Morinaga Milk’s New Manga Faces Issue on BOOTH

BOOTH is a sales platform associated with Pixiv, widely used to sell doujinshi (independent manga) and other illustration and cosplay-related products. Many artists use the platform to sell their creations.

Recently, a well-known author faced an unexpected issue while trying to sell her manga on BOOTH. Mangaka Morinaga Milk, famous for her manga Girlfriends, published in the USA, had to remove the term “elementary school student” from one of her works.

Morinaga Milk’s New Manga Faces Issue on BOOTH

Morinaga Milk recently released a new manga for sale on BOOTH, titled “A December of Fulfilled Wishes”. Like all her works, this is another girls’ love romance.

However, she soon ran into an issue: after putting A December of Fulfilled Wishes up for sale, the platform suspended the manga’s page.

The author herself explained the situation:

“I learned that even in a completely safe book, with no sensual scenes, no erotic suggestions, and not even a kiss, if the word ‘elementary school student’ (‘小学生’) appears in the product description, the sale will be suspended on BOOTH…”

In other words, the phrase “elementary school student” was included in the synopsis of A December of Fulfilled Wishes, as the characters are quite young.

After receiving the suspension notice, she contacted BOOTH‘s support team for clarification. She stated:

“I asked them to point out which images needed to be revised and sent screenshots of all the pages, but their response was that they couldn’t provide that information.”

Many suggested that the issue was with the term “elementary school student”, as Visa and Mastercard have been pressuring Japan to censor specific anime, manga, and game content. BOOTH may have enforced this rule as a precaution to prevent payment issues.

Morinaga Milk shared her thoughts on the situation:

“Yesterday, I was furious at Pixiv and BOOTH, but after reading posts from several people, I started to think that banning the word ‘小学生’ might be a measure to prevent credit card payments from being blocked… If that’s the case, then it makes sense, considering the current situation.”

She concluded by saying that she had always considered BOOTH an amazing platform where she could freely sell her manga, but now she feels hesitant about continuing.

via Você Sabia Anime