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What is the most esoteric anime title or concept out there that you can think of?

Dark Knight

Dark Knight

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,370
After finishing our first watch of Mob Psycho last week I started poking through Crunchyroll's library the other night for the next anime my SO and I could start working through. It was the first time I was looking through aimlessly without some idea of what hallmark series we'd watch next and.... man, there are just so many weird animes. Like if you're just a casual watcher checking out all the big titles, it's just awkward looking through some of what they have out there for some of the niche crowds. And sometimes it's not just the anime concepts themselves but the anime titles completely throw me off in their esoteric and bizarre nature.

"A Certain Scientific Railgun"...?
"So I'm a Spider, So What?".....?
"My First Girlfriend is a Gal"......?

... they certainly aren't making me want to watch these with these wordy and weird-ass titles. But I guess they aren't for me anyways.

But I digress, what's the most esoteric anime title, or concept, you can think of? I'm genuinely curious about the weirdest of the weird.
 
TheFurizzlyBear

TheFurizzlyBear

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
3,468
I think we had a similar thread for light novels and their weird names so there will definitely be some crossover with some of those. I will say, So I'm A Spider, So What? has been pretty enjoyable for a reincarnation isekai.
Weird name for a show/light novel: My Little Sister Can't Be This Cute
 
Owl

Owl

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,234
California
If you want an actual good show, "That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime" is actually good.

If you just want the weird light novel anime adaptations that come with suuuper long multiple sentence titles, then there is:
"WorldEnd: What do you do at the end of the world? Are you busy? Will you save us?"
 
SpoonyBob

SpoonyBob

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,495
Arkansas
Reborn_as_a_Vending_Machine%2C_I_Now_Wander_the_Dungeon.png


Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon
 
Unknownlight

Unknownlight

One Winged Slayer
Member
Nov 2, 2017
10,633
I think I'm too numb to awful anime names because I never considered that A Certain Scientific Railgun would sound weird. Of course, it helps that I'm familiar with the superseries (A Certain Magical Index, A Certain Scientific Accelerator, etc.) but still.

Neon Genesis Evangelion and such are all also equally absurd. But so many are just so much worse.
 
Westbahnhof

Westbahnhof

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
10,108
Austria
I hate those dumb titles, man. I want a title to be two things:
1. Descriptive
2. Short

Good: "Chainsaw Man"
Bad: "A Story About A Grampa And Granma Returned Back To Their Youth".
Good: "Fire Punch"
Bad: "I Summoned The Devil To Grant Me A Wish, But I Married Her Instead Since She Was Adorable ~My New Devil Wife~"
(all real titles btw)

EDIT:
Also, Fire Punch has a real interesting ending, while the others have titles that are too bad to even start reading
 
ratcliffja

ratcliffja

Member
Oct 28, 2017
5,954
super-famicom said:
Isekai titles should be banned, because they're too ridiculous

www.cbr.com

7 Ridiculous Isekai Titles That Tell You the Entire Plot

From sex workers to vending machines, here’s a list of some of the most ridiculously titled isekai series.
www.cbr.com www.cbr.com
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Oddly enough, those 2 titles are a lot more straight-forward than most anime titles I've read. Yeah they're ridiculous, but they're descriptive and attention-grabbing. They makes a lot more sense than something like Full Metal Alchemist or Neon Genesis Evangelion.
 
Hexa

Hexa

Saw the truth behind the copied door
Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,751
I love these crazy titles yo. I'm much more likely to watch an anime if it has a crazy title. They get abbreviated anyway so it's not like it makes them hard to talk about.

Westbahnhof said:
I hate those dumb titles, man. I want a title to be two things:
1. Descriptive
2. Short

Good: "Chainsaw Man"
Bad: "A Story About A Grampa And Granma Returned Back To Their Youth".
Good: "Fire Punch"
Bad: "I Summoned The Devil To Grant Me A Wish, But I Married Her Instead Since She Was Adorable ~My New Devil Wife~"
(all real titles btw)

EDIT:
Also, Fire Punch has a real interesting ending, while the others have titles that are too bad to even start reading
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Disagree completely. Chainsaw Man still sounds cool because chainsaws, but Fire Punch sounds incredibly generic and dull. The manga was ultimately still okay, though I found the ending pretty stupid wherein while I agree it fits the manga and is somewhat satisfying its still stupid. Anyway, I didn't like the title at all and avoided reading it for a while because of it.
 
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Kinthey

Kinthey

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
22,456
I wonder if this trend has generally taken off in Japan, and titles used to be more normal, or if titles have also become a lot more literal in their translation. I feel like a lot of those phrases would have been cut down in localization back in the day
 
SquirrelSr

SquirrelSr

Member
Oct 26, 2017
6,038
You talking about all those isekai LN where authors are making increasingly bizarre story decisions in an attempt to appear original despite using the same basic western fantasy/video game setting with RPG elements?
 
Tacitus

Tacitus

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,053
Kinthey said:
I wonder if this trend has generally taken off in Japan, and titles used to be more normal, or if titles have also become a lot more literal in their translation. I feel like a lot of those phrases would have been cut down in localization back in the day
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The common wisdom is that Shōsetsuka ni Narō (let's become a novelist) website is to blame. People started using titles as the info blurb in order to get noticed. When they get picked for publishing, the title stays. When the published title gets adapted into an anime, the title stays.
 
Tacitus

Tacitus

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,053
My Little Sister Can Read Kanji

The year is 2202, and Japan has become the land of moe. Aspiring author Gin Imose and his little sister Kuroha are traveling to TOKYO to meet with the world famous author, Gai Odaira. Kuroha is uninterested in his orthodox literary style, and amazingly is able to read ancient modern Japanese books written in kanji! This fateful encounter sets off a chain of events that could change the course of literary history! Could it be that, long ago, books could be about more than little sisters showing their panties and getting in compromising situations with their non-blood- related older brothers? Impossible! It's hard to even imagine a Japan where everyone could read kanji and the Prime Minister was a 3D human being...
 
Doukou

Doukou

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,535
I like the power creep of isekai titles. When you are the 50th isekai title with the same women on the cover you got to get attention somehow.

No idea if it's true but I blame Devil is a part timer for it
 
Owl

Owl

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,234
California
Whipwhopper said:
What's the one about wanting to eat your kidney?
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Hexa said:
I Want to Eat Your Pancreas ?
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And it's actually a really good movie!

And the title actually makes sense and is pretty cool:
back in olden times people would eat a body part, to heal their body part. Like eat an animal's heart if you have heart disease. The main girl from the movie has pancreatic cancer, and thus the title.
 
Hexa

Hexa

Saw the truth behind the copied door
Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,751

CrimsonN0

Member
Oct 25, 2017
465
Hmm, I mean the OP did ask for weird, esoteric titles.
But most of these are just long, "summary of series crammed into title" titles.
 
Reym

Reym

Member
Jul 15, 2019
2,677
Hexa said:
Cheating I suppose since this is the name of a game and not an anime, but the longest title I've seen is:

Natsuiro High School: A Young Man's Notes—How a New Exchange Student Like Myself Ran Into His Childhood Friend on the School Tour, Then for Some Reason Became Super-Popular with the Girls for His Daily Scoops on the School Photography Club Even Though He Only Takes Panty Shots, and What He Thinks as He Goes on Dates During His Summer of Island School Life.
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200.gif
 
HStallion

HStallion

Member
Oct 25, 2017
62,348
I feel like OP shouldn't have used the term esoteric when what they seem to be talking about is incredibly verbose titles that bluntly declare the premise of the story. Esoteric means the meaning is mysterious or nebulous at beast, not that its convoluted or unsubtle.
 
Hexa

Hexa

Saw the truth behind the copied door
Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,751
Owl said:
And it's actually a really good movie!

And the title actually makes sense and is pretty cool:
back in olden times people would eat a body part, to heal their body part. Like eat an animal's heart if you have heart disease. The main girl from the movie has pancreatic cancer, and thus the title.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I don't think that interpretation of the title is completely accurate, though I agree the title is incredibly fitting.

While Sakura did put that in her diary, I don't think she stated that she wanted to eat Haruki's pancreas because she wanted to heal herself, but more so to show that she wanted to be more like him. Haruki texted her the same thing because he wanted to be more like her. That they both thought the same thing at about the same time arises from the fact that Sakura has pancreatic cancer, but is also used to show that both of them are changing to be more like the other, the realization of which results in Haruki fully committing to changing himself.
 
Temascos

Temascos

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,578
In terms of concepts, Kill La Kill is weird as heck.

So the Honoji Academy runs the place, with a powerful council and corporation at the top of the chain. They have uniforms that give them powers. But then the skimpier you are the more powerful you become, and it's because the uniforms are actually aliens taking over the planet. So in the end everyone gets naked to fight in space or something.

It's been a while since I watched it :P
 
julia crawford

julia crawford

Took the red AND the blue pills
Member
Oct 27, 2017
35,553
I don't think the concept of an "alternative anime" really exists or is solid enough to make googling easier, but if you're going to more indie stuff (or try to) there is a lot of extremely weird stuff that has been lost through the ages. Things like Angel's Egg or Adolescence of Utena (the show is a fair bit more normal i think)
 
Mugenhunt

Mugenhunt

Member
Oct 17, 2019
485
Going back for esoteric concept, What Did You Eat Yesterday? is a manga, that got adapted to a live action TV show, about a closeted gay lawyer in modern day Japan, who tries to balance his career as a conservative, traditional lawyer in a homophobic country, while keeping his relationship with his hairdresser boyfriend stable, BUT is also a food manga that spends half of each chapter going over the recipe of what he's making for dinner that day, lovingly showing off what he's cooking step by step.

It's GOOD, but having the drama and comedy grind to a halt so we can see our main character cut carrots in exquisite detail is just odd.
 
skeptem

skeptem

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,758
Mawaru Penguindrum:

Magical hat helps keep your little sister from dying as karmic punishment for a terrorist attack by your parents as long as you help some penguins find an apple/soul.

Or something like that.
 
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