Xcancel doesn't work again, I posted the whole tweet here so you don't have to open twitter.
the tweet only mentions Israel, but in reality all country names were removed like the Japanese raw, only the manga has the real names
United States changed to MAG Union
USSR changed to Volgarena, this name is directly inspired by the Volga River
Israel changed to Ghorantl (or Guranto), made-up word combining “Golan Heights” with “Toru” (to seize).
Syria changed to Mesamia, inspired by Mesopotamia
The mention of Israel in the Latin Spanish dub of The Ghost in the Shell (2026) has been removed...
A few days ago, a clip from the Latin Spanish dub went viral, where Israel was mentioned directly. Fans pointed out that this version was the only one that kept this reference present in the manga, while other versions, including the Japanese one, mentioned the fictional country Ghorantl.
However, after the clip went viral, the dub would have been modified. Now, instead of mentioning Israel directly, expressions like “they” and “other nations” are used.
What do you all think?
Because in some respects the original ghost in the shell was saying something about these nations. The entire significance of the back end political theater is a bit meaningless if the places talked about are abstract considering it has to do with one nation faking a terrorist attack in order to perpetuate a war against another nation. This isn't even touching how, in the world of GitS, the United States is supposed to be a tyrannical empire on the quest of taking over the entire Americas and a bit of a malicious ally to Japan. Gee, I wonder why they censored that. 🤔
The goal Science Saru had was to adapt the manga as is. The censorship of it, unfortunately, has undermined the goal. I still enjoyed it but I hope that an eventual blu ray release untainted hy Amazon restores the intended names. It really hurts the world building of the original GitS which, yes had plenty of fake names, but did try to ground those fake names as evolutions of existing nation states.
The original GitS Manga was from the 1980ies and at least this show, and I assume the Manga as well, takes place in the late 2020ies to early 2030ies, so basically NOW. And I don't see any Fujikomas whizzing about out there, much less cybernetic implants of any sort being common. Again, it's all made up. For any political or other messaging it does, it does not need real life place names.
Did they change names to avoid some superficial controversies? Possibly.
Does it actually matter? Not really.
Except to those who read Macbeth only in the original Klingon, I guess.