Japanese Cards

[Stigma]

What is the type of japanese on pokemon cards called? I think its different than normal japanese writing, and I want to learn how to read it. Is there any good site or something that can help?

 

[Dimentio]

I should imagine it's Katakana, but don't quote me on this, as I know little about Japanese writing.

 

[Lieutenant Houndoom]

It's actually all three. Kanji is mostly for attacks, as some have Japanese wording in chinese characters. DAmage, damage counters, Pokemon, energy, etc. are in Katakana as they are unique to the context. Hiragana is for those general ruling text.

 

[Stigma]

what does a dash about as long as an underscore _ but as high as this --- mean? I think it's a space but I'm not sure, cause it's at the end of some pokemon's names.

 

[cacgbass]

Japanese is so complicated...i dont understand why they have three diferent languajes in one.

 

[Lieutenant Houndoom]

Oh, that. All Pokemon names are in Katakana, and the - sign means to extend the vowel on the end of the last symbol. Japanese script have the vowels, and it's matched with a constanant, like "ka", "ki", "ku", "ke", and "ko". The stroke at the end is to essentially put double the end vowel.

Kanji is really the most dominant, taking most words from the Chinese text, using it for most major words. Hiragana tends to fill in the spaces, like particles (parts of sentences that show the different roles of the words) and some regular words are still in Hiragana. Katakana tends to be for words that are foreign, or words in a special context such as "damage counters" here, as normally it wouldn't make any sense in regular Japanese talk.