Earlier this month, fans packed a Guangzhou cinema to see “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba — Infinity Castle,” helping to make the animated feature China’s top-grossing foreign film of the year. Some even came in cosplay, excited to be part of a cultural phenomenon that’s smashing box office records around the world.
But an escalating spat between Japan and China over remarks about Taiwan by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is threatening to derail what was set to be a breakout year for anime in the world’s second-largest cinema market.
The China Film Administration has frozen approvals of new Japanese movie titles, while the release of at least six titles that had previously been approved has been postponed indefinitely. More than 20 performances by Japanese musicians and one comedy group have been canceled. Those came on the heels of Takaichi’s comments suggesting a hypothetical conflict over Taiwan — an island China claims as its own — could pose an existential risk to Japan.
AloJapan.com