I compared the English translation of Ghost in the Shell with the Japanese version and found some questionable parts. I'd like to list them for future references and feedbacks.
*Page numbers and English translations are based on Kondansha's Deluxe Complete Box Set edition.
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1. Chapter 03, p.58
Togusa heard a rumor about Major's shooting skill from Mayumi. It is not a rumor about Mayumi's shooting skill.
2. Chapter 03, p.60
"The HA-3 was effective only to the enemy..."
The virus was made by Asian side. It becomes a problem in this chapter because it affects the Japanese interpretator due to the unification of the prosthetic body format.
3. Chapter 03, p.64
"We oughta go on strike like migrant workers do..."
This panel suggests that migrant workers in Japan actively participate in human rights movement, but native Japanese workers don't.
4. Chapter 03, p.79
"Why do you interfere, Major?"
"Don't aim for the head, Fuchikoma! The legs, you fool!"
Fuchikoma is drawn in the speech bubble, so it is a conversation between Major and Fuchikoma, not between Major and Togusa. When Togusa talked to Major via wireless communication in an earlier scene, his face was drawn in the speech bubble. So we can understand that Fuchikoma is talking in this panel. In the first place, Togusa is being panicked during this scene.
In the first panel, Fuchikoma's AI tries to shoot the terrorist's head. Major notices it and interferes with the aiming system. That's why Fuchikoma complains in the second panel.
This page includes another questinable part.
After Major wakes Togusa up in the seventh panel, Fuchikoma says,
"The target is heading into a crowd at the marketplace. Should I come with you and charge into them?"
Fuchikoma is saying that it would be dangrous to bring them into the crowded market. Major reacts to that question by getting out of Fuchikoma.
5. Chapter 05, p.98
It is just a minor detail, but Shirow strictly distinguishes nanomachines from micromachines. Since the Japanese version says micromachines in this panel, "nanotech" is inappropreate.
6. Chapter 06, p.115
"But I think these robots just want us to stop thrwoing them on the trash heap..."
"Hell, I'd solve the problem by teaching their hardwares to 'endure.'"
"Is that based on my 'personal opinion' from the report? No promotion for you."
"Yeah, I like writing 'personal opinions' too."
Batou knows the identification officer's sarcastic comment from the report, so he subtly shows his empathy. The officer notices it and jokingly says, "No promotion for you."
7. Chapter 06, p.121
"give him an injection of 'talk' serum... Kubonuma, I don't like using such a classic technique, but blame it on your uncyberized brain."
The shipping inspector Kubonuma doesn't have a cyberbrain. That's why the president of Hanka uses the talk serum. If the inspector had a cyberbrain, the president could just hack it and get the necessary information.
8. Chapter 06, p.125
"What about the Hanka building?"
"You surveil it from the car. I don't need backup!"
"You're too autocratic, former-ranger!"
Togusa says "one-man" in katakana, so the translator apparently interpreted it as "one-man army." However, one-man is a Japanglish/ loan word. It means something like a self-righteous manager of a corporation.
Batou tells Togusa to stay behind and watch the building, so Togusa complains and ignores the request.
9. Chapter 06, p.137
"If they were cops, the penalty for ghost dubbing is life in prison or death penalty."
The president of Hanka Corporation looks like a robot, but even his brain is an organic human brain just with some micromachines and processors. The Japanese version says "death penalty," so it should be just "death penalty," not brain-wipe. Cyberbrains die like normal human beings do. Human spirits AKA ghosts can't move to artificial machines in GitS's era (except some very rare cases like Emma Tsuda from ARISE.)
10. Chapter 07, p.163
"Overly friendly people are hated in this world."
Motoko gives him an advice because he kindly takes her to Krolden's place. She's saying that friendly people gain unnecessary attention. It is not a conversation about the chaotic Berutarube area.
11. Chapter 07, p.183
"You've got a pretty tough skull... But I'm afraid I'm going to take it apart for further study, Third Senior Officer Kusanagi."
"Just you try... Second Senior Officer Kagasaki, Special Ops. Far North Division. And just FYI, I'm no longer Third Senior Officer. My men still call me 'Major' though."
Translating this part requires a little knowledge about Japanese Self Defense Force's terms.
In the GitS universe, JSDF is being reorganized, so there is a change in rank terms. The current JSDF calls Major "Sansa", but it's being changed to "Shousa" in the GitS universe. Motoko was formerly Sansa, but she became Shousa after that. She didn't get promoted, but her rank name was changed.
Kagasaki apparently knows about Motoko's past in JSDF. Both characters call each other by their JSDF rank in this scene.
Both Shousa and Sansa are "Major" in English, so the translator needs to consider how to translate the difference into English.
Motoko doesn't work for JSDF anymore, so Major is just a nickname in this scene anyway. That is why she said, "My men still call me Major."
12. Chapter 07, p.187
"But he embezzled enough funds and took enough bribes to turn Sagawa Electronics into one of Sagawa Corporate Group's Big Eight."
Sagawa Electronics was just a small division of Sagawa Group. Motoko mentions "octopus" just because Sagawa Group has eight big corporations.
13. Chapter 08, p.195
"Do you believe the rumor that Section 1 is loose?"
Motoko doesn't tell where she's going, so her boyfriend, who is a member of Section 1, thinks maybe she's being cautious of information leakage.
14. Chapter 08, p.203
"Door ajar!"
"Hey, Batou. I'm pretty handy sometimes, ya know. So if you're in a tight spot, just give me a call."
"Damn it. I screwed up. Did someone plant a bomb?"
Togusa notices the door ajar of Batou's car. Motoko, the Section 9 member, is under the terrorist's attack, so Batou needs to check if the terrorist took advantage of the door ajar or not. That's why he is at a loss.
15. Chapter 08, p.205
"Don't you need to do evacuation guidance for citizens? Why don't you just call the bomb disposal squad?"
"You gotta be jokin'... I'd be labeled an idiot for generations."
They're at the entrance of a normal hostpital, so Togusa says that maybe Batou should guide evacuation of citizens before checking the bomb. He can't do all those tasks by himself, so Togusa recommends calling the bomb disposal squad. They're not sure if bomb was really planted or not, but Batou needs to check it anyway. That's why he doesn't want to call the bomb disposal squad. And that's why Togusa is so calm. It's a comedy sequence about a nonexistent bomb.
16. Chapter 08, p.210
"I suspect he had to go underground by himself because Benten doesn't like him."
This spy is telling that Souma is probably not in Benten's hideout. In other words, Ishikawa doesn't need to check Benten Family's places to find Souma.
17. Chapter 08, p.232
"I was wearing my uniform this morning, right? I was on my way to have a toast with the minister for public security of a certain nation... for celebrating the total success of the Anaconda assassination op."
Anaconda was killed before the chapter started. That's the funny point of this conclusion. Section 1 tried to get information of Anaconda from Souma, but Anaconda was already dead. The translator mistook negau/ to hope for iwau/ to celebrate.
18. Chapter 09, p.234
"Good. Search that area first, Batou."
Aramaki is talking with Batou on the phone. Batou is searching for Megatech Body's robot outside. And Aramaki tells Motoko and Togusa to come with him by the gesture.
19. Chapter 09, p.250
"Should we make up some random culprit behind the attack on Section 9?"
"Hey, we're not doing a charity."
At this rate, Section 9 would need to explain why they lost the Megatech Body robot. If they caught a fake culprit made by Section 6, it would give them an excuse. That's why the chief of Section 6 says, "We're not doing a charity." They're not talking about Puppeteer in this scene.
20. Chapter 09, p.266
"These are terminals/ effectors that weren't in my original form. Yet, I seemingly shift to an unusual mode if I lose them."
Puppeteer is losing the extra functions/ networks, but he is not reverting to his original form. He notices that he is gaining a new, unusual form by losing extra networks.
21. Chapter 09, p.267
"Damn! Their signals are so harmonized that I can't tell whether she's consumed him or he's penetrated into her."
The translator mistakenly interpreted it as two sentences.
22. Chapter 09, p.267
"Major! We can probably solve this case even without him! If you dive too deep, your memory and net will fuse with his!"
Batou is worried that her synapse network might suffer from irreversible influences from Puppeteer.
23. Chapter 10, p.281
I suppose it's correctly, "the end of the guide cable."
24. Chapter 10, p.295
"You didn't forget about the Ministry of Justice."
"Is it worth it to me?"
Aramaki is asking if the Ministry of Justice will give him useful information to help Motoko or not.
25. Chapter 10, p.301
"A setup...?"
"Who would bomb a building when even the target was not in it yet?"
It seems that the translator mistook hoka/ "other than" for soto/ "outside."
It is obvious that Motoko was the target of the bombing. Mossad themselves bombed their building to kill Motoko, and they made up the fake antisemitist group's crime. Shapiro was on the Mossad's side, but he helped Motoko right before the bombing for his political reason.
The massmedia believes Mossad's fake story, and Togusa believes their news. That's why Motoko says that it's juts a setup.
26. Chapter 10, p.307
It's just a minor detail, but Motoko is never called "Major" in official situations. She is not a military officer anymore. Only her team members call her Major. In the court and news, she is just called "Motoko Kusanagi" or "you".
27. Chapter 10, p.310
"She is Section 9's member, so Section 9 themselves should bring her back!"
Katagiri is an officer of Public Security Bureau, so his attitude is kinder to Aramaki. In this panel, he is basically saying that there is still a way to redeem S9's reputation.
By the way, Aramaki calls him "Mr. Katagiri" in the English version, but it should be "Katagiri."
28. Chapter 10, p.311
"I figured you knew we were tailing you."
"Of course I knew. Hell, I educated you guys."
It should be remembered that Aramaki formerly worked for Public Security Bureau in Chapter 01 and 02. That's why Katagiri behaves politely to Aramaki, and Aramaki is frank with Katagiri.
29. Chapter 10, p.312
"Can't we do something to stall her?"
"We're dealing with a pro. We've got to secure the area and get the sniper squad there on the double."
Aramaki's talking about professionals in general, not specifically about Motoko.
30. Chapter 10, p.312
"I don't recommend embarrassing yourself in front of the media and getting forced to resign."
"If that happens to me, all over for S-9 too."
Aramaki tells a joke to Katagiri, and Katagiri plays a straight man like a comedy. They talk like that because they know each other.
31. Chapter 10, p.313
"We have seven minutes until the deadline, and the sniper squad's scheduled to arrive five minutes later."
"Only two minutes left for sniping!"
"That means our reaction was two minutes earlier than she planned."
Aramaki is saying that they could have had no time for sniping if Motoko's plan worked perfectly. They bought two minutes because Aramaki told Katagiri to call the squad immediately.
32. Chapter 10, p.318
"But Chief! They're planning to cyberhack a sniper to eliminate Major!"
It is not a deal. Mossad and their spy hack a sniper's brain and make him shoot Motoko. That is depicted in page 320. The cyber hacker hired by Mossad is behind the sniper squad. He is wearing a fake uniform of an electric company.
33. Chapter 10, p.318
"That's the sound of Kusanagi shooting the hostage in the leg. Damn public security's so slow. Maybe this'll teach a lesson to that shady doctor."
Aramaki is saying that the face artist's job had some shady aspects.
34. Chapter 10, p.322
"I left a dummy of the brain that wasn't fully conditioned to net with the I.D. department."
Again, the translator mistakenly thought it includes two sentences, but it's one sentence.
Motoko is worried that some identification officer will notice the condition of the dummy brain's net and think it is a dummy.
34. Chapter 11, p.324
"Are you using a Gen-6 AI for home security?"
Batou calls the home security's name, so Motoko asks if it's a 6th generation AI.
35. Chapter 11, p.326
"Huh!"
"The big door was only a key. This is the real door."
You can tell who is speaking from the shapes of speech bubbles in this panel. It's Motoko who gets surprised, and it's Batou who explains the door system. "Hmm..." is unnecessary.
36. Chapter 11, p.333
"Your genes and your memes, and what's left after you've disappeared, will continue to spread like ripples."
The Japanese version says, "continue to grow in a doughnut shape." The "doughnut shape" is just a metaphor of concentric expansions, so "spread like ripples" would be fine. It is unrelated to toroid.
37. Chapter 11, p.336
"Universe progresses by rotating. The moment of that rotation is called 'time'."
It is a very abstract line. Puppeteer is saying that time is the moment of the universe's rotating force.
38. Chapter 11, p.338
"So what will you do when I die, then? Of course, you can't survive as genes. Not as memes either now."
We should remember that human ghosts can't move to artificial machines in GitS's era. For an obvious reason, Puppeteer can't leave his genes like human begings do. Plus, after merging with Motoko, he will become a human being and lose the meme lifeform's ability to move to other bodies. She's worried about the conlusion.
39. Chapter 11, p.338
"The new post-fusion you would frequently release my altered-species/ glider..."
"Koto aru goto ni" just means "at every opportunity," so "frequently" would be fine.
40. Chapter 11, p.340
"Just as, in biology, bases make pairs, you make a pair with Toru Soma. Such pairings are called en."
Puppeteer is saying that his "en" chose himself and Motoko as a pair like Adenine pairs with thymine.
41. Chapter 11, p.343
"The code number is a series of the first 8 seconds from Vivaldi RV256."
They use the code of digitalized classical music as password.
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Those are all the questionable parts I found so far. I don't intend to condemn the translator's work in this essay. However, it's old and it looks like Kodansha has never checked the accuracy of the translation. I hope some other knowledgeable people will check the translation and revise it.
Thank you for reading the long essay.
