:-/ Why did they have to translate 'tanuki' as 'raccoon'?

Very simple answer: This is supposed to be a family movie, and kids see the animals in the movie as a raccoon.. it would confuse a child to change their name from a raccoon to a raccon dog.

A rose by any other name, maybe?

Given the horrible things that 4kids and co have done to anime in the past, I think that I can let this one go.

Besides, Tanuki is often literally translated as 'Raccoon' by pro translators. It's just semantics, like calling a dolphin or whale a fish. It's not accurate, but it's acceptable.

English Language Anime: Dub it, don't pervert it.

because no one in the us, besides otaku freaks like yourself, know what tanukis are. so get over it.

Out of all the anime I have seen (and it is not alot really), this is a pretty good dub. The voices fit really good. However, what annoys me more than nails-on-a-blackboard is the replacement of tanuki for racoon.

Yes, tanuki (is tanuki also the plural word for tanuki? I just want to know.) are not raccons. According to these articles:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanuki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raccoon_Dog
I understand that they could be described as raccons if you want to give an example of how they are like, but you have to say that they are in fact not raccons. What is wrong with a bit education? It is insulting to dumb things down. That is what Disney did.

But that is being techical. Here is my reason this is really why this is so annoying. "Pom Poko" is inherently Japanese. Of course, it is anime. But I talking about all the Japanese references: the Japanese relgion(s), the mythlogy, the folklore, the historical legends, the urban legends, and even social problems like the urban encroachment. It is far from being an marketable film for Americans. Why not keep the word "tanuki"? Here is a link to show you what I mean.
http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/pompoko/faq.html

Added comments:
And since when has "calling a dolphin or(a)whale a fish" sufficient? Is a snake acceptable for a lizard, or a lizard for an alligator? Also is a seahorse, a marine equus-caballus (binomial name for horse); therefore, is it okay for a raccon dog to be called a raccon. Okay, that might have been a stretch, but I hope my point was made.

"The word Raccoon was shorter to pronouce than Tanuki. And the English version has to fit the mouth movement perfectly. I don't mind if they use the word Raccoon. Since Tanuki does translate to Raccoon Dog."

Maybe I am wrong, but would not a dubbed tanuki fit perfectly over the mouth movements for the Japanese word "tanuki"?

"Same with the Foxes which were called Kitsunes in Japanese. The word fox is shorter to pronouce than Kitsune."

Kitsune are foxes. Thus, it is completely appropriate to use the English word "foxes" for the Japanese word "kitsune. Don't you think. If they wanted to use the correct translation for tanuki they shoul have said Raccon dog. But then we would start the arguemnt of that being too long a word for to dub.

Here is more to back him up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanuki

as for the misinformed otaku... WHAT DO YOU EXPECT? Theyre all idiots living in some idealized fantasy world of japan. I used to work in a comic store and the otaku ive seen were wholly ignorant of japan. hell, they didnt know otaku is a very derogatory term used to describe obsessed people.

thats why modern anime fans dont know *beep* they dont even watch some of the stuff from the 70s to mid 80s


"It never got weird enough for me." - Hunter S. Thompson

Maybe because they just thought most people in the non-Japanese audience will not be familiar to tanukis but to raccoons yes. I agree that's a pity to keep people in ignorance and to treat the audience as if they weren't able to learn new things! In the French version (at least in the subtitles since I haven't seen the dubbed version) they kept the word tanuki.


BTW do you have an idea of the litteral meaning of the original title?



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It's because people in the west don't know what Tanuki are, and they don't know what Racoon-dogs are. It's not integral to the story to have that part accurately translated.

There are several animal names which exist in Japanese, but are never used. There is a correct word for 'badger' in Japanese, but it's not used, because people in Japan don't know what a badger is. Instead it's more likely to be described as something similar to a badger than the Japanese are familiar with.

I've always called Tanuki 'racoons' in English, even though I know it's not quite correct. People can equate it much easier to those weird Japanese animals that look like racoons.

I don't want to sound rude or ignorant - because I do know the difference between tanuki and racoons, but why is this a big deal?

Calling the tanuki a raccoon doesn't hurt the story at all.