Umino's 1990s English dub surname... "Melvin Butler"?

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ShineAquaIllusion

Lumen Cinererum
Jul 15, 2012
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#1
Hello, everyone. I recently chanced upon the surname Butler for everyone's favorite glasses-wearing dweeb, but I'm a bit perplexed on where "Butler" came from. The name "Melvin Butler" in regards to Sailor Moon rings old bells in my head, but I've only ever seen him named Melvin Gurio in English dub-related media. Occasionally, I've seen him as "Melvin Grier" thanks to the novel adaptations.

Does anyone have any idea where "Melvin Butler" came from? It sounds like an official DiC name to me, like Molly Baker.

Thanks for your time, have a good day! :)
 
Jul 23, 2010
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#2
Weird, I only remember the name Grier/Greer for Melvin, myself. I could have sworn I read Grier/Greer in one of those itty bitty Scholastic episode books. Or maybe I'm thinking of the 8-volume series that covered the first season....

Argh now you got me wanting to find those books :P
 
Sep 13, 2009
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#3
Only place I ever saw it was on Wikipedia, along with several other minor character surnames I didn't recognize, and so deleted all of the unsourced dub surnames on that page back then.
 

ShineAquaIllusion

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Jul 15, 2012
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#4
That's what I thought. You're the forum guru, pretty much, so I'll trust your judgment. :) This is probably another "Loraine" issue, where people are claiming the character has a name of some sort but it's not shown anywhere.

This reminds me, where did Molly "Baker" come from? Part of me wants to say Mixx but I can't remember.
 
Sep 13, 2009
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#5
ShineAquaIllusion said:
This reminds me, where did Molly "Baker" come from? Part of me wants to say Mixx but I can't remember.
Was curious on that one too, but it turns out to be real, as it was used in the DiC version of at least the episode where Nephrite impostors Tuxedo Mask.
 

Fabong

Lumen Cinererum
May 3, 2014
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#6
A couple of the dub names seemed to stay japanese, while others were new, I always thought the mishmash was odd. I mean, they had no problem with giving AMi the surname Anderson, but kept Hino for Raye? I don't know what their logic was.
 
Sep 13, 2009
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#9
Though, back when I saw it on Wikipedia before I deleted it (and all the other questionable surnames), it was written as "Butlers" rather of just "Butler".

For those curious, the other questionable dub surnames that used to be on there were "Sandler" for Mika Kayama (when the dub had clearly given her the surname of "Cassidy"), "Hansford" for both Motoki and Unazuki, and "Holden-Ford" for Yuuichirou". Also, Naru's mother had been given a dub first name by Wikipedia as "Susan".
 

Morinden

Lumen Cinererum
Dec 16, 2009
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#10
Actually, "Melvin Gurio" is not only a horrible mishmash of English and Japanese, but also wrong, as "Gurio" is his given name, not his surname. BTW, my signature is an example of "Melvin Gurio" used on a card in the Sailor Moon CCG.
 
Sep 13, 2009
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#11
Morinden said:
Slightly off topic: Apparently, the creators of the Sailor Moon CGG couldn't find his English dub surname either, so they decided to stick with his Japanese surname. Unfortunately, they forgot that Japanese surnames come before the given names. Thus, the abomination "Melvin Gurio" was born. See my signature!
"Gurio" is Umino's first name. Everyone calls him by his surname.
 

Morinden

Lumen Cinererum
Dec 16, 2009
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#12
Sabrblade said:
Morinden said:
Slightly off topic: Apparently, the creators of the Sailor Moon CGG couldn't find his English dub surname either, so they decided to stick with his Japanese surname. Unfortunately, they forgot that Japanese surnames come before the given names. Thus, the abomination "Melvin Gurio" was born. See my signature!
"Gurio" is Umino's first name. Everyone calls him by his surname.
Yeah I remembered that, I managed to edit my post while you typed your reply.

Wikimoon writes his dub name as "Melvin Butlers", and claims it's from the Mixx manga - maybe we should edit Wikimoon?
 
Sep 13, 2009
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#13
Morinden said:
Wikimoon writes his dub name as "Melvin Butlers", and claims it's from the Mixx manga - maybe we should edit Wikimoon?
Someone outta check the Mixx/Tokyopop manga to verify if true or false.
 

ShineAquaIllusion

Lumen Cinererum
Jul 15, 2012
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#14
Sabrblade said:
Someone outta check the Mixx/Tokyopop manga to verify if true or false.
I looked at the Book 7 recap, where Naoko actually started writing down character names under the small doodles, and on the "civilian" section, it says, Itto Asanuma, Melvin, Andy, and Molly. I'll have to go through my one-chapter comics of the Dark Kingdom Arc to see if Melvin Butler appears. In the manga, Umino and Naru stopped appearing in the Dream Arc, right?

Edit - No recaps except for Mixx's in the one-chapter comics.

Morinden said:
Wikimoon writes his dub name as "Melvin Butlers", and claims it's from the Mixx manga - maybe we should edit Wikimoon?
I say give up on Wikimoon, it's chock-full of inaccuracies, it uses suuuch an outdated version of Wikia, and it hasn't been touched in forever. We have sailormoon.wikia.com now.

Morinden said:
Actually, "Melvin Gurio" is not only a horrible mishmash of English and Japanese, but also wrong, as "Gurio" is his given name, not his surname. BTW, my signature is an example of "Melvin Gurio" used on a card in the Sailor Moon CCG.
I think for names in the 1990s dub, we should use a system like this.

Most recent episode of '90s English dub (Some exceptions, like Uranus / Neptune / Pluto Planet Power); for characters, same rule here if given a first name or a first and last name.
>
Mixx's translation of the manga if not given a last name, or if not given a name at all.
>
Guardians of Order Sailor Moon materials if not given a last name, or if not given a name at all.
>
Sailor Moon novels if not given a last name, or if not given a name at all.
>
Japanese original if not given a last name, or if not given a name at all.
>
Other Japanese materials to fill in any other names.

So using this system, Darien's friend is still Kenibayashi, and we get Molly Baker and Melvin Gurio, but also Mayumi Baker, Shine Aqua Illusion, and Kenji Tsukino. I think the only downside is we'd get Moon Scepter Activation instead of Moon Scepter Elimination.
 

Fabong

Lumen Cinererum
May 3, 2014
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#15
Did Lita and Mina even get surnames? I remember Serena Campbell, Ami Anderson and Raye Hino but I don't recall ever hearing anything for the other two.
 

ShineAquaIllusion

Lumen Cinererum
Jul 15, 2012
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#16
Fabong said:
Did Lita and Mina even get surnames? I remember Serena Campbell, Ami Anderson and Raye Hino but I don't recall ever hearing anything for the other two.
Mixx left everyone's surnames the same, so I assume it's Serena Tsukino, Amy Mizuno, Raye Hino, Lita Kino, and Mina Aino. That's how it'd be going by the system I outlined earlier, too.
 
Sep 13, 2009
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#17
Fabong said:
I remember Serena Campbell, Ami Anderson and Raye Hino but I don't recall ever hearing anything for the other two.
I've never seen the one in bold in any official capacity. Only on really old fansites from over a decade ago. Cloverway definitely used "Tsukino", so just where does that surname come from?
 

Fabong

Lumen Cinererum
May 3, 2014
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#18
Sabrblade said:
Fabong said:
I remember Serena Campbell, Ami Anderson and Raye Hino but I don't recall ever hearing anything for the other two.
I've never seen the one in bold in any official capacity. Only on really old fansites from over a decade ago. Cloverway definitely used "Tsukino", so just where does that surname come from?
Dunno where I first saw it, but it must have been floating around on a few sites when I was reading about things. I've seen Tsukino used in a official localised stuff before but since they didn't have an issue with contradicting canon back in the day (see Anderson/Mizuno) I assumed they switched between both as they pleased.
 

Kerochan no Miko

Knight Radiant
Staff member
Site Admin
Feb 29, 2004
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#19
ShineAquaIllusion said:
Morinden said:
Wikimoon writes his dub name as "Melvin Butlers", and claims it's from the Mixx manga - maybe we should edit Wikimoon?
I say give up on Wikimoon, it's chock-full of inaccuracies, it uses suuuch an outdated version of Wikia, and it hasn't been touched in forever. We have sailormoon.wikia.com now.
I do my best to make sure Wikimoon is as accurate as possible and it's updated almost constantly. If you see errors, please feel free to correct them.
 

ShineAquaIllusion

Lumen Cinererum
Jul 15, 2012
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#20
Chibi Chibi no Miko said:
I do my best to make sure Wikimoon is as accurate as possible and it's updated almost constantly. If you see errors, please feel free to correct them.
Really? I hadn't noticed... That probably sounds rude though. But thank you for your hard work regardless and I rescind my comments.