American non-profit organization Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF) provides legal and educational resources to protect the freedom to read comics, and has a history of supporting manga and its readers, notably in a 2008 obscenity case against a collector in Iowa and a 2011 case where an American faced prison in Canada for entering the country with Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha doujinshi on his laptop. Now, they are defending a middle school library's right to carry Sword Art Online manga.

They explain the case:

CBLDF this week took the lead in defending the manga volume Sword Art Online 1: Aincrad after it was challenged at a middle school in Jerome, Idaho. Following receipt of a letter from CBLDF and other members of the NCAC’s Kids’ Right to Read Project, a review committee yesterday unanimously voted to recommend that the book remain in the Jerome Middle School library. The Jerome School District Board of Trustees will make a final decision on the book’s fate.

Sword Art Online: Aincrad, the first volume in a manga series by Reki Kawahara, was challenged by a Jerome Middle School teacher on behalf of a student who found both language and drawings in the book to be “inappropriate.” The images that perturbed the student were apparently “a female character wearing underwear and sharing a bed with a male character.”

CBLDF and other members of the NCAC’s Kids’ Right to Read Project offered a letter supporting carrying the book in the library and explaining that, as dozens of students have checked the book out from the library this school year, review committee members should not prioritize one student’s objections over the freedom of other students to read what they want.

An update reports that the Jerome Middle School review committee that convened on Monday to discuss the future of Sword Art Online: Aincrad in the school library has voted to retain the book.

NCAC's letter can be read here.

-----

Scott Green is editor and reporter for anime and manga at geek entertainment site Ain't It Cool News. Follow him on Twitter at @aicnanime.