September 09, 2025

Manga Library Fined as "Destructive"


Manga Library Fined as "Destructive"
Manga Library Immanuel Giel, Wikimedia Commons

Mangalib, a Russian online manga library, has been heavily fined by Moscow’s Tagansky District Court for violating Russia’s expansive ban of “LGBT propaganda.” Mangalib was targeted for seven specific comics in their library, incurring fines totaling R14 million (around $170,000).

Mediazona reported that Mangalib Project Manager Ivan Kvast had accumulated personal fines totaling one million rubles ($12,3000) for related offenses prior to this major fine. The website had taken steps earlier in the summer to regulate content, introducing a complaince mechanism through which users could report “propaganda.” But Mangalib’s library of work is user-uploaded, making total regulation a difficult process.

Russia’s media and internet censorship agency, Roskomnadzor, listed the titles of the seven comics it found to be problematic, along with the reasoning behind their censorship. Among the works was “Banana Fish,” an extremely popular series serialized from 1985-1994 and considered influential in the depiction of male homosexuality in manga. The comic features a central relationship between two male characters, which is never explicitly romantic but commonly accepted as homoerotic. This relationship is stated as the reason for the fine.

Also among the comics cited as dangerous is one without any homosexual themes at all. The comic “Fujoshi Haru-chan wa Osake Suki” was penalized for its cover art, which Roskomnador states is depicting two men positioned as if about to kiss. In court, this claim was actively disputed, as one of the aforementioned characters was female. This manga still elicited a fine.

Since being fined, Mangalib has begun to strengthen its regulation measures. It is as yet unclear how effective such measures are or will be. The most popular manga currently in Mangalib’s library is “One Piece,” a work of over 100 volumes which, in its vast history, has featured characters with canonical transgender identities, as well as characters considered queer-coded. With Russia’s censorship regulations often both stringent and arbitrary, Mangalib and other online libraries will likely continue to face significant penalties.  

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