If you tried to buy some adult manga recently, you may have been in for a surprise. On December 10th, Shopify “locked” the webstore for Project-H, the line for Digital Manga Publishing’s hentai manga.
The suspension was confirmed on December 18th.
There was some initial confusion from fans about whether Shopify or Shopify Payments was the one who issued the suspension and why they did so in the first place. Shopify does not ban adult content, but Shopify Payments does. As a “precaution”, Project-H removed the manga Kodomo no Jikan from its store as well as the main site for Digital Manga Publishing (DMP) titles, eManga.
Kodomo no Jikan and Its Many Controversies
Kodomo no Jikan was serialized in a seinen magazine and was originally licensed by Seven Seas, but quickly dropped before any of it could be released. DMP launched a Kickstarter for the series in May 2016, and although rewards were originally planned to be sent out that October, it wasn’t until August 2018 that the series’ digital versions became available. Physical versions of the manga have yet to be sent out to backers, let alone available on other venues, although DMP still plans on releasing copies.
Now whether it was Kodomo no Jikan that got Project-H flagged, even Project-H doesn’t know; all they know is that their site was suspended for violating Shopify’s Acceptable Use Policy. Kodomo no Jikan is still unavailable from eManga as of this writing, but it is available on Project-H’s new webstore. Future problems are supposed to be avoided thanks to its “Steam-style content filtering”.
Obviously, Project-H/DMP was not happy about this whole situation, and many fans weren’t either.
The most common defenses were either a) it’s not really lolicon/hentai or b) no book should be censored.
OK, and?
Profits, Censorship, & Corporations
Shopify, Tumblr, Apple, Google, Sony, Nintendo, and just about every website has their own terms of service. Here’s the blunt truth: almost every web service and provider can put whatever they want in their fine print. You probably don’t realize all what you are agreeing to when you sign up or visit some of the most popular sites on the Web.
Even if violating Terms of Service isn’t illegal, and even if you think it’s unfair, they have users in a Catch-22. Either you have to give up using some of the most popular platforms or agree to some terms that leave a bad taste in your mouth. Lots of sites have been undergoing some heavy revisions as companies try to prevent human exploitation and troll accounts. Defenders will argue that closing these adult sites doesn’t actually do anything, but, again, censorship typically only applies to governments. Businesses have to follow certain rules like not discriminating based on skin color or disabilities, but otherwise, they’re relatively free to set their business model. Most sites do tend to include vague references to “anything deemed offensive”, and they do that precisely so that they can remove anything that attracts what they feel is attracts negative attention or may affect their business model.
Whether Kodomo no Jikan is child porn or not really doesn’t matter. It really only matters to someone(s) in Shopify’s legal and/or monitoring department. Censorship doesn’t mean that private businesses have to host, publish, or otherwise release any type of content someone creates. Again, as long as Shopify isn’t going around preventing DMP/Project-H from finding a new host, they can pretty much kick them off for any reason. Of course, fans are free to put pressure right back on Shopify (or anyone else they deem is blackballing them unfairly), but protests, picketing, and boycotts are often (if not typically) unsuccessful. Or fans could procott Wix, Project-H’s store’s new host if they want.
In the West, particularly America, there are some significant cultural changes going on thanks to events and movements like Obergefell v. Hodges (the gay marriage case) and #MeToo (sexual harassment and assault awareness). It is true that someone could raise an objection about any media, particularly anime and manga since it comes from a country with some very different cultural norms from the West. Dragon Ball has some nudity. Jynx from Pokemon has been recolored purple. Cardcaptor Sakura features a teacher giving his student — a fourth grader — a ring. All these series have found tremendous success outside Japan despite some questionable, unsettling content.
That being said, defenders of Kodomo no Jikan should realize that the series has…shall I say, a higher amount of objectionable content per capita than a normal series. And I doubt most service providers have anxious content readers eager to debate the merits of whether seeing a fictional nine-year-old girl in a compromising situation with her adult teacher is entertainment or disturbing. Whether you like the series or not, it’s going to be something that most people are going to dismiss at a glance, particularly, as some people have said, it’s not hidden or anything.
So for all the hentai fans — or rather, DMP fans who are worried that perhaps eManga may get flagged in the future — I do hope Project-H goes back online for their fix. It’s also good that Kickstarter backers do have their digital copies in case the worst comes to worst and Project-H can’t find a platform that includes Kodomo no Jikan forever.
The next question will be the physical copies. It is likely that DMP will have additional copies left over from printing out the physical versions, and will there be any issues with finding a printer or getting flagged from shipping services. Print versions may also get more attention if some non-Kodomo fans find a copy laying around, and who knows if any future payment providers will raise objections.
If they do, I will feel bad for the people who laid out money and all the other series that are affected by companies suspending Project-H. But no one should be surprised if we hear about yet another Kodomo no Jikan controversy.