Record of Ragnarok has joined Netflix’s growing list of anime adaptations – here’s why anime has been banned from streaming in India.
Ragnarok Record has joined Netflix’s growing list of anime adaptations, but why has the series been banned in India? The anime’s depiction of one of Hinduism’s leading deities has sparked a huge backlash against the series and ultimately caused it to be removed from the Indian version of the streaming platform.
Ragnarok Record is a Netflix anime adaptation of a manga of the same name. The series surrounds a pantheon of gods of the world who will decide the destiny of humanity. When the gods consider ending humanity, they instead decide to give humanity a chance to fight for their survival in the battle of Ragnarok. With the help of the Valkyries, 13 of humanity’s most notable humans will fight 13 of the most powerful gods in a duel to the death; If 7 humans win, humanity will be saved. Some of the humans chosen to represent humanity include figures such as Adam, Buddha, and Jack the Ripper, while the list of gods included deities such as Zeus, Loki, and Shiva.
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In October 2020, Rajan Zed, President of the Universal Society of Hinduism, published a statement asking the creators of the Ragnarok Record manga to end its trivialization of Lord Shiva and other Hindu deities. Zed fears that these depictions may create a misconception about deities for those unfamiliar with the Hindu religion. Zed has previously made similar statements against other media outlets, such as X: Men: Apocalypse – for its representations of Hindu deities. While Zed was never able to stop the production of the manga, Ragnarok Record He is now banned from streaming on Netflix in India due to his portrayal of Shiva the Destroyer.
Shiva is a deity of the Hindu religion. As one of the major Hindu deities, Shiva is one-third of the triumvirate – the three gods responsible for the creation, maintenance, and destruction of the world. Brahma is the creator of the world and Vishnu is the preserver of the world. Shiva is known as the “Destroyer”, whose purpose is to destroy the world to allow it to be recreated. Destruction is not malicious, but allows constructive growth. Shiva is seen as the balance between good and evil. He is often depicted with a blue face and a third eye that allows him to look inward, but also causes destruction if the eye is turned outward.
There is much controversy surrounding Shiva’s description in Ragnarok Record. In the anime, Shiva is portrayed as a brutal fighter on the level of Thor and Zeus: Shiva’s battles in Ragnarok directly conflict with the common portrayal of him in Hinduism. A clip of Shiva’s angry face, featuring five eyes in total, sparked particular ire before it was removed from the Netflix trailer. Hinduism is severely underrepresented in popular media compared to its number of followers, which means that a false representation could be considered harmful and create misconceptions about religion. India is primarily Hindu: 94% of the world’s Hindus live in India, according to the Pew Research Center. As long as Shiva remains in the anime, it is likely Ragnarok Record it will continue to be banned in India.
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