General PS2 File tips: Archives/containers/excessive padding

[JohnHudeski]

Hi guys
I recently began to dabble in PS2 files But i noticed something quite iritating . some games store everything in 1 massive file container. Often these containers are filled with padding or atlease i assume they are
00's FF's a.b.c.d.e 0.1.2.3

Just pretty irritating and intimidating stuff.

Are there any common formats used to archive PS2 .dat files?
I considered manually removing the padding but i fear it will invalidate pointers.

Also are Japanese characters single chars? If they are what char range do they start and end in?