Chinese fans of anime series Attack on Titan faced another setback when the Shanghai Film Festival suddenly pulled a screening of the show from their schedule.
This comes shortly after the Chinese Ministry of Culture announced that Attack on Titan – along with other anime and manga titles – was banned from the country, at least in online and print distribution.
According to the Anime News Network, however, the Shanghai Film Festival – which runs from June 13 through June 21 – previously viewed and approved the anime's screening. It's therefore unclear whether the sudden change in schedule has anything to do with the Ministry of Culture's blacklist.
The blacklist, released on Monday, includes many other popular anime and manga series, including Highschool of the Dead, Sword Art Online II, Devil May Cry, Death Note and Black Butler. The country previously banned other anime and manga series such as Sailor Moon and Naruto from being shown online or in publication.
China has a strict low-tolerance policy for Japanese anime, particularly material that features violence or sexual situations. In April, the country began enforcing new laws that force websites to get government approval before showing any content made in other countries. China also began blacklisting anything that it considered violent, pornographic, related to terrorism or including scenes with "crimes against public morality."
Attack on Titan tells a story of the last of mankind, who are forced to live in walled cities that protect them from giants called Titans, who want to eat them. Its screening at the film festival was part of "Japanese Film Week."
The film festival has also had a slew of other concerns. Several festival participants from South Korea received notices to stay at home because of a fear of spreading the MERS virus. So far, nine people have died from MERS in South Korea, with around 3,000 quarantined there.
"They sent an email to us about the MERS virus and suggesting to us that we not come to Shanghai," said Tae Eun-Kwon of the Korean Film Council to The L.A. Times. "We were kind of confused."
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