this American state bans many mangas

Are manga dangerous for children? In any case, this is what an American county seems to believe, which has made the decision to ban numerous mangas.

A controversial law

This is a case that will remind French people who grew up in front of the Club Dorothée of the countless debates on the dangers that Japanese animation represents – we remember in particular the book The fed-up of baby zappers by Ségolène Royal, published in 1969. In an article published by Anime News Networkwe learn that the state of Tennessee – in the South of the United States – has passed a law which requires that books in school libraries be “adapted to the age and maturity level of the students“and which prohibits books which contain “total or partial nudity“, which would be “blatantly offensive” or which would deal with issues related to drugs, sex and violence.

This law led many school districts, including those in Rutherford County, to remove from the shelves of their libraries no less than 150 works, including many mangas. Among them, many bestsellers, including Jujutsu Kaisen de Gege Akutami, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure de Hirohiko Araki, My Hero Academia de Kōhei Horikoshi, Vampire Knight de Matsuri Hino, Attack on Titan de Hajime Isayama, Tokyo Ghoul de Sui Ishida, Blue Exorcist de Kazue Katō, Soul Eater d’Atsushi Ōkubo, Akira de Katsuhiro Otomo, Hunter x Hunter de Yoshihiro Togashi et The Seven Deadly Sins de Nabaka Suzuki. Other manga, like Bleach by Tite Kubo, have seen some volumes censored (in this case, volumes 9, 34 and 42).

This law does not meet with unanimity among Tennessee librarians. Working in a school library, Elizabeth Shepherd spoke to Tennessee Lockoutexplaining how “this process is literally heartbreaking for a librarian“. This new law resonates with a report published by the non-profit association PEN America, whose objective is to raise awareness of the protection of freedom of expression through literature, and which noted “more than 10,000 cases of book censorship during the 2023-2024 school yearmore than double compared to the previous school year“. A few weeks earlier, the case of the manga Assassination Classroomremoved from school districts in Florida and Wisconsin, has caused a lot of discussion.