China Bans 'Darling in the Franxx' And More Anime

Studio Trigger and A-1 Pictures' new anime project this season, DARLING in the FRANXX, is garnering a lot of attention from fans and critics alike. But a lot of that attention is geared toward its suggestive situations.

Those suggestive situations have proved to be too tough for China, as they have banned the show from one streaming site along with another series, Slow Start.

Darling in the FranXX and Slow Start are now banned in China from r/anime

According to a posting on Chinese social media (as spotted on Reddit), DARLING in the FRANXX and Slow Start have been removed from their streaming sites. Although there is no concrete detail given as to why, but it is inferred (given evidence from Chinese users on Reddit) that it was removed for its suggestive content.

This also makes sense considering the revelation in a recent episode that in order to pilot the series' titular Franxx mechs, a boy must grab his female partner's rear end to use the controls.

As for Slow Start's banned status, the premise of the series doesn't allude to any suggestive things (as the main character fails an exam due to mumps and ends up making friends with girls a year younger while hiding her age), the girls do end up in suggestive situations that could be deemed as something worth banning.

If you're interested in the series, it's currently streaming on both Crunchyroll and FunimationNOW. Crunchyroll describes DARLING in the FRANXX as:

"The distant future: Humanity established the mobile fort city, Plantation, upon the ruined wasteland and civilization flourished. Within the city were pilot quarters called Mistilteinn, otherwise known as the "Birdcage." That is where the children live... Not knowing anything of the outside world, and unaware of the vast sky. Their only mission in life was the fight.

Their enemies are the mysterious giant organisms known as Kyoryu. The children operate robots known as FRANXX in order to face these still unseen enemies because they believe that is their purpose in life. Among them was a boy who was once called a child prodigy: Code number 016, Hiro. However, now he's a failure and considered unneeded. Those who cannot pilot FRANXX basically do not exist. One day, a mysterious girl called Zero Two appears in front of Hiro. From her face grew two alluring horns."

Developed by Studio Trigger and A-1 Pictures, the show focuses on pairs of children who each get their own mech to pilot, the titular Woman shaped mechs the "Franxx." Atsushi Nishigori (character designer for Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann) is set to direct the series with Toshifumi Akai (animation director for Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic) as assistant director and Masayoshi Tanaka (anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day) is designing the characters. Shigeto Koyama (Michiko and Hatchin) will provide mechanical designs, and Hiroyuki Imaishi (Gurren Lagann, Kill la Kill) is supervising the action.

As a bonus, Mika Nakashima and L'Arc en Ciel's Hyde are collaborating on the opening theme song "Kiss of Death," and the creator of Black Cat and To Love Ru, Kentaro Yabuki launched a manga adaptation of the series January 14.