According to The Moscow Times, on January 20, 2021, Russia issued a ban on several popular anime series. Among those series are Death Note, Tokyo Ghoul, and Inuyashiki. It all happened over claims that Russian teens are reenacting violent scenes from the shows. What’s more, state prosecutors are asking the court in St. Petersburg to ban Naruto, Elfen Lied, and Interspecies Reviewers.
“Every episode contains cruelty, murder, violence”, said the St. Petersburg court system back on December 18, 2020. It was during the announcement that it had registered five lawsuits against 49 websites. Death Note and Inuyashiki anime received a ban from distribution in Russia on two websites, while Tokyo Ghoul was banned on one website, according to the court system. The state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported that the ban affects only the listed web addresses.
The court kept hearing arguments over the three aforementioned shows as well as popular Russian rapper Morgenstern’s meme-based song titled “I Ate Grandpa”.
Russian parents started the campaign to ban Death Note back in 2013 after a 15-year-old girl with a collection of Death Note manga committed suicide. This year, however, St. Petersburg media reported that a teenage fan of Death Note had fallen out of the window. He was wearing a white dress shirt and red tie that looked like a main protagonist’s cosplay.
Source: The Moscow Times
