Notes On Usage
This site is divided into three main sections: Song Lyrics, Nihongo Corner, FanArt
The Nihongo Corner uses mainly Romaji and GIFs.
Japanese language support software is required for all Japanese S-JIS pages.
Navigable offline Japanese S-JIS version of this site is now available as a ZIP file by request only.
Some lyrics have been "taken by ear". These will be replaced as soon as the webmaster obtains a lyric sheet or scan.

Corrections Submission
1. Please be civil when sending corrections.
2. Underscores indicate words that need verification, so if you have the audio, feel free to check.
3. The corrections page explains error-prone areas and lists the details of Romanization errors. Each affected song will also have revision information below the lyrics.
4. If a word written according to the lyrics sheet is commented upon, I will ignore it unless you can explain to me that the sheet is wrong.
5. Requests to check the spelling or grammar of English portions of a Japanese song will be ignored.
6. Translation corrections will be considered on a case-to-case basis.
7. Translations may be revised time to time without prior notice.
8. I do browse the site time to time to weed out Romanization errors in the process. It just takes a long while.

Translation / Romanization Requests
1. Romanization requests of songs will be accepted ONLY IF lyrics scans or Japanese lyrics are provided.
2. The same applies to translation requests, except for lyrics done by me because I have the their lyric sheets.
3. Romanization requests will be prioritized over translation requests.
4. Please request only after you have not found it in search engines.
5. All other requests will be forwarded to Wanted or Links sections.
6. The webmaster may refuse to translate a song if she finds the song too difficult.

Lyrics Submission
1. Romanized lyrics submissions will no longer be accepted.
2. Translated lyrics submissions take last priority and will be screened and accepted or refused on a case-to-case basis.
3. Lyric scans are preferred. Please send attachments to chirlind@yahoo.com
4. Please limit lyric scans to 400KB per scan. Bigger files leave less room in the mailbox and tend to arrive damaged.
5. When sending a lyric scan, please make sure that the characters, especially Kanji, are legible.
6. Lyrics encoded in S-JIS or EUC-JIS Japanese are also welcome.
7. Lyrics from coupling songs of singles CDs are welcome.
8. If available, please include song data, such as lyricist, composer, arranger, singer of the song and the title of the album where the song came from.
9. Your name (as it appears in your e-mail or homepage) below the song you submitted. Due to the spread of mail bots, e-mail address will no longer be posted. If you wish to use a pen name, please inform me.
10. The webmaster reserves the right to refuse posting, or to replace a posted work if deemed necessary.

Reposting Policies
1. I will no longer allow reposting because I may correct or revise the songs without prior notice.
2. Reposting without permission is strictly prohibited.
3. You may link to either the home page or the list pages. In that case, please indicate a note. Please e-mail the URL in which the links are to be posted. Please refrain from linking directly to the lyrics pages.
4. If you are one of those to whom I gave permission before, you may retain the lyrics. Just make sure they are up-to-date.
If You Are Caught...
There have been cases when I suspect or discover that someone has reposted lyrics without permission. You may happen to be one of those who did not know about the policies and reposted without asking first...
Others have been also continually submitting work from this site to general lyrics sites or posting them on forums. I only ask that a linkback to this site and credit to whomever Romanized/translated be retained.
All lyrics which have no credits at the bottom of the song have been Romanized/translated by Chirlind. All lyrics by contributors have been noted accordingly.
In such cases, Chirlind will verify by mail if you did ask permission before. If you did not, do not worry. Chirlind is a non-confrontational person and will not eat you alive, curse you, or tell you to take the lyrics down, but will simply remind you to comply with the policies stated above.
Why does this matter? Simply because a lot of time and effort has been spent on this, in particular, the genres which never really receive much attention.
Also the linkback system allows me to trace those who are really interested in such genres, as well lead me to potential sources of material.

MP3's
1. There are no MP3's in this site.
2. The webmaster does not have audio versions for most of the lyrics (roughly 1200 out of 2000) in this site, and will not attempt to search for them.
3. MP3 requests will not be entertained.
4. MP3 submissions will be accepted for lyrics-checking purposes.
5. The sender or receiver must have a way to send or receive the file and must indicate this in the e-mail message. Otherwise, the request or submission will be ignored. Preferred methods are: FTP, MIRC DCC send, online hosting service, email. No Megaupload, Rapidshare, WinMX, Kazaa, Morpheus, Emule, etc. please.

About The Translations
All my previous translations, as of June 1, 2000, did not have notes, leaving the connections to be done entirely by the viewer himself.
Translator's notes are sparse and far between, currently only found in the Magic Knight Rayearth translations. These notes contain mostly observations culled from the lyrics in general and a few trouble spots, such as unknown words, in the specific song.

In general, the translations on this site are literal,
and they are not meant to be singable translations.
Although how I understood the original song greatly affects the tone and content of the output.
In some cases, I get the wrong impression of the character whose song is supposed to portray,
or miss the story altogether and end up with mistranslations.
Translations in this site are revised from time to time.
My translations tend to follow patterns as decribed below.
This should help translation checkers pinpoint mistakes.

Hidden Subjects / Objects

As subjects are often implicit, I tend to guess the subject. Is it "I" or "you"? At other times, I skip the question by placing the third person "he" or plural "we". Objects are likely to be explicit, but there are many cases where these are also implicit.

Modifying Clauses

Modifying clauses where a verb precedes a noun are also trouble spots. The noun there could be the subject or the object of the verb. I fit one or the other function into the translation.

Line Breaks, Sentence Formation, Capitalization

Lines do not equate to sentences and sentences can spill to two or more lines.

Oftentimes, I connect two lines together to make a sentence and at others, I leave them apart. These connections and disconnections do make a significant difference in interpretation. I make use of capitalization to start a new sentence or indicate a pause in thought.

Vocabulary

Song lyrics often use a common vocabulary and phrasing, and so my translations, being quite literal, also share the same words and expressions.

Song Type

After reading a fair amount of lyrics, I have come to group them loosely as follows:

These groupings do affect the tone and phrasing of my translations.

Unfortunately, it also affects which songs I prioritize in translating.

Image songs =

-- songs about, made for, or sung by a particular character

rather fun to translate

often show a character's quirks

-- ex. "2 Of Kind" (Sagara Sanosuke & Takani Megumi of RRK)

-- ex. "Data to Date" (Kobayakawa Miyuki of TSZ)

-- ex. "Detekoi Tobikiri ZENKAI Power" (Son Gohan of DBZ)

personally, the sounds, more often than not, aren't that great

Love songs =

-- a large number of image songs are also love songs

quite difficult to translate

hidden subject / object problem is common

-- ex. several Fushigi Yuugi image songs

-- ex. several Rayearth image songs

-- ex. JUST COMMUNICATION (Shin Kidouseki Gundam W)

Hero songs =

-- songs praising the main character

-- typical of the giant robot anime of the 1970s and early 80s

typical robot anime songs describe the physical appearance of the hero, even going to the extent of mentioning the height!

-- ex. Voltes V Theme (Chou-Denji Voltes V)

-- ex. Tate! Toushou Daimos (Toushou Daimos)

-- ex. Tobe! Gundam (Kidou Senshi Gundam)

Fighter songs =

-- songs with the message of "Don't give up"

-- ex. several Yuyu Hakusho image songs

-- ex. several Dragonball Z songs

rather easy to translate

occasionally exhibit rather odd messages, such as fighting equated to love

Getting Lost?
Here is the site map:

Home Page /index.html Fanart http://members.tripod.co.jp/Chirlind_/ Nihongo Corner /1jp/main.html JPOP /2jpop/listjpop.html Blue Seed /grw/listbs.html Cardcaptor Sakura /grw/listccs.html Digimon Adventure /grw/listdig.html Dragonball series /db2/listdb2.html Fushigi Yuugi /fy/listfy.html Gundam series /grw/listgw.html Koko Wa Green Wood /grw/listgrw.html Macross series /grw/listma.html Magic Knight Rayearth /grw/listmkr.html Meitantei Conan /others/listcn.html Ranma 1/2 /grw/listrnm.html

Rurouni Kenshin /grw/listrrk.html Saber Marionette /sb1/listsb1.html Slayers /grw/listsl.html Sakura Taisen /others/st/listst.html Taiho Shichau Zo /grw/listtsz.html Yuyu Hakusho /grw/listyyh.html Other Anime Songs: A-E /others/list1.html Other Anime Songs: F-J /others/list2.html Other Anime Songs: K-O /others/list3.html Other Anime Songs: P-T /others/list4.html Other Anime Songs: U-Z /others/list5.html Game Songs /others/games.html Sentai & Mecha Songs /others/sentai.html

Website History and Reasons
From Nihongo in Anime to Lyrics Archive
December 1997 - Registered in Geocities as Chirlind's Home Page
My page was originally intended to be about the Japanese language.
From the start, the page was built with the manga-fan-cum-Nihongo-learner in mind.
Lyrics and fanart were included as side dishes.
November 28 1998 - Site renamed to The Anything-Goes Anime Lyrics Archive
Not meant as a Ranma site, the site aims to include popular songs of the nineties as well as obscure series from the sixties and seventies.
This time it was a whole-hearted plunge to go public as a lyrics site. Finally, the site was registered in Anipike and other search engines and directories.
Most of the Nihongo Corner was also built since the makeover.
Why do I Romanize songs
1. For those who want to sing along their favorite songs
2. Not everybody would want to learn Japanese for that
3. Although it may not really matter to some fans, it pains me that sometimes what they're belting out may be wrong... There are also times when lyrics taken down by ear (difficult and often unreliable) actually see print, and I mean newspapers or local adaptations!! ...In any case, the hapless song gets murdered...
4. To compete with and complement existing Romanized lyric archives
5. Romanizing is a good Kanji-learning tool.
Why do I translate songs
1. So that people know what the song is about, some would not want to sing about something which turns out to be ridiculous to them...
2. Local renditions, understandably, are often very different from the actual meaning of the lyrics
3. Many songs, especially image songs, are left out in the local adaptation process.
4. I find it more interesting than learning from a textbook, which I have also done.