Sigmar-Unberogen said:What do you mean? Why is it sad? Unless a person is totally oblivious to world events, they should know about Russia's invasion of Ukraine. I think it makes perfect sense why a tourist company would NOT want to do business in Russia when most foreign companies have left that aggressive and guilty nation. Sure, it's fiction and you may say in this world Russia is still peaceful and never invaded Ukraine, but it's not like this type of story will dwell on politics of this world and clarify that. So, let's just imagine Russia is peaceful here despite absence of evidence? While at the same time hearing of people dying in real world due to Russian crimes? I think it's more common sense than political correctness at this point. Russia deserves to be cut out.
People are bound to look at this world from POV of real world. It won't be a good look. It makes sense to change location considering it'll likely not affect the story much (maybe not affect it at all!). I'd even say it's the only correct decision. Imagine it's 1942; Would anyone film a movie about tourist agency from US moving to peaceful Germany while in real world Europe is in flames because of Germany? Nah, not gonna happen while the war is still ongoing.
1 way I see how this could've worked without changing location, is if the story took place in the past, before the invasion started.
I haven't read the manga, but if the couple succeed in avoiding going abroad anyways, it makes 0 sense why location had to stay unchanged. Right now the change is not affecting the plot in any way. The location they have to go is cold and very far from home. That's all that matters.
Well, I think that a lot of it also comes down to how you view the Ukraine conflict which is a geopolitical and philosophical question and discussion which I'm sure we would have different views and stances on, and won't be resolved in a thread topic like this. Basically, there have been many many wars and invasions, occupations, foreign involvement and state-sponsorship in backing unrest and coups, insurgencies, terrorism, bombings and assassinations, etc. in many many countries by various countries since WWII (and obviously before, but just talking about the post-1945 period since that's a modern defining point and dividing line). Many of which were completely illegal. And some of which are also occurring to this very day as we speak (there are parts of numerous other countries occupied at this very moment). But I would never desire for a series or film or any form of art and entertainment media to self-censor or attempt to castigate the governments of those involved countries by airbrushing their existence out of fictional stories.
If you think that conflict is somehow an exception and unique crime or tragedy compared to countless others then I can understand why someone who believes this would hold such a view and position, but if you view it as one among many then I think it's self-injurious and destabilizing to the world of fiction and artistic creation when they seek to wade into controversial current events and world affairs like this by pandering.
The thing about fictional stories is that, yes, they can be set on our Earth and in named and known countries like Japan, so it is the "real world", but at the same time, it's not like it's actually identical to our real world in the sense of every detail being painstakingly recreated to resemble it. Oftentimes entire cities and towns are still fictional, companies and schools are often fictional, all the characters are almost always fictional, and if gas prices are currently very high in the world it's not like it needs to be written into the anime (or other fiction) to represent that when the characters are filling their vehicles up at the pump. Likewise, it's not uncommon for contemporary armed conflicts, reference to current heads of state and serving politicians and all real world phenomena which is too recent, specific, or controversial in that it would be distracting to just be omitted entirely. In this case I'd argue that can be done with omission of mention of the conflict itself, not the country which is one of the involved parties or its cities.
Like, I also wouldn't want it edited out or altered if the story was originally written to include a scene where the characters went to attend a performance of Boris Godunov, a Tchaikovsky ballet, or dined on piroshki so that now the musical events had to be replaced with polka and American bluegrass concerts and the piroshki substituted out for pierogi.