handheld organizers went through quite a few different numbering/naming schemes over the years:
  • "Pilot" (two numbered models) was followed by "Palm Pilot" ("Personal" and "Professional") which became the "Palm III" (III, II Ie, II Ix, II Ixe, II Ic) followed by the "Palm V" and "Palm VII". ("Palm IV" was skipped because Four Is Death.)
  • Later, the m100, m500, and i700 lines replaced the III/V/VII, followed by the Tungsten E/T/W/C lines, the TX and Zire, and a series of Treo phones before the end.
• The Voodoo line of graphics accelerators also skipped 4, then went back to it as a budget variation of the Voodoo 5 (and then there's the Voodoo Banshee).
• Desktop IBM and compatible computers. The early versions were named based on their Intel microprocessor chip number: 8086 and 8088, followed by the 80186 (which almost nobody ever even heard of, superseded almost immediately by) 80286, 80386, and 80486. Intel complained that AMD and other knockoffs were using their names but were informed that one couldn't trademark a number, so with the 80586 they changed the name to "Pentium," followed by the Pentium II, III, etc.
  • The 80386 and 80486 also came in "SX" versions, the SX being a cheaper (and less powerful) version - except that it was exactly the same chip, it just had some of the programming deactivated.
  • AMD's Athlon series: Athlon, Athlon XP, Athlon 64, Athlon X2/X3/X4, Athlon II X2/X3/X4.
  • Intel did this for the Core series. It started as Core then Core 2, but settled on Core iX. Though this helps in both marketing and utility (whatever number is in X represents its performance tier).
• What about The Great War, also known as the War to End All Wars? It had a "sequel" - also known as the second World War. Nowadays we have World War I and World War II, respectively. As the third parts of the trilogy usually suck despite the biggest effects and explosions, let's hope we'll never see World War III.
• Looking at the model names in the early iPhone line (iPhone > iPhone 3G > iPhone 3GS > iPhone 4 > iPhone 4S > iPhone 5 > iPhone 5S/C) it would seem they skipped the second installment. In reality, the 3G and 3GS models are generally considered to be iPhone 2 and 3 respectively. However, 4S is considered iPhone 4 (just like its predecessor) rather than iPhone 5, making the naming convention oddly inconsistent. Moreover, iPhone 5 is actually the sixth gen iPhone, not fifth gen like its name would have one believe. iPhone 5C is actually a cheaper, plastic version of the 5 with reduced capabilities.
  • From the iPhone 6 until 11, Apple alternated between incrementing the model number and adding a "C" to last year's phone. The iPhone X (in place of 10) broke this pattern temporarily, being followed by the iPhone XS. Then Apple dropped 'S' phones are started incrementing normally, following the iPhone 11 with the 12.
• The second Mystery Science Theater 3000 fan convention was called the ConventioCon ExpoFest-A-Rama 2: Electric Bugaloo (yes, they really did spell it that way).

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