Ask John: What’s The Correct Spelling of Scryed?

Question:
I’ve seen the name of the Scryed anime and manga spelled so many ways. Scryed, SCRYed, Scry’d, Scried, scry-ed… Is there a “right” way to spell this name? And where did all the confusion come from?

Answer:
Part of the confusion over the spelling of “Scryed” comes from the fact that it’s such an odd name to begin with. It’s spelled in Japanese with the katakana characters “su-ku-ra-i-do,” which can result in romanized spellings including, but not limited to, “scryd,” “scryed,” “scry’d,” and “scried.”

As far as I’m aware, original anime production company Sunrise Studios never spelled the title in English, so there’s no definitive “official” spelling from the creators. With nothing official to go on, soon after the series’ debut on Japanese television on July 4, 2001, the fan community mostly adopted the straightforward translation “Scryed.” On August 22, 2001, Victor Music of Japan released the “Reckless Fire” opening theme song CD single that included the English spelling “SCRYed.” Then, another month later, on September 21, Victor released the first full soundtrack CD, this time spelling the title “s.CRY.ed”. Further complicating matters, when Bandai Entertainment brought the anime series to America, they chose the name “s-CRY-ed” while TOKYOPOP localized the manga with the title “Scryed.”

Considering that there are at least four different “official” spellings of the title, it seems as though fans have their choice of precisely how to spell the title.