There’s not really a sound for “v” in Japanese. Any English words with a “v” would instead use “b”, although you may hear it as a softer “b” with some vibration in the lower lip making it sound more like a “v”. With that said, it would be technically incorrect to use an explicitly “vu” pronunciation, I believe.
u/professorDumbledong’s answer is close, though not quite right.
What’s going on with Japanese ヴ is not a ‘v’, obviously, but it’s not a ‘b’ either. It’s actually a consonant we don’t have in the English language called a [voiced bilabial fricative](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiced_bilabial_fricative).
The reason for this is actually a different consonant we also don’t have, which is the unvoiced bilabial fricative, which when talking about kana is deceptively referred to as being ‘f’ (as in ふ). This is also not quite correct; what we call ‘f’ in English is the [unvoiced labiodental fricative](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiceless_labiodental_fricative) (meaning it’s made by pushing air through while biting the lower lip). Japanese is actually the [bilabial fricative](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiceless_bilabial_fricative) (meaning it’s made by pushing air between both lips). They are vary similar, thus why f gets used, but it’s not actually accurate to call them the same consonant.
This inaccuracy is why things get screwy with ‘v’. ‘v’ in English is the [voiced labiodental fricative](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiced_labiodental_fricative). In other words, it and ‘f’ are effectively variants of one another. Go ahead, pronounce them one after the other in succession; notice how you don’t need to move anything in your mouth? The only difference is whether you’re vibrating your vocal chords as you produce it. In all other regards, f and v are more or less identical.
But remember, Japanese doesn’t have the same f. In other words, they can’t just voice the f to produce v, as we do. What they do is produce the sound that we’ve been telling them is ‘f’, the bilabial fricative, and they voice *that*. Thus, why it sounds a bit odd to native English speakers. It is very similar to a ‘v’, and was invented to mimic it, but is actually a consonant we don’t even have in English, which is why some people have a hard time reproducing it or even explaining what it is.
TL;DR: Japanese ‘v’ is a consonant that doesn’t exist in English, that came about by a. ‘v’ not existing in Japanese, and b. the bilabial fricative being treated as ‘close enough’ to ‘f’, that it got used for the purposes of producing a ‘v’.
“V sounds” like ヴァ (va), ヴィ(vi), ヴェ (ve), etc. are called “extended katakanas”. Extended katakanas are used to provide more accurate transliteration for foreign sounds, however, it’s not common to use these characters for common words like “video” ビデオ , or “virus” ウイルス / ウィルス. The only case that I see them in usage is in fantasy characters’ names, for example, the names “Valeria” is written as ヴァレリア and “Levia” is written as レヴィア.
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There’s not really a sound for “v” in Japanese. Any English words with a “v” would instead use “b”, although you may hear it as a softer “b” with some vibration in the lower lip making it sound more like a “v”. With that said, it would be technically incorrect to use an explicitly “vu” pronunciation, I believe.
u/professorDumbledong’s answer is close, though not quite right.
What’s going on with Japanese ヴ is not a ‘v’, obviously, but it’s not a ‘b’ either. It’s actually a consonant we don’t have in the English language called a [voiced bilabial fricative](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiced_bilabial_fricative).
The reason for this is actually a different consonant we also don’t have, which is the unvoiced bilabial fricative, which when talking about kana is deceptively referred to as being ‘f’ (as in ふ). This is also not quite correct; what we call ‘f’ in English is the [unvoiced labiodental fricative](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiceless_labiodental_fricative) (meaning it’s made by pushing air through while biting the lower lip). Japanese is actually the [bilabial fricative](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiceless_bilabial_fricative) (meaning it’s made by pushing air between both lips). They are vary similar, thus why f gets used, but it’s not actually accurate to call them the same consonant.
This inaccuracy is why things get screwy with ‘v’. ‘v’ in English is the [voiced labiodental fricative](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiced_labiodental_fricative). In other words, it and ‘f’ are effectively variants of one another. Go ahead, pronounce them one after the other in succession; notice how you don’t need to move anything in your mouth? The only difference is whether you’re vibrating your vocal chords as you produce it. In all other regards, f and v are more or less identical.
But remember, Japanese doesn’t have the same f. In other words, they can’t just voice the f to produce v, as we do. What they do is produce the sound that we’ve been telling them is ‘f’, the bilabial fricative, and they voice *that*. Thus, why it sounds a bit odd to native English speakers. It is very similar to a ‘v’, and was invented to mimic it, but is actually a consonant we don’t even have in English, which is why some people have a hard time reproducing it or even explaining what it is.
TL;DR: Japanese ‘v’ is a consonant that doesn’t exist in English, that came about by a. ‘v’ not existing in Japanese, and b. the bilabial fricative being treated as ‘close enough’ to ‘f’, that it got used for the purposes of producing a ‘v’.
“V sounds” like ヴァ (va), ヴィ(vi), ヴェ (ve), etc. are called “extended katakanas”. Extended katakanas are used to provide more accurate transliteration for foreign sounds, however, it’s not common to use these characters for common words like “video” ビデオ , or “virus” ウイルス / ウィルス.
The only case that I see them in usage is in fantasy characters’ names, for example, the names “Valeria” is written as ヴァレリア and “Levia” is written as レヴィア.