I don't speak Japanese, nor am I learning, but I am an anime fan and have noticed something odd about the way anime fans tend to romanize Japanese words: it doesn't seem to follow any preexisting romanization standards. Take for example 少年, according to Hepburn it should be shōnen, and from what I can gather (again, I don't speak Japanese!) in wāpuro rōmaji it would be syounen, but basically every anime fan I've come across romanizes it as shounen. So what gives? Have anime fans organically invented their own romanization standard? Or is there some other standard I don't know about?
by AutovonBismarck01