Senate Bill 20, which unanimously passed the Texas state senate, has some anime fans nervous because its vague wording could lead to anime and manga bans — and potentially even fans behind bars. The Bill appears to chiefly be concerned about stopping AI pornography made to look like children, but then it contains this description:
“Senate Bill 20, by Sen. Pete Flores, creates a new state felony offense for the possession or promotion of obscene visual material that appears to depict a child younger than 18 years old, regardless of whether the depiction is of an actual child, cartoon or animation, or an image created using AI or other computer software.”
According to the Texas government website, obscenity is defined as what “the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that taken as a whole appeals to the prurient interest in sex;” and “taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, and scientific value.”
Here is where the vague language is. Who is the average person? Whose community? Who decides what has artistic value? If something as tame as Sasaki and Miyano, for example, is banned as pornography in a district in Florida, or if parents in New Mexico are claiming Assassination Classroom is pornography and therefore should be pulled from schools, what could the Texas law potentially go after? The above titles are aimed for teenagers and are clearly not pornographic, but they’ve been pulled.
Some fans have expressed worries that Naruto’s Sexy Jutsu gag, Kill la Kill’s provocative clothing, and dating in Fruits Basket could be in trouble because the animated characters are under 18, to list only a few examples.
Tokyo Weekender quoted an anime fan who remarked, “This could be extremely dangerous. Texas is the anime capital of the US. CR [Crunchyroll] has its main studio in Dallas, same with HiDive and others. If this is not handled correctly and carefully, it could destroy anime in the US.”
Source: Tokyo Weekender
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Danica Davidson is the author of the bestselling Manga Art for Beginners with artist Melanie Westin, plus its sequel, Manga Art for Everyone, and the first-of-its-kind manga chalk book Chalk Art Manga, both illustrated by professional Japanese mangaka Rena Saiya. Check out her other comics and books at www.danicadavidson.com.