While a certain Western country’s highly anticipated elections don’t begin until next year, Japan has a big one coming up on July 21. No, Shinzo Abe isn’t being ousted. However, 124 of the 245 seats in the upper house of Japan’s National Diet are up for grabs. That’s roughly equivalent to the American Congress or British Parliament. With over half the house up for grabs, one currently controlled by the Prime Minister’s conservative Liberal Democratic Party, things could really change in Japan. OTAQUEST isn’t a Japanese political website though, we mainly deal with our favorite pockets of Japanese Pop Culture; we’re not here to tell you about the election. We’re here to tell you about everyone’s favorite card game extraordinaire Yu-Gi-Oh!, as well as Yugi and his signature monsters Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl, telling you to vote.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bz7uNluH-Vk/
Yu-Gi-Oh! series creator Kazuki Takahashi posted the above image to his Instagram earlier today. He was mostly talking about some expensive anniversary box set, but he then took the opportunity to urge fans to vote. He had Yami Yugi and his monster pals express dissatisfaction with the current government, and Takahashi added a quip regarding his personal feelings about the current administration on his account. While many of our readers probably won’t be participating in the upcoming, you may want to save this image when election cycles in your countries begin to roll around.
While I have some mixed feelings about beloved children’s cartoon characters being used for political means, the illustration is pretty neat. I like how since the early days of Yu-Gi-Oh! Takahashi has just made Dark Magician hotter and hotter with every passing illustration. It’s always nice to see a manga artist return to their old characters, giving them stylistic updates and modern touches. Certainly, the world has yet to forget about Yu-Gi-Oh! which is currently on its sixth season. Hopefully, Yugi’s words won’t fall on deaf ears.
The Japanese House Elections are on July 21. Will you commit voter fraud in the name of children’s card games?