You simply can’t make this stuff up.
Anime NYC has posted on their rules page that they’re going to enforce a ban on cosplay that promotes “hate groups” and “fascism” — even purely fictitious organizations. One of the anime that is strictly forbidden to cosplay as? Tanya the Evil.
And what was the official Anime NYC account promoting on Twitter just a couple of days ago? Tanya the Evil.
Naturally, some anime fans were eager to point out their hypocrisy.
Also forbidden from cosplay at Anime NYC? Real or fictitious “hate groups” including characters from Hellsing, Indiana Jones and even Captain America. That’s right — you can’t even cosplay as the Red Skull or a Hydra agent.
While a ban on explicitly Nazi cosplay might make sense in today’s political climate, I can’t for the life of me understand why they’d ban something like Tanya the Evil. The anime doesn’t even feature Nazis — it takes place in an alternate World War I.
So what else does the ban cover? There’s that mysterious “etc.,” after all. What if you wanted to cosplay as Cobra Commander? He hates the Joes and America. Is Cobra considered a “hate group?”
This is utterly ridiculous, and it leads into a bigger issue.
This is just another example of how overly-sensitive and easily offended the anime scene has become of late.
There seems to be an effort to turn anime into a kinder, gentler shell of itself. Blogs like Syfy Wire have been decrying “fascist” imagery in anime for months now, and other “geek” blogs have been taking shots at anime like The Rising of the Shield Hero and Goblin Slayer.
And many of the companies that control the American dubbed anime scene (most notably Crunchyroll and Funimation) have been accused by some anime fans of going too far left politically as of late.
Given that Anime NYC works closely with the likes of Crunchyroll, it’s no real surprise that they’d ban anything that could even remotely be mistaken for a Nazi uniform by someone who is likely both poorly educated and easily triggered.
Even if the cosplay ban overreaches and explicitly includes popular anime characters that they otherwise promote.
Dumb.
Anyway, check out more of our thoughts in the video below.
[Hat Tip: One Angry Gamer]
