The Hindu U.S Statesman and also the President Of Universal Society of Hinduism, Rajan Zed, gave a statement in Nevada urging Netflix to stop the streaming of the Record Of Ragnarok II anime. According to Rajan, the anime has a poor depiction of Lord Shiva who is the creator and destroyer God in Hinduism.

He stated that, “Lord Shiva was meant to be worshipped in temples and home shrines and not to be thrown around loosely or dragged around unnecessarily in anime TV series for mercantile greed.“

“Hindu gods and goddesses were divine and entertainment companies were welcome to create projects about/around them showing their true depiction as mentioned in the Hindu scriptures. Inappropriately reimagining Hindu deities/concepts/scriptures/symbols/icons and redefining Hinduism for commercial or other agenda was not okay as it hurt the feelings of devotees,” continued Rajan.

Rajan reached out to Netflix CEOs Reed Hastings and Ted Sarandos to look into this matter before the release of Record Of Ragnarok II.

Rajan further mentioned that, “Hindus were for free artistic expression and speech as much as anybody else if not more. But faith was something sacred and attempts at trivializing it displayed callousness towards the feelings of adherents.“

He also raised concerns over hurting the sentiments of Hindu’s, misrepresentation, and that the birth of confusion due to limited knowledge of non-Hindu viewers on Hinduism could send out a wrong message to them.

Such insensitive handling of traditions and faith could lead to disrespecting and ransacking of spiritual documents and symbols, said Rajan.

Previously, the season 1 of the Record of Ragnarok anime was removed from Netflix India for the same issue.

The first season of the anime was directed by Masao Ookubo at Graphinica studio. Okubo said that the staff was working hard to create an anime that will be enjoyed by everyone.

Record of Ragnarok (Shumatsu no Valkyrie) is a manga written by Shinya Umemura and Takumi Fukui and illustrated by Ajichika. It began serialization in Coamix’s seinen manga magazine Monthly Comic Zenon in November 2017.

The opening song “Kamigami” was performed by Maximum The Hormone. Meanwhile, the ending theme song “Fukahi” was performed by SymaG.

An original net animation by Graphinica aired on Netflix in 2021.

Warner Bros. Japan describes the anime as:

7 million Years of Human Civilization is coming to an end…

Every 1000 years, all the Gods of the world gather in heaven to attend the “Conference of Mankind Survival”.
All the Gods agree to bring an ultimate end to the mankind due to their past foolish acts but before the final verdict is made, Brunhild, the eldest of the 13 Valkyrie sisters make and objection.

“To spice things up, why donʼt you test humans?”

Her proposal was to have God vs Humanityʼs final struggle also known as the “Ragnarok”, where all the Gods from the world and champions from the entire human history enters 1 on 1 battle. The first team to win 7 battles out of 13 will be the winner.

It seems almost impossible for the humans to win against the Gods.
Although Gods sneer at them, Brunhild makes further provocation;

“Are you chickening out?”

That touches Godsʼ nerves and they accept her proposal in anger.
Therefore, Brunhild and her sisters must choose 13 of the strongest champions throughout the human history.

Will humans surpass Gods and make an stop to the ultimate end?

Source: Rajan Zed Official Website