Frequently you don’t really know what an individual episode is called but when you buy the DVD or start searching for a particular episode online you suddenly realise the title and you are thinking… what the? Some anime go for thematic titles whereas others just go for long and strange. Here are my top 5 weird episode titles.
Share some of your favourite weird episode titles below.
Please Note – There are spoilers below. You have been warned.
Honourable mentions this week go Akame ga Kill and Black Butler for their thematic episode naming. That wasn’t enough to get them onto the list but it was enough for them to be considered.
Number 5: Not Enough Pool Safety (Amagi Brilliant Park)
Amagi also went with thematic naming (for most of the series) with episode titles such as ‘Not Enough Time’ and ‘Not Enough Money’. While those are pretty straight forward, I pulled out episode 7’s ‘Not Enough Pool Safety’ because of the episode content. While the title seems straight forward you aren’t really expecting magical pirate invaders to take control of the theme park’s pool area. The title is descriptive but deceptive and certainly caught my interest.
It also helps that this weird episode title is attached to one of the more action packed stories in the series that is also pretty hilarious as it goes very over the top.
Number 4: From Dusk Till Dawn (Dance in the Vampire Bund)
Horror references abound in the episode titles of Dance in the Vampire Bund. ‘Interview with the Vampire’, ‘Teen Wolf’ and ‘Howling’ all feature in the line up. ‘From Dusk Till Dawn’, episode 6, kind of feels like a turning point for the series in terms of atmosphere and the character arcs which is why I liked the reference.
Seriously, this is one series that almost as fun to watch for the various references to horror movies as it is for the story it is delivering and the story kind of works.
Number 3: The First Semicolon (Astarotte’s Toy)
All of the episode titles in Astarotte’s Toy seem to use punctuation and none of it seems to make a lot of sense. ‘Ampersand of the Party’ and ‘Secret Apostrophe’ feature, but I chose ‘The First Semicolon’ because mostly no-one really knows how to use a semicolon and because it is the second episode of the series which is where I noticed what they were doing with these titles. The first episode uses exclamation but I didn’t realise why they had used that word until the rest of the episode titles were revealed.
Number 2: My Cell Phone Doesn’t Get Many Calls (Haganai)
Again, all of the episode titles in this series are kind of long and descriptive. I just find this one amusing because it is understating a situation and leads us into quite an amusing episode where are characters realise they can use their phones to call places other than home and they can add numbers and emails to their phones. While there are other anime out there that do similar things with their titles, I just find this one particularly funny.
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Number 1: Czeslaw Meyer is Forced to Rework His Tremble-Before-the-Specter-of-Immortals Strategy (Baccano)
I could have chosen any of the episode titles from Baccano but this one really resonated. Each title starts with a character name and then reveals something fundamental about the character and the plot, only you won’t really realise it until after you have watched the series and really gone back and looked at how it all lines up.
In this episode (part of it at least) Czeslaw attempts to convince Ladd to kill the other passengers but miscalculates his approach and is shot himself. This moment is more revealing than it seems at first and as you learn more about Czeslw you start to get a really interesting picture of his character and motives. That said, it is just a funny title. Seriously, say it three times fast.
What episode titles have caught your eye? Share them below.
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Karandi James
