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A Tennessee school district’s decision to ban numerous manga titles as part of a larger purge of nearly 400 books has drawn comparisons to 1930s Germany, where books were systematically banned and burned under the Nazi regime.

The move has ignited debates over censorship, free speech, and the interpretation of Tennessee’s “age-appropriate” school library law.

The banned list includes iconic manga titles such as Gege Akutami’s Jujutsu Kaisen, Hajime Isayama’s Attack on Titan, and Kohei Horikoshi’s My Hero Academia: Vigilantes.

Additional titles, including Rumiko Takahashi’s Inuyasha, Sui Ishida’s Tokyo Ghoul, and Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira, were also removed.

Interestingly, many of these books were removed from high school libraries across Wilson County.

The Wilson County Schools initiated the removal last month, and neighboring districts, including Clarksville-Montgomery County Schools and Rutherford County Schools, are now reviewing their collections based on the same list.

Rutherford County...

Romance anime, regardless of whether it is in the movie format or as a proper anime, is always loved by fans. From A Silent Voice to The Apothecary Diaries, there is an unlimited array of content available. Something for everyone, especially when it comes to the genre. It is not just limited to Shoujo but at times even Shonen. This gets fans of every preference hooked onto something or the other.

A Silent Voice | Credit: Kyoto Animation

Out of all the most memorable ones, some stand on a pedestal. Your Lie in April, I Want to Eat Your Pancreas, Sasaki and Miyano, the list is endless and the praise is even more expanded. However, it is not unnatural to see fans pit one against the other, especially in two cases; if they are blanketed in flaws or if they are extremely hyped.

A Silent Voice vs Your Name

The immense...

In a controversial decision, the Brevard County School Board has banned the popular Japanese manga Sasaki & Miyano, Vol. 1 from its district libraries, despite the book’s content not violating state statutes.

The decision came after a brief discussion at the board’s meeting on Aug 27, 2024, where the relationship depicted in the manga and its unconventional format were cited as reasons for its removal.

During the board meeting, Chair Megan Wright stated that while Sasaki & Miyano did not explicitly violate House Bill 1069, which restricts certain graphic depictions and other content in school materials, she still found the content inappropriate for students.

Wright specifically highlighted the manga’s focus on a romantic relationship between two male characters as inappropriate, although she insisted that the relationship itself was not the reason for the book’s removal.

She also questioned the way the book was read ‘backwards’ when kids should be reading books from left to right,...

Studio Deen's Boy's Love film, Sasaki and Miyano: Graduation is coming to Crunchyroll later this month.

Sasaki and Miyano's first cinematic entry, which chronicles the titular character's emotional departure from high school, debuted in Japanese theaters earlier this year. The anime streaming service Crunchyroll recently announced that the film will become available to stream starting Sept. 28 at 5:00 Pm Pt in all major territories besides Asia. To commemorate the upcoming release, Crunchyroll also revealed an English-subbed trailer for the film on its official YouTube channel.

Related: Best Romance Anime On Amazon Prime

Sasaki and Miyano's first theatrical installment features the same creative team as the anime series. Shinji Ishihira (Fairy Tail) and Yoshiko Nakamura resumed their respective roles as Director and Scriptwriter. Masaki Mayuzumi and Makii Fujii returned to their respective roles as Art Director and Character Designer. Miracle Chimpanzee, which performs Sasaki and Miyano's opening theme, also provides the theme song for Graduation.

Pride Month is celebrated for the entire month of June and what better way to commemorate all things queer than by diving into the most recent Boys Love anime titled Sasaki and Miyano, a series that depicts the queer experience from a new and refreshing angle. Following the lives of high school students Sasaki (Yusuke Shirai) and Miyano (Soma Saito) and their friends, the anime casts a light on the tricky path that adolescents tread towards identifying new feelings. But as much as the series focuses on the growing closeness between Sasaki and Miyano, the anime also emphasizes the importance of discovering yourself at your own pace. Yes, there are many traditional Boys Love tropes threaded throughout this series, including the slow-burning nature of Sasaki and Miyano’s relationship, who each fall into those classic Shojo stereotypes where one is more confident and outspoken, and the other is flustered and shy.

Yen Press, LLC announced the publication of Hirano and Kagiura. This manga is the highly anticipated spin-off to the popular boys’ love series Sasaki and Miyano. The series features two lovable side characters who now have a story of their own! This announcement comes following the publication of the fifth volume of Sasaki and Miyano and the finale of its beloved anime adaptation, which left fans hungry for more. The first volume of Hirano and Kagiura is scheduled to release in October 2022.

Hirano and Kagiura

Story and Art by Shou Harusono

Basketball players. Bad boys who aren’t really bad boys. Roommates. Senpai-kouhai Bl romance. It all started when Kagiura moved into the school dorms with what seemed to be a bad-boy upperclassman. But after he’s left in the tender care of his mother hen of a roommate, Hirano, it’s too much to ask for Kagiura not to fall in love…...