Otaku USA Magazine
No Game No Life Light Novel Volumes Banned in Australia

Remember earlier this year we when reported on an Australian senator calling for a review of all anime and manga sold in the country, which he described as containing “child abuse material”?

Well, looks like that actually happened—and as a result, three novels in the No Game No Life series have been banned.

No Game No Life is the series of light novels by Yuu Kamiya about a pair of gamer siblings transported to an alternate world. It’s been adapted into both manga and anime.

Three books in the series, volumes 1, 2, and 9, were banned after a review recommended by Senator Griff’s political party, Centre Alliance.

Here’s the reason volumes 1 and 2 were a no-go with the Australian Classification Board:

Pubs 1(b): The publication is classified RC in accordance with the National Classification Code, Publications Table, 1. (b) as publications that “describe or depict in a way that is likely to cause offence to a reasonable adult, a person who is, or appears to be, a child under 18 (whether the person is engaged in sexual activity or not).”

And here’s what got volume 9 in hot water:

Pubs 1(a)&(b): The publication is classified RC in accordance with the National Classification Code, Publications Table, 1. (a) as publications that “describe, depict, express or otherwise deal with matters of sex, drug misuse or addiction, crime, cruelty, violence or revolting or abhorrent phenomena in such a way that they offend against the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults to the extent that they should not be classified,” and (b) “describe or depict in a way that is likely to cause offence to a reasonable adult, a person who is, or appears to be, a child under 18 (whether the person is engaged in sexual activity or not).”

Due to these reviews, the three volumes “cannot be sold, hired, advertised or legally imported in Australia.”

Well, this sucks for Australian fans of No Game No Life. Is this just the beginning of a wave of anime, manga and light novel bans in Australia? Only time will tell.

Source: ANN

Matt Schley

Matt Schley (rhymes with "guy") lives in Tokyo, and has been OUSA's "man in Japan" since 2012. He's also written about anime and Japanese film for the Japan Times, Screen Daily and more.

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