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Foreign Language Title - TV Tropes

  • ️Tue Sep 23 2008

Foreign Language Title (trope)

Some works of fiction go so far as to put the name in a language different from that in which the work itself is written.

Incredibly common in anime and manga, for some reason. Often combined with Lucky Charms Title.

Examples:

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Anime & Manga 

Arts 

  • Abaporu: The Abaporu being a painting, there's no script nor written narrative anywhere. However, Tarsila's mother tongue is Brazilian Portuguese, so that's the language in which the painting's official description is written. Meanwhile, Abaporu is in Tupi, a Brazilian indigenous language, and means "man who eats people".

Asian Animation 

  • YoYo Man is a Taiwanese series but has no Chinese equivalent to its name. As an interesting side effect, this makes it hard to search for stuff related to the series via search engines since "Yoyo Man" is used for a number of other things (and can be confused for the musician Yo-Yo Ma).

Comic Books 

Eastern European Animation 

Fan Works 

Crossovers

  • Aimhrialtacht: The fanfic is written in Spanish, while its title is the Irish term for 'anomaly'.
  • The First Saniwa: Every single one of the chapter titles except the prologue and epilogue is a yojijukugo (four-kanji word).
  • Mononofu
  • New Vegas Showtime: Chapter 15 is titled "Zażyć z mańki", which is an idiom meaning "to attack from an unexpected angle", or more literally, "to attack from the left/with the left hand".

Discworld

  • Il se passait au nuit du Père Porcher is in English but a central theme is a Quirmian couple meeting up together at Hogswatch.
  • Strandpiel is 98% in English but given the subject matter — "South African" expats and family groups in Ankh-Morpork — the chapter titles are all in Afrikaans, except where the author was stuck for an Afrikaans equivalent for a Discworld concept and plundered something from Dutch that appeared to fit better.

Japan Summons

  • Celestina Shoukan: Despite being written in English, the fic's title is in Japanese. It roughly translates as Summoning Celestina or, if we are inclined to follow the source material's canonical translation, Celestina Summons.

Kingdom Hearts

Marvel Cinematic Universe

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

  • All-American Girl (Shinzakura):
    • "Ēka Bāra Phira" is Hindi for "once more".
    • "Mit Brennender Sorge" is German for "With Burning Anxiety"—the title of an encyclical by Pope Pius XI.
    • "Chega de Saudade" is Portuguese for "enough longing"—the title of a bossa nova song first recorded 1958.
  • Arddun Lleuad and its sequel Chwe Goleadau are Welsh for "Beautiful Moon" and "Six Lights" respectively.
  • The Elements of Friendship: "Chaoskampf", the subtitle of Book II, is German for "struggle against chaos", the mythical motif of a heroic battle against an incarnation of Chaos, often appearing in the shape of a dragon.
  • The Palaververse: Terra Incognita, Latin for Unknown Lands, or Unknown Earth, given that the protagonists are leaving their planet for Earth.

Star Trek

Undertale

Films — Animation 

  • Sky Blue was released as Wonderful Days in Korean.

Films — Live-Action 

Literature 

  • The short story "Ad leones!" (Latin: "To the lions!") by the Polish writer Cyprian Kamil Norwid, as well as his poems "Italiam!, Italiam!" ("Italy! Italy!") and "Quidam" (lit. "Some", i.e. "somebody", "everyman").
  • L'Adultera, by Theodor Fontane, doubles as a MacGuffin Title; on the surface it refers to a painting by Tintoretto ("The Adultress before Christ"), but it also alludes to the protagonist, Melanie van der Straaten.
  • Aquis submersus, another novella by Theodor Storm is entitled:.
  • Battle Royale
  • "La Belle Dame sans Merci", by John Keats, means "The beautiful merciless lady" in French, or, as wags are wont to call it, "The beautiful lady with no thank-you".
  • Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett, Latin for "Seize the throat".
  • "Dreamtigers", "Everything and Nothing" and "There are More Thing" by Jorge Luis Borges (who wrote in Spanish.)
  • "Dulce et Decorum Est", by Wilfred Owen
  • "Ex Oblivione" by H. P. Lovecraft ("From Oblivion" in Latin.)
  • The Four Horsemen Universe: "Vvremya" is titled in Russian and means "in time". The protagonists deal with a Year Outside, Hour Inside scenario courtesy of a black hole.
  • "Gloria Victis" (Latin for "glory to the vanquished") by the Polish writer Eliza Orzeszkowa.
  • "Habemus Papam" and "Epinikion", short stories by Desmond Warzel.
  • Henry Miller's trilogy of Sexus, Plexus and Nexus.
  • Homo Faber by Swiss author Max Frisch.
  • Magistellus Bad Trip by Kazuma Kamachi. The Japanese title is just the English title in katakana.
  • Le Morte D Arthur
  • Negative Happy Chainsaw Edge
  • Nostromo ("our man") by Joseph Conrad.
  • Parasite Eve (1998) (Japanese novel.)
  • Perfect Blue (Japanese novel.)
  • Psychopathia sexualis by Richard von Krafft-Ebing
  • Quo Vadis, Latin for "Where are you going?"
  • Relativity: The series is in English, but one story is titled "Bajo el Muérdago" ("Under the Mistletoe").
  • Rocket Girls (Japanese light novel.)
  • Short stories by Rudyard Kipling: Venus Annodomini (which also contains a pun on Anadyomene "foam-born"), Gemini (not the constellation, but actual twins), and Dray Wara Yow Dee (Pushtu for "All Three Are One").
  • Ruth Downie's mystery series about a doctor in Roman Britain, starting with Medicus, Terra Incognita, Persona Non Grata, and Caveat Emptor (though these had English-language titles in Downie's native England).
  • Terra Nostra by Carlos Fuentes.
  • Le Ton beau de Marot by Douglas Hofstadter ("The sweet tone of Marot" in French—also sounds like "The tomb of Marot".)
  • Tractatus logico-philosophicus, originally entitled Logisch-philosophische Abhandlung, by Ludwig Wittgenstein.
  • Viola Tricolor, a novella by Theodor Storm. The title is the Latin scientific name for the pansy, a flower called Stiefmütterchen ("little stepmother") in German. Guess what the main character of the novella is.
  • WIEDERGEBURT: Legend of the Reincarnated Warrior: "Wiedergeburt" is Gratuitous German for "rebirth".

Live-Action TV 

  • Our Miss Brooks: The episode "Le Chien Chaud et le Mouton Noir". In English, this translates to "the hot dog and the black sheep", referring cleverly to two jokes running through the episode.
  • Breaking Bad has several episodes with spanish titles:
    • "Negro Y Azul" ("Black and Blue")
    • "No Mas" ("No More")
    • "Caballo Sin Nombre" ("Horse With No Name")
    • "Mas"("More")
    • "Hermanos" ("Brothers")
    • "Salud!"("Cheers!")
    • El Camino ("The Road")
  • Daktari (Swahili for "doctor")
  • Doctor Who features an episode titled "Extremis"
  • Harrow: Every episode title is a Latin phrase followed by an English translation in brackets.
  • Hawaii Five-0: All episode titles except the pilot and season three's "Hookman" are in Hawaiian
  • Heroes had "Eris Quod Sum," which means "You will be what I am." To fully appreciate this phrase, you have to know where it's been found: on Roman gravestones.
  • JAG had only a few: Déjà Vu, Scimitar, Ares, Rendezvous, Pas de Deux, and Posse Comitatus.
  • Kamen Rider Dragon Knight. "Kamen" is Japanese for "mask". Even though the Kamen Rider franchise is alternatively known under the translated title of Masked Rider in Japanese, the producers of Dragon Knight decided to stick with the Japanese title to distance their adaptation from Saban's earlier Masked Rider series.
  • Lost likes Latin with "Tabula Rasa", "Deus ex Machina", and "Ab Aeterno", French with "Par Avion" and "LeFleur," Sanskrit with "Namaste," and Korean with "Ji Yeon," although that last one turns out to be the name of Sun and Jin's daughter.
  • The licensed Polish copy of The Office is aired under the title "The Office PL". Funnily enough, the American version was aired with the literal translation of the title, Biuro.
  • Person of Interest has some in Latin such as "Cura Te Ipsum" (cure yourself), "In Extremis" (in the farthest reaches), "Mors Praematura" (premature death), "Deus Ex Machina" (god from the machine), and "Terra Incognita" (unknown land). It also has "Matsya Nyaya" (law of the fishes) in Sanskrit; "Proteus", "Lethe", "Aletheia", and "Beta" in Greek; "Razgovor" (conversation) in Russian, and "YHWH".
  • Sons of Anarchy:
    • "Eureka" ("I have found it" in Greek)
    • "Fa Guan" ("The judge" in Mandarin)
    • "Na Triobloidi" ("The troubles" in Irish)
    • "Lochan Mor" ("Big pond" in Irish)
    • "Turas" ("Journey" in Irish)
    • "Firinne" ("Truth" in Irish)
    • "Bainne" ("Milk" in Irish)
    • "Una Venta" ("A sale" in Spanish)
    • "Andare Pescare" ("To go fishing" in Italian)
    • "J'ai Obtenu Cette" ("I got this" in French)
    • "Poenitentia" ("Penance" in Latin)
  • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges" means "In times of war the law falls silent" in Latin.
  • Star Trek: Picard: "Et in Arcadia Ego" is Latin for "Even in Arcadia, there am I."
  • Ultraviolet (1998): All six episodes have common Latin phrases as titles: "Habeas Corpus," "In Nomine Patris," "Sub Judice," "Mea Culpa," "Terra Incognita," and "Persona Non Grata."
  • The West Wing has several Latin examples ("Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc," "Posse Comitatus," "In Excelsis Deo") and a few odd ones ("Han," "Abu el Banat," "Eppur Si Muove").
  • The X-Files:
    • "Excelsis Dei" ("To God in the highest" in Latin)
    • "Die Hand Die Verletzt" ("The hand that wounds" in German)
    • "Nisei" ("Second generation" in Japanese)
    • "Teso Dos Bichos" ("Stiff of the animals" in Portuguese)
    • "Talitha Cumi" ("Little girl arise" in Aramaic)
    • "Herrenvolk" ("Master race" in German)
    • "Unruhe" ("Unrest" in German)
    • "Via Negativa" ("Negative way" in Latin)
    • "El Mundo Gira" ("The world spins" in Spanish)
    • "Memento Mori" ("Remember you have to die" in Latin)
    • "Tempus Fugit" ("Time flies" in Latin)
    • "Kitsunegari" ("Fox hunt" in Japanese)
    • "Folie a Deux" ("Folly for two" in French)
    • "Sein und Zeit" ("Being and time" in German)
    • "Per Manum" ("By hand" in Latin)
    • "Badlaa" ("Retaliation" in Urdu)
    • "Vienen" ("They come" in Spanish)
    • "Je Souhaite" ("I Wish" in French)

Manhwa 

Music 

  • Daniel Amos:
  • L'arc-en-Ciel (Japanese band) ("Rainbow" in French)
  • Asobi Seksu (American band) ("Playful sex" in colloquial Japanese)
    • "New Years" (sung in Japanese)
    • "Asobi Masho"
    • "Taiyo"
    • "Umi de Jisatsu"
  • Franco De Vita: The album Stop, despite having only Spanish songs, has an English word as its name, though said word is mentioned frequently in the song "Vamos al grano" (Let's Get To The Point). Interestingly, the updated version Stop + Algo Más does have an English cover of one of the original's songs.
  • Hans Fritz Beckmann and Peter Kreuder's Goodbye Johnny
  • BTS: In addition to the countless English titles most Korean artists usually have, there is "Jamais Vu", which is French for "Never Seen".
  • Chatmonchy's "Make Up Make Up"
  • Cibo Matto, a New York City-based band with an Italian name formed by two Japanese women. The name means "crazy food", though they've said they were trying to go for "food-crazy".
  • Coldplay's "Viva La Vida"
  • Deftones named their 2012 album Koi no Yokan, which is Japanese for "premonition of love".
  • The Dø (a Finnish/French duo composed of Dan & Olivia; dø is Danish/Norwegian for "die")
  • Falco's "Rock Me Amadeus"
  • Freezepop:
    • "Parlez-vous Freezepop" ("Do you speak Freezepop" in French)
    • "Tenisu no Boifurendo"
  • Hinatazaka46: "NO WAR in The Future", "My God", "My fans", "Joyful Love", "Right?", "One choice", "You're in my way", etc.
  • Yuki Kajiura's "Canta Per Me"
  • Legião Urbana:
    • "Acrilic on Canvas"
    • "La Nuova Gioventú"
    • "Riding Song"
    • "Baader-Meinhof Blues"
  • The year after Daniel Amos released his album Vox Humana, Kenny Loggins released one of the same title. Unlike Amos' album, Loggins' had a title track, which became a moderately successful single.
  • Lower Dens:
    • "Quo Vadis"
    • "Non Grata"
    • "Société Anonyme"
  • Almost all of Luna Sea's titles are English, although there is often only one word or a line in English in the actual song.
  • Madonna's "La Isla Bonita" ("The beautiful island" in Spanish)
  • Måneskin is an Italian rock band whose name translates to "Moonlight" in Danish.
  • Neon Indian's "Era Extraña" contains no Spanish lyrics.
  • Os Paralamas's "La Bella Luna"
  • Ou Est Le Swimming Pool
  • The Police:
  • Saori Sakura's "Vanille Rouge"
  • Miike Snow's "Sans Soleil"
  • The Spill Canvas's "Lust a Prima Vista"
  • Steppenwolf
  • Venetian Snares has an entire album, Rossz Csillag Alatt Született, whose tracks (along with the album itself) are titled in Hungarian.
  • Urusei Yatsura

Pinball 

Tabletop Games 

  • Azul means "blue" in Portuguese. It's a reference to the Portuguese tiles called azulejos, which the game is inspired by.
  • "Hanabi" means fireworks in Japanese, though the game was created by a French game designer.
  • Jenga takes its name from the Swahili verb for "build."

Theatre 

  • Cross Road (Japanese) is mostly set in Italy and France, but the title and about half of the song titles are in English, even though only one scene takes place in England.
  • The Devil (Korean), justified as it takes place in New York.
  • Prince Kaguya has an English title but is written in Japanese.
  • Shine Show, a 2023 Japanese stage play about an office karaoke competition (a show where the various characters hope to shine), has a Double-Meaning Title — "employee ID" in Japanese is shainsho.
  • Tsukiuta and its spinoff series SQS and Alivestage have several across their over 40 stage plays, including Lunatic Party, Cyber-Dive Connection, The Freely, and Wake Your Dream.

Video Games 

Visual Novels 

Web Original 

  • Keit-Ai: Keit-Ai itself is a foreign language title since it's an English-language work (more like concept, really) by 4chan anons. Ironically, it's impossible to render the title in Japanese. You have to settle for Keit愛 instead (which is a mix of rōmaji and kanji).

Web Videos 

  • Pokémon Talk: Season 2 Episode 2: "¡Español!", the series is English, but the title is because of the Spanish-speaking Dragonite that's the episode's guest.

Western Animation 

  • Family Guy: "Padre de Familia" is an episode with the Spanish title of the show.
  • Let's Go Luna!: The episode titles "C'est Cheese" and "C'est La Vie A Paris" are both in French; they mean "It's cheese" and "It's life in Paris" in English, respectively.
  • Molly of Denali has a few episodes with titles in indigenous Alaskan languages, including "Uqiquq" ("throw party" in Yup'ik), "Molly Oodi' Heekha" ("Molly goes downriver" in Gwich'in), "Dinjik Dhah" ("moose dress" in Gwich'in), and "Dleit Yeił" ("white raven" in Tlingit).
  • Oscar's Orchestra has "Viva España!"; the episode's title is Spanish for "Long Live Spain!"
  • The Simpsons:
    • "El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer" is somewhat correct Spanish for "The Mysterious Voyages of Our Homer".
    • "Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk" is wrong German for "Burns Sells the Power Plant"; it should be "Burns verkauft [third-person singular] das [neuter gender] Kraftwerk".
    • "Das Bus" manages to be grammatically incorrect in just two words, though this has the excuse of being a parody of Das Boot.
  • While the Star Trek franchise is no stranger to Latin titles, Star Trek: Lower Decks does the first Klingon episode title with "wej Duj", which means "Three Ships".
  • Steven Universe: "Chille Tid" is Norwegian for "Chilling Time".
  • Tangled: The Series: The finale is titled "Plus Est en Vous" which is French for "more in you"