History Main / ShesAManInJapan

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'': Sally Acorn started as the English version of the tiny squirrel Sonic rescued in ''Sonic 1'', before becoming [[AscendedExtra a princess Freedom Fighter]] in ''WesternAnimation/SonicTheHedgehogSatAM'' (though her bit role in ''ComicBook/SonicTheComic'' predates that). But in Japanese, the squirrel is male and known as "Ricky". He has been reverted back to male internationally since at least the UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn days, with Sally becoming a seperate character entirely.

* ''Manga/DeliciousInDungeon'' i

* Thistle the Lunatic Mage of ''Manga/DeliciousInDungeon'' is in the "mistake" category: [[{{Elfeminate}} he's an elf]], he wears heavy clothing, he appears fairly infrequently, and the manga didn't use a gendered pronoun to refer to him for a good while. The Yen Press translation went with "she", and called it wrong.

* A rare case of this happening within the same language: John Benson's 1640 edition of [[Creator/WilliamShakespeare Shakespeare's sonnets]] messes about with them considerably, including changing a few pronouns so that the sonnets adressed to the Fair Lord were now adressed to a woman, turning the borderline [[HoYay homoeroticism]] into straight-up love poetry.

* ''Literature/ReignOfTheSevenSpellblades'': Carlos Whitrow was explicitly assigned male at birth, but uses the feminine first-person pronoun ''atashi'' in the original Japanese, [[UsefulNotes/JapanesePronouns which tends to denote queerness when used by males]]. The various translations and adaptations have been inconsistent on Carlos's gender identity and pronoun preference. The official LightNovel translation from Creator/YenPress regards Carlos as non-binary and uses "they/them". Website/{{Crunchyroll}}'s English subtitles of the anime adaptation treat them as an UsefulNotes/{{asexual}} male ("he/him"), while in the dub Oliver briefly referred to Carlos as a "him" in episode 8 (which in context could have just been Oliver's mistake: Carlos wasn't present to correct him), then had Godfrey (Carlos's best friend) use "they/them" in episode 15.

** The German, Polish, Brazilian 1996, Serbo-Croatian, Russian TV and Czech 1992 dubs made Lampy into a girl. (In the Brazilian 1996 dub she's a {{Tomboy}} and in the German dub she's a [[ProperLady Girly Girl]], with the Polish version fitting nicely in the middle). Blanky also counts, because 'blanket' is female in some countries.
** The Toaster has a gender confusion controversy, causing many fans to think the Toaster is either male or female. Ironically, while the Toaster is referred to as "he" in the movies, "his" voice actress Deanna Oliver calls the Toaster "she" and "her." The gender also varies in several countries, as most dubs have him voiced by women, with the exception of the Latin Spanish, German, Finnish, Persian, Russian, and Serbo-Croatian dubs, which have him voiced by a male actor.

* More fun with {{Creator/Tokyopop}}. In his first appearance, ''Manga/GetBackers''' obligatory {{Bishonen}} and usually unwilling {{Crossdresser}}, Kazuki, was referred to as a bitch, a seamstress, and a she (not that [[SpeaksFluentAnimal Shido]] calling him a bitch wasn't hilarious in its own way). They corrected this in his later appearances – good thing, too, since there's a scene where he's both (a) naked and (b) explaining why he carries himself like a girl – and changed his nickname from "Kazuki the Seamstress" to the gender-neutral (and better translated) "Kazuki of the Strings". Creator/ADVFilms, the company that dubbed the anime version, avoided this by actually watching the series, apparently. The DVDCommentary has a joke to the tune of "Well, as the writer, you make all the unexpected discoveries first..." / "Yeah, and one of the most unexpected is that Kazuki is a guy."

* ''Film/{{Ran}}'' features a triple literal example, changing ''Theatre/KingLear''’s three princesses into princes. ''Openly'' assertive women with a chance of inheriting the throne wouldn’t look plausible in medieval Japan.

* In UsefulNotes/{{Soviet Russia|UkraineAndSoOn}} (and in Russia to this day), as well as in Poland, Bagheera the black panther is female, in both the book and the movie of ''Literature/TheJungleBook''. Same with the White Cobra. This particular sex change has probably happened for linguistic reasons: in Russian, nouns that end with the vowel ''-a'' are (in most cases) grammatically feminine – such as the word ''pantera'' (panther), and the name "Bagheera" itself.

--->''At once a male crossdresser and a female love interest for Yoshi, Birdo is an enigma, and determining his/her gender is one of life's biggest questions. Then there's the fact that Birdo shoots eggs out of his/her [[BuffySpeak mouth… hole… thing]].''

* The English GagDub of ''Anime/GhostStories'', and PlayedForLaughs like everything else: Momoko's hairdresser cousin Maki was changed to a CampGay man.

Compare AffirmativeActionGirl, HideYourLesbians, and GettingCrapPastTheRadar. A subtrope of GenderFlip. May result in ViewerGenderConfusion, as well as TheyChangedItNowItSucks.

** QuirkyMinibossSquad member Zoisite was a flamboyant male mutually in love with the more masculine Kunzite (who was dubbed as Malachite) in the original anime, but was changed into the female Zoycite in the Creator/DiC dub (and most others) to make their relationship heterosexual, though this was rectified in the 2014 [[Creator/VIZMedia VIZ]] dub, making him male again. At least the voice actress, the late Kirsten Bishop, was competent and gave "her" serious schadenfreude. In France, Zoisite and Malachite were brothers (Mexico went the [=DiC=] route and made "Ziocyte" female, but did keep Haruka and Michiru's romantic relationship); in the original [[Manga/SailorMoon manga]] the two were portrayed to have brotherly affection (if even that, given they barely interacted at all), so this change is probably the least of an alteration. The Swedish dub turned Zoicite into a woman due to the translator thinking he was a woman due to his feminine behaviour and looks and penchant for crossdressing. The Polish dub made him genderless, with a neutral voice and no pronouns!

* ComicBook/LuckyLuke's horse, Jolly Jumper, is a mare called ''Dolly'' in Greece. It is interesting that this gender change never conflicted with the story or caused confusion and as a result most people in the country consider the horse a female character. ...Until the #73th issue was translated, which was all about Jolly falling in love with a mare. To avoid making 'Dolly' a lesbian, the publishers decided to correct the horse's gender from that issue and onwards. Although to be sure Jolly Jumper's sex was a bit ambiguous to start with. The name "Jolly Jumper" can apply [[GenderBlenderName to both stallions and mares]], the French generic word for horse, ''cheval'', is grammatically masculine, and Jolly's general visual appearance lacks certain attributes (male genitalia tend to be very obvious in horses), making the horse appear female by default. By the way, in the German translation for Kauka Verlag (1965-1973) Jolly Jumper was the mare Rosa.

* When the ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'' game for the UsefulNotes/SegaMasterSystem was released internationally without the license as ''Black Belt'', Souther received a few cosmetic alterations and became known as Rita.

** In the dub of the ''Anime/{{Patlabor}}'' TV anime, Bud Renard, an admittedly very androgynous looking young boy, is treated as female and gets a more girly voice than the original (voiced by an actual young boy at the time), not even in the CrossdressingVoices territory.

* In the Italian dub of ''WesternAnimation/RobinHood1973'', Tagalong seemingly became a boy rabbit, but is actually never referred to as boy or as girl, she just has a [[CrossDressingVoices male voice actor]], and the gender is not specified.

* In the Italian dub of ''WesternAnimation/RobinHood1973'', Tagalong became a boy rabbit.

** When Creator/SabanEntertainment adapted ''Series/KyoryuSentaiZyuranger'' into the original ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'', they took advantage of their flexible adaptation method to avert the SmurfettePrinciple by casting a woman as the Yellow Ranger. They'd repeat this trick in future seasons when necessary: ''[[Series/PowerRangersLostGalaxy Lost Galaxy]]'', ''[[Series/PowerRangersLightspeedRescue Lightspeed Rescue]]'', ''[[Series/PowerRangersTimeForce Time Force]]'', and ''[[Series/PowerRangersWildForce Wild Force]]'', were adapted from "Pink (White with Pink accents for ''Wild Force'') is the only female Ranger" ''Sentai''s, giving the male Yellow Rangers female counterparts. This is also why those rangers don't have a skirt like their fellow female teammates, though many of these costumes were given skirts when worn by [[Series/KaizokuSentaiGokaiger Luka Millify/GokaiYellow]]/[[Series/PowerRangersSuperMegaforce Gia Moran/Super Megaforce Yellow]].

** Behind the scenes, most of the suit actors, including the female rangers and villainesses, are actually men. The reason the skirts are used is to hide the actor's package. The only time a female suit actor will be used is if the ranger in question has a rather sizable bust (although more stuntwomen have been employed in recent years, while the cross-cast stunt actors now play mainly non-human villainesses and female monsters, whose armor-like costumes make it easier to hide that extra something).

** This has a [[JustifiedTrope justification]] in ''Series/PowerRangersDinoFury'' as Izzy's ''Series/KishiryuSentaiRyusoulger'' counterpart, Towa, was also a male. In the series, the original Dino Fury Green Ranger was a female [[GenderedOutfit with a skirt added to her uniform]] and this carried over to Izzy when she gained the powers. However, before she goes into battle, she reaches down and ''[[ActionDressRip rips her skirt off]]'', proclaiming "Skirts... are not my thing."

** ** In the Italian dub, it was claimed for one episode, and one episode only (188), that the [[SuperGenderBender Sailor Starlights]] were calling upon their [[HalfIdenticalTwins twin sisters]] (which [[VoodooShark raises many unanswered questions]]), instead of transforming from their male civilian identities as the boy band the Three Lights to their female Sailor Guardian selves. Cloverway worked around it by... never getting the license for the final season (the one the Starlights appeared in). The Russian dub of ''Sailor Stars'' left the Starlights as they were (male in civilian form, female when transformed -- with two sets of voices, even)... and added the same quirk to poor Haruka, who was voiced by a man in civilian form. The best part is that this change made no sense: Haruka was already acknowledged to be female (''and'' in relationship with Michiru) in the third season, which was translated several years before by a different company; apparently, the new translators were not familiar with the previous translation -- let alone the ''original'' -- considering [[InconsistentDub how many names and spells were screwed up in the transition]].

** Zoisite was a flamboyant male in love with Kunzite (Malachite) in the original anime, but was changed into the female Zoycite in the Creator/DiC dub (and most others), though this was rectified in the 2014 [[Creator/VIZMedia VIZ]] dub, making him male again. At least the voice actress, the late Kirsten Bishop, was competent and gave "her" serious schadenfreude. In the Italian dub, it was claimed for one episode, and one episode only (188), that the [[SuperGenderBender Starlights]] were calling upon their [[HalfIdenticalTwins twin sisters]] instead of transforming (which [[VoodooShark raises many unanswered questions]]). Cloverway worked around it by... never getting the license. In France, Zoisite and Malachite were brothers, (Mexico went the [=DiC=] route and made "Ziocyte" female, but did keep Haruka and Michiru's relationship) in the original [[Manga/SailorMoon manga]] the two were portrayed to have brotherly affection (if even that, given they barely interacted at all) so this change is probably the least of an alteration. The Swedish dub turned Zoicite into a woman due to the translator thinking he was a woman due to his feminine behaviour and looks and penchant for crossdressing.
** The Polish dub made him genderless, with a neutral voice and no pronouns!
** Fisheye was also made female, but it was pretty obvious that the change was made purely as an obligation to appease the moral guardians regarding his cheerful homosexuality; when posing as a fussy primadonna fashion model, "she" throws off "her" shirt, and no one comments on how flat "her" chest is, and no attempt at censorship was made to cover the exposed (if very understated) nipples. The dub DID censor Fisheye's exposed chest on subsequent airings, however the uncut [=DVDs=] use the same dub track that the TV airings use, so the uncut dub on DVD shows "her" exposed pectorals while still referring to her as female. Even still, there were several shots that made it obvious that Fisheye was suspiciously flat-chested, giving the impression that dub!Fisheye is trans female or intersex.
** The German dub kept Haruka and Michiru's relationship (albeit toned-down), but still made Zoisite and Fisheye female.
** In the Polish version, before becoming the fashion model, Fisheye announces that "she" will "become a man" for this task, making it look like "she" is capable of changing "her" sex.
** The real kicker about that one is that Fisheye ''is'' capable of changing his sex--or at least some incredibly convincing crossdressing. In one episode where he poses as a ballerina, not only is he an exceptional dancer, but also has some impressive [[UnusualEuphemism "talent"]].
** Interestingly, the [[Manga/SailorMoon manga]] never changes either character's gender. Neither Zoisite nor Fisheye are gay men in the manga either...but they are both deliberately designed to be so androgynous they can easily pass for women. Zoisite in particular poses as a glamorous female scientist in one of his schemes to get the Silver Crystal, and Fisheye is listed in the artbooks as being the circus ball ''girl''. Furthermore, their sexual preferences aren't elaborated on either - Zoisite being a love interest for Ami was scrapped before his first appearance and exists only as a concept in an artbook and some of the musicals. Fisheye attempts to seduce Ami, but only to kill her. And of course, the idea of them being bisexual is never ruled out. The anime clearly chose to run with their androgyny to the point of them being sexually attracted to men, but it didn't invent it from whole cloth either.

** What's really hilarious to note about Tamasaburo's gender change is that Rini's crush on him/her remains intact in the dub. Essentially Cloverway, the company that usually tries horribly to hide lesbian relationships, created a new one.
** Of course, Japanese Tamasaburo [[https://sailormoon.fandom.com/wiki/Tamasaburou looks like this]] and is voiced by a woman using a grown-woman voice and ''not'' a little boy voice. It's easy to miss his gender [[note]](especially if you don't know about Japanese naming conventions where his name is the main clue as it ends in the kanji "郎" -ro meaning "son")[[/note]] until the ''very last line in the episode'', where "Sailor Tamasaburo" gives his version of Sailor Moon's introductory speech, but "bishojo" is replaced with "bishonen" in his version of the full title.

** The Russian dub of ''Sailor Stars'' left the Starlights as they were (male in civilian form, female when transformed -- with two sets of voices, even)... and added the same quirk to poor Haruka, who was voiced by a man in civilian form. The best part is that this change made no sense: Haruka was already acknowledged to be female (''and'' in relationship with Michiru) in the third season, which was translated several years before by a different company; apparently, the new translators were not familiar with the previous translation -- let alone the ''original'' -- considering [[InconsistentDub how many names and spells were screwed up in the transition]].

** The French dub made Starscream and Shrapnel into women.

* Levin, the androgynous CampGay mechanic from ''Anime/TekkamanBlade'', was [[{{Macekre}} adapted]] into "Maggie", the androgynous WrenchWench in ''Teknoman''. (Given that Levin is clearly a trans woman as written by people who think they're gay male crossdressers, this isn't much of a leap.)

* ''Anime/DragonBallZ'': The Greek dub turns Frieza into a female and casts a [[Creator/MatinaKarras female voice actress]] for her.