Australian Politician Declares War On Anime

There’s no denying anime’s influence on Western culture. The Japanese art form has seen it’s tentacles reach into American-produced content with clear inspirations seen in the likes of Steven Universe, Seis Manos, and Castlevania. Celebrities like Michael B. Jordan, Billie Eilish, and even Israel Adesanya, UFC Middleweight Champion of the World, has noted anime’s influence on his actual fighting maneuvers.

Unfortunately, you can’t please everybody. Australian politician Stirling Griff is accusing Japanese-producers of developing content that showcases abuse of minors specifically calling out the likes of Eromanga Sensei as one of the worst offenders.  A vote in Australian parliament is expected to put a ban on such content despite the series being rated by the Australian Classification Board a solid MA15+.

This is the latest example of anime being deemed to extreme for broadcast. Earlier this year, the now Sony-owned Interspecies Reviewers was canceled after only a single English-dubbed episode being produced for Funimation which caused all sorts of controversy on both sides with subscribers accusing the anime streaming service of walking back it’s history of producing risque anime in favor of it’s new ownership who might be looking to be more conservative.

Australia has a long and sad history at not allowing content onto it’s shores. Grand Theft Auto and a slew of other MA-rated games were often subject to either alteration or complete banning, with another popular example being South Park: The Stick of Truth. 

More as it develops…

[h/t: The Canberra Times]