In recent years, several mangas have been banned in school libraries in conservative districts after receiving complaints from Moms For Liberty.

Assassination Classroom was removed from South Carolina school districts earlier this month due to its violent themes, after having previously been banned in Wisconsin and Florida, while Black Butler and Soul Eater were banned in Texas last year. Also last month Sasaki and Miyano was banned by the Brevard Public School Board in Florida due to sexual themes.

Now, the classic manga Unico has been banned in North Carolina, not due to any sexual content, but due to scenes of animal abuse. The mother who filed the initial complaint complained about a scene wherein a man attacks a cat.

Because of the complaint, district executive director Cameron Whitley ordered the manga removed from the Scholastic Book Fair – in effect removing the title from all schools in the district.

The news might come as a surprise to longtime fans of Unico. The manga was created by the Osamu Tezuka, the creator of Astro Boy. The series is rated appropriate for grades three to seven, which is around the ages of eight to twelve.

There is no graphic violence in it nor any sexual content. It is true that the magical animals are often in danger, but this is no different than classic Disney films such as Bambi or The Lion King.

However, after having won several school board elections in the past two election cycles, Moms For Liberty has increasingly targeted manga of any type in public schools, with some members going so far as to call certain Japanese anime in general satanic.

Initial efforts to ban My Hero Academia as in Tennessee school districts in October were challenged by Democrat-aligned school board members, most of whom lost their re-election campaign on November 5th.