"I can't possibly believe that this light novel series' title is so long!"
 

With the release of the light novel series Yusha ni Narenakatta Ore wa Shibushibu Shushoku wo Ketsui Shimashita. (lit., "I reluctantly decided to find a job because I couldn't become Yusha."), I finally realized that this is the era of light novels with excessively long titles (and anime series with long titles too, by extension). I'm sure that most of us had our first encounter with long titles (subtitles not included) with Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai (or Oreimo), which seems like the light novel series that spearheaded the "long title movement", and light novels with mile-long titles like in Oreimo have started to sprout like mushrooms after that.

I have to admit that these long titles make me wonder about what happened to the "Titles should be easy to remember" part in naming a literary work. Most light novel series are much better titled using their shortcuts a that mess of words which is basically a whole sentence with the basic premise of the series (see OreShura, which is the shortcut for "Ore no... ah, crap, I forgot.)

Ah, it's "Ore no somethingsomething Shuraba Sugiru". I'm so sorry.

Well, you get my point. They are difficult to memorize.

Anyway, with the sudden increase of light novels with these, one has to wonder if the quality of these works are just the same as that of more conventionally-titled works like Spice and Wolf and Kino no Tabi. I feel that some of them have a less spectacular plot and using the title as some kind of hook to get some readers, but I don't think it's working for me.

How about you? Does the marathon-of-a-title in some light novels these days contribute to how you anticipate its plot?

EDIT:
Extra question: Do you think that a book with the title "I Kicked A Burning Terrorist So Hard in the Balls that I Tore a Tendon in My Foot!" would sell decent overseas?

Not necessarily. While extra long titles are often associated with novelty works, I don't believe the title is always going to be a reflection of quality. It's very likely that the author may not have decided on the title themselves, as I know that marketing sometimes has a habit of renaming things in ways that don't make sense at first glance. (Like stripping the "Green" out of Arrow or the "of Mars" from John Carter. This is like that, but in reverse.)

A long title usually indicates a comedy (or an attempt at one), and almost all of these do try for some laughs, though even that has exceptions. (AnoHana comes to mind, as does Moshidora.) What I'm saying is, it's no one thing. I believe there's the old adage of not judging a book by its cover? That's the short version for here.

Infinite Stratos must be brilliant then :p

I tend to think this is sort of an internal joke among authors and publishers that became a "trend". It's difficult to pick a good, short, memorable, and unique title these days given the sea of other works out there, and in the end it always gets abbreviated to a short form by the fans anyway. So this way the authors and publishers can make a title that verbosely describes the premise, and let the fans shorten it in common speech. It's not like people are going to be writing out the title by hand anyway and on computers you can either use the "slang" title, or just Google it.

I don't think the "less-spectacular" plot necessarily has anything to do with the name, but many of these works are being published in the same or similar publications with similar themes and designed to appeal to similar target audiences... so they often have more in common than just the titles. Having similar titles may also be designed in small part to help connect fans of one work to other similar works they may enjoy... but that's not necessarily always the case either.

It's been going on for quite some time, I think.

And I seem to remember reading an article or an interview with an author regarding this long titles, but I can't for the life of me remember where I read it or what the detail contents were :heh:

And if I may, I seem to see this trend going on in the galge world too (that galge about time traveling baby is a recent example).

Oh you. :heh:

This is probably the problem that light novels often face even before being published, but yeah, I see that it is more of a viewership-fueled approach and is quite unique to Japan due to the close ties between light novels and anime. That's the reason why this doesn't happen elsewhere in full-on novels.

It would be interesting to know what someone from the industry has to say about this new "trend".

I have noticed that the longer a VN's title is, the more likely it is that it's going to be depraved. Like everything, this isn't always a constant (like the example you gave), but it's a good rule of thumb. I am glad Japan is keeping the "long title" thing alive, though. Just saying them makes me smile, for some reason.

I'm not a light novel enthusiast, in fact I dislike novels in general, but I do understand your sentiments. More often than not when an anime with an awfully long title is announced it does tend to be an adaptation of a light novel, and usually those with said long titles appear to be very below-average to un-likeable material for me, but I think that's just a coincidence. The only personal exception I've found to this so far is I Don't Have Many Friends.

A short title doesn't really equate to quality, it's all subjective really. A Certain Magical Index and Sword Art Online are decent from what I've seen of them, but then at the other end of the spectrum I've found much crummier works like Infinite Stratos and The Familiar of Zero.

In the end, I think it's just a lack of creativity and thought. I imagine sometimes it can be difficult to come up with distinct title representing your work that everyone can remember easily, and it may not necessarily include any elements that are worth naming your work after either. I suppose the next best thing after that is just to describe the concept of the work right in the title itself.

Heck, manga is starting to succumb to it too lately. It's not just limited to light novels. Not quite as bad though I believe.

I don't think it matters that much since everyone is going to give it a nickname or abbreviation anyway....:heh:
It's only a burden when you're asking a dealer at a con if they have any merchandise from "BLAH-BLAH-BLAH-BLAH-BLAH-BLAH-BLAH-BLAH-BLABLAHBLAH"
And they go "..........sorry, what?" :twitch:

Yes, I think it would. :D

"I welcome our Excessively Titled Overlords of the New Age who can't come up with anything creative." XD

It doesn't affect my expectations of the plot but it is going to get me to watch it eventually moreso than other things. I'd share my joke with more people but I don't have many friends.

The BokuTomo opening is playing on my mp3 player right now. Go figure.:heh:

When you said manga, I suddenly remember Onii-chan no Koto nanka Zenzen Suki Janain Dakara ne!!. *phew* :heh:

LOLZ
I have that song on CD and listen to it almost every other day.:eyespin:

It annoys other people in my car. :D

Well I geass it look better in Kanji then in engilsh Well all they have to do is change the title to make it shorter if it was to make it overseas but manga proves the title have no meaning to it such as I Don't Like You at All, Big Brother!! released by seven seas

It would be nice if they would release more lite novel in the US

It doesn't bother me at all. In fact, I sometimes have fun making English equivalents to call them by, like "There's Incest To Be Had In Here!" and "He's My Brother But It Doesn't Matter As Long As I Get In His Pants" :heh:

^ Now that you've reminded me, my main concern with long titles is how so many light novel series with incest or suggestive incest themes are coming up. Well, I can't blame them since Oreimo did earn a lot.

Well considering how many of them have very similar settings/themes, I'm guessing all the short titles would have already been taken.

Long ass titles are most likely an ego thing in the industry, trying to imply something like "I got a bigger penis than you" :p :heh:

What about "The curious incident of the dog in the night-time"

I feel like this Twitter feed is relevant: https://mobile.twitter.com/ln_title_bot/tweets

Lately, it seems like the light novel industry are confusing titles with plot summaries. I remember an UN-GO Inga Nikki special that poked fun at this.

It's just really hard to come up with a unique title. I think they should be granted some leeway.

I for one can't be bothered with titles especially if the only problem with it is trying to think of an abbreviation to refer it with while having a convo... something I'm seeing becoming a pet peeve for lots just because they have to shorten it on their own. :heh:

When I see titles like that, I think of this video:

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:twitch:

Please tell me that these aren't real titles.

Please.

Look at the links in the tweets.

And return here and tell us about it. :D

What the heck is this? :twitch:

And what is two Mongolian Death Worm light novel series?!

EDIT: The "I practiced asking a girl who looks like the class president out, and she made me her slave." one is in the middle.

http://0-media-cdn.foolz.us/ffuuka/b...4459107446.jpg

I actually kind of love this. The idea of obscurity and ridiculous premise... it's like reading an anime literary version of one of my old B-movie websites. The obscure, the weird, the unknown and the cheaply but heartfully made... this is the depths of fiction that anime only scratches the surface of in its myriad adaptations.

'Boy that "Student Council President" sure gets around a bit in novel form, but alas I am an oldie on an internet anime/manga forum and she would not be interested in me at all'.

Usually when the title is long I tend go for a derisive, and short, nickname as possible to remember it by eg X-Denpa for Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko, the X is a nod to the X-Files series of course, and 'aliens' being a very loose part of the constituent subject matter. The longer the title the more ''fun' I have with it.

Though I would hope the novel/manga writers would adhere to the Keep It Simple Stupid school before we have a DVD release with nothing but text on the cover as there in no room for other credits/illustrations.

I started to notice this trend becoming common since Oreimo, but it wasn't just used for LNs, but also in manga, visual novels and sometimes in anime. I think the reason why it becomes popular is probably due to the anime/manga industry crisis and the way the authors can't seem to find a good picking title from their own works, so instead they describe a part of the premise as a title instead. Despite that, it doesn't bother me at all as long as the story sound interesting for my personal tastes.

Besides, it's okay if the book title also goes by being abbreviated or given a nickname. I mean, something like "Maria-sama ga Miteru" would still be a mouthful for some.

Not to mention how the titles suggest that they both involve the protagonist *becoming* a death worm or something like that. I find that strangely hilarious.

The long titles do not skew my expectations of the content (it would be stupid to judge a book by its cover, or in this case, its title) but I find them incredibly dumb. Who thought it was a good idea to have a sentence as a title?

"I'm a shitty Light Novel writer who can't come up with a decent title so I'll just use the premise as a title instead!"

If you want to have some fun, you can try to imagine what kind of titles a regular series would have had if it had been a light novel. Vividred operation: I put my grandpa in a freezer and I became a magical girl thanks to science!

Remember: the more ridiculous it sounds, the better. If you can put "little sister" in there somewhere, you've got a best seller.

A twitter guy have come up with this

Source

/\lol Jojo light novel edition.

Anyway Light Novels generally seem to state the wish fulfilment premise straight up is what I've found. The theory of naming conventions seems to be informing potential buyers everything they need to know about the fetishes being targeted. Right now the two big ones seem to be about imouto incest and boinking the super hot but stuck up and domineering school president/idol. I can't really say their adaptations are where I look for ideas that will last me more than a few anime episodes.

It's really hard for me to expect much from a work that blurts out the entirety of its premise in the title alone. I won't go as far as judging the story right there and then just from the title, but I can't exactly say that it wouldn't affect my expectations either. After all, what kind of writing can I expect from an author who can't even be bothered to think of a reasonable title?

It's not just light novels, actually. Try the 2009 bestseller Moshidora, aka Moshi Koukou Yakyuu no Joshi Manager ga Drucker no Management wo Yondara.

^Moshidora is more of the exception than the rule though.

Perfect :heh:

Pretty much these imo. Nearly all the 'sentence-based' titles I know of are 'love comedies' (be it slice-of-life, high school, or fantasy) (I know there are exceptions, but those that are not exceptions are generally very obvious). While some love comedies are extraordinary entertaining and may even touch on some deeper 'human' subjects (though seldom emphasized even if they do), on the whole, I would say that I never consider love comedies to be the 'top of the crop' novels. You will never get mind-blowing plots or "I am your father" twists. So it depends on what you seek in your literature. At the very least, I'll seldom be misled into thinking that one of these 'sentence-titled' book might be the next Lord of the Rings or Inception. Notwithstanding, I do enjoy a few of these, much to my own surprise.

What's Infinite Stratos? Oh, you must have meant "同じ展開が最後まで繰り返すわけがない！？ (There's no Way The Same Kind of Development Will Keep Repeating Till the End!?)" :heh:

LOL! Though that will give me an impression that it's a comedy series :heh:

This seems like fun:

"I'm a magus killer with a tragic past but I will fight for the holy grail so I can become a hero"

"I'm too indecisive to become the ultimate magical girl to save the world"

"I can't believe my observation doll has become this evil"

"I can't believe I love my two fake little sisters this much"

"Only I can help the classroom rep that I love so much with her demon cat possession because I'm also part vampire"

"I started a rebellion to fight against my father and my childhood friend for my blind and crippled little sister".

The best part of those covers is that only one even remotely resembles something about school.

It's like they read this:

http://www.cracked.com/article_18542...e-posters.html

"Kanojo" (girlfriend) is a pretty common word to see in these kinds of titles too. :heh:

God dammit. Now I have to try a few:

"I Will Sail to the End of the Grand Line and Find the Ultimate Treasure So I Can Become King of the Pirates!"

"I Play Trading Card Games While Having the Soul of a Thousand-Year Deceased Pharaoh Possess My Body!"

"My Planet is Always Threatened by Overly Powerful Aliens Who Desire to Utilize the Power of Orange Spheres With Stars On Them to Grant Wishes!?"