At vkgy, our goal is to preserve the unique visual gimmicks employed by visual kei bands, as well as the culture of the visual kei fandom.
As such, we employ a hybrid form of romanization which values the preservation of “visual intent” over academic standards.
Romanizations should be based on Modified Hepburn—except for long vowels, which use the unaccented variants, i.e. お姉さん → oneesan, instead of onēsan.
Official romanizations (as specified by the artist, lyric sheet, or release jacket) should take precedence. However, streaming service titles do not trigger this rule, as their romaji is often done by automated software.
In edge cases, just use your best judgment, or ask for help on our Discord. Please do not argue with someone whose romanization you disagree with.
Romanization specifics
Katakana words should be uppercase: アメ → AME.
Otherwise, follow standard title case: こしらえた正義はがらんどうです → Koshiraeta Masayoshi ga Garandou desu
Connect suffixes to the preceding word: ままちゃん → MAMAchan and 人形館へ → Ningyoukane
Loan words should be replaced with the original word and should follow capilization standards: セーラー → SAILOR but せーらー → Sailor
Do not localize symbols: do not convert “・・・” to “...”, or 「」 to "", or so on.
Also do not introduce symbols that were not originally present, such as hyphens, apostrophes, or accent marks.
Do not change numbers to words or vice versa: 第一章 → Daiisshou but 第2章 → Dai2shou
Katakana/hiragana/kanji that are used as symbols should be left un-romanized: i.e. (〇_ _)ﾉ彡☆ should not be changed to “(maru)NOMI☆”
Obscure Japanese
For obscure kana, Hepburn versions are preferred: ヴ → VU, and ル゜ → LU, and so on.
Archaic Japanese phrases should be romanized how they are pronounced. For example, てふてふ is an arhaic way of writing “chouchou”, so that is the recommended romanization, even though those characters look like they would be pronounced tefutefu.
In odd or unusual cases, always leave an explanatory comment on the release and/or on the song.
For example, the title 虚ロ器也レル mimics a style of writing classical Chinese was read with Japanese grammar, wherein レ indicates a reordering. In this case, the title is romanized as “UsoROnaRU Utsuwa” rather than “UsoRO Utsuwa NaRERU” like might be assumed. A note with these details was left on the song's page.
