[Guide] Advanced Japanese Metadata

IamKwaN

osu! Alumni

Joined August 2012

Topic Starter

IamKwaN 2016-07-13T09:52:21+00:00

Hi, KwaN here. I tidy up all the situations I have encountered through my metadata checking life (?) and write a guide about advanced Japanese metadata. Of course, generic procedures of finding correct metadata are also included. Hopefully you guys find them useful!

If there are similar cases, I will check, judge and give suggestions to maps in line with this guide personally. If you have anything uncertain or doubt about, feel free to post!

Searching for Official Metadata
Preferred Romanisation of Artists
Romanisation of Symbols
Title / Artist exceeding the field limit
Reference Websites

Searching for Official Metadata

General procedures

Anime Songs (TV Sizes)

This map is picked as an example.
1. Go to vgmdb.
  (Remember, vgmdb is only a platform assisting us finding correct metadata, tracks listed can be edited by anyone, like Wikipedia. So, do not quote vgmdb tracklists as metadata reference for your map.)
2. Search any information, including Title, Artist, Source, of the song you want to grab information for.
3. Albums should be listed descendingly according to their release date.
4. If you are trying to seek for a suffix, click the Products represented on the right, i.e. Dimension W for this example. All the albums relating to this Anime will be listed clearly. In most cases, TV Size songs are included in the Original Soundtrack.
5. Copy the Catalog Number (LACA-9444), you do not have to copy '~5' as no results may be found because of different expressions publishing companies use.
6. Click on the Publishing Company and the Official Website provided by vgmdb.
7. Search the Catalog Number you just copy. The remaining procedures should be trivial. Title, Artist and Source can be obtained from the same page.
8. Refer to the screenshots below if you are confused.
Screenshots

Title and Artist

Source
Anime Songs (Full Versions)

This map is picked as an example.
1. Go to vgmdb.
2. Search any information, including Title, Artist, Source, of the song you want to grab information for.
3. Albums should be listed descendingly according to their release date.
4. You can find Full-size songs without any problems by clicking the specific Single.
5. You can find information through three channels (where you can find their official sites easily on vgmdb):
  1. Artist > Discography
  2. Anime > Music / Products
  3. Publishing Company > Artists > Discography
  4. If you cannot read Japanese, pay attention to the URL the button direct to. It usually provides hint. For example,
6. Refer to the screenshots below if you are confused.
Screenshots
Rhythm game songs from BEMANI

This map is picked as an example.
1. Go to RemyWiki. (I have to emphasize once more, this kind of sites only acts as a shortcut of finding correct metadata, they cannot be treated as valid metadata sources.)
2. Search the Title of the song you want to grab information for.
3. Click on the game (SOUND VOLTEX III GRAVITY WARS) on the right-hand side of First Music Game Appearance the Official Website at the bottom provided by RemyWiki.
4. For such a large site, it is impossible for us to dig into the music list one by one. So, we use the site: searching function on Google.
```
site:p.eagate.573.jp/game/sdvx/iii Blastix Riotz
```
5. Google will find the list or page containing the song for you and that's it!
6. Refer to the screenshots below if you are confused.
Screenshots
Songs from other genres

Mostly the same technique is applied. Only the common platform of finding correct metadata for these genres are listed out.
1. Visual Novel: vgmdb
  ► Most galgame companies have their own official Youtube channel. Opening information of their games can be grabbed easily by watching their promotional videos or reading the descriptions.
  ► For example,
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piSLPUjwPdQ
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IazpFBFRvl8
  　
2. Touhou: Touhou Wiki
  ► Official sites for specific albums are usually included, great site yea?
  ► For example,
  
  　
3. Vocaloid / Utaite: Vocaloid Wiki / Utaite Wiki
  ► By searching in these wikis, we try to figure out if the song is included in an album. If no, we move on to composer / artist's other official sites, e.g. Nico Nico Douga, blog, Twitter, etc.
  ► For example,
  
  　
4. Video Games: vgmdb
  ► Most game soundtracks do not have an official track list on the web. Register an account on vgmdb, all the album scans are visible.
  ► For example,

IamKwaN

osu! Alumni

3,905 posts

Joined August 2012

Topic Starter

IamKwaN 2016-07-13T09:52:40+00:00

Preferred Romanisation of Artists

There are three situations we have to use preferred romanisation.

The official does not use the Modified Hepburn Method. For example,
1. Japanese: 南條愛乃
  Modified Hepburn Method: Nanjou Yoshino
  Official: Nanjo Yoshino
2. Japanese: 中川翔子
  Modified Hepburn Method: Nakagawa Shouko
  Official: Nakagawa Shoko
　
The official does not follow the normal capitalization rule, e.g. all uppercase or lowercase. For example,
1. Japanese: 鎖那
  General Capitalization: Sana
  Official: sana
2. Japanese: 山猿
  General Capitalization: Yamazaru
  Official: YAMAZARU
3. Japanese: カスタマイZ
  General Capitalization: Customize Z
  Official: CustomiZ
　
The official does not follow the 'surname, first name' format. For example,
1. Japanese: 西沢幸奏
  General Capitalization: Nishizawa Shiena
  Official: Shiena Nishizawa
2. Japanese: 梶浦由記
  General Capitalization: Kajiura Yuki
  Official: Yuki Kajiura

IamKwaN

osu! Alumni

3,905 posts

Joined August 2012

Topic Starter

IamKwaN 2016-07-14T07:45:56+00:00

Romanisation of Symbols

Interpunct in the Artist (．)
► We romanise '．' (namely interpunct, a common punctuation in Japanese separating transcribed foreign words) separating different artists as ',' as full stop in English indicates the end of sentences which does not make sense in these cases.
Examples: https://osu.ppy.sh/s/142081 , https://osu.ppy.sh/s/397719

► If the interpunct is within an Artist name, we simply put a space.
Examples: https://osu.ppy.sh/s/432290 , https://osu.ppy.sh/s/370552
　
Interpunct in the Title (．)
► We put a space in between those words if they are in the Title field.
Examples: https://osu.ppy.sh/s/368312 , https://osu.ppy.sh/s/393419 , https://osu.ppy.sh/s/243078
　
Full Stop (。)
► Full stops are romanised as '.' .
Examples: https://osu.ppy.sh/s/177570 , https://osu.ppy.sh/s/286383
　
Comma (、)
► We replace commas by ',' .
Examples: https://osu.ppy.sh/s/109191 , https://osu.ppy.sh/s/455092
　
Star (☆)
► Asterisk (*) is used for romanising stars.
Examples: https://osu.ppy.sh/s/429664 , https://osu.ppy.sh/s/163253
　
Cross (×)
► We commonly use x to romanise Unicode cross.
Examples: https://osu.ppy.sh/s/217956 , https://osu.ppy.sh/s/379430
　
Hyphen (～)
► We romanise '～' as ~ .
Examples: https://osu.ppy.sh/s/347021
　
Brackets (（）)
► Straight forward, half-length brackets work here.
Examples: https://osu.ppy.sh/s/410963 , https://osu.ppy.sh/s/419409
　
Single Quotation Marks (「　」)
► Single quotation marks are romanised as ".
Examples: 「テノヒラ」 > "Tenohira" from https://osu.ppy.sh/s/444288
　
Other Symbols
► In most cases, we ignore symbols because they do not have a specific meaning and we cannot find a suitable half-length symbol to replicate. For example, https://osu.ppy.sh/s/334447 , https://osu.ppy.sh/s/438535
► However in some cases, it depends on the context.
Examples: https://osu.ppy.sh/s/454329 , https://osu.ppy.sh/s/444962

If you are not sure, feel free to ask!

IamKwaN

osu! Alumni

3,905 posts

Joined August 2012

Topic Starter

IamKwaN 2016-07-14T08:56:14+00:00

Title / Artist exceeding the field limit

Reference: p/4072395

The limitation of osu! is going to stand for a while, so we can only get rid of the error by altering the Artist. As far as I know, the number of characters in all the metadata fields cannot exceed 81. You can check the number of characters here.

Artist being too long

This happens mostly because several voice artists performing the song in an anime / video game do not have a group name.

There are two ways of dealing with such issue, both are acceptable under current Ranking Criteria.
1. First way to follow the original style
  This map is picked as an example.
  1. Original Artist: 中津川初(CV:中村繪里子)、神本円佳(CV:清水愛)、日向伊吹(CV:青葉りんご)
  2. Extract all the voice artist names from the Original Artist. Reason why we are doing this is characters are virtual roles only, the actual people performing the song are the voice actresses.
  3. Put 、 between names to separate them.
  4. Final Artist: 中村繪里子、清水愛、青葉りんご
  This map as another example.
  1. Original Artist: 宮内れんげ（小岩井ことり）、一条蛍（村川梨衣）、越谷夏海（佐倉綾音）、越谷小鞠（阿澄佳奈）
  2. Again, take out all the voice artist names from the Original Artist.
  3. Put 、 between names to separate them.
  4. Final Artist: 小岩井ことり、村川梨衣、佐倉綾音、阿澄佳奈
  　
2. Another way not to follow the original style (in case it is weird)
  This map as a demonstration.
  1. Original Artist: 高坂穂乃果(CV.新田恵海)・南ことり(CV.内田彩)・園田海未(CV.三森すずこ)
  2. Grab all the voice artist names from the Original Artist.
  3. Put 、 between names to separate them.
  4. Final Artist: 新田恵海、内田彩、三森すずこ
　
Title being too long

You may ask many questions when encountering with metadata, of which song title being too long cannot be solved easily by just reading a guide. So, seek help when you experience such matter!