In the war between Mushoku Tensei and one of the most popular anime influencers in China, bilibili seemed to side with the former, maybe because it wouldn't be wise for a video streaming site to turn their back on the anime industry. Lex Burner, whose fans got the anime removed from the website by mass reporting it, was punished severely by bilibili despite being one of their most famous users. 

Things have been heating up even more since then, with a vocal group of female bilibili users decrying the company for "tolerating misogynistic and sexually suggestive content" and advertising the already controversial series to general audiences instead of putting it behind an age gate due to its explicit, some say pedophilic content. Apparently, bilibili are banning the accounts of women who speak out against the series, while ignoring men with the same opinions.

But it's not just bilibili users who are pissed off at the way they handled the anime. Cosmetic companies UKISS and Spenny, skincare brand Lin Qingxuan and contact lens vendor Sigo are just a few of the companies who have severed ties and pulled their adverts from the streaming site.

Sanitary napkin brand Sofy also joined the boycott. In a post on social media site Weibo, the company announced they "firmly oppose and strongly condemn any forms of insulting behavior or remarks against women. We respect women and care for them."

Meanwhile, bilibili published a statement of their own: "Respect is the cornerstone of the community and the basic guiding principle for operating bilibili. This includes respect for users, content creators, different genders, various interest groups, cultural circles.” They promise to moderate and remove content on the website that breaches their guideline later this month.

The anime itself is still unavailable due to the aforementioned "technical issues" and it's uncertain that it will even return. Fighting censorship with even more censorship rarely works well, so it'll be interesting to see how this situation plays out.

What do you guys think? Is bilibili digging themselves into an even deeper hole as their sponsors drop like flies? Or will they work their way out of this PR nightmare? Drop your thoughts in the comments section!