Unusual Chapter Numbers: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

Doing odd—no, ''peculiar'' things with your chapter numbers. Which can be either odd or even. Or fractional. Or even stranger things, up to and including non-numeric. Representing them with formulas or other non-standard formats works, too.

 

Compare [[Idiosyncratic Episode Naming]], [[Episode Zero: The Beginning]].

{{examples}}

* Flashback chapters in ''[[Bleach]]'' uses negative chapter numbers relative to how far back from the beginning they are. Toshiro Hitsugaya's special chapter is -15, while the Turn Back the Pendulum arc consists of chapters [[108]] to -97. A chapter about how Mizuiro and Keigo became friends with Ichigo and Chad was numbered .8 and two about events ''immediately'' before the beginning of the story were numbered "0.side a" and "0.side b".

** A special chapter tying in with one of the movies is called ''[[Loose Canon|Imaginary Number]]'' 1.

* ''[[School Rumble]]'' plot chapters are labeled #1, #2 and so on, but chapters about minor characters are labeled with â™­. There are also a few 'natural' chapters.

* Invoked in ADV Films' dub of ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]''; the tapes were referred to as "Genesis 0:1", "Genesis 0:2", etc. up to "Genesis 0:13".

* [[Recap Episode|Recap episodes]] of ''[[Code Geass]]'' were numbered (number of the previous episode).5 with the next episode continuing onto the next whole number.

* The ''[[Saiyuki]]'' main-story series (''Gensomaden'', ''Reload'', and ''Blast'') have chapters organized into numbered "acts"—roughly equivalent to plot arcs. There are fractional numbered acts for omakes, and full-chapter flashbacks are listed as "act.xx".

 

** ''[[Countdown to Final Crisis]]'' did the same thing, counting backwards from ''[[52]]''.

* This happens occasionally in long running comics that have been restarted various times. Via loopholes in how volumes are decided the editors can shuffle the numbers around to celebrate milestones. For example Thor #28 of the most recent volume will be/was numbered as Thor #600. Naturally this can be very very confusing, especially when the numbering is reset multiple times in relatively short order.

* ''[[DC One Million]]'' saw every DCU title jump to #1,000,000 for an issue as the far future DCU interacted with the present day.

* Long after both events, ''[[Booster Gold]]'' had a Zero issue (tying into ''Zero Hour'' ''and'' restating his origin) and a One Million issue (introducing Booster's 1M counterpart, Peter Platinum).

* Given all this, it's almost not unusual that the ''[[Earth X]]'' trilogy featured the first issue as "0", the second through thirteenth as "1-12", and the last as "X". (With a number of titled but un-numbered comics in between during the runs of ''Universe'' and ''Paradise X''.

* Like Zero Hour above the miniseries ''Marvel: The Lost Generation'' the numbering go backwards matching the timetravelling POV character.

* Back before it ended, the Deadpool Team Up series was numbered backwards, starting at 1000.

 

* ''[[Starkit's Prophecy]]'' is more than a little careless with its chapter numbers. Whether or not numbers are being skipped or duplicated, they are frequently subjected to [[Rouge Angles of Satin]] when spelled out.

 

* In ''[[Logan's Run]]'', the chapter numbers go down. {{spoiler|Since it ends with a rocket taking off, it's a countdown.}}

* In [[Dan Abnett]]'s ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' novel ''Titanicus'', the chapter numbers are in binary.

* In Margaret Ball's ''Mathemagics'', the chapter numbers are mathematical formulae that can be solved for the actual number. (She lists the solutions in the back.)

* ''[[Wayside School]] Is Falling Down'' is stuck on the [[Missing Floor|nineteenth story]] for three chapters. The following chapter is headed "20, 21 & 22: Eric, Eric and Eric".

** The previous book, "Sideways Stories from Wayside School," has no Nineteenth chapter at all (since the school isn't supposed to have a nineteenth story, either.) Instead, between chapters 18 and 20 we get a notice saying "there is no nineteenth story. Sorry."

* The chapters in ''[[Jurassic Park]]'' are titled "First Iteration", "Second Iteration", etc., in keeping with Ian Malcolm's interest in fractals (and the actual fractals are shown). In ''The Lost World'', it becomes "First Configuration", "Second Configuration" etc.

** The iteration count is wrong - the "first iteration" actually is the third and so on. (This might be because the first and second iterations don't look very interesting)

* ''The Man Who Loved Only Numbers'', a biography of Paul Erdos, starts with chapter 0, then goes up through one, two, e, three, pi and so on, before ending with an epilogue: Chapter Infinity.

* Aside from the prologue, each chapter of ''[[A Night in the Lonesome October]]'' by Roger Zelazny is titled October 1, October 2, etc., all the way to October 31, as each chronicles the events of that day.

* In ''Survivor'' by [[Chuck Palahniuk]], the chapter numbers count down, as do the page numbers.

* The [[Doctor Who Expanded Universe]] novels are full of this. There has been at least one instance of numbers counting down. It almost always has something to do with [[Time Travel]].

* In [[John Varley]]'s time travel novel ''Mammoth,'' the chapters are numbered in ''absolute'' chronological order, which is ''not'' the order the story is told in.

* ''Tik Tok'' has twenty-six chapters, which don't have numbers, but each one begins with the appropriate letter of the alphabet in a very large [[Useful Notes/Fonts|font]]. (So chapter one begins "As I look..", chapter two begins "Broaching the second chapter..." and so on. The writer has to cheat a little: for example, chapter four has "Hey Dummy!" and chapter seventeen has "Q. Cue the bloody rainbow...")

** ''[[The Neverending Story (novel)|The Neverending Story]]'' does the same thing.

* The ''[[Thursday Next]]'' books begin every chapter on a right-hand page. If the previous chapter ends on a right-hand page, the intervening left-hand page is blank. [[Thirteen Is Unlucky|There is no Chapter 13]], although one is listed in the contents—with the page number of the blank page before Chapter 14.

* The book ''The Dancing Wu Li Masters'' (Think ''[[Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance]]'') numbered each chapter "Chapter One," with a different title under each one. The philosophy behind this is eventually explained in the book.

* A few ''Captain Underpants'' books have chapters numbered X 1/2, and one even has one with a 3/4.

* The ''[[Otto Undercover]]'' series by [[Rhea Perlman]] does this a lot. For example, in the first book, the table of contents lists "Chapter Minus 1", "Chapter 0", "Chapter Regular 1", "Too Many Chapters", and "The End". The actual names of the chapters in the book are "Chapter Minus 1", "Chapter 0", "Chapter Regular 1", "Chapter 2", "Chapter 2½", "Chapter 3", "Chapter 4", "Rude Interruption of the Story, Number One", "Chapter 4 Again", "Rude Interruption of the Story, Number Two", and so on...

 

* ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' began as a local TV show (on Minneapolis station KTMA), then became a 10-year national series on The Comedy Channel (later Comedy Central) and then the Sci-Fi Channel. Since all of its cable-era marketing treated the first national season as Season 1, fans and show archivists retroactively "numbered" the KTMA episodes "K01" through "K21", with an unaired pilot-show fragment numbered "K00". Confusingly, [[IMDb]] originally called the KTMA shows "Season 0", but has now renumbered them all to Seasons 1-11, breaking with all other information sources (but oddly keeping the "0" number for the "pilot").

 

** The ''1712 Overture'' is S. 1712.

** ''The Classical Rap'' is S. 1-2-3

** ''The 'Howdy' Symphony'' is S. 6 7/8

 

* The Malkavian clanbook in ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade]]''. So much so it calls the Appendixes "Liver One" and "Kidney Two".

 

* There are franchises beyond count in which the numbers in the title have no actual bearing on the title's chronological place in the series. For example, [[Grand Theft Auto]] starts with GTA 1, then GTA 2, then GTA 3. So far, so good. Then comes Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Then San Andreas. Followed by the sixth game in the franchise, ''Grant Theft Auto IV.''

** Similarly, the stages in World 1 count down from 4 to 1, probably for the same reason.

* The stages in ''[[Radiant Silvergun]]'' are numbered not by the order they're played by, but by the time period they take place. Because of this, the final stage, which is set millions of years in the past, is Stage 1.

* The story of [[The World Ends With You]] is played by week. During the first week, each day starts with a "THE XTH DAY" screen and ends with a "CHAPTER TITLE" screen. The second week starts over, so your eighth day is again "THE 1ST DAY", ninth is "THE 2ND DAY" and so on. The first day of the ''third'' week, however, is {{spoiler|"7 DAYS LEFT", Week 3 Day 2 is "6 DAYS LEFT", and Day 7 is "THE LAST DAY".}} The unlockable bonus chapter is "ANOTHER DAY".

* ''[[Minecraft]]'' Alpha and Beta releases had version numbers in the format of 1._____, eventually culminating in 1.9 prerelease 5. The "final" version of ''Minecraft'' is simply numbered version 1.0.0.

* The arcade game ''[[Kamen Rider]] Battle: Ganbaride'' used straight numbers for its first several sets. When ''[[Series/Kamen Rider OOO|Kamen Rider OOO]]'' premiered, the sets were relaunched with set 001, and when ''[[Kamen Rider Fourze]]'' premiered it was relaunched again with set 01. The same thing happens with ''[[Super Sentai]] Battle: Dice-O'', where the early sets just had numbers, the ''[[Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger]]'' sets used "DX-(number)", and the ''[[Tokumei Sentai Gobusters]]'' sets used "Tokumei-(number)".

* ''[[Touhou]]'' uses fraction for in-between installments. 7.5, 10.5, and 12.3 were fighting games, 9.5 and 12.5 were unique photographing games, 12.8 was a [[Lower Deck Episode]] with Cirno as the main character. (Yes, there were 3 games between ''Touhou 12: Undefined Fantastic Object'' and ''Touhou 13: Ten Desires''. No, they aren't examples of [[Capcom Sequel Stagnation]].)

 

* ''[[Adventurers!]]'' had hundreds of strips numbered 999 during the final boss battle arc, as a joke on [[Cap]]s in RPGs.

 

* "A Beginner's Guide To The British" has Part One, Part Two, Part <s>Four</s> three (oops), Part Four, and Part <s>Four</s> five.

* [[The Nostalgia Critic]], in his Top 11 Mind**** Countdown used entries such as "Number Guttenburg" "Number Lamp" and "Number Number" (depicted by a # sign).

* [http://bookofsand.net/hypertext/ The Book of Sand] puzzle does this with PAGE numbers. The page numbers are 999, 1001, 40514, 82499, 71077345, [[Mouthful of Pi|3141592654]], 11111000101, and 23^9. Worse yet, [[Out of Order|they don't take place in order]]. Rather, the reader has to put them in order based on context of the story.

 

* One should not be surprised to open up a programming language reference book and see that the chapter numbers start at zero. If the author of the book has done this, the language will almost certainly use zero as the index of the first item in an array. Probably the languages to get this treatment the most are C and C++.

** Some math books also do this.

 

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