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Documentation: Romanization

Basic romanization
  • At vkgy, a hybrid form of romanization is encouraged—but not required.
The goal of vkgy is not to conform to academic journal standards, but to preserve the dumb visual gimmicks that vk bands employ. As such, the community has agreed upon a method which is easy for Western users to type, but which also preserves “visual intent.”
  • Modified Hepburn is recommended, except for long vowels, where Wapuro is recommended. お姉さんoneesan, rather than onēsan.
  • Avoid localizing symbols: don't convert “・・・” to “...” etc. If the symbol is not pronounced, it should probably stay the same in the romaji.
Also avoid introducing typographic symbols that were not originally present, such as hyphens, apostrophes, or accent marks (hence Wapuro for long vowels).
  • Official romanizations (as specified by the artist or lyrics) should take precedence—but note that iTunes (etc.) romaji is often done by third parties.
  • In edge cases, just use your best judgment. You can also tag releases with needs romaji, or ask for help on our Discord. Please don't argue with someone whose romanization you disagree with.
Advanced romanization
  • Loan words should be romanized to their original form: セーラーsailor.
  • Other than loan words, translations should be avoided: 第一章Daiisshou instead of “chapter one.”
Also avoid romanizing anything other than katakana, hiragana, and/or kanji: 第2章Dai2shou.

Katakana/hiragana/kanji that are used as visual symbols may be preserved: i.e. in (o_ _)ノ彡☆, the ノ and 彡 do not need to be romanized.
  • It's recommended that hiragana (ひらがな) is written in lowercase and katakana (カタカナ) in UPPERCASE. This does not have an academic basis; it's purely to preserve the visual contrast that the artist intended.
  • Aside from katakana, general English rules are suggested: capitalize titles and names, leave prepositions lowercase, etc.
Archaic Japanese
  • For obscure Japanese, the extended kana recommended by Hepburn are typically preferred.
VU, ル゜LU.
  • For archaic Japanese, it's recommended that the phrase be romanized how it would be pronounced. For example, てふてふ is actually an archaic way to write chouchou (and this is the recommended romanization), despite that those characters would be read tefutefu now.
  • In weird cases like these, it's recommended that an explanatory note or comment be left. See the notes for this mona lisa (姆) demotape, in which the first track is romanized differently than its characters would suggest:
2002-04-30
mona lisaWALPURGIS no Yoru no Yumeワルプルギスの夜の夢
  1. UsoROnaRU Utsuwa (虚ロ器也レル)
  2. Shigatsu Sanjuu Nichi~Machi Wabita SABBATH e~ (四月三十日~待ち侘びたサバトへ~)
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