Phase 3: Reading katakana

As mentioned above, katakana is the primary way to write foreign words. Fortunately, there are a lot of these in Japanese usage - especially when it comes to Castlevania. A majority of item names and weapons are written in katakan, so if you're lazy, you can probably just memorize these rules and you'll be able to at least navigate through most menus.

Rule 1: Rs and Ls, and other approximations

As you may be aware, there is no real "L" sound in Japanese (that's not entirely true - some Japanese pronounce "R"s like "L"s, but it varies.) As a result, "R" sounds replace "L"s.

Let's take a look at the katakana for "Alucard", spelled A-RU-KA-A-DO.

Notice that a "ru" is placed instead of a "lu".

Rule 2: AR, UR, ER sounds

You'll also notice the lack of sounds for AR, UR, and ER. In these cases, just use a long "A" sound. Again, look at "Alucard".

The "KA-A" replaces the sound for "car".

Rule 3: vowels, use 'u'

As mentioned above, there are almost no consonants that stand alone in Japanese. This poses a problem. However, take note of the sounds that end with a "u" (i.e. "su", "bu", "mu"). In many cases, the "u" is almost silent. For example, the word "desu" is usually pronounced something like "dess". Therefore, use the syllable ending with "u" to approximate the sound.

We run into a problem with "Alucard", however. Note that there is no "du" sound. In this case, we use a "do" instead (same thing with "T" - use "to".) In the cases where you NEED to use a sound like "tu", write a katakana "to" and follow it up with a small "u" sound.

Rule 4: Miscelleneous stuff

In the olden days of Japanese, there were no "v" sounds. Hence the "v" sounds was approximated by using "b". Look at the Japanese title for Bloodlines, Vampire Killer.

However, in recent times, people just use the "u" sound and put those little dots on top to turn it into a "v".

Another thing to note is the usage of "n" to take the place of "m" sounds. If an "m" is followed by a consonant, just use "n" instead (in words like "computer", etc.)

It's odd how there's only a symbol for "fu" and not any other "F" sounds. In this case, use a "fu" with a small vowel to make "fa", "fo", etc.

On the same note, there's no "di" sound, so use a "de" with a little "i".

There is no "si" sound, so use "shi" instead.

I'm sure there are a few other ones here and there, but those are most of the major ones. In spite of these rules, if you're unsure what a katakana word is supposed to represent, sound it out. Say it quickly. See if it sounds like any words you know in English. That's the best way to figure these kind of things out.

Here are some examples of names used in Castlevanias:

Katakana	Romaji	English
	ARUKAADO	Alucard
	MARIA	Maria
	RIHITAA	Richter (note how it's pronounced the German way, not the way we'd say it in English.)
	SHIMON	Simon
	DORAKYURA	Dracula
	RARUFU	Ralph (Trevor's Japanese name)
	BERUMONDO	Belmondo (Belmont's Japanese name)
	KYASSURUVANIA	Castlevania
	POOSHON	Potion
	BOORU	Ball
	DORAGON	Dragon
	SOODO	Sword
	ANKAASU	Uncurse
	SUKERUTON	Skeleton
	ZONBI	Zombie
	AITEMU	Item
	SEEBU	Save (as in saving your game)
	ROODO	Load (again, as in loading a saved game)

Phase 4: Kanji fundamentals

Kanji is a little bit different from hiragana and katakana - each symbol stands for a concept, tangible or intangible. There are thousands of these. This is also the reason why learning Japanese is such a bitch. In addition to the huge amount of kanji, each of them has at least two (and in some cases, more) pronunciations.

Remember back to those English classes and SAT reviews (if you've had them) about the concept of root words. You know, a small word that stands for a concept, and you string them together with other root words. For example, the root "tele" means "far off". You combine this with worlds like "phone" (telephone: call off to far places), "port" (teleport: move to far away places), and "gram" (telegram: letter to some place far away). Other examples include "micro", meaning "small" (microphone, micromanagement, etc) and "mega", meaning "large" or in the case of the metric system, a million (megaphone, megaton, megahertz, etc.)

Kanji works the same way - each symbol has a root meaning, and you combine them with other kanji to make compounds. What makes kanji difficult is that each symbol also has at least two pronunciations - one for when it is a single word (known as the KUN reading), and another when it is used in compounds (the ON reading). To make it even more confusing, there are sometimes more than one KUN reading.

Now let's look at some examples to see how this all works.

This shoulds look familiar - Castlevania's Japanese name is "Akumajou Dracula", meaning Demon Castle Dracula. Let's look at the individual kanji.

The first one is pronounced "waru" when used alone, and "aku" when used in combinations. It means "bad" or "evil".

The second one is pronounced "ma". It means "demon".

The final kanji is pronounced "shiro" when used alone, and "jou" in combinations.

So, piece everything together, and you get something like "Evil Demon Castle". That wasn't so hard, was it? Now, for the next one.

The next one - shinigami. This is the Grim Reaper.

The first kanji is pronounced "shi", usually. It means "death".

The second is pronounced "kami", in most cases. It means "god".

Put it together and you get "death god" - which is pretty much what the Grim Reaper is. However, note the pronunciation - it SHOULD be "shikami", but it's actually "shinigami". This is one of the wacky ways that Japanese words. The death kanji is normally "shi", but it also has an additional pronunciation: "shini". But take note of "kami" turning into "gami". In many cases, if used in the middle of a compund, the first syllable of the kanji changes slightly. "K"s will become "G"s and "T"s will become "D"s. Look at the hiragana chart though - it's the same symbol, just with the added dots by them. This isn't always a blanket rule, as there are always special cases, but it's a good rule to go by.

Here's our another example.

This is the word for "fishman", hangyojin. Individually:

The first one is "han". It means "half" or "part".

The second one is pronounced "sakana" when used alone, and "kyo" in compounds (although it's "gyo" in this case.) It means "fish".

The third one is pronounced "hito" when used alone, and "jin" in compounds. It means "human".

Put together, "Half Fish Human". Pretty simple. Again, note the change in sound of the second kanji from "kyo" to "gyo".

Again, this is the general rule as to how things work, but there are some wacky exceptions along the line that just don't make sense. For instance, the word "ginkou" means "bank". The two kanji that comprise it mean "silver" and "go". It has a vague connection, but it's a bit esoteric. Unfortunatly there are plenty of these - you just have to know them.

Here's an easier one.

This one is "gekka", the one used in "Gekka no Yasoukyoku", the Japanese title for Symphony of the Night.

The first kanji means "moon", and is usually pronounced "tsuki". However, it can also be pronounced "getsu". This kanji is also used to represent months.

The second kanji means "beneath", and is normally pronounced "shita". The alternate pronunciation is "ka".

Literally, this should mean "beneath the moon". However, it actually means "moonlight". If you think about it, this does make sense: anything beneath the moon would be in moonlight. But trying to figure out exactly what a kanji compound means can be a bit of a stretch if you're not aware of the context.

Here are a couple of additional kanji that are useful:

Kanji	Pronunciations	English
	sei, shou, many others	Life (also means many other things, including beer.)
	sei	Holy
	dai, tai, oh	Big, Large
	shi	Death
	ten	Sky, Heaven

And those are pretty much all of the basic rules you need to know for Japanese. What follows is all vocabulary - adjectives, nouns and verbs. Note that verbs all end with "u" and regular adjectives all end in "i" (there are also irregular adjectives that end with "na", although none are listed here.) You can also turn nouns into adjectives by using this pattern: "(noun) no (noun)". For instance, below:

It says "Densetsu no kenshi" or "legendary swordsman".

Another example:

It says "yami no chikara" or "power of darkness". You'll notice that, if you look at the phrase strictly, it's "darkness power". In English, that just doesn't sound right. Hence, just flip around the nouns to make it better.

It can also be used to denote possession. For instance:

That says "ARUKADDO no SOODO", or "Alucard's sword".

Phase 5: Furigana

In order to help the pronunciation of kanji, sometimes there are little hiragana or katakana next to them. Although not common in video games (though Zelda: The Wind Waker uses them), this are common, especially in manga. These are known as furigana. There are also some playful things that can be done with this. Now, take a look at the logo for Dracula X:

You'll see some katakana in between the two kanji. It's a little hard to see, but it says "rondo". Let's take a look at the kanji:

Pronounced "rinne", it means "reincarnation", in the Buddhist sense. However, the furigana means that it is meant to be pronounced "rondo". In addition to the musical connotation, a rondo is a circle - much like reincarnation is the circle of life. So there are actually three meanings contained the title of Dracula X. Almost all Japanese Castlevania games have furigana above the kanji so the musical connotation is clear.