China’s Ministry of Culture announced yesterday that it has banned 38 anime and manga titles. The titles will be prohibited from any form of distribution – online, in print, or otherwise.
The list of now banned titles features the following:
- Terror in Resonance
- Blood-C
- Highschool of the Dead
- Ergo Proxy
- Parasyte
- The Skull Man
- Another
- Inferno Cop
- Afro Samurai
- Tokyo Ghoul √A
- Sword Art Online II
- Tokyo ESP
- Tokyo Ravens
- Devil May Cry
- RIN – Daughters of Mnemosyne
- The Testament of Sister New Devil
- Attack on Titan
- Corpse Party
- Strike the Blood
- Death Note
- Deadman Wonderland
- Date A Live II
- Psycho-Pass
- Devilman Lady
- School Days
- Those Who Hunt Elves
- Elfen Lied
- High School DxD
- Samurai Bride
- So, I Can’t Play H!
- Girls Bravo: Second Season
- Kanokon
- Aesthetica of a Rogue Hero
- Sakura Diaries
- Black Butler
- Claymore
- Dance in the Vampire Bund
The ban comes after new regulations requiring Chinese websites to seek approval before streaming foreign media. The Ministry cited “scenes of violence, pornography, terrorism and crimes against public morality” as reasons for the ban.
Senior Culture Ministry official had this to say:
The list is the result of evaluations by investigators, reviews by the ministry and the opinions of experts. It aims to guide websites in the proper review and importation of comics and animations.
29 Chinese websites have been fined and ordered to remove the aforementioned content, or risk being shut down.