22420


Pure curiosity.

Why do some series carry a dot [.] at the end of their titles? Is there a
meaning to it or is it convention?

Ex: [Ore, Twintail ni
Narimasu.](http://myanimelist.net/anime/24705/Ore_Twintails_ni_Narimasu.),
[Kobato.](http://myanimelist.net/anime/5678/Kobato.)


CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-02-02T23:18:37.183
19072
2015-06-14T02:44:13.123
2015-02-03T00:23:22.987
11421
11421
question
anime-history
Why do some works [anime, manga, novels] have a trailing dot?


The punctuation symbol **。** is called a
[句点](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_punctuation#Full_stop) ( _kuten_
). Although it often functions like the English period (a.k.a. full stop), it
is **not identical** , and is [used as the punctuation mark for a question
sentence far more often than the ?
symbol](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_punctuation#Question_mark) is
(the question mark is called 疑問符 [ _gimonfu_ ] or はてな [ _hatena_ ].
[Historically, Japanese did not have the question
mark](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%96%91%E5%95%8F%E7%AC%A6#.E6.97.A5.E6.9C.AC.E8.AA.9E),
so although it exists in Japan now, it is not used in Japanese academic
writing). In horizontal writing, the _kuten_ is placed in the same position as
a period would be in English: at the bottom right of the preceding character.
In vertical writing, it is placed immediately below and to the right of the
preceding character.

[Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_punctuation#Full_stop)
explains that

> Starting in the 1980s, advertising copy writers began incorporating full
> stops in titles and other advertising. In the 1990s, the group Morning
> Musume (モーニング娘。) began using a full stop in its name, starting a fad for
> this usage.

Other cases include

  * バクマン。 ( _Bakuman_ ) manga by Ooba Tsugumi and Obata Takeshi
  * いいひと。 ( _Ii Hito_ ) manga by Takahashi Shin
  * 野ブタ。をプロデュース ( _Nobuta wo Produce_ ) live-action TV drama

As you can see, "Bakuman" is not a full sentence by itself, and "Nobuta. Wo
Produce" intentionally slices a single phrase into two fragments by the
placement of the _kuten_ (Nobuta is the nickname of a main character that the
protagonist decides to "produce," meaning to make-over _Pygmalion_ -style.
Grammatically, you cannot make "Wo Produce" into its own sentence), so these
are both examples of a _kuten_ that should not be interpreted as a period for
ending a sentence. The _kuten_ can be utilized as a sentence ender, but it is
often **used for style without any grammatical meaning**. Similarly, some
series titles make use of other **Japanese typographic symbols** for style
such as ![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/oGjTw.png),
[＊](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_typographic_symbols#Other_special_marks),
[☆](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_\(glyph\)#Five_points),
[♪](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_note), and
[♯](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharp_\(music\)) (for example, うたの☆プリンスさまっ♪
[ _Uta no Prince-sama_ ] and おジャ魔女どれみ♯ [ _Oja Majo DoReMi Sharp_ ] and the
choice of a star to be read as the letter A in
[ST☆RISH](http://utanoprincesama.wikia.com/wiki/ST%E2%98%86RISH), an idol
group in the former).


CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-06-14T02:36:12.537
22420
2015-06-14T02:44:13.123
2015-06-14T02:44:13.123
8134
8134
19072
answer