Why do the Japanese episode titles contain spoilers?

denitonis · Post by **denitonis** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 7:42 pm

Well it makes perfect sense to me, you know what an episode is about but still have to see it to know what happens.
Though I think it is different for films since the runningtime is so much shorter.
What I am getting at is that by announcing what will happen in an episode and therefor "spoiling" it as you all seem to think it still doesn't tell the rest of the story, since Dragon Ball and many other series consist of many episodes and you will only know one week in advance what will happen next episode while you will not know how the story ends.
For example a lot of people are furious about how the first episode of Naruto Shippuuden is presented, it shows a part of the story that only happens in the manga for a lot of chapters later, yet it is not really a spoiler since everybody already knows what the whole ordeal between some of the characters in the show is, this I don't understand.

Eclipse · Post by **Eclipse** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 8:15 pm

I really don't have much of a problem with them spoiling it. Yeah, it's still a bit of a shock, but it's not that bad. It's better than having extremely vague titles.

Here's another question. I'm sure someone will answer; Why is Japanese episode titles always containing at least two lines (or sentences)?

BrollysKin · Post by **BrollysKin** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 8:19 pm

desirecampbell wrote:Here's another question: why do most English fiction titles make little or no sense until the ending? Why do we like vaguely worded titles?

There's nothing wrong with titles being 'accurate and informative'.

And there are English fiction titles that are 'spoilers'. Ever hear of 'Death of a Salesman'?

But death of a salesmen isn't about him dying. It's about th ehardships of his life and his reasoning behind it.

MajinVejitaXV · Post by **MajinVejitaXV** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 9:45 pm

Eclipse wrote:Here's another question. I'm sure someone will answer; Why is Japanese episode titles always containing at least two lines (or sentences)?

Once Upon a Time, Chris Psaros wrote:The Japanese titles are usually quite long, and often consist of a concise, descriptive phrase that is paired up with another phrase or quote that expands on that description.

Why is it that way? I dunno. It's just how they did it.

-Corey

sailorspazz · Post by **sailorspazz** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 9:55 pm

I just checked something....the manga chapter titles can contain spoilers, too. The chapter where Vegeta dies at the hands of Freeza is called *surprise* "Vegeta dies!" Some people are saying that they don't mind knowing about character deaths beforehand, but it bothers me. I don't want to see a preview or something that shows me what happens and then spend the next week wondering about it until I finally actually see it. I'd rather experience the emotional impact of seeing that moment in context and not knowing about it beforehand. I do like next episode previews, but only if they hint at things, not give away major plot points.

As for the Japanese episode titles, it's not true that they always have long titles. Some series have American style vague, short titles. I've been watching Tenjou Tenge lately (because apparently I didn't see enough of high school students fighting to the death with tons of fan service from Ikki Tousen

) and they have one or two word titles like "Illusion" or "Dragon's Eye". This is true of a lot of other series, as well. From what I've seen, the long titles mostly appear in kid's shows like Dragonball and Sailormoon. Why? Maybe they think kids won't tune in unless it sounds like something interesting is going to happen.

Post by **desirecampbell** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 10:36 pm

BrollysKin wrote:But death of a salesmen isn't about him dying. It's about th ehardships of his life and his reasoning behind it.

Uh huh, and the DBZ episode isn't about Vegeta dying, but that's what happens.

sailorspazz wrote:As for the Japanese episode titles, it's not true that they always have long titles. Some series have American style vague, short titles.

That's true too. Off the top of my head, Evangelion, Girls Bravo, Death Note, Inukami!, The Third...

So it's not the only kind of title.

mAcChaos · Post by **mAcChaos** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 12:30 am

Those are all newer series, though... (I think.) I wonder if series that were in their prime when DBZ was out were like that.

Eclipse · Post by **Eclipse** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 12:45 am

MajinVejitaXV wrote:
Once Upon a Time, Chris Psaros wrote:The Japanese titles are usually quite long, and often consist of a concise, descriptive phrase that is paired up with another phrase or quote that expands on that description.
Why is it that way? I dunno. It's just how they did it.

-Corey

I thought it was something to do with the Japanese language that made it into those long titles =P Eh well

Those are all newer series, though... (I think.) I wonder if series that were in their prime when DBZ was out were like that.

I checked a couple. YuYu Hakusho, Sailor Moon was a couple I looked at. They had long titles =P
So maybe it was a 90's thing (Although I do remember a few Naruto and Bleach episodes had long titles. Maybe it's just rare now)

Sebastian (SB) · Post by **Sebastian (SB)** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 1:40 am

Well more specifically, a good chunk of Shonen Jump based animes have particularly long titles (One Piece, Naruto, Yu Yu Hakusho, Rurouni Kenshin, Beet The Vandel Buster, Saint Seiya, etc.,). Though like others have mentioned with the new wave of titles like Bleach & Death Note (even the more recent Naruto Shippuden), they're really shortening the episode titles.

BrollysKin · Post by **BrollysKin** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 1:49 am

desirecampbell wrote:
BrollysKin wrote:But death of a salesmen isn't about him dying. It's about th ehardships of his life and his reasoning behind it.
Uh huh, and the DBZ episode isn't about Vegeta dying, but that's what happens.

Maybe, but doing it for every episode gets out of hand. Like I said before, I wouldn't want to see a movie with a spoiler in the title.

Tsukento · Post by **Tsukento** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 5:03 am

BrollysKin wrote:Maybe, but doing it for every episode gets out of hand. Like I said before, I wouldn't want to see a movie with a spoiler in the title.

Big difference between a TV series and movies. TV series' are continuous and follow from previous episodes. Most movies, however, are simply just one movie rather than a part of a franchise of other movies such as trilogies and what not. So obviously they wouldn't use spoiler titles if it's just a onesie.

Though as mentioned earlier, the dub is just as guilty of using spoilers in its title.

-Goku is Ginyu & Ginyu is Goku
-Captain Ginyu... The Frog!
-Piccolo’s Return
-The Fusion
-Frieza's Second Transformation
-Another Transformation?
-Dende's Demise
-The Renewed Goku
-The End of Vegeta (five spoiler titles in a row)
-Namek’s Destruction
-Frieza Defeated!!
-Namek's Explosion...Goku's End
-Freeza's Counterattack
-Another Super Saiyan?
-Say Goodbye, 17
-Trunks Ascends
-Forfeit of Piccolo!
-Videl is Crushed
-The Dark Prince Returns
-Buu is Hatched
-Super Saiyan 3?!
-Buu's Mutiny
-Goku's Time is Up
-Majin Buu Transforms
-Vegetto... Downsized
-End of Earth
-Old Buu Emerges
-Buu's Reincarnation
-Goku's Next Journey

Pretty much a rundown of most (if not all) of the spoiler titles in the dub. Pretty much gives you the idea of what happens in the episode before it even happens.

sailorspazz · Post by **sailorspazz** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 5:19 am

It's not like episode titles have always been long and they're just now getting shorter. Let's go back before Dragonball even started to 1979 with the original Gundam series. Those are mostly single sentence descriptions (like the first episode, "Gundam Rises Upon the Earth!"), which seems to be common throughout many Gundam series (that I've seen, anyway). Other titles were only one or two words (like "Cosmic Glow" or "Escape"). Certainly nothing as lengthy as the two sentence titles we get in DBZ.

Looking in the Daizenshuu just now, I noticed something interesting: the titles seem to get longer as the series goes on. The early Dragonball episodes have pretty short ones (the first episode is simply "Bulma and Son Gokuu"), but around the time DBZ starts they expand to the two sentence format (Episode 8: "The Great Transformation on a Moonlit Night! The Secret of Gohan's Power"). Maybe because DBZ is more action-oriented, and longer titles seem more "urgent" and "actiony"?

The S · Post by **The S** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 11:18 am

It seems to have been largely forgotten that a lot of these "spoilers" are also presented in the next episode preview, and not just in the title card shown at the end of the preview.

Maphisto86 · Post by **Maphisto86** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 12:21 pm

desirecampbell wrote:Here's another question: why do most English fiction titles make little or no sense until the ending? Why do we like vaguely worded titles?

There's nothing wrong with titles being 'accurate and informative'.

And there are English fiction titles that are 'spoilers'. Ever hear of 'Death of a Salesman'?

NO!!!!!!!!! NOT WILLY LOMAN!!!! NOOOOOOO!!!!!!

He dies by guilotine right?

Yeah vague titles are a staple of fiction. Like "The Three Little Pigs"... Seriously though "Silence of the Lambs" threw me until I got till near the end of the novel. Until then I could only imagine the title....

P.S. Iv'e read "Death of a Salesman" (loved it) and here's a spoiler... He does not die by guilotine. Sorry...

The S wrote:It seems to have been largely forgotten that a lot of these "spoilers" are also presented in the next episode preview, and not just in the title card shown at the end of the preview.

Good point...

Yet the previews still keep you in suspense or show only part of the episode and not what happens at the end.

Kanzenshuu

Why do the Japanese episode titles contain spoilers?

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