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If you've been a fan of Sailormoon for any length of time, then you've probably already run into the debate over the spelling of Pluto, Uranus, Neptune's last names. Ten'ou, or Tenoh? Kaiou or Kaioh? And, the most relevant one to this site, Meiou or Meioh? Here at Hourglass, I prefer to use the spelling Meioh, and here are a few reasons why I feel that the "oh" ending is more correct than the "ou" ending.

Why Meioh and not Meiou?

First of all, Naoko Takeuchi, the creator of the original manga reportedly spells the names with the "oh" ending in the manga, and there are several images on the web that prove this fact. Since Naoko created the manga that spawned the anime, then what she says is basically law in the Sailormoon universe. Several images supporting the "oh" ending have been scanned directly from the manga, and can be found at other name pages... a few are linked at the bottom of this page, to get you started.

The "oh" spelling is also used on multiple occasions in the anime. In Episode 106, Haruka is wearing her racing suit, which has her name spelled out on the back as T-E-N-O-H. And there is also a picture painted by Michiru, in episode 93, that was signed K-A-I-O-H Michiru. Thus, we can assume that if it's TenOH Haruka, and KaiOH Michiru, then it must also be MeiOH Setsuna.

In conclusion, I personally think that it doesn't matter too much which way you spell it... I like to go with Naoko's way, for the sake of tradition, since she's the creator and all. If you have an idea on which is THE right way to spell Meioh/Meiou, then send them my way. Any good or important points you send will be posted here with credit and a link!

Viewer Commentary

From Ruk, of the Uranus shrine Turbulence! "Uh, about the Meioh/Meiou, since my page is based on partly the Filipino version of SM, we romanize the name the way Filipinos pronounce (and would translate) it, which comes as Meiou, although we have seen that Naoko spelled it Tenoh. I guess the spelling is basically cultural since the names aren't Roman anyway."

From John: "The roman way to spell it differs depending on which rules you are using. The standard and most common romanji would be meiou, however, there are different techniques in converting to roman lettering. The two kanji that are used for the family name are:
mei - which means dark
ou - which means king or ruler.
Ou is where the confusion comes in. The last kanji is supposed to be pronounced as a long O like in coke. Getting Americans and other people to pronounce it more accurately is where the different spellings come in. I have seen it spelled both ways in the anime and manga. Manga artists use English to make things seem more modern or foreign, however, since they do not speak English, they sometimes forget how they spelled things before or sometimes completely misspell things. Remember in one of the earlier episodes of S there is a video game called God Driving instead of Good Driving? This is probably a lot more information than you wanted, but in the end both spellings are right and wrong at the same time."

From Nemesis: "It is with an ou! See, when you look at the hiragana above her family name, you see that it is the equivalent of "me-i-o-u" if you spell it out. The "u" is a drawn out "o". And also, "oh" is impossible to write out in japanese, since each "letter" stands for a syllable, and "h" is not one."

From Melanie: "Naoko Takeuchi uses "Meioh" in the manga and it's also used in the anime. But there is an important argument for "Meiou" that shows why some people use it this way. "Meioh" is impossible to write in Japanese. The spelling of it in Japan uses the characters me-i-o-u. I use "Meioh" as well, but that kind of shows why most people use "Meiou"."

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