Capitalization Anime Titles
 

So what do you generally do when writing the title of series (and songs, etc)? Assuming you aren't lazy and just don't capitalize anything, what words do you choose to capitalize?

Do you capitalize every word? (Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni)
Or ignore the particles? (Higurashi no Naku Koro ni)
What about the longer particles? (Shinsekai Yori vs Shinsekai yori)

well i capitalize the starting of the title,capitalize the main words, and keep the particles in small,
for eg: Daily Lives of High School Boys, The Lies of Locke Lamora

Capitalize the main words, ignore the particles unless the title states otherwise, and abbr. everything else.:p

I'll usually go by shorthand, for one thing.

So, with your Higurashi example, I just call it... Higurashi. If I want to refer specifically to the 2nd season alone, I'll call it "Higurashi Kai". If I want to refer specifically to the 1st season alone, I'll call it "Higurashi's 1st Season". Yes, writing all that out is easier to me than remembering all those littler particles in Higurashi's title. :heh:

But on those occasions when I can't really dismiss the particles (such as with Shinsekai Yori), my personal rule is 'if the particle is 3 or more letters long, it gets capitalized; less than 3 letters long, it doesn't get capitalized'.


My biggest problem with anime title names is wondering at times how to handle those sometimes pesky exclamation marks. Writing "K-On!!" in the middle of a sentence kind of looks wrong to me (i.e. having exclamation marks in the middle of a sentence). At the same time, ending off a sentence with "K-On!!" makes it seem like I'm really shouting the entire sentence that "K-On" is in, lol. I still haven't made up my mind as to the best way to refer to "Little Busters!".

^Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka? seems to question itself too. :3

I usually try to put grammar titles before the end of the sentence or if I can't be bothered to I just italicize or bold the title. When formatting isn't an option you just need to be a little more creative. "Speaking of which, Little Busters! is just about finished so it's time I get to that..."

Like that.

Busters or Little or LB or Loli-Loli Hunters.

This, for the most part.

Exclamation marks uggh.

I find that when you italicize or quote them it makes it a bit more flowing.

As for ending sentences with titles with exclamation marks, if you add a period to the end, the italics version looks pretty okay, though, the quotes aren't as nice imho.

I generally prefer to leave exclamation/question marks out unless I'm intentionally giving full series names. Except they are sorta necessary for some series like Negima!/!? and K-On!/!!. Then again you could always go K-On S1/S2.

Any particular reason for capitalizing "ka," but not "wa" ?


Also, more questions, maybe a bit more about romanization in general rather than just titles but,
ha vs wa, wo vs o, etc.
how do you handle mini yx sounds (Nichijou vs Nichijyou vs Nichizyou)

Personally, I prefer to stick with Hepburn as much as possible in almost all cases. So, Nichijou as opposed to the others.

As for the capitalization, I prefer to not capitalize particles. Sometimes I might not capitalize certain other grammatical constructs, like "desu" or "demo". For example, "Kore wa Zombie desu ka?" (Debatable if it should be "desuka" in this case.) I also did "Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai!" I've seen some other sites follow the same rule.

That aside, sometimes I'm undecided about the "he" and "wo" particles, and it seems I'm not alone on that. Looking at my history, I've generally tended to write them out as above, rather than following the revised Hepburn rule of "e" and "o". That said, I do use the modified rule for "n", as I think most do. (Basically, I guess I just write out each kana in romaji.)

And, for what it's worth, I dislike macrons, so always write the long vowels out.

I'm not sure if any of this is all that important unless you're maintaining some sort of a database (which I do) or you just like having personal standards... but there you go. :heh:

Sometimes the options are not there case in point CLANNAD.

Yes.

Mine is Shin Sekai Yori.

I believe the standard in publishing is to only capitalize the first word -- at least, that's how I typically see it on copyright pages and bibliographies -- but I think that looks silly, so I just follow the same rule as in English and leave anything equivalent to a preposition, article or conjunction uncapitalized unless it's at the beginning or end of a sentence (so it'd be Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni).

I just write it the English way or Japanese translated way.

Whichever I feel like at the time.

I personally refrain from capitalizing particles in titles (no, ni, wa, de etc.). But because there is no capitalization in Japanese I think there is no surefire right way to do it. So however you want to do it is not objectionable, even all lowercase imho. If you want to be correct all you can really do is apply your language's rules onto it the best you can. Or type it in Japanese :heh:

As for to call it by translated name or Japanese name, I just follow what the fandom does :heh: I'm not sure how it is decided what to call shows, sometimes the translated name gets popular and sometimes the original Japanese name gets popular.