Caressing the Nipples of My Hibernating Bear, a potentially controversial erotic manga, will see its anime adaptation air online before it's shown on television in Japan.

A special before the official premiere will air online via the AnimeFesta service on June 26, 2022. The series will include exclusive explicit scenes only available online. The anime will then air on July 3rd on both Tokyo MX and BS11. AnimeFesta released several key visuals for the anime as well as announced that the voice cast of the drama CD released for the manga would be returning for the adaptation.

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While anime studios are no strangers to adapting potentially controversial material, it's particularly surprising that Caressing the Nipples of My Hibernating Bear was chosen for a televised adaptation. The boys love manga — commonly known as yaoi — features the story of a bear named Nowa who finds a puppy named Airi and decides to raise him like a son. After skipping hibernation for several years to help the young child, he eventually is forced to sleep. When he wakes up, Airi has grown up and is now interested in a full romantic and sexual relationship with his previous father figure. Another of the main characters, a civet cat named Kō, also encourages their relationship within the story.

The problematic pseudo incestuous elements of the story are not exactly new in the world of manga and anime. The infamous ending to Usagi Drop, a series that primarily focuses on an adoptive father raising his daughter, ends with her asking him to have his baby. The series was originally highly recommended to many fans for its realistic depiction of a father-daughter relationship before the sudden twist at the end. The anime adaptation is often considered superior to the manga for choosing to not include this polarizing ending. The sequel series to Inu Yasha has also been criticized for Sesshomaru having children with his adoptive daughter Rin who was introduced at age nine in the main series.

As fierce discussions surrounding manga censorship mount around the world, it will be interesting to see if such controversial stories will continue to be told or chosen for anime adaptations. Some say that imposing foreign standards and cultural expectations on Japanese media is wrong. Stories with similar themes have been told in Japan since the 11th century, with the work The Tale of Genji being a particularly notable example of a father eventually marrying an adopted child he raised. Others would argue that these stories normalize incestuous relationships and could cause societal harm.

Currently, several Liberal Democratic Party members in Japan have been campaigning on fighting for artistic freedom of expression within the anime and manga industry. This comes at a time in the country when a petition to amend the Child Prostitution and Child Pornography Prohibition Act to include depictions of children has become a major talking point.

Caressing the Nipples of My Hibernating Bear is currently published by Suiseisha in Japan. Its English release is available digitally through Coolmic.

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Source: Anime Festa Twitter