Let us consider the Power Rangers franchise for a moment -- or as it's known in Japan, Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger. As some of you will painfully remember, the American version of the series is a pastiche work. The fight scenes and monster battles are filmed in Japan, then dubbed into English. All segments with American actors are filmed over here, and then someone very awkwardly pastes the thing together. This has been going on for well over a decade now through many iterations of the series, all of which typically feature an initial Ranger team of four males and one female.Right. Four males, one female. In Japan. The U.S. has a little more trouble with having a single token girl on the team, partially because someone will complain and mostly because gosh, you just can't get those trite teenage romance plotlines with only one dose of estrogen. But the Sentai wear face-concealing helmets...
So the American end of the original production simply looked for the slightest build among the Japanese actors -- then cast a woman with minimal hips, waist flare, and bustline, prayed no one in the intended audience age group would look too closely, and went for it. Thusly:
And when they sort of almost got away with it, they did it again. And again. For season after season.
This? Happens a lot. And not always for the above reason. There's a mistake in the translation and someone's voice does a gender switch. Japan has less trouble with openly gay characters and transvestites in their animation, -- but bring it to America and suddenly that creation must be nailed down as heterosexual, which means swapping a chromosome. No one cared enough to actually read the thing and just cast whoever was handy. The hilarious effects on the original plotlines? Oh, someone on the writing staff can just work around those. Or totally ignore them. Whatever's easier.
So sorry, guys, but
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ShesAManInJapan
Gonna leave that poster up?