Why Anime Titles Are Absurdly Long, Weird, And Getting Worse

I’ve been watching anime since I grabbed Ninja Scroll from the neighborhood rental store. There’s been a lot of changes to the industry since then, from the toning down of blood and violence to the rise of shonen series, going mainstream, and studios that push animation forward to new heights we never thought possible while watching City Hunter. The latest anime trend is perhaps, the hardest one to actually explain to people who don’t know the origins of anime, and yet, it’s the first thing anyone sees when looking for a new series: the titles. 

The days of anime with names as simple as Golgo 13, Overlord, andSword Art Online are behind us and instead we haveFrom Overshadowed to Overpowered: Second Reincarnation of a Talentless Sage, Reborn as a Vending Machine I Now Wander the Dungeon, The Misfit of Demon King Academy: History’s Strongest Demon King Reincarnates and Goes to School with His Descendants, and there’s hundreds of other examples. Anime titles have exploded in length not because of translation issues from Japanese to English, but because of how they’re being adapted. 

Web Publishing Has Come For Anime

Sword Art Onlinechanged the industry when it went from a light novel to massively successful anime series. A light novel is the Japanese equivalent of a Young Adult novel, though the age range is a little larger, usually pre-teen to early 20’s. Instead of traditional publishing, these days most light novels are published as web novels which requires an absurd title that summarizes the story in order to get noticed. With hundreds of new web novels being published every month, it’s tough to break free, hence the Chuck Tingle naming conventions. 

Go to any Vertical Series distributor and you’ll see the same thing happening with titles like Knocked Up By The Secret CEO Alpha Werewolfor Found A Homeless Billionaire Husband For Christmas. One of those is made up. The other is very real. 

As search algorithms become more and more important in a world where it’s harder to find anything you actually want, expect more of these titles to pop up. Absurd anime names are about to break containment and the next thing you know, Tubi will be filled with similar-sounding dramas and thrillers. Japanese authors have found what works for them. 

Suppose A Kid From The Last Dungeon Boonies Moved To A Starter Town? is a symptom of streaming services’ growing problem with discoverability. When everything is available, how do you find anything new and interesting? It’s a tough problem to solve with no good answers. 

Anime With Long Weird Titles Can Still Be Great Anime

Of course, the other problem with most of these anime titles from the last few years is the overabundance of isekais. If you’ve seen Overlord,Inyuasha, and Sword Art Online, you don’t need to see another isekai. The genre is still one of the most popular in Japan and in any given week, at least three new isekai series will debut on different streaming platforms. 

The next time someone asks for an anime recommendation and you suggest Reborn as a Vending Machine I Now Wander the Dungeon (Season 1 is legit good, really, check it out), when they look at you crazy explain that it’s a byproduct of late-stage capitalism combined with the rapidly shrinking online ecosystem forcing creators to think outside the box in an ever more desperate race to get noticed by someone long enough for that all important click.