faq : frequently asked questions

I don't actually expect a lot of questions about this site, since it's so small, but I wanted to answer some things right off the bat to prevent any confusion or whatnot.

Will you romanize [this song]?

Sorry, no. I tend to romanize songs on a whim or if I need them for a music video. Besides, I only romanize songs off of CD's I own or occasionally off a cd I borrow from a friend. Please do not email lyrics requests as I will not be able to fulfill them.

Where did you get the lyrics from?

From the cd covers. Straight from the source, as they say. The exception are some of the timed lyrics, where I grabbed an already transcribed version from animelyrics.com.

So where did you get the cds?

I've gotten cds from quite a few places. CDJapan is where I usually order my anime soundtracks from now-a-days, especially for new releases. I've also bought CD's at local Japanese bookstores (Asahiya, Kinokuniya) as well as used CD stores (Mandai books, now Kamikaze Anime in Los Angeles). I've also gotten a few cd's from a friend who visited Japan and picked it up while there or by borrowing a friend's cd to copy the lyrics.

If you have the lyrics in front of you, why don't you translate the songs?

Unless you want the translation to look like a shopping list, you don't want me to translate. I can get vocabulary fairly well, which is a big boon when lyrics have lots of kanji, but I never took a formal course in Japanese so I don't know grammar. I can write out the literal list of words, but stringing them together in understandable sentences is far beyond my ability. Please do not email requests for translations as I will not be able to fulfill them.

Why are there random words in CAPITAL letters?

It's one of my strange romanizing conventions. For some songs, if something is written in katakana, I type it in caps. Also, if the katakana spells out an English word, I usually (but not always) write out the English equivalent.

Your spacing is all strange! What kind of crack school of romanization did you go to?!

Er, I skipped it to read manga? Remember, I've never taken a formal Japanese course, so the spacing in my romanizations are all in my head. Feel free to make the spacing however you like if it makes it easier for you to read.

What's your disclaimer/usage policy for your lyrics?

I am not fluent in Japanese and thus these lyrics may have errors in them. I apologize in advance and encourage you to email me if you find such a thing so that they can be fixed. All lyrics are in the original Japanese (Shift-JIS encoded) and romanji, no translations are available because, well, I'm not fluent in Japanese. If you wish to use the lyrics on your site, that's fine, but I would appreciate the appropriate credit (a text link to this site is just dandy.)

What in the world are these timed lyrics?

I have, on occasion, gone through the mind-numbing work of timing karaoke lyrics to full-length songs in order to create awesome lyrics for my anime music videos. This is NOT something you should take trivially; matching every syllable takes a lot of time, patience, and having to listen to the same five seconds 10 seconds (multiplied by the length of the song.) That being said, if I put that much hard work into it, why hoarde it? These lyrics are in .ssa or SubStation Alpha format that can be used directly in video processing programs like VirtualDub, provided you have the appropriate SSA plug-in installed.

Feel free to download and use the timed lyrics to your heart's content. No credit is necessary (although it would be nice). As the fonts and colors are completely arbitrary (based on what video it was created for) you are free to change them to whatever pleases you most.

SSA files are provided as-is. I will not provide any techinical support for either the files, SubStationAlpha, or VirtualDub.

Please do not email requests for timed lyrics. I will ignore them.

Why'd you choose the name 'tone-deaf' for your site?

Because I felt like it. It felt nice and un-pretentious and very silly.

Who are those two singing weirdos on your page?

They are Suguru Sasaki (aka Prince Hope Celia de Zaino of Planet Voice) and Hiroya Matsumoto (aka Shinesman Red) from the manga series, Shinesman by Tachibana Kaim. Yes, they are a pair of drunken salarymen at a karaoke bar. Very, VERY drunk, I should add; Sasaki wouldn't be caught dead acting so nice to anyone who wasn't in his close circle of friends/allies if he was sober. But they're cute and silly and this IS a cute and silly lyrics site, so it was quite appropriate. By the way, in the foreground is Kasahara-san looking embarrassed and Ono-san, Matsumoto's section chief.

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