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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, for some reason. Often combined with Lucky Charms Title.
Examples of Foreign Language Title include:
Advertising[]
- Coca-Cola in Japan up until "The Coke side of life" used English-language slogans that were only used in that country.
Anime and Manga[]
- Ubiquitous in anime and manga.
Film[]
- Delicatessen did this to further add to the surreal nature of the movie. The actual word "Delicatessen" is German.
- The word is outdated, though. Today, it would be written "Delikatessen".
- Goodbye Lenin
- Shall We Dance? (the 1996 Japanese film)
- The Qatsi trilogy (Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi, Naqoyqatsi).
- Wonderful Days, though it was released under the name Sky Blue in many countries.
- Moulin Rouge
- The Mummy Trilogy is apparently called "Hamunaptra" (site of the first film) in Japan. This extends to the third movie, despite taking place in China.
Literature and Poetry[]
- Battle Royale
- "La Belle Dame sans Merci" by John Keats ("The beautiful merciless lady/The beautiful lady with no mercy" in French, or, as wags are wont to call it, "The beautiful lady with no thank-you")
- "Dreamtigers" by Jorge Luis Borges
- "Everything and Nothing" by Jorge Luis Borges
- "There are More Thing" by Jorge Luis Borges
- Le Ton beau de Marot by Douglas Hofstadter ("The sweet tone of Marot" in French--also sounds like "The tomb of Marot")
- "Ex Oblivione" by H.P. Lovecraft ("From Oblivion" in Latin)
- Parasite Eve
- Perfect Blue
- Rocket Girls
- Le Morte Darthur. Norman French title, middle English language.
- "Habemus Papam" and "Epinikion", short stories by Desmond Warzel.
Live Action TV[]
- "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges", episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ("In times of war the law falls silent" in Latin)
- A number of episodes of The X-Files, including:
- "Excelsis Dei" ("To God in the highest" in Latin)
- "Die Hand Die Verletzt" ("The hand that wounds" in German)
- "Teso Dos Bichos" ("Two tiny beasts" in Spanish, or "Stiff of the animals" in Portuguese)
- "Herrenvolk" ("Master race" in German)
- "Via Negativa" ("Negative way" in Italian)
- "El Mundo Gira" ("The world spins" in Spanish)
- "Memento Mori" ("Remember you have to die" in Latin)
- All six episodes of Ultraviolet have common Latin phrases as titles: "Habeas Corpus," "In Nomine Patris," "Sub Judice," "Mea Culpa," "Terra Incognita," and "Persona Non Grata."
- 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.
- Heroes had "Eris Quod Sum," which means "You will be what I am." To fully appreciate this phrase, you have to know thatwhere it's been found: on Roman gravestones.
- 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").
- 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 Japan, the producers of Dragon Knight decided to stick with the Japanese title to distance their adaptation from Saban's earlier Masked Rider series.
Video Games[]
- Deus Ex
- Daikatana
- Diablo
- Dragon Quest
- Ehrgeiz
- Einhander
- Final Fantasy
- Hellsinker
- Herzog
- MOTHER
- Oni (American game greatly influenced by Ghost in the Shell)
- Rockman, the series known stateside as Mega Man
- Suikoden Tierkreis
- Super Mario Brothers
- All of the games in the Tales (series)
- Wild Arms
- The subtitles of the three Xenosaga games: Der Wille zur Macht, Jenseits von Gut und Böse, and Also sprach Zarathustra. (All three are references to Friedrich Nietzsche.)
- A number of Pokémon games, inclding titles such as FireRed, LeafGreen, HeartGold, SoulSilver, Black, White, Snap, Ranger, etc.
- The Doom WAD Alien Vendetta has a map named "Misri Halek", supposedly meaning "Egyptian Slaughter" in Arabic. Appropriately enough, the map is set in an Egyptian pyramid.
Visual Novels[]
- AIR (Which would be either English or French; Without context, it's impossible to tell)
- Angel Breath
- Backstage
- Clannad
- Crescendo
- Ef: A Fairy Tale of the Two
- Fate/stay night (and by analogy, the sequel/fandisk Fate/hollow ataraxia; the light novel prequel Fate/Zero; the PSP game Fate/tiger colosseum; and the arcade game Fate/unlimited codes)
- The Bleached Underpants Video Game Remake adds the subtitle "Réalta Nua", Gratuitous Irish for "(A) New Star".
- Fortune Arterial
- Happiness
- Infinity (series of games, each of which has its title in English)
- Kanon
- Katawa Shoujo ("Disability/deformed Girls")
- Little Busters
- Moon
- Nursery Rhyme
- ONE
- Platinum Wind
- Please Teach Me ABC
- Prism Ark
- Triangle Heart 3 ~sweet songs forever~
- White Album
- Wind -a breath of heart-
Music[]
- Asobi Seksu (American band) ("Playful sex" in colloquial Japanese)
- "New Years" (sung in Japanese)
- And then there's stuff like "Asobi Masho", "Taiyo", and "Umi de Jisatsu", which are foreign from the perspective of the American market the group's albums are released in.
- L'arc-en-Ciel (Japanese band) ("Rainbow" in French)
- "La Isla Bonita" (Madonna) ("The beautiful island" in Spanish)
- 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.
- "Make Up Make Up" (Chatmonchy)
- "Parlez-vous Freezepop" (Freezepop) ("Do you speak Freezepop" in French)
- Ou Est Le Swimming Pool (British band)
- "Tenisu no Boifurendo" (Freezepop)
- "Rock Me Amadeus" (Falco)
- Several songs from Azumanga Daioh:
- "Raspberry Heaven"
- "Moi Moi"
- "Weepin' Rains"
- "A Song For You"
- "amulet"
- "Baby Baby"
- "Close Your Eyes"
- "Dearness"
- "Devotion"
- "Eternal Wish"
- "HONEY"
- "Just Be With You"
- "kiss my lips"
- "Longing"
- "Lovely Angel"
- "memorize"
- "period"
- "Primula Juliae"
- "Remembrance"
- "snow again"
- "snow of love"
- "true my heart"
- "Urusei Yatsura" (British band)
- "Vanille Rouge"
- "Viva La Vida" (Coldplay)
- Two albums by The Police, Outlandos D'Amour and Reggatta de Blanc (there's also, Zenyattà Mondatta a As Long as It Sounds Foreign Word Salad Title)
- "La Bella Luna" (Brazilian band Os Paralamas)
- Brazilian band Legião Urbana has four songs: "Acrilic on Canvas", "La Nuova Gioventú", "Riding Song" and "Baader-Meinhof Blues"
- Canadian breakcore DJ Venetian Snares has an entire album, Rossz Csillag Alatt Született, whose tracks (along with the album itself) are titled in Hungarian.
- Canta Per Me (Yuki Kajiura and Yuriko Kaida)
- The Dø (a Finnish/French duo composed of Dan & Olivia; dø is Danish/Norwegian for "die")
Western Animation[]
- The Simpsons had two episodes: "El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer" (Spanish for "The Mysterious Voyages of Our Homer" and somewhat correct), and "Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk" (German for "Burns Sells the Plant" and very much wrong).
- Family Guy had an episode titled "Padre de Familia", the Spanish title of the show.