Attack on Titan and other manga named in record US school book bans
PEN America says manga including Attack on Titan, Tokyo Ghoul and Dragon Ball Z were among the works caught in a record wave of US school book bans.
Attack on Titan, Tokyo Ghoul and Dragon Ball Z are among the manga named in PEN America’s latest index of US school book bans. The organisation recorded 11,982 book bans during the 2025–2026 school year, affecting 7,370 unique titles and the work of more than 4,000 authors, illustrators and translators. 1 2
Which manga were affected
PEN America’s figures, as reported by CBR, identify Attack on Titan, Tokyo Ghoul, Soul Eater, Inuyasha, Assassination Classroom and Dragon Ball Z among the manga series caught in the latest wave. The list also includes Fire Force and Ranma 1/2. 1 2
The report’s creator-level figures place Atsushi Ohkubo, Hajime Isayama and Rumiko Takahashi among the 10 most-banned authors overall in US public schools during the academic year. CBR reports 106 bans for Ohkubo, 89 for Isayama and 63 for Takahashi. 1
The restrictions concern access to books in public-school libraries, not a nationwide ban on buying or selling the manga. Texas recorded 8,193 bans and Florida 3,212, according to the report. PEN America says manga is especially vulnerable to what it calls “context stripping”: isolating panels showing violence, sexuality or gender identity without considering the surrounding story. 2
The organisation also points to new state legislation, organised political pressure and the use of artificial-intelligence tools to evaluate books as factors in the increase. 2
Our opinion
The numbers matter because they show how a single challenge can reach far beyond one volume. A series such as Attack on Titan can be treated as a single problem even though its themes, tone and content develop across dozens of books. That makes panel-by-panel or title-by-title decisions especially important.
This is not an argument that schools must ignore age suitability. It is an argument for transparent, evidence-led decisions rather than treating a familiar franchise name as a shortcut. Manga’s popularity with younger readers makes the quality of those decisions more important, not less.