Basil and I are learning Japanese together, mainly for the purpose of deciphering the Gothic & Lolita Bible! We thought we'd share our gosurori vocab with you. You can try replicating the strokes - it's a lot of fun!
The Japanese writing system has three components: hiragana, katakana, and kanji (derived from Chinese characters). In the examples below, the chunky, multi-stroke characters are kanji and represent concepts. The simplier, flowing scripts are katakana; each one makes up a phonetic syllable.
Asians are constantly mocked for being unable to distinguish "l" and "r" sounds ("I'm so ronery... oh so ronery..."). Alas, this is the case with "loli", which comes out as "rori" in Japanese.
ロリ = Ro Ri
Add a qualifier before the "rori" and you've got the various style categories of Lolita fashion. (If you can't see the Japanese characters, click here for a screen shot.)
| Gosurori (Gothic Lolita) | ゴスロリ |
|---|---|
| Ama Rori (Sweet Lolita) | 甘ロリ |
| Hime Rori (Princess Lolita) | 姫ロリ |
| Panku Rori (Punk Lolita) | パンクロリ |
| Guro Rori (Grotesque/Gory Lolita) | グロロリ |
| Itai Rori (Hurt Lolita) | 痛ロリ |
| Wa Rori (Kimono Lolita) | 和ロリ |
| Ero Rori (Erotic Lolita) | エロロリ |
| Kantori Rorita (Country Lolita) | カントリーロリータ |
| Classical Kei Rorita (Classical Lolita) | カントリーロリータ |
| Shiro Rori (White Lolita) | 白ロリ |
| Kuro Rori (Black Lolita) | 黒ロリ |
| Futago Rori (Twins Lolita) | 双子ロリ |
| Ouji (boystyle also known as Dandy/Kodona) | 王子 |
| Roriita fasshon (Lolita fashion) | ロリータ・ファッション |
| Cosplay | コスプレ |
| Marisu Mizeru (Malice Mizer) | マリス・ミゼル |
| Vijuaru Kei (Visual Kei) | ヴィジュアル系 |
Above, you can see the Japanese translation of "Gothic & Lolita Bible" in an appropriately curlique script.
Hungry for more? Check out this fantastic printable guide to the Bible's sewing patterns and instructions. The PDF includes katakana and kanji help, translations of common words (front, back, left, right, material types, etc), and size references.
Did we forget to include some key words? Was anything lost in translation? Let us know in the comments!
