Pop Team Epic Season 2 Gets Hit by Chinese Censors

November 10, 2022, 11:05am

Pop Team Epic is easily one of the wildest shows in anime, and the series returned to television this fall with season two. Of course, fans were ready for the show to push boundaries, and it did so right out the gate just as season one did. And now, it seems like censors in China have edited part of Pop Team Epic that no one saw coming.

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The whole thing came to light over on Bilbilli, one of the biggest social media sites in China. It was there fans began sharing stills from Pop Team Epic as many noticed something was off with a scene in particular. As you can see below, censors chose to mark out countries on a globe to prevent any borders from being shown.

Why Was This Censored?

As for why this scene was censored, well – no official explanation was given. However, it is not hard to put the pieces together. The scene was censored because of the globe, and its countries were removed entirely. This is likely due to China’s well-known territory disputes throughout Asia. So rather than erase the disputed countries, censors chose to blue out the globe entirely.

When it comes to which countries sparked this edit, Taiwan is one of the first that comes to mind. The island nation has long claimed freedom from China though the mainland government still considers Taiwan part of its territory. Other dispute nations with China include Vietnam, the Philippines, India, Japan, Malaysia, and more. Even North Korea is included in the list as the nation shares territory with China along the Yalu River.

If you want to see Pop Team Epic as it was made, fans in the United States can catch the series on Crunchyroll and Netflix. Season two went live earlier this fall, and new episodes are simulcasted weekly stateside.

What do you think about this latest bout of anime censorship? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB.