Summary
These days in the anime world, an increasing number of anime have incredibly long names. This trend is most prevalent in the isekai genre, but it spans across other genres as well. Anime with titles likeThat Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime,I Got a Cheat Skill in Another World and Became Unrivaled in The Real World, Too, andIs It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?are becoming normal.
But why do so many anime these days have such long names? What happened to the easy days ofBleach,Naruto, andDeath Note? There are a few reasons for this growing trend, most of which have grown out of the manga industry and are now seeping into the anime industry as more and more manga and light novels become anime. While there is no hard-and-fast, this reason fits all answer to the question, there are several reasons behind more and more anime having long names.
These Long Names Stand Out in a Crowd
The trend of anime having long names, especially for isekai, began in the world of manga and light novels. There arethousands of manga and light novelsout there, and more and more are published all the time. Japanese bookstores, of course, do not have space to stock them all in a way that all the covers can be easily seen from the shelf. When a customer is browsing the hundreds of titles, the only thing that the book has to stand out is the title facing outwards amongst all the other ones.
Thus, the trend was born. In order for a manga or light novel to ever have a chance of being noticed and getting picked up, it had to have something special about the title. Titles that were comically long, and sometimes just hilarious or outrageous (thinkI Want to Eat Your PancreasorReborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon) started to pop up. It was the best way for manga and light novels to sell copies and stand out, especially when isekai stories became popular and more and more started to be published.
And of course, when these manga and light novels did get picked up at the store and sold a lot of copies, the next natural step was for them to become anime. Of course, they kept their ridiculously long names as well! After all, that name was at least partially responsible for the book being sold in the first place. Plus, the long names serve the same purpose of helping anime stand out from all the others also airing the same season.
These Long Names Give You a Preview
Another thing that the long names on anime do is they draw in their fans without even having to show a trailer for a synopsis. When you see the titleThe Greatest Demon Lord Is Reborn as a Typical Nobody, you already know at least a little about what the anime is going to be about from the title alone. Anime likeJujutsu KaisenandNeon Genesis Evangelioncertainly cannot claim that.
This appeals to two kinds of people. First, it is great for busy people who do not have much time. When they are looking for an anime to watch, they may not have the time to read every summary andwatch a bunch of trailerslooking for the right anime to watch. But when they seeThe Aristocrat’s Otherworldly Adventure: Serving Gods Who Go Too Far, they immediately know that is going to be a fantasy anime that has something to do with gods, and only need to look into it more if that sounds appealing.
The second group of people this appeals to are major anime fans who have already seen a lot of anime. They are looking for something specific, and they know what they like. When they come across anime with titles likeI’ve Been Killing Slimes For 300 Years & Maxed Out My Level, they can guess easily if that is the kind of thing they want to watch (fantasy, fighting,probably related to gaming in some way) or if they prefer something more likeNo Matter How You Look At It, It’s You Guys' Fault I’m Not Popular!(romantic comedy).
These Long Names are Endearing and Memorable
Finally, though it seems like it should be the total opposite, these long anime names are memorable for people who see them. Sure, they may not remember the full name exactly word for word, but they are very likely to remember that there is an anime coming out named something like being reincarnated as a vending machine, or picking up girls in dungeons, or even eating pancreases (spoiler,I Want to Eat Your Pancreasis not actually about eating pancreasesand is quite a misleading title).
The anime industry wants to make money, just like with any other form of media. They make money by having fans, people who watch them as they air, buy their merchandise, and fall in love with them, and then buy the manga, too. The long titlesdo half of the advertising for the animebefore it has to do anything else, sticking in people’s minds and piquing their curiosity. They think about the title again later, and then they may start to watch the anime.
The names are also quite endearing! It is fun to ask your friends if they are also watchingThe World’s Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated In Another World As An Aristocrat, laugh together at how ridiculous it is to say that name, and then chat about the story. Many long-titled anime also get nicknames to help people refer to them, likeDanmachiforIs It Wrong to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?. This definitely adds an endearing factor to them as well, as they now seem more like a familiar friend than just an anime.
So, while it may sometimes be annoying to have to remember the long title of an anime, or seem like it’s a little over the top (especially if you are not an isekai fan and have to sort through all of these long names!), there is a reason behind the anime with the long names. It helps themstand out in a worldwhere we are constantly getting new anime, manga, and light novels. It helps them be remembered, and it helps them draw in crowds. And when they are popular enough, people will remember the names - no matter how long they are.
