Sentence for Titles

[reddinggray]

Do any of you noticed that there are a lot of works out there that have sentences for their titles? Is this a trend?

For example, My Little Sister Can't Possibly Be This Cute or No Matter How I Look at It, It's You Guys' Fault I'm Not Popular or Do You Love Your Mom And Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks?

I have nothing against them. I personally think it's interesting and cute. I just don't get why???

If I created a work that is titled I shaved my legs and now I'm a superstar ,will you read it?

[TheOddFungi]

It's a trend going on with a lot of anime right now, so a lot of writers are picking it up too.

[WinterFall]

If I created a work that is titled I shaved my legs and now I'm a superstar ,will you read it?

Well... that surely sounds interesting, lol.

And, just like @ZakuraTheFungi said, there are lots of animes that have sentences as titles, and they can be shortened into abbreviations. For example, Otome Gēmu no Hametsu Furagu Shika Nai Akuyaku Reijō ni Tensei Shite Shimatta was abbreviated to Hamefura, and there's Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o! which was shortened to KonoSuba.

It's probably just a popular trend going on in naming works. There's nothing really wrong about it to me, though.

[Ordinaryaverageguy]

Maybe just a variation of the old title+subtitle. Like, "Dr. Strangelove" + "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb."

[Colours_dont_match]

I wondered about that too after some time and felt it sounded strange but interesting. I too think it's a trend, but maybe it's easier to make titles like that without worrying too much if the title is taken already? I mean most 1-3 word combinations for books or comics or movies are probably taken already.

[darthmongoose]

Okay so the story of how this trend happened is actually pretty funny.

Basically over in Japan, light novels have been a really big thing for a while now in a way. Short novels aimed at teens and adults with an anime or Visual Novel sort of tone to the writing and often illustrations took off there in print over a decade before they started being a mostly just online webnovel thing in English speaking countries.

So imagine you're in a shop and looking at all these shelves packed with narrow spines of tons of these light novels looking for something to read. If one has an interesting title, you might pull it out to look at the cover art and blurb... You see where this is going? Some clever person realised that the easiest way to hook people was to have a title that describes the premise of the story like a blurb, so basically put a condensed version of the blurb on the spine. As soon as this resulted in better sales, everyone started copying that format.

The format is also pretty handy for web titles because potential readers need to be tempted to click/tap to even see the blurb on a site like Tapas, so need to be hooked by the cover art and title, and a lot of readers go for high concept series based around a big, simple trope setup. If it's effective, it gets replicated.

.....of course to me it always makes me think of how the titles of troll movies in Homestuck are just several paragraphs of description of the plot.

[Yulek]

Okay but I can't be the only one who has intense flashbacks to their panic! At the Disco phase.

there's a good reason these tables are numbered honey, you just haven't thought of it yet

One of my favorite songs from that album.

[Kaydreamer]

I have noticed that! It's not a trend I like very much. I'm fonder of shorter titles which highlight the focus of the story, or indicate something about it. Full Metal Alchemist, The Dragon Prince, Cowboy Bebop, Sailor Moon. Short, memorable, and catchy.

[jkb4753]

I make my chapter titles long because im obsessed with Panic! At the Disco.
"Lying is the most fun a girl can have without taking her clothes off"
"But its better if you do"

[Caro]

Its interesting to me how similar all the titles are too like they’re all conversational and sound like they’re coming from a character who is almost explaining the plot. I thought they were cute and funny at first but now they all bleed into each other for me!

Thinking about American comics with sentences for titles and the two that come to mind were The End of the F****** World and I Am Not Okay With This (both happen to be the same cartoonist and now live action Netflix series) and I think I prefer a title like that where its more evocative of a tone rather than any direct description of the content.

[jkb4753]

A lot of the titles on this site sound they're badly translated from another language. Is that just me? Like somebody put them through google translate.

I think the titles you mentioned are funny on purpose. Like they are jokes that make sense.

[Caro]

omg they really do sound like bad translations! It really is its own vibe.

[YourRandomWaffle]

I've definitely have noticed this, and personally, I'm not a fan. I'm not sure why? Like, the first time I saw it, I was like, oh, that's cool and different! But after a couple, it's definitely lost it's charm, at least for me. I dunno... it's like, shorter titles feel more creative to me somehow?? Especially since they're all basically the same thing. Like,,, If you can convey what your work's about in two or three words, and it's still fun and memorable, then that's awesome! For me, a creative and fun short title stands out more that another "I used to be poor but I won the lottery and now I'm rich, but oh there's two hot guys who like me what should I do?" or something. I especially don't like it when tapas cuts off a part of the title, like.. If I can't even read your full title, then I'm sorry, but I'm just going to keep scrolling.

[cyborgmermaid]

I 100% blame Fall Out Boy. There is no science behind this statement.

[PaulDevers]

Personally, I'm not a fan of this. It's just kind of really clunky when said, and long when written out. I feel like it's not very creative? Instead of making a clever title for a story, it's instead just giving a one sentence blurb and calling that a title.

[jkb4753]

"A little less sixteen candles, a little more touch me"
or
"I'm Like a Lawyer with the Way I'm Always Trying to Get You Off (Me & You)"

I can do these emo references all day, fam