History Main / ShesAManInJapan

* Similar to the Rusty example above, Azrael in ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs'' was given female descriptors in the original ''Spirou'' stories and Peyo's books. They made Azrael male in the Hanna-Barbera cartoon, but in a bizarre twist, the gender switch was made canon!

* ''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", while Website/{{Crunchyroll}}'s English translations of the anime adaptation treat them as an UsefulNotes/{{asexual}} male ("he/him").

* In the German dub of ''WesternAnimation/TheAntAndTheAardvark'' (from the ''WesternAnimation/PinkPanther'' cartoons), the aardvark became a female. (A woman with a very deep voice, but still unmistakably a woman.) The aardvark is even called "Die Blaue Elise" ("The Blue Elise" as in [[Music/LudwigVanBeethoven Beethoven's]] "Für Elise")

* In recent works taking inspiration from ''Literature/TheBible'', especially ones from Japan, ArchangelGabriel is sometimes depicted as a woman. Examples include ''VideoGame/ElShaddaiAscensionOfTheMetatron'', ''Literature/HighSchoolDXD'', and ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' among others.

** So in the TV series ''Series/{{Monkey}}'', Kuan Yin is played by a man with a woman's voice, even in the English dub. It's even lampshaped: 'Kuan Yin? Her with the five-o-clock shadow?'

** And in the manga/anime ''{{Manga/Saiyuki}}'' ze's out-and-out intersexed, with a NoFourthWall moment mentioning that they can't actually visibly prove this without raising the manga's rating.

* ''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", while Creator/{{Crunchyroll}}'s English translations of the anime adaptation treat them as an UsefulNotes/{{asexual}} male ("he/him").

** On the other hand, the Spanish version (of the Disney movie at least) averts it, despite nouns ending in ''-a'' and the word ''pantera'' being also feminine.

* ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'':
** In the French dub, the recurring Jigglypuff is a male. Its [[AmbiguousGender gender is vague]] in most other versions.
** Also, Ash's Chikorita was male in the Spanish dub (and he was in love with Ash...).
** Melissa from the Kanto League (the Trainer who eventually beat Gary before Ash did) is female in the dub. Not only is HE voiced by [[Creator/ShinichiroMiki a guy]] in the Japanese version and a woman in the dub, from the side, he unmistakably looks like a guy, even having a masculine Japanese name (Yoshiki).
** Despite Ash's Staravia's gender being confirmed, he's female in the Czech dub and male everywhere else. It's even confusing where in [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/DP103 Jumping Rocket Ship,]] he encounters what appears to be a Staravia with a girl's bow, as well as falling in love with her, thinking she's real.
** In many foreign dubs, Pokémon have defined genders, since there are many languages that don't have ambiguous pronouns. A good example is the Brazilian Portuguese dub - there is no "it" in the Portuguese language, only "he" and "she". Therefore, all Pokémon got genders. Usually they went with the everyone-is-male rule, unless the Pokémon showed some attraction for someone of the masculine gender (Chikorita, for example). It's taken to the extreme in the Italian dub, where even Ash's Snivy and Iris's Emolga are referred as males, suddenly becoming females when using Attract.
** In the Hindi dub, Brock's Happiny was referred to as a male. Happiny ''[[SingleGenderRace cannot ever be]]'' [[SingleGenderRace male]] in the games.
** Hun from ''Anime/TheLegendOfThunder'' special, causing quite a bit of frustration among fans. However, he was never explicitly referred to as a woman in the English dub, he just had a female voice. He is unambiguously female in languages that are loaded with gender-specific words, though.

* ''Manga/PokemonDiamondAndPearlAdventure'' has an odd variation where Commander Saturn is referred to as female twice on one page, but male in every other instance. It becomes partially understandable when you realize that a few pages earlier he was drawn with broad hips, long eyelashes, and what appeared to be boobs.
* In the Chuang-Yi version of ''Manga/PokemonAdventures'', Tate is mistakenly referred as a girl. Strange since the artist drew girls with longer eyelashes than boys and Tate was usually shown standing next to his sister, Liza. Then again they are young HalfIdenticalTwins and even many [[ViewerGenderConfusion gamers thought they were sisters]]. In comparison, the anime made Tate more masculine looking.

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'':

* Thistle the Lunatic Mage of ''Manga/DeliciousInDungeon'' is in the "mistake" category: [[{{Elfeminite}} 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.

* Thistle the Lunatic Mage of ''Manga/DungeonMeshi'' is in the "mistake" category; he's an elf and therefore very effeminate in appearance, he wears heavy clothing, he appears fairly infrequently, and they 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.

* In the Italian translation of the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' books, the male phoenix Fawkes becomes female, and is named Fanny. Possibly due to the fact - [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment just like the examples above]] - that in Italian "phoenix" is a feminine word. The unisex named Blaise Zabini made it to the sixth book before it was specified that he was a boy. In the Dutch version, his name was translated to "Bella" originally but in later editions, was changed to "Benno".

** Frreza was still technically male in the English dub, since the characters refer to him with male pronouns, but was given an older female voice (performed by Linda Young) confusing ''many'' English-speaking viewers into believing he was female. The feminine appearance with pink/purple colors and purple lips did not help with this. This was somewhat corrected for ''Anime/DragonBallZKai'' when he was given a male voice actor (Creator/ChrisAyres), who still turned in a very soft, feminine performance. In the Hindi dub, however, Frreza ''was'' made female.

* In the Mexican dub of ''WesternAnimation/{{Chowder}}'', Ceviche is referred as a girl in the character-introducing episode "The Apprentice Games", but is referred as a boy in later episodes. The character design... well... doesn't help.

** Ingram from the ''New Vestroia'' series has a female voice despite a clearly male body, which can only suggest that while the second series was being animated, Ingram was intended to be male, but was made female to seem like more of a successor to Skyress, Shun's former partner. Ingram's situation was made more complicated when she evolved into Master Ingram, with a male voice.

* Ne Zha from Koei's ''Manga/SoulHunter[=/=]Literature/FengshenYanyi'' series is a male in the Japanese games, but became a female in ''VideoGame/MysticHeroes''. Might be due to his DudeLooksLikeALady affair and to add another female to the main cast.

** Tigrerra was clearly designed as a male character, with the evolved form Blade Tigrerra having a clearly masculine body, but is referred to as a female in any dub. The Japanese version actually renamed her "Tigress".

* The Sega Master System version of ''Pro Wrestling'' (which has nothing to do with [[Videogame/ProWrestling that one]]) was a port of an arcade game which featured Dump Matsumoto and {{captain ersatz}}es of her Wrestling/{{A|llJapanWomensProWrestling}}JW rivals that re-skinned everyone into men.

* ''WesternAnimation/SamsonAndSallyTheSongOfTheWhales'' depicts the adult whale who takes care of Samson as his mother, but the original Danish dub depicts the whale as male.

* In the American English dub to AsianAnimation/TheGiantKing which is a futuristic adaptation of the fable of Tosakan and Hanuman the Monkey King, Hanuman is changed to female and Sadayu is changed to male.

->''I like how [[VideoGame/AnimalCrossing Gracie]]'s a man in the Japanese version. She's like super flamboyant, fruity, fashion trend-setter in the Japanese version.''
-->-- '''{{LetsPlay/Chuggaaconroy}}'''

* In the American English dub to Animation/Yak:TheGiantKing which is a futuristic adaptation of the fable of Tosakan and Hanuman the Monkey King, Hanuman is changed to female and Sadayu is changed to male.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'', Lincoln's friend Clyde [[HasTwoMommies has two fathers, Howard and Harold]]. In the Arabic dub, Howard is a woman and given a female voice actress, though "she" looks exactly the same. Luna's crush Sam is also male in the Korean dub.

** [[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2 Birdo]] is… confusing. In Japanese, Birdo was UsefulNotes/{{transgender}} and named "'''Catherine'''", but prefers the nickname "Cathy". The English manual description says "He thinks he is a girl and he spits eggs from his mouth. [[Film/MontyPythonsLifeOfBrian He'd rather be called 'Birdetta'.]]" This gave gamers the impression that Birdo was in fact UsefulNotes/{{transgender}}, an impression that has stuck ever since (in fact, several European sources such as the ''Super Mario Strikers'' website, ''Mario Tennis Aces'' and ''Super Mario Party'' still refer to Birdo as male). Several games refer to this while others keep it ambiguous. For example, the somewhat subtle subtext in the Popple/Birdo partnership in ''[[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga Superstar Saga]]'' (which has Popple say "This, uh...dame passed my audition perfectly, see?" in reference to Birdo). Was he trying to get rid of Birdo because she was too clingy, or... In the extremely strange Japan-only Nintendo game ''VideoGame/CaptainRainbow'', '''Catherine''' is quite clearly transgender, gets arrested for using the girl's bathroom, and gives you quests to help her prove to prospective male dates that she's a girl, including finding a censored item that is heavily implied to be a sex toy of some kind. She is usually portrayed with a deep voice, but in ''Super Mario Advance'' she was voiced by a female voice actress. ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl'' fudged it a bit by saying that Birdo was "[[AmbiguousGender of indeterminate gender]]", and referring to the "Birdetta" thing. There's also this nugget in ''Magazine/NintendoPower'' from issue #250 (January 2010)...

*** The German version of Renamon from ''Anime/DigimonTamers'' is given a male voice actor. In Japanese, Renamon has a female voice actor but always speaks in an androgynous tone. The Geman dub actually did a good job of maintaining Renamon's androgyny since Renamon is a rare example of discussing Digimon's NoBiologicalSex in-universe. Renamon affirms that position after being asked about its gender and as such many versions having Renamon constantly referred to as "she" and "her" from the beginning is something of a DubInducedPlotHole. Sakuyamon is of course almost always voiced by a woman.

*** ''Anime/DigimonFrontier'''s [[SpellMyNameWithAnS [=Lord/RhodoKnightmon=]]] was about as close to CampGay as you can find in a ''Digimon'' series, but the dub's Crusadermon was portrayed as a woman.

** Frieza was still technically male in the English dub, since the characters refer to him with male pronouns, but was given an older female voice (performed by Linda Young) confusing ''many'' English-speaking viewers into believing he was female. The feminine appearance with pink/purple colors and purple lips did not help with this. This was somewhat corrected for ''Anime/DragonBallZKai'' when he was given a male voice actor (Creator/ChrisAyres), who still turned in a very soft, feminine performance. In the Hindi dub, however, Frieza ''was'' made female.

* 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.

** [[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2 Birdo]] is… confusing. In Japanese, Birdo was UsefulNotes/{{transgender}} and named "'''Catherine'''", but prefers the nickname "Cathy". The English manual description says "He thinks he is a girl and he spits eggs from his mouth. [[Film/MontyPythonsLifeOfBrian He'd rather be called 'Birdetta'.]]" This gave gamers the impression that Birdo was in fact UsefulNotes/{{transgender}}, an impression that has stuck ever since (in fact, several European sources such as the ''Super Mario Strikers'' website, ''Mario Tennis Aces'' and ''Super Mario Party'' still refer to Birdo as male). Several games refer to this while others keep it ambiguous. For example, the somewhat subtle subtext in the Popple/Birdo partnership in ''[[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga Superstar Saga]]'' (which has Popple say "This, uh...dame passed my audition perfectly, see?" in reference to Birdo). Was he trying to get rid of Birdo because she was too clingy, or... In the extremely strange Japan-only Nintendo game ''VideoGame/CaptainRainbow'', '''Catherine''' is quite clearly transgender, gets arrested for using the girl's bathroom, and gives you quests to help her prove to prospective male dates that she's a girl, including finding a censored item that is heavily implied to be a sex toy of some kind. She is usually portrayed with a deep voice, but in ''Super Mario Advance'' she was voiced by a female voice actress. ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl'' fudged it a bit by saying that Birdo was "[[AmbiguousGender of indeterminate gender]]", and referring to the "Birdetta" thing. There's also this nugget in ''Magazine/NintendoPower'' from issue #250 (January 2010)...
--->''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]].''

* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'': The non-binary Raine Whispers has run into this problem in multiple different dubs, largely due to many languages lacking a neuter[[note]]linguist-speak for "not male or female", which includes both gender-neutral and inanimate forms.[[/note]] grammatical gender[[note]]In English, grammatical gender only manifests in the third-person singular pronoun (e.g. "he", "she", "they") and in loanwords from other languages. In other languages, there can be masculine and feminine nouns, different, gendered verb conjugations, and even different, gendered forms of "the", like in French, German or Spanish.[[/note]]. Here are a handful of examples, although there are probably even more than that:

* In the English dub and most other versions of ''WesternAnimation/TheSuperMarioBrosMovie'', the Lumalee who is captured in Bowser's prison and is obsessed with [[DeathSeeker wanting to die]] is male. In the Croatian dub (both dubbed and subtitled), he's a female.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Bionicle}} 2:Legends of Metru Nui'':
** In Polish dub Nidiki is referred as a female by Krekka and Likhan. This may have been caused by his name sounding female for Poles.

* In the original Hungarian dub of Animation/TheSeventhBrother the Magpie is a male character but in the English version it's female.