The shadow of censorship has again surprised independent content creators. Fanza, a major digital distribution platform, unexpectedly removed all doujinshis and parody works based on the legendary Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise, affecting both adult publications and all-ages volumes.

Multiple artists and authors in the secondary market reported receiving official notifications about a deep review of the store’s parody content policies. Without any prior warning, the entire catalog of work created by Hideaki Anno was deleted from the sales lists. Curiously, publications from other popular series remain fully intact and available on the portal, confirming that this purge exclusively and surgically targeted the mecha franchise. Competing digital stores continue to distribute these books without issues.

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Although the platform justified the measure under a general update to its parody material policies, it offered no public explanations for why only Evangelion was targeted by this mass block. It’s worth noting that at the end of 2020, the rights-holding studio, Studio Khara, published a voluntary coexistence guide for creators asking them to avoid explicit pornography as a primary goal and unauthorized commercial use.

However, the studio always clarified that this was not a total ban on the doujinshi movement. Therefore, it appears this mass withdrawal stems from an internal self-imposed policy by the digital store, not a direct legal order from the animation studio.

Given that the doujinshi market in Japan has always operated in a gray zone of tolerance from rights holders, do you think this isolated decision will spread to other digital platforms or is it just an exaggerated measure by this store to avoid legal issues?