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A Dog & Monkey Story - And Other Translation Mistakes

I have been watching anime for years and I have noticed that when some things get translated into English, and even things that were in English to begin with, end up being being mistranslated. Sometimes, it is understandable, like when the word deals with something obscure, like in Sailor Moon where Amazones, the plural of Amazon, is used, it becomes Amazoness in English, but when these mistranslations involve words that were in English to begin with like English words transliterated into katakana or scientific facts, it makes me wonder how and why. How can you mistranslate the food roi de gateau to rowa de gateau in Tokyo Mew Mew when all of the other characters have food names too? How can you mistake a raccoon dog for a raccoon or badger over and over again even when the words for them in Japanese are all different words? How can you not tell the difference between a baboon and a mandrill? How and why do these mistakes happen over and over?

The animals being called different animals irk me the most, so I'll go into those in the most detail.

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This is a raccoon. It has a mask, ringed tail, and human-like hands. It can be found in many parts of the world, like North America and Europe, but it is not native to Asia.

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This is a raccoon dog. It looks kind of like a raccoon with its mask, but its tail is not ringed and it does not have human-like hands. It is closely related to dogs and is considered the most primitive dog by some. It is native to Asia and can be found in Japan.

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This is a baboon. Its distinctive features are its rump and knuckles. They move on ground by knuckling around.

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This is a mandrill. It is native to Africa like a baboon and looks a lot like a baboon, but it is larger than any baboon and its colorful face gives away that it is a mandrill. No baboon has a colorful face like that.

The tale of the tanuki/raccoon dog intrigues me the most. Some people think the Japanese word for raccoon is tanuki, but really, the Japanese word for raccoon is araiguma (?). Some people think that the tanuki is called a raccoon or badger, because those animals are more familiar to a western audience. The only problem with that logic, though, is that not all westerners have seen a badger or a raccoon, and animals that are not familiar to westerners are often used in animation. Lion King, anyone? All of those penguin movies, anyone? Also, in Tokyo Mew Mew, none of the animals names are changed, even though they are even more foreign and obscure than the raccoon dog. I thought those animals were mythical beasts until I looked them on my own and found out they were real endangered animals! 4Kids kept the animal names in Tokyo Mew Mew, but they changed the raccoon dog of Shaman King into a raccoon. I could understand raccoon dog being called either raccoon or dog, but that never happens. It is always either raccoon or badger. The only anime I know that got the name right is InuYasha! InuYasha! Bash on InuYasha all you want, but at least the crew that worked on translation got something correct that not even the people at Disney could get right with Pom Poko.

Now for the mandrill's tale. I think the mandrill is a victim of outdated information. The people that make cartoons with mandrills either rely on previous outdated knowledge or use a source that is outdated. The mandrill was once classed with baboons, but now, it is considered a separate species. In Kimba, the mandrill is called a baboon. This may have been made so long ago that it was true. However, in the Lion King, the mandrill Rafiki is also called a baboon and it becomes a joke when he goes, "squash banana, you are a baboon and I am not," to Simba the lion. In the musical, Rafiki is again called a baboon when she is a mandrill. The movie and musicals were made after the mandrill was considered a different species from baboons, so why is this mistake still being made?

I am not the only one who notices translation mistakes like these. Do you notice them and if so, do they bother you? Why do you suppose such mistakes are made? Are any companies known for making such mistakes more than others? Is there a common translation mistake you notice a lot and if so, then what is it? Anything else?

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