Anime, which mostly refers to Japanese animated content, has a wide following, and one of the largest happens to be in North America. Infillion estimates that around 52.8 million North American viewers watch anime on Crunchyroll. Hence, there's been quite a lot of chatter over speculations that the US might be banning anime.
However, what started this chatter? Are the fears founded? Here, we take a look into the possibility of US Congress banning anime.
What's the chatter about US banning anime?
The chatter online – both Reddit and X – seem to suggest that Congress might be planning to ban anime.
“Who’s here after hearing that Congress is going to ban anime?,” a person asked on Reddit. “They're what now??,” one person exclaimed, while another wondered how it would ‘even work’.
On X too, people were defiant. “Us Congress wants to ban anime????? Good luck with that,” said one user, while another stated “To anyone freaking out about congress anime ban... don't. Think about it, how are they even going to enforce it...”.
Is the US actually banning anime? Here's the truth
Despite the chatter, there seems to be no concrete proof that the US Congress is actually trying to ban anime.
{{/usCountry}}Despite the chatter, there seems to be no concrete proof that the US Congress is actually trying to ban anime.
{{/usCountry}}Grok has noted that while there is no anime ban proposed, the SCREEN Act, which seeks to protect children from being exposed to pornography, and seeks to focus on age verification for online platforms, could impact some anime content. Further, the AI assistant notes that this chatter could be related to the Texas Congress' SB-20 Bill which seeks to criminalize obscene depictions of minors in the media. However, the wording of the bill is obscure and it may end up impacting anime content, perhaps even leading to a ban, NBC's Click2Houston reported.
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One person on Reddit, explained as much, saying “For people confused, it's about the Texas Anti-CP bill that was signed a few months ago for the State, which mainly has to do with AI Deepfakes, BUT has some rather murky wording, which has anime fans worried.”
The Texas bill states “a person commits an offense if the person knowingly possesses, accesses with intent to view, or promotes obscene visual material containing a depiction that appears to be of a child younger than 18 years of age engaging in activities described by Section 43.21(a)(1)(B), regardless of whether the depiction is an image of an actual child, a cartoon or animation, or an image created using an artificial intelligence application or other computer software.”
The person, when posed with the question of what would be considered as child porn, and the gray area of anime getting affected, further noted “Miller test, UNLESS something like that Mike Lee bill ever passes (which is extremely unlikely, like you'd have a better chance of winning the lottery than that bill passing).”
This is a reference to the SCREEN Act, which comes from Congresswoman Mary Miller and Senator Mike Lee.
Anime fans worried about Texas bill
The move from the Texas lawmakers has anime stakeholders worried. Denise Leigh, the owner of The Anime Bar, told Click2Houston “there’s been a fear of this bill, because…it’s so vague.”
Vincent Tran, the Otaku food festival organizer, noted “some Asian body types look more adolescent, and Japan’s otaku culture already has a history with this kind of thing,” adding, “I draw the line at actual porn, but some artists’ work might have to be disallowed at events.”
While these fears are quite founded, the wider speculations about an anime ban in the US are untrue, and if there is any impact, it would be limited to Texas and not across the nation. Some people online seem to have realized this as well, with one Reddit user commenting “Eh it's only in the extreme red state of texas,” and another person on X saying “TX congress trying to ban anime is the disaster movie of the summer I'm here to see. They don't understand the crash out that will take place.”