"Sfondi"[]
What.
Like... seriously. When did he randomly get a surname? The S (talk) 07:18, May 27, 2015 (UTC)
He's had it since the first Guilty Gear X Drama CD Ao Kusanagi (talk) 12:14, May 28, 2015 (UTC)Ao Kusanagi
Is it even canon? Does anything EVER call him that, outside of one line from a Drama CD from 2001? I just looked up "ジョニー" "スフォンディ" in Google, characters taken from this very same page, and there are only 212 results, the vast majority being English pages, and the half-dozen from Japanese sites are from image search sites. Some of which just lead to a page saying "no results found". Actual Japanese GG sites just call him "ジョニー" (Johnny), exclusively, with zero mention of this surname, not even as a "trivia fact". In fact, it appears quite suspiciously that anything that does say "Johnny Sfondi" in either language just copy-pasted from this site.
Oh! So turns out, this site changed the title of this article from "Johnny" to "Johnny Sfondi" in 2015. And suddenly "Sfondi" exploded on the internet, very likely due to this page being the first thing that comes up if anyone ever searches for Johnny. Using Google's search options, "Sfondi" is pretty much a wasteland if searching from prior years, such as 1995-2009. And more to the point, searching in Japanese in any year prior to 2014 brings up a grand total of four sites, none of which are relevant.
But anyway, back in English world, it looks like the major (sole?) proponent for "Johnny Sfondi" came from guiltygear.ru, and then gear-project.tumblr.com. Both ran by the exact same person, who goes by "Blade" or "Mimeblade". Sadly, I thought this:
http://www.guiltygear.ru/files/faqs/Guilty_Gear_X_By_Your_Side_G_Gear.txt
was a good lead, as Venom supposedly says "Mr. Sfondi" during story mode. But no, this is a lie. As clearly seen here, at around 5:40:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPBxDB5dCRs
He only calls him "Johnny" during that dialogue. That was merely a creative translation from Blade.
So thus far, the only mention of Sfondi whatsoever is from a single Drama CD line from 2001, and then Blade pushed really really hard in calling him that until this website picked it up a couple years ago and the internet exploded with copy-paste.
Also... isn't the Drama CD purely audio? Where did this "スフォンディ" ever come from, anyway?
I mean, here's the dialogue:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxgJ66jIBNA
Happens at 8:25. Audio-only, of course. That apparently no one in Japan ever heard and felt like mentioning on their own GG wikis. (Also, are we sure he's even saying a last name and not just some other word?)
Anyway, point is, I feel this should be fact-checked for authenticity before this site blares to the world that it's his last name (Haha, two years too late). For starters, any actual Japanese site (Not copy-pasted from here!) that actually talks about his last name would be an excellent start. 104.34.65.187 08:17, November 17, 2017 (UTC)
5 years later; Here's a japanese transcript of the drama CD:
https://plaza.rakuten.co.jp/aosimahiro/4002/
Ky says "Johnny's Family", not "Johnny Sfondi". MAXXUNLIMITEDZ (talk) 05:15, February 21, 2020 (UTC)
Trivia section needs updating[]
The origins of Johnny's falsely reported last name are known and easily verified, and in fact they are stated on this very same Talk page. In short, this site changed the name of this very article to include his "last name" not long before Johnny was announced for Xrd -Revelator-, and thus the gaming media widely reported that he had a last name when the news broke, and it quickly gained in popularity from there.
I attempted to add this information to the Trivia section on the page regarding his last name, but unfortunately an Admin immediately reverted the entire thing, making absolutely no effort to collaborate on the information, or to shape and modify the text into whatever would be most appropriate.
Regardless, at the very least it needs to be said that this site is the primary origin point for almost the entire spread of misinformation on this topic. Partly to own up to accountability, and partly because the large amount of misinformation still out there will come back here anyway. But mostly because it's just really good story! Seriously, how often does a Wiki page start something like this, and then has the unique opportunity to report it on the very same Wiki page, about itself?
Unfortunately, the same admin has now threatened to "take displinary" actions instead of working with the community, and still refuses to modify any of the text that... hang on, just thought of something... yup, any of the text that HE HIMSELF wrote. As I merely wanted to add fun information on the page, I have no desire to edit-war with someone trying to have a power trip. Either clean it up yourself, or let it remain lacking and confusing. I don't care.
Also, some advice, since I am uncertain if you'll appreciate any changes to your self-proclaimed perfectly written contribution that needs no editing: Saying "For well over a decade" at the beginning makes it sound like most people actually thought that was his last name prior to 2015. When in actuality, practically nobody believed this at all. In fact, when the misinformation started making headlines, many hardcore fans were saying "What the heck, since when did Johnny have a last name?" The mistaken belief among Western fans that it was his last name originated no more than five years ago, and once again originated from this very site and those that copied the text within.
162.235.42.170 04:12, June 17, 2020 (UTC)
Here's the odd thing about it:
I listed it as "well over a decade" because I do remember Sfondi being used by several fans around 2007-2008. It popped up here and there but it wasn't until Revelator that it made it to the wiki. It was just assumed a fan thing before that. So without the editor back then checking (and who it might have been....), we got the situation now. And it wasn't until recently that it was discovered as a misheard translation. That was it. No frills or anything.
JustAToucan (talk) 13:35, June 17, 2020 (UTC)
i wouldn't say no frills. it is a fantastic example of citogenesis https://xkcd.com/978/
147.21.8.1 01:11, June 18, 2020 (UTC)