How do I know the official title of an anime?

Question

Eg.

Wikipedia - Kyo no Gononi

AnimeNfo - Kyo no Go no Ni

There's also - Kyou no Go no ni and Kyou no Gononi

Answer 1

They're all ways of saying the same thing. It's not that one's official and the others aren't. They're all said the same way, it's just that different people turned the title from Japanese characters into English letters.

Basically, there are several ways to turn Japanese characters into English letters and there's really no right or wrong way to do it. Honestly, though, I would put it as "Kyou no Gononi" or "Kyou no Go no Ni".

Anyway, the reason that some say "kyo" and others say "kyou" is because the "u" is pronounced exactly like the "o", so some people just leave it off. If you've read Fruits Basket, you'll notice that the cat's name is spelled Kyo when it should technically be Kyou. Other ways to spell "kyo" include "kyoo" and "kyo" with a horizontal line over the "o".

As for the spacing, that's just a preference. There are no spaces in Japanese whatsoever so people turning the characters into English just put them where they would make sense. However, not everyone agrees on spacing. Now, the "no" in the middle is separated in each. But "gononi" is tricky because it's kinda like one word/number, but also kinda like two connected by the word "no", so some people leave it together and some don't. All a matter of preference. I honestly prefer it all together. Looks better...

Answer 2

It's the wikipedia one although usually if you want a better source try anime news network.com they have nearly every anime title listed with both the official name and alternative names as well.