Tropedia

  • All unique and most-recently-edited pages, images and templates from Original Tropes and The True Tropes wikis have been copied to this wiki. The two source wikis have been redirected to this wiki. Please see the FAQ on the merge for more.

READ MORE

Tropedia
WikEd fancyquotesQuotesBug-silkHeadscratchersIcons-mini-icon extensionPlaying WithUseful NotesMagnifierAnalysisPhoto linkImage LinksHaiku-wide-iconHaikuLaconic

The Opening Theme or Ending Theme is in a language other than the main language of the country of origin or of the Target Audience.

Note that this does not include the use of a few foreign words for flavour. Nor does it include cases where a show is dubbed into the local language but has its theme song left intact. This trope is strictly about theme tunes which are mainly or entirely in a language that the target viewers do not speak in everyday life and the original voice actors do not speak in the recording sessions. An Ominous Latin Chanting is, of course, in a language that nobody speaks anymore.

May overlap with Real Song Theme Tune.

Examples of Foreign Language Theme include:


Anime[]


Film[]


Live Action TV[]

  • The solo at the opening of each episode of Battlestar Galactica is a Hindu prayer in Sanskrit. The expository text on screen is in English, however (and has nothing to do with the music).
  • Norwegian sitcom Hos Martin uses the fully English title theme "Lord of the Fools"
  • While it was usually in English, Weeds had at least one instance where the theme was sung in French, and has probably done another language by this point.
  • An episode of Psych, "Lights, Camera... Homicidio", has the theme song translated into Spanish.
    • A later episode has it in Hindi.
  • While viewers of Monkey may not realize it, the opening theme "Monkey Magic" and the rest of the soundtrack was always Surprisingly Good English in Japan.


Video Games[]


Western Animation[]

  • One episode of Animaniacs had its opening title sequence entirely in French.
  • Teen Titans has both an English and a Japanese version of its Opening Theme. There is some correlation between the language of the opening and the seriousness of the episode; the English version is a basic Expository Theme Tune, whereas the Japanese one is borderline nonsense talking about, among other things, how they obey all traffic rules.
  • Lilo and Stitch has its soundtrack in Hawaiian and Lilo and Stitch: The Series has its theme song in Hawaiian as well. Its Japanese counterpart Stitch! has some of its theme songs in a mix of English, Hawaiian, Japanese, and Ryukyuan.