Texas Bill Threatens to Ban Beloved Anime and Video Games!

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A Texas bill that was unanimously passed by state Senators will, if it gets instated as actual law, will criminalize the possession of any material depicting a minor in “obscene” ways.

As a devoted admirer, I must mention that Senate Bill 20 primarily focuses on the utilization of AI in generating such content, specifically cartoons and animations, which is something I find truly fascinating!

In some cases, well-known anime, manga, and video games feature content that might raise concerns among Texas lawmakers. This means that several widely beloved anime and manga series could potentially face consequences due to these officials’ opinions about specific titles.

Since numerous narratives revolve around teenagers, any content featuring underage characters in a manner that Texas law classifies as “obscene” could lead to being charged with a felony.

Texas bill could make several popular series illegal

Senate Bill 20 is intended to be rolled out as an amendment to Chapter 43 of Texas’ penal code, with the section reading as follows:

“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.”

To clarify, the actions outlined in Section 43.21(a)(1)(B) can be open to varying interpretations due to their design. While they detail actions generally viewed as offensive by many, the term “obscene” is defined ambiguously here: it stops at this point.

“[Material or a performance that] taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, and scientific value”.

Things get murky when this is applied to a game series like Persona. Aside from story arcs that center around the sexual exploitation of minors present in both the fourth and fifth entries in the series, Persona also has dating sim mechanics that see the characters getting into romantic relationships. Many of these characters are under the age of 18.

Even if the Persona series doesn’t show any of the explicit material listed in Section 43.21 related to minors, dating mechanics are a core part of the story for both games. There’s a chance that, depending how Texas interpreted this bill if it were to be signed into law, owning one of these Persona games could be a felony in the state.

Many well-known anime and manga series often feature high school characters in ways that might be seen as having sexual undertones. Shows like Kill la Kill, Gurren Lagann, the Monogatari series, and Bleach are instances of this trend.

Despite its immense popularity, the anime and manga series “Bleach” includes elements that sexualize high school-aged female characters in some of its earlier episodes. One of the main characters is Yoko Littner, a 14-year-old girl who frequently appears wearing a bikini top.

The Monogatari series is on a different level than these examples, though, with a 1000+ year old vampire being depicted as an young child in both the original light novels and anime adaptation. The main character, Araragi is regularly seen engaging in erotic acts with underage women, or women who look like children but are above the age of 18 for plot reasons.

As a devoted fan, I can’t help but notice that characters from shows like Monogatari, which is just one of many popular examples, often find themselves deeply impacted by such legislations. It’s fascinating to see how numerous anime series, numbering in the dozens, are constructed in a similar manner.

It’s worth mentioning, however, that the bill being unanimously passed by state Senators doesn’t necessarily mean it will get signed into law just yet. Although, it does make it a lot more likely.

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2025-03-16 19:21