Very Minor Pretty Cure Character Typo

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Super Affection

Per howto:romanize, we do normally use n' where appropriate. The form without apostrophe is ambiguous: you can't tell if it's げにちろう or げんいちろう, and they are pronounced differently. The apostrophe makes it clear that it's the latter.
Danbooru's romanization is on the technical side while avoiding non-ASCII chars. I personally like it for its direct correspondence to Japanese mora -- in fact, you can generally type it into a Japanese IME as is and get the correct result -- as well as ease to work with, but I'm probably also biased because Danbooru played a sizable part in my learning Japanese, so I may just be used to it.

However, we also prefer official romanizations over anything else and (as LQ says) those rarely use the apostrophe. But they rarely use ou either. If there is an official romanization, I wouldn't be surprised if it's "Genichiro". I'm not familiar with the copyright, though, and I'm not easily seeing any official romanizations for this guy's name.

If there's an official source, we should copy it, but if there isn't, "gen'ichirou" is the Danbooru way to romanize it.

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Knowledge Seeker

Super_Affection said:

Per howto:romanize, we do normally use n' where appropriate. The form without apostrophe is ambiguous: you can't tell if it's げにちろう or げんいちろう, and they are pronounced differently. The apostrophe makes it clear that it's the latter.
Danbooru's romanization is on the technical side while avoiding non-ASCII chars. I personally like it for its direct correspondence to Japanese mora -- in fact, you can generally type it into a Japanese IME as is and get the correct result -- as well as ease to work with, but I'm probably also biased because Danbooru played a sizable part in my learning Japanese, so I may just be used to it.

Huh. I did not know that. I come from a part of the internet where apostrophes are avoided whenever possible with romanji (though I am aware they aren't unusual in regards to them). I had assumed similar customs applied to Danbooru, but it seems I was incorrect. Then again, I am also a beginner to Japanese, so what do I know there?

However, we also prefer official romanizations over anything else and (as LQ says) those rarely use the apostrophe. But they rarely use ou either. If there is an official romanization, I wouldn't be surprised if it's "Genichiro". I'm not familiar with the copyright, though, and I'm not easily seeing any official romanizations for this guy's name.

If there's an official source, we should copy it, but if there isn't, "gen'ichirou" is the Danbooru way to romanize it.

It's been a while since I've had an active interest in Precure to be perfectly honest (and this season is one pretty off my radar, though I've heard it did get an official localization), but the sources I could find for this character romanize his name as "Usami Genichirou". It seems most sites (wiki included, which is what prompted this BUR) forgo the apostrophe to me, so I have a hunch that is the official romanization. It seems rather strange his name is "Usami Gen'ichirou" here with that in mind. But considering what you've said about the general Danbooru romanization patterns and the fact that this character is on the minor side, it does not surprise me his name got romanized here that way.

I would like to be corrected if I'm wrong though, but I'm pretty sure this rename is correct.

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Super Affection

I know almost nothing of Precure so I'll defer to you if you do. Changed my vote to meh accordingly. Would still be nice to have an official source.
At the end of the day, I guess what matters most is searchability, so if that's how the fandom likes to spell it, I'm in no position to argue.

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Knowledge Seeker

magcolo said:

The character's name is 宇佐美 源一郎, reading is うさみ げんいちろう, Usami Gen'ichirou is correct.

Then why are all the sources I can find for this character telling me "Usami Genichirou"? I have been led to believe that is the official romanization (though the current romanization is also correct, as you and a couple others point out). Am I wrong there?

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7HS

We shouldn't assume a romanization is official solely on the basis of most other third-party sites using it.
If I had to guess, whichever Wikipedia editor made the list of KiraKira PreCure a la Mode characters was the first person to write it as "Genichirou" (which is actually incorrect according to their own romanization guidelines) and other websites copied Wikipedia.
For the spelling to be official, it needs an official source. This can be something like merchandise, but there isn't any of this minor character.
Otherwise, we should default to Danbooru's standard policies rather than assuming "well, if everyone else is doing it, they must know something we don't."

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Knowledge Seeker

7HS said:

We shouldn't assume a romanization is official solely on the basis of most other third-party sites using it.
If I had to guess, whichever Wikipedia editor who made the list of KiraKira PreCure a la Mode characters was the first person to write it as "Genichirou" (which is actually incorrect according to their own romanization guidelines) and other websites copied Wikipedia.
For the spelling to be official, it needs an official source. This can be something like merchandise, but there isn't any of this minor character.
Otherwise, we should default to Danbooru's standard policies rather than assuming "well, if everyone else is doing it, they must know something we don't."

Yeah, you're right. My bad, this BUR emerged out of my own poor understanding of Danbooru's romanization policies. I'm gonna keep this BUR open in case an official romanization is located (which considering this is Precure, might be a while). I prefer my rename, personally, but I would like to keep it open just in case anyone else has thoughts on this.

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magcolo

Maiden_in_Orange said:

Then why are all the sources I can find for this character telling me "Usami Genichirou"? I have been led to believe that is the official romanization (though the current romanization is also correct, as you and a couple others point out). Am I wrong there?

Yeah, you're right. My bad, this BUR emerged out of my own poor understanding of Danbooru's romanization policies. I'm gonna keep this BUR open in case an official romanization is located (which considering this is Precure, might be a while). I prefer my rename, personally, but I would like to keep it open just in case anyone else has thoughts on this.

Some unofficial sites and translators don't enforce apostrophes simply because they don't think it's important or don't know this method exists. That doesn't prove that it's the correct romanization. Now, I haven't found an official source that directly shows the reading as げんいちろう (there's Wikipedia, but it's not official enough), but the name 源一郎 is on Toei's site, and given the kanji, I'm pretty confident that Gen'ichirou is how you read it.

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Knowledge Seeker

magcolo said:

Some unofficial sites and translators don't enforce apostrophes simply because they don't think it's important or don't know this method exists. That doesn't prove that it's the correct romanization. Now, I haven't found an official source that directly shows the reading as げんいちろう (there's Wikipedia, but it's not official enough), but the name 源一郎 is on Toei's site, and given the kanji, I'm pretty confident that Gen'ichirou is how you read it.

Ah, I see now. Romanization with apostrophes like this tend to register as errors in my mind due to my background from one such part of the internet as you described it. I would much prefer an official source to go off beyond our own translator's intuition, but this is probably gonna be the best we're gonna get knowing what official sources like this for Precure are like, especially with minor characters like this guy.

This was not a BUR I ever anticipated getting into a discussion about romanization over when I started this, honestly. But I suppose I'll just take this as a lesson in double checking romanization guidelines before making a BUR like this again.

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