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2 Aki Sora Manga Books to No Longer Be Printed After July
posted on by Egan Loo
Manga creator Masahiro Itosugi announced on her Twitter account on Thursday that there will be no more printings of volumes 1 and 3 in her Aki Sora manga after July. She then explained that the biggest problem is their depictions of incest; she emphasized that the reason is not because they are erotically graphic. The manga deals with the taboo relationship between a high school boy named Sora Aoi and his smart, athletic, "perfect" older sister Aki.
The restrictions in Tokyo's recently amended Youth Healthy Development Ordinance go into effect on July 1. The amendment will expand the number of manga and anime that fall under "harmful publications," the legal category of works that must not be sold or rented to people under the age of 18. Erotic material was already restricted before the amendment, but the amended law will also restrict the sales and renting of materials that the Tokyo Metropolitan Government considers "to be excessively disrupting of social order."
Itosugi said that it was not her decision to stop printing these two volumes, but did not elaborate on who decided the matter. She also said that she "probably" cannot release volumes 1 and 3 on Ken Akamatsu's J-Comi service or other forms of electronic publishing.
When asked if these volumes can be released with an adults-only stamp, Itosugi acknowledged that "it is not out of the realm of possibility," but added that these volumes do not meet the criteria for an adults-only stamp. She noted that these volumes do not currently have an adults-only stamp. She also emphasized that she did not intend for them to be adults-only and that this manga would have been a completely different work creatively had she drawn it for an adults-only audience.
Itosugi ended her Aki Sora manga in the 25th volume of Akita Shoten's Champion RED Ichigo magazine on April 5. The manga inspired an anime DVD that was bundled with the limited first edition of the third manga volume in 2009, as well a two-volume video anime last year.
[Via Temple Knights]
Update: Gender pronouns corrected. Thanks, MrTerrorist.
this article has been modified since it was originally posted; see change history