The Japanese paper The Nikkei posted an ad for the manga Tawawa on Monday (Getsuyōbi no Tawawa in the original Japanese), and it angered the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The UN group sent a letter to The Nikkei, …Read more »
Mariko Kikuchi’s manga “Kami-sama” no Iru Ie de Sodachimashita ~Shūkyō 2-Sei na Watashi-tachi~ (translated as A Home Life With God ~We Children Born Into Religion~) has been pulled from its Yomitai web media platform. Each chapter has to do with a child born into a …Read more »
The Chinese government continues to grow stricter on what it allows in the entertainment section. Last week The National Radio and Television Administration said that programs aimed at kids, including cartoons such as anime, would be prohibited if they have any “violence, blood, vulgarity or …Read more »
The Chinese government recently put new restrictions on minors playing video games, saying they could only do it legally one hour a day from Friday through Sunday, plus holidays. Not long after that the Chinese government banned what it considers “effeminate men” from being on …Read more »
Takeshi Natsuno at Enjin01 Open College in Nagaoka, in 2011. Photo by Joi Ito The president and CEO of manga publishing giant Kadokawa, Takeshi Natsuno has received heavy criticism in the past week for comments perceived as pro-censorship. On July 21st at an Abema Prime …Read more »
Netflix India has pulled the anime Record of Ragnarok. Netflix has not stated why, but there has been controversy with the way the Hindu god Shiva is portrayed, so this is likely the reason. Record of Ragnarok has characters based on ones found in multiple …Read more »
Shinji Takamatsu, the director of Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE!, posted a series of tweets about how China’s strict censorship rules affect the production of anime. According to him, there are instances where Japan needs more than Japanese viewers to make a profit off …Read more »
Japanese media critic Kimi Rito, who wrote The History of Hentai Manga, poked some fun at some 90s censorship of the Pokémon manga in America. Pokémon: The Electric Tale of Pikachu was first published by VIZ in 1998, and they flipped it to read left …Read more »
Since The Way of the Househusband anime adaptation centers on a domesticated yakuza, it’s only natural that there are a ton of tattoos present on the body of lead protagonist Tatsu. Viewers in China won’t be seeing that aspect of the character, however, because his …Read more »
Seven Seas is revising and republishing Classroom of the Elite vol. 7, Mushoku Tensei vol. 1, Mushoku Tensei vol. 2 and I’m in Love with the Villainess vol. 1 after receiving criticism for changing or cutting scenes. For example, in Mushoku Tensei vol. 1, there’s …Read more »
Last month a St. Petersburg court banned Death Note, Tokyo Ghoul, and Inuyashiki in regards to websites where they were streaming. The anime were deemed bad for young people and the court officially said after watching some of this anime, “Every episode contains cruelty, murder, …Read more »
There’s a lot of intense content in Hajime Isayama’s Attack on Titan manga, but for one particular magazine in Malaysia, all those naked, no-genitals-having Titans stomping around was just too much. In what appears to be a mode of censorship exclusive to the magazine Kreko—which …Read more »
The anime Death Note, Tokyo Ghoul and Inuyashiki have received legal bans in Russia after the decision of a St. Petersburg court yesterday. The bans relate to websites where these anime can be watched. The prosecutors argued for this ban on the grounds of protecting …Read more »
Lawmakers in Ohio recently called for Kent State University to no longer use the scholarly book Anime from Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle: Experiencing Contemporary Japanese Animation in their curriculum. Written by Tufts University’s Dr. Susan Napier, the book in question was groundbreaking for bringing …Read more »
The Demon Slayer movie is having hiccups toward its theatrical release in China, and it’s related to the fallout from Monster Hunter. To recap, a pun ad-libbed in Monster Hunter by Chinese-American actor Jin Au-Yeung (which was intended as a showing of Chinese pride) was …Read more »
Danica Davidson
Joseph Luster
