http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ExcitedTitleTwoPartEpisodeName

Sounds... exciting...

Advertisement:

Anime episode titles, especially for shounen series, tend to be two exclaiming sentences (sentence fragments are also common). The sentences are typically unusually descriptive by Western standards (but see In Which a Trope Is Described), and can reveal crucial plot details or work as an out and out summary of the episode. Generally, the format is a summary of the episode with exclamation points, followed by a comment on the episode that sounds as if it was something one of the main cast would say.

(Oddly, the manga so many of these shows are based on rarely if ever do this; their chapter/issue titles are usually equivalent to those of American comics, describing no more than a central item, theme, or quote. Sometimes, the anime's episode titles will mash together two - or more - such titles from the manga chapters they're adapting.)

Advertisement:

In dubbing, these are sometimes changed to something else entirely, usually a pun of some sort.

If Western fiction used the same style of titling, we'd probably have "Battle in the Cloud City! Luke's Father Revealed!" in place of The Empire Strikes Back. Bonus points if the title does all the revealing on its own.

A specific form of Idiosyncratic Episode Naming. See also Excited Show Title!, which is a title without declarative sentences.

Compare Colon Cancer. A subtrope of Punctuated! For! Emphasis!.

See also Short Title: Long, Elaborate Subtitle, Either/Or Title, and In Which a Trope Is Described.

Advertisement:

Examples! Of various mediums!

open/close all folders

Anime and Manga! Cartoons From Japan!

Fan Fics! Made-Up Stories of the Well-Known!

Films! Into the Big Screen!

Literature! Words On The Page!

When Hayakawa Publishing brought a few of the Doctor Who novelizations to Japan, they received new titles along these lines . For example, "Doctor Who and the Cave-Monsters" became "Shuddering! Underground Monsters!" and "Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks" became "Space-Time Big Bloody Battle!"

Live-Action TV! Real Life You See On the Small Screen!

Music! The Catchy Stuff You Hear!

Devin Townsend has Addicted! An album whose titles all end in !, except for the final track, which is Awake!!

The Blackout have an album called "The Blackout! The Blackout! The Blackout!"

Hellogoodbye's album "Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs!" also qualifies.

Swedish band bob hund's album Jag rear ut min själ! Allt ska bort!!! (My Soul Is On Sale! Everything Must Go!!!)

The Hives first EP was titled Oh Lord! When? How?

Oasis have a song called "Can Y'See It Now? (I Can See It Now!!)"

Scottish prog-metal guitarist Sithu Aye has the song "Lights! Camera! Explosions!"

Sufjan Stevens has released, among others, songs named "Say Yes! to M!ch!gan!" and "They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back from the Dead!! Ahhhh!"

Post-rock band Godspeed You! Black Emperor are particularly fond of this trope. Aside from their band name, they also have an album called "'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!" and a song called "Peasantry or 'Light! Inside of Light!'"

Pinball! Games Played Using a Ball!

Whoa Nellie! Big Juicy Melons. It speaks for itself.

Podcast! Internet Distributed Radio!

The Cool Kids Table game Here We Gooooo! is spelled with an exclamation point at the end.

Pokémon World Tour: United names most of it's episodes similarly to the Japanese Pokemon anime ("A Blue Day: Showdown at the Viridian Gym!"). Those that don't end in an exclamation point will usually have one after the first part of the episode instead ("Gift Shop Escapades! Arrival in Pewter City").

Video Games! Playing On The Screen!

Webcomics! Comic Strips From the Internet!

Web Original! Shows From the Internet!

Western Animation! Non-Japanese Cartoons!

Clerks: The Animated Series may not be anime, but its titles get progressively longer with each episode, culminating in "Dante and Randal and Jay and Silent Bob and a Bunch of New Characters and Lando, Take Part in a Whole Bunch of Movie Parodies Including But Not Exclusive To, The Bad News Bears, The Last Starfighter, Indiana Jones and the Temple Of Doom, Plus a High School Reunion." I kid you not.

Star Blazers, the American version of Space Battleship Yamato, has a slight variation of this. In the DVD collections and the straight-from-the-TV-screen illustrated comic collections from W.C.C. Animation Comics, the episode titles do indeed follow this format, but the episode titles listed in the IMDB look more like the American standard. The show itself doesn't even display the titles, so it's unclear which is considered the official titles.

Real Life! Stuff Out of the TV!