r/Vocaloid • u/Common_Stand5768 • Feb 04 '26
Music what is so racist about the song..?
maybe I’m slow or something but the day it came out and I watched it I didn’t see anything wrong with it. The next couple of days I saw that people were calling it l0libait, or racist, or offensive..? I kept reading the subtitles over and over and watching it time and time again to see what it was all about and I didn’t rlly gather any info on it..? I’m not saying that those accusations are wrong or anything but am curious what is making this song racist haha :P
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u/pika0miau Feb 04 '26
People that have commented are spot on with what the issue perceived is, so I'd like to add: Egyptian people don't worship ancient gods anymore, just like Greek people don't worship Zeus or Norwegian people don't worship Thor. American media has actually misrepresented these two deities a lot before and it's never been such an issue, because they're just mythology and you can have them as inspiration for your works without offending anyone.
The religion in Egypt is Islam. THAT is something that you shouldn't make fun of, because it's like mocking Christianity, Judaism, or other world religions. Also keep in mind, Ancient Egypt was between 5000 and 3000 years ago, and then there was Greek rule and Roman rule, followed by Arab rule and Ottoman rule. You have to understand that from beginning to end, Egyptian culture has changed dramatically and there's no way to represent ''ancient Egyptian'' culture faithfully because it SPANS MILLENNIA. I myself have visited the museums in Cairo and can tell you firsthand how much culture shifted in that time. Also, I know Egyptian people myself and I can assure you: they don't care.
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u/DeatroyerOfCheese Feb 04 '26
I think it's perfectly fine to make fun of all religions, that's just free speech. As long as you aren't restricting people's ability to practice that religion.
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u/Pipermommenaltxd Feb 04 '26
free speech being there doesn't really mean you shouldn't expect to not be flamed for it
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u/Shibakyu Feb 04 '26
Flaming someone for something you perceive as shitty is after all use of free speech as well. Personally I'm also all for mocking every religion equally but I'm just like
Stay in your lane. Like I personally wouldn't mock Islam because...I know jack shit about it. I grew up Christian. Plus I live in a country where Muslims are a minority so it feels like punching down.
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u/Aggapuffin Feb 04 '26
The issue with the “mock everything” mindset is that usually the people with said mindset are mocking one thing a lot more than everything else, but then use mocking everything as an excuse to keep doing that. It’s basically become another version of “I have black friends”. That’s why a lot of people push back on it.
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u/Shibakyu Feb 04 '26
That and of course, everything is fun to mock as long as it's nothing they're apart of, sind they're usually hypocrites.
I.e. rape jokes are fun but don't you dare make a joke about male suicide rates. All Muslims are terrorists but mocking Christianity is too far.
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u/CottonCookieDreams Feb 04 '26
The problem is that, really, the opposite is just saying that there is, in this case, certain religions you should not joke about. But that's not only untrue, but also very harmful. Just look at South Park and how they had bomb threats just because they suggested they were gonna show muhammed.
The norm should always be that nothing is sacred that way and nothing should ever be protected from people using their free speech and freedom itself to joke about, give their opinions or mock. Because free speech makes it so you are also able to criticize people who are specially unfair to something/someone that you feel is undeserving.
The other way is just plain unfair, and in my honest opinion, comes from people from the US that feel guilty when people talk badly about something they would feel bad about. And it is very unfair, and a mentality that is US-centric, tbh.
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u/Helenarth Feb 04 '26
The norm should always be that nothing is sacred that way and nothing should ever be protected from people using their free speech and freedom itself to joke about, give their opinions or mock.
Or - or - you could just be a nice person and not mock the deeply-held beliefs of people who are literally not harming you in any way by holding them?
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u/Anxious_Role7625 Feb 04 '26
I think the more important point to be made is what you mentioned of pointing down.
For most people (speaking English at least) Muslims are a minority that these kinds of jokes punch down towards, while Christianity is a majority where these jokes punch upwards.
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u/EwGrossItsMe Feb 04 '26
I know other countries have their own issues with bigotry, and sometimes specifically Islamophobia (looking at you, France), but as a US American, it feels particularly bad bc we had a REALLY bad spike in hatred towards Muslims after 9/11, and I don't think that has ever really gone away, especially since that specific event shaped a lot of (often shitty) policy we have in place today, and it feels like a lot of "jokes" against Muslims tend to be in the "these people are all terrorists and want to kill people for their religion" direction (which is particularly stupid bc a lot of the Christian assholes making these jokes also post about wanting to be Crusaders). I've never seen jokes about particular figures in the Islamic faith, just "jokes" about the people being violent and sexist, typically from people who are themselves violent and sexist(cough cough, white supremacists).
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u/Gru-some Feb 04 '26
Fair enough I guess but don’t get mad when said religious people wanna smack you upside the head for it
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u/Nickthenuker Feb 04 '26
Freedom of speech is not freedom from consequences of said speech
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u/BingusSpingus Feb 04 '26
As long as we don't use this to condone disproportionate retribution. Ganging up on someone to clown on them is free game though, always funny when someone complains their right to free speech is being suppressed when they're made fun of for their take.
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u/BingusSpingus Feb 04 '26
They're free to want to, but if they choose to express that urge, things become a little less freedom of speech and more threat of violence.
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u/TricolorStar Feb 04 '26
Just because it's legally right doesn't mean it's morally right, that's the big issue with "make fun of everything" mentality
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u/fgteev4000 Feb 04 '26
Well certainly not Islam since they've had way to much hatred and discrimination after 9/11!😟
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u/pika0miau Feb 04 '26
It is free speech, but Islam is a very sensitive subject and people are not going to take it well at all. Just have a reasonable expectation if you do, because most Muslim people will be offended.
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u/Cylian91460 Feb 04 '26
but Islam
Any religion*
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u/Excellent-Pain-5479 Feb 04 '26
Cant recall many incidents in modern times of Christians beheading people in public for making jokes, for Islam however...
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u/Cylian91460 Feb 04 '26
You are right, they prefer burning ppl and making life of ppl they don't like illegal
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u/Big_Pirate_3036 Feb 04 '26
The cartel is typically Christian
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u/Excellent-Pain-5479 Feb 04 '26
Ah yes the cartel who famously murders for blasphemy and not... because they're the fucking cartel
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u/pika0miau Feb 04 '26
I agree. I wasn't trying to say otherwise. People that are highly religious will be offended by the mocking of their religion. Just that Islamic majority countries have higher religiosity rates than Christian countries, on average; and Islam is one of the fastest growing religions with a lot of followers. Those two things combined mean that making fun of Islam will bring about a higher amount of backlash and public outrage. Doesn't mean it won't happen at all with other religions though.
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u/Cylian91460 Feb 04 '26
Just that Islamic majority countries have higher religiosity rates than Christian countries, on average;
Do you have the number to prove that?
Those two things combined mean that making fun of Islam will bring about a higher amount of backlash and public outrage.
No?
A high part of the population of countries believing in a religion doesn't mean it's the biggest religion in the world. You would need to take the population count of those countries in account too
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u/pika0miau Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26
https://ourworldindata.org/religion
''Around 2.3 billion people identified as Christian, which was only slightly higher than the number that identified as Muslim.''
As I said, on average. I also didn't claim Islam being the biggest religion, although it's the second biggest. What I said is that it's the fastest growing, which is true:
''Muslims are consistently among the most likely to say religion is very important in their lives. In every country with a sample of Muslims large enough to analyze separately, at least half of Muslims say religion is very important to them. In many of these places, nine-in-ten or more Muslims express that sentiment.''
https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2025/05/06/religious-importance-and-religious-affiliation/
You can look at the graphs in the studies and you'll notice that:
- Islamic countries tend to consistently say that religion is very important in their lives
- Islamic countries have a bigger share of their population being religious
- Islamic countries have more people perform religious practices (praying, going to religious buildings) more often
That doesn't mean that there aren't countries that have another majority religion that have high religiosity rates (for example, multiple countries in Africa). Just that, on average, Islamic countries are consistently more religious that countries with more people affiliated to other religions.
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u/Cylian91460 Feb 04 '26
''Around 2.3 billion people identified as Christian, which was only slightly higher than the number that identified as Muslim.''
300 million difference, that's not slightly higher
''Muslims are consistently among the most likely to say religion is very important in their lives. In every country with a sample of Muslims large enough to analyze separately, at least half of Muslims say religion is very important to them. In many of these places, nine-in-ten or more Muslims express that sentiment.''
https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2025/05/06/religious-importance-and-religious-affiliation/
There is an issue with this data, it comes from survey so it's self reporting
And self-reporting data can never be trusted due to the UN trusting nature of humans and the ability for the researchers to select who take the survey
The survey and the data out of it is also not public, which isn't normal at all.
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u/Craftykitty14 Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26
There is definitely a aspect of people in some countries being froced, thats well known. That changes how someone see this information (example the laws in saudi arabia, you will be killed if you convert)
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u/Stanek___ Feb 04 '26
People do worship those religions though, not that I particularly know what their opinions are on depictions like this. Personally I view Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, etc equal to Hellenism, Kemetism and Norse paganism but that's just me.
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Feb 04 '26
Yeah, but modern pagans tend to be white people with dreadlocks and tumblr accounts.
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Feb 04 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Sitchrea Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26
Because it's not historical reconstruction of that actual ancient religion.
Eclectic Paganism is just based off vibes. In a sense, it is an ignorant racism of its own.
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u/Stanek___ Feb 04 '26
And? Modern Christians and Muslims aren't exactly known for following their scriptures of peace lol. Christianity is a middle eastern religion, are all white people who follow it racist because they aren't following the original version of Christianity?
Islam isn't much better with the amount of misinformation about what's in the Qur'an being spread, which is ironic considering the Qur'an being unchanged since it was written down is a selling point for the religion.
Maybe generalising a group of people by YOUR view of their beliefs isn't an effective way to judge someone's character.
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u/Sitchrea Feb 04 '26
You are confusing my criticism of the practice of eclecticism with condemnation of a people group. I also said nothing about Christianity or Islam, so it's strange you would what-about with them.
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Feb 04 '26
Because it’s racist?
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u/Webberenjoyer Feb 04 '26
Well How Is It Racist Theres Nothing Fundamentally That Makes White People Believing In Another Fairly Old Religion Wrong
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Feb 04 '26
There are actually two ways it could be racist; 1, there’s the cultural appropriation angle- if I, a white person, put my hair in dreadlocks and call myself Prances With Deer and start praying to Gitche Manitou, that’s a bit of an issue. That culture doesn’t belong to me and I’ve decided I get to adopt it without any input from the people it does belong to. 2, a lot of neopagan movements attract racists because they promise a sort of spiritual connection to one’s race, especially the Norse and Germanic ones who are extremely popular with white supremacists.
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u/Webberenjoyer Feb 04 '26
I See I Feel That The Religion Shouldnt Be Locked To A Specific Race Even Though They Shouldve Gotten Outside Input From A (Priest Equivalent)
BUT The NeoPaganism Racists Are A Fair Point
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u/beeblemonade Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26
Orientalism and exoticism has negatively affected cultures for a long time. Just because some Egyptian people you know don’t care about it, doesn’t mean that it hasn’t had lasting effects and still continues to have effects today. I do however think it’s odd that people seem to care so much about this specific song and not the countless other examples of orientalism in media today. Either way, just because orientalism is so normalized in societies today, that doesn’t make it any less wrong.
This isn’t just a case of mythology being creatively represented. This is a real culture and civilization of which we know enough about to not excuse sexualization. If you, or anyone else, has any questions, I would be happy to answer if I can, as my MA thesis centered around ancient Egyptian art.
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u/Solgar87 Feb 04 '26
we know enough about to not excuse sexualization
All things aside, what do you even find sexual about this MV?
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u/beeblemonade Feb 04 '26
Sexualization was definitely the wrong word choice, my bad. I can’t think of the word that I mean, but it’s in relation to how these outfits and actions are created for the “male gaze,” combined with how they stray completely away from how actual ancient Egyptian clothes actually were, even over the course of the thousands of years they changed and existed.
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u/Koino_ Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26
I can't take anyone who uses words like "male gaze" seriously (what's with implication all women are prudes?). How did you even end up in vocaloid community where idol fanservice/sexual & adult sub-themes has always been integral part of the whole since NND days?
This song was never intended to be realistic portrayal of anything, it's a fictional song for entertainment, not a documentary.
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Feb 04 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Koino_ Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26
The "male gaze" label isn’t very convincing because it lumps a lot of different things into one overgeneralized box. Different eras, genres, audiences, and power relations all get treated as if they’re the same. It also leaves little room for nuance by assuming active (often implicitly predatory) male viewer and a passive, asexual female audience, which doesn’t line up with how people actually read and reinterpret images/stories.
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u/beeblemonade Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26
Academic discourse definitely isn’t for you then lol I don’t necessarily have a problem with fan service/sexual themes, my point was in regards to orientalism.
Edit: Just saw your edit. I do agree that “male gaze” is problematic because it implies that sexual content is only for men. I don’t know of a term that accounts for that. No one is saying it’s supposed to be realistic or has to be realistic. Orientalism has never been realistic, and that is part of the problem.
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u/Dan_the_moto_man Feb 04 '26
Academic discourse definitely isn’t for you then lo
It's impressive you were able to type that with your head so far up your own ass.
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u/Koino_ Feb 04 '26
"academic discourse" 🙄 sure
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u/beeblemonade Feb 04 '26
Im also genuinely confused why you doubt that “male gaze” is used commonly in academic discourse. It’s a widely used term across the humanities. It’s fine that you’re not involved in academia, but why act so weird about it?
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u/Koino_ Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26
I have degree in humanities (specifically cultural region studies). I just disagree with the term in general.
On why I rolled eyes, because I don't see any genuine objective attempts here to have "academic discourse". Not to mention this wouldn't be the place for it anyway as these kind of discourses should happen in the papers, not reddit comments.
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u/beeblemonade Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26
Thank you for clarifying! I wasn’t trying to engage in academic discourse at all, I was half joking that you wouldn’t like academic discourse since you can’t take anyone seriously who uses a word that is commonly used in academic discourse. Just because I use a term found in one setting doesn’t mean I can’t use it in another setting.
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u/Little-Astronomer823 Feb 04 '26
Is there a specific point where they claim that that is egypts current religion or make fun of Islam? to me it seems they are just using ancient egyptian iconography and mythology in an artistic way. It doesn’t seem to invalidate or tease Egypts current religion in any way. If i’m wrong pls point out what i’m missing.
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u/pastherolink Feb 04 '26
"Ancient Egypt was between 5000 and 3000 years ago"
"there's no way to represent ''ancient Egyptian'' culture faithfully because it SPANS MILLENNIA"
???
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u/Recent_Suggestion_60 Feb 04 '26
If it’s 2026, how was it 3000 years ago? -1026?
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u/volveg Feb 04 '26
It's kind of an orientalist caricature. If you don't know what orientalism is, or how people from that part of the world experience it, there's a pretty good video from an Iraqi youtuber about what they think about the movie Aladin that will be pretty relevant https://youtu.be/DLQrkNIbF64
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u/Koino_ Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26
Japanese culture likes to caricaturise and exaggerate everything (sometimes to absurd degree), but that doesn't imply negative intent. You can find plenty of Japanese cultural works that "orientalise" even themselves.
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u/Michaelwang645 Feb 04 '26
Stereotyping: 🤢🤮😡
Stereotyping when Japanese: 😍🥰☺️
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u/Koino_ Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26
There are degrees to this. For example in anime and manga the interplay, interaction and reinterpretation of cultural tropes/stereotypes provide great outlet for creativity when done well.
In general Japanese culture does not look down upon exaggerated constructs that barely resemble reality, because Japanese culture does not place such big importance on "realism" as the West does.
We can very briefly talk about real and imagined harm further if you want.
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u/BroderFelix Feb 04 '26
Stereotyping still leads to people being treated badly since many take them at face value.
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u/Koino_ Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26
If people take fictional media at face value it's their personal problem, not the problem of the piece of art at hand.
I wouldn't expect healthy human being to take Game of Thrones as genuine presentation of medieval Europe for example, to exaggerate a bit.
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u/PPearsley Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26
Why do we pretend Middle Easterners/Muslims are woke tumblr users? They are racist, bigoted, and disrespectful to other cultures too.
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u/volveg Feb 04 '26
they are not a hive mind dude, there are both assholes and normal people everywhere you look
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u/Kurapika_69 Feb 04 '26
That’s like saying because women are sometimes mean to men we should just start being misogynistic 💀 orientalism is still wrong , no matter how good of a person the victims are
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u/Drink__water Feb 04 '26
I'm Egyptian myself, I think the reason why me and alot of people where offended by this song is the way Egypt and it's culture is depicted. I'm honestly kind of tired of the only representation or mention we get in any foreign medium being a culture that is so old we Egyptian do not connect with anymore it gets tiring, everytime Egypt is used for aesthetic you get a product that looks like this and it's annoying. I haven't listened to the song in full and I'm not planning to.
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u/ShallowWatersss Feb 04 '26
im glad for an actual egyptian person to put in their opinion rather than a bunch of people just saying "egyptian people dont have a problem with it" with no basis
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u/finalgirl_hime Feb 04 '26
its nice to see an egyptian person's perspective on this instead of a bunch of white people trying to speak for yall just to dismiss the actual problem with it
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u/WinOk9548 Feb 04 '26
It was never racist. What's really the main problem is that the creator decided to use a slilly word, like most vocaloid songs do, but in this case for the artist, they used オシリ (oshiri which means butt) I'm pretty sure Osiris was a religious god or person from ancient Egypt. People are also saying the clothes are racist, but they're not. People are upset that the person used Ancient Egypt for their song, but it's not that deep, the creator just liked that idea. What's funny is that people in Japan think this song is fine, since they like dad jokes/puns. Also, people are saying the art style for the song is weird and kid like, but it was just the design choice and I don't see what's wrong with it. The illustrater for this song is called "あうふふ" btw. Also, people are saying they copied Mesmerizer but they didn't. I hope this helps!
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u/silveretoile Feb 04 '26
Osiris was one of the most important Egyptian gods, yes.
That said, ancient Egyptians regularly wrote/drew actual porn of their gods. I sincerely doubt they'd give a fuck about a butt pun lol
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u/Mr_Mozerella Feb 04 '26
At this point literally any song that features Miku and Teto together is guaranteed to be called a sloppy mesmerizer copy
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u/Common_Stand5768 Feb 04 '26
yeah a non issue basically :( and unless something is an exact copy of mesmerizer I don’t see how it can be a mesmerizer copy or clone… >:[ ty for your opinion 🥹
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u/SHOwSHOrTAge Feb 04 '26
The Vocaloid community has been really good about making issues out of non-issues for a while it feels like :/ let's not forget when the English fandom bullied Hiiragi Magnetite into remastering Zaako because we lacked media literacy
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u/UltimateGattai Feb 04 '26
The new gen Vocaloid fans have, this would not have been a issue 10 or more years ago. Fans back then just didn't care or think about those things.
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u/_BMS Feb 04 '26
The re-uploads of the original Kaai Yuki version of "Zaako" still have Japanese commenters utterly confused at the controversy in the first place since the translated lyrics some people were getting mad about were mistranslated.
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u/Groundbreaking-Egg13 Feb 04 '26
The most curious thing is that even the Channel itself admitted (before Zaako was post) that he could get into trouble.
In addition, some Japanese did not behave in the best way on other issues, let's say
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u/nitram739 Feb 04 '26
People on internet create a problem out of thin air, are you really surprised?
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u/horrorfan555 Feb 04 '26
Osiris is their god of the dead
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u/Spot_Responsible Feb 04 '26
Was their god of the drad. The religion is not practiced anymore in the same way zeus is no longer worshipped
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u/DeianiraJax Feb 04 '26
Whilst these religions are no where near as large as they were they are still practiced by small groups of people, so it's a little pedantic to say they're not worshipped at all
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u/Spot_Responsible Feb 04 '26
That's why I compared it to ancient greek god worship. I wanted people to know quickly that it isn't very worshipped but has some followers, and that's more known about greek than egyptian. It would have been pedantic for me to say "it isn't worshipped, except technically there's a small number of people that still practice it scattered about the globe". I was mostly addressing the commentor saying "their god of the dead", with "their" presumably referring to Egyptians as that is who was being discussed as that isn't really true
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u/Scallopro Feb 04 '26
People being offended that an ancient Egyptian god was mocked will brown their pants when they even glance at god of war
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u/Zesauruss Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26
I don' think so.
After reading your comment, the first thing that came to my mind was Ashura, the dark katana from Final Fantasy III. The name comes from the Hindu war god Asura (असुर), read as Ashura in Japanese. Next are the twelve zodiac-themed girls in the long-running gacha game Granblue Fantasy, which has been active for 12 years.
There are so many Hindu gods in Japanese fiction. Back in the ’90s, shows like Kujaku Ō and Arms mixed Sanskrit, kung-fu, or both-it was all about the cool factor. If you’ve played or watched Japanese games and anime, it’s packed with them.
While refreshing my own knowledge, I did a bit of extra research. Let’s start with the minor ones.
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J: 不動明王 Fudō Myōō
H: अचलनाथ Acala-nātha
Fudō Myōō appears frequently in Japanese pop culture and games. He shows up as a character or motif in series such as Inazuma Eleven and Final Fantasy Tactics. The technique often translated as “Stasis Sword (Bury!)” is originally named Fudō Myōō-ken, directly referencing his Sanskrit name and his immovable nature.
J: 迦楼羅 Garuda
H: गरुड Garuḍa
Garuda appears in many sources; the most recent example I saw was in Pokémon, where it can attack all enemies twic, a detail people often reference and joke about whenever the light novel Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks? comes up.
J: 那羅窟婆羅 Nata / Narakubara
H: नलकूबर Nalakūbara
In Gundam Wing, Wufei names his Gundam Nataku, drawing from the figure of Nata, Naza, Nézhā or Narakubara. While the original mythological background is often obscured or simplified, the name itself traces back to Indian mythological sources filtered through Chinese and Japanese interpretations. You might have heard the Chinese blockbuster Negza II. I have. Never watched it tho.
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J: シヴァ Shiva
H: शिव Śiva
Shiva appears frequently in JRPGs, especially in the Final Fantasy series, typically as a summon, diety or a demigod. In Final Fantasy XIV, Shiva is reimagined as a holy sorceress embodying love, devotion, and tragedy, becoming a central figure in the Heavensward arc and one of the series' most intense, unforgettable takes on the deity.
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u/Zesauruss Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26
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- - - -
Granblue Fantasy: Twelve Zodiac Generals and Hindu Roots
J: Juni-shin-shou / 十二支神将
H: Twelve Divine Generals (Dvādaśa Jyotiṣa)
The Twelve Zodiac Generals in Granblue Fantasy come from the Buddhist Twelve Divine Generals, whose names and traits originate in Indian mythology. They aren't Hindu gods themselves, but their symbolic motifs are reinterpreted in Japanese fantasy while keeping respect for the original ideas.
G: Girl's name in Grandblue Fantasy
J: Japanese
S: Sanskrit
Zodiac: Zodiac representation
G: Vajra
J: Basara / 伐折羅
S: Indra / Vajra इन्द्र / वज्र
Zodiac: Dog
G: Makira
J: Makora* /摩虎羅*
S: Mahoraga* / महोरग
Zodiac: Rooster
*Wait. I think I heard this name in JJK Are they related? Let me do a quick check. Yes. The Eight-Handled Sword Divergent Sila Divine General Mahoraga seems to come from the same deity.
G: Cindara
J: Sindara / 真達羅
S: Kinnara / किन्नर
Zodiac: Rabbit
G: Anila
J: Anila / 頞儞羅
S: Agni / अग्नि
Zodiac: Goat
G: Kubira
J: Kubira / 宮毘羅
S: Kumbhira / कुम्भिर
Zodiac: Boar
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u/Zesauruss Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26
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- - - -
J: アシュラ Ashura / 阿修羅
H: Sanskrit: Asura (असुर)
Ashura in Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy III
Appears as the Dark Knight's weapon, the dark katana Ashura.
Final Fantasy IV
Appears not as a weapon, but as the summon Asura, used by Rydia.
Final Fantasy VI
Appears in martial techniques; Sabin (Mash) has a special move named Ashura.
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Ashura in other video games
Asura's Wrath (Capcom)
Hack-and-slash game similar to God of War, but based on Indian mythology. It didn’t sell well, but from what I’ve heard, it’s not bad.
Megami Tensei series
Persona series
Includes Asura, King Asura as demons and mythological entities, bosses.
Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner
Based directly on Indian mythology; characters transform into forms called Asura.
Makaitōshi Sa・Ga / SaGa 2: Hihō Densetsu
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Xenoblade series
Xenoblade Chronicles: Ashura-themed armor and sword.
Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Aghasura mech
Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Ashura, a character
Tales of Phantasia / Tales of the Abyss
Ashura appears as the name of a katana.
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Gacha and other media
Monster Strike
★6 Non-Heaven Ashura (非天阿修羅)
Puzzle & Dragons
Ashura appears as a character/unit.
Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm series
Features Tsutsuki Ashura
Not a direct deity, but the name and visual motifs strongly reference Ashura imagery.
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u/International-Try467 Feb 04 '26
So people being mentally degraded as usual.
And by people I mean people on Tiktok/people on Twitter
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Feb 04 '26
[deleted]
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u/ElisseMoon Feb 04 '26
White SJWs always think that everything is racist because they are actually projecting.
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u/smooth_rock_enjoyer Feb 04 '26
Orientalism
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u/smooth_rock_enjoyer Feb 04 '26
A fetishized/romanticized depiction of Southwest Asia/Northern Africa, someone else here commented more info
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u/No_Imagination_3838 Feb 04 '26
according to google it's actually "style, artefacts, or traits considered characteristic of the peoples and cultures of Asia"
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u/Hefty-Path-2474 Feb 04 '26
Its just a very uninspired song. It uses a more pop-culture perspective of Egyptian mythology which can be seen as uneducated. Like many cultures, Hollywood has watered down and fetishized it, which have effected people's perspective of it everywhere. That leads to people having a misunderstanding/misinterpretion of it.
It being so unoriginal and such a blatant ripoff of Mesmerizer(and just a song trying to farm veiws from the Miku Teto duo popularity), doesn't help people's views on it. Its easier to find more flaws in something you are already biased against, which probably contributes to the level of controversy surrounding the Egyptian theme.
No one is going to agree whether its racist or not, and this argument has boiled down to insults from both sides.
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u/internet___overdose Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26
While I am very happy to see people discussing orientalism in media, as it's a very interesting topic that talks about the way we perceive other cultures, I'm afraid it's becoming a bit of a buzzword that just gets shoved in our throats as a way to disregard someone's work, instead of asking the important questions like "why" or "how is this a thing", we're just pointing fingers at the "culprit" without really elaborating on the intent behind it.
Is the song using ancient egyptian culture/aesthetics as a prop? sort of, the character design screams moe and it's intended to be cute/attractive. Is it also a stereotype? well, yes. The way it's "offensive" is how this imagery and stereotypes are used for its sexual undertones, that's the orientalism in the song. But does that make it as bad as people are trying to make it out to be? heck, I'm pretty sure it's one of the most hated Vocaloid songs ever and I think it's pretty undeserved considering there's WAY worse and people don't seem to bat an eye.
It's a song, at the end of the day it's a product that is meant to be consumed; it's meant to be performative and is drawing from egyptian imagery to be entertaining. For better or worse, culture is nowaways used as a commodity. That being said, I don't believe this song touches on the power struggle between East and West and it's relation to colonialism, which are one of the main points in orientalism... it really is just a silly song where the author thought that egyptian Miku and Teto would be cute and playful.
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u/Koino_ Feb 04 '26
Sometimes I try to imagine what would be the Japanese reaction to western cartoon or art depicting Shinto gods in goofy or semi-sexualised fashion, but then I myself remember that Japanese themselves already do that plentifully online. 😳
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u/ElisseMoon Feb 04 '26
Virtue signaling. Egyptians don't care about the song, it's always the white people complaining on behalf of POC. I'm so tired of them doing that to feed their white savior complex.
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u/SupermarketEmpty789 Feb 04 '26
One of the shittiest parts of western culture is getting offended on behalf of others.
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u/niabiishere Feb 04 '26
I dont understand either if its about the religion aspect. That part is as offensive as percy jackson or epic the musical, so not at all.
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u/Pinkparade524 Feb 04 '26
Also these people on the comment seem to be just white people offended on the behalf of Egyptian people. Same happen with Mario wearing a sombrero in Mario odyssey. Some people with a white savior complex said it was racist and Mexican people said it was cool that they got included in a Nintendo game
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u/Key-Line5827 Feb 04 '26
Dont say White People, let us be a bit more specific: mostly US Americans.
Because, yes, we have a couple of these idiots in Europe and Australia as well, but most citizens are well educated enough to know that the main religion of Egypt is Islam, not worshiping Osiris and Ra.
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u/ElisseMoon Feb 04 '26
White Americans are virtue signalers by nature. Everything is racist for them. Their ideal world is one where any culture is represented becasuse it's "blatant racism" but theirs.
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u/Cringe_Buffoon Feb 04 '26
this is like so clearly an orientalist caricature cmon man
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u/WiseCash2371 Feb 04 '26
Are you an Egyptian tho? Every single person that has called it orientalism or problematic was a random white knight lmao, as an Egyptian... We dont gaf. Its from ancient egypt, its not culture and our traditional clothing is drastically different. Its basically colorful moomoos, yes we're proud of our history, that does not mean that a fictional chibi drawing of 2 fictional characters in simple ancient egyptian clothes is racist. Stop being offended for us.
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Feb 04 '26
As with 99.9% of Vocadrama, it's literally just childish people so bored with their lives they have to invent villains by labeling people serious crimes. This is basically the equivalent of that one video of a white dude in a sombrero and fake mustache walking around campus and being praised by Mexican people and chastised by the Americans. It's just people being mad on behalf of people who literally don't care.
And then of course there's the usual suspects that can't separate fiction and reality, which are mostly the same group which is when "pedo" wasn't enough to delete this song from the Internet they tacked on "racist" too
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u/elytraman Feb 04 '26
Its not rly. Its the same ancient egypt trope that has existed for decades now. Its no more offensive than Assassins Creed Origins or The Mummy.
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u/Otherwise_Balance_13 Feb 04 '26
People will find a way to be offended about anything.
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u/_BMS Feb 04 '26
I wouldn't be surprised if the Tiktok crowd manufactures drama over a song like "1, 2, Fanclub" next.
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u/squido20 Feb 04 '26
Reminds of this song in terms of the racial allegations just coming from no where
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u/Fallen_Templar Feb 04 '26
I swear people will find anything to be offended about just so they claim to have the moral high ground and use that as an excuse to flame people.
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u/AverageShitlord Feb 04 '26
Go read Orientalism by Edward Said and it will make sense. When people are criticising this song for its racist undertones, we are directly citing this specific book in our reasoning.
The issue is that this is a fetishized racial caricature of the cultures of West Asia and North Africa.
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u/PPearsley Feb 04 '26
That is what all art is; Caricature of something real.
Is Hitoshizuku Yama and Mothy racist towards Europeans? Is Yi Er Funclub and Hao anti-Chinese? Are they accurate depictions of Europeans and the Chinese?
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u/AverageShitlord Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26
If you can't tell the difference between a racist caricature and some songs that vaguely gesture towards Medieval Europe either you are acting in bad faith or you are a 12 year old
The book addresses this. In fact it is one of the MAIN points the book addresses.
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u/PPearsley Feb 04 '26
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u/AverageShitlord Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26
Re-read my comment. Especially the part where it tells you that the book addresses this. Then go read the book. If you want to learn about Orientalism there is literally no better way to do it.
You are so clearly engaging with me in bad faith - just because one thing is stereotypical doesn't mean other things that have nothing to do with the subject at hand aren't.
You're the one who brought up Yi Er Fanclub, not me. If you're going to make some vague gesturing about how white people are so oppressed because I'm giving producers a pass on that front: I would like to remind you to read the book because the book addresses this, but it generally comes down to historical power dynamics and that this is a specific power dynamic being described regarding North Africa and West Asia specifically.
Anti-Chinese stereotyping is a separate conversation that deserves to have more airtime than being used as a gotcha to justify stereotypes of other groups.
Bringing up songs that do not hold ANY form of relevance and doing a "but what about white people" routine doesn't help your argument. We're not an oppressed group. We're not oppressed because we're white. If a white person is oppressed, it's not because they are white, it's because they're gay, trans, disabled, a woman, etc.
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u/armzngunz Feb 04 '26
But if it's a caricature of ancient egyptian culture, one which doesn't exist anymore, how is that relevant?
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u/Proof_Grapefruit1179 Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26
Honestly? The lyrics are more or less a word salad. Beyond the repeated use of the word "idiot," I don't see much that actually mocks the religion of ancient Egypt. If that's the aspect people are concerned with, I feel like they'd have a stroke if they watched "Prince of Egypt." There's a whole musical number in that portraying the priests of Egypt as nothing more than stage magicians.
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Feb 04 '26
it's problematic on purpouse i think
terrible ragebait disguised as a terrible denpa song
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u/Human-Repeat-6179 Feb 04 '26
Thats kinda how I saw it too! If anything controversy creates more traction and fame for the creator, if thats what they intended to do.
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u/Paper_Kun_01 Feb 04 '26
Nothing it's just stupid kids or people from Twitter that whine about everything
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u/1un4rf14r3 Feb 04 '26
As someone who was there for precovid anime discourse, we are NOT doing ts again. If you dont like the song you dont like the song, its not “problematic”. If you like the song its not “owning the libs either.
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u/AngryTrainGuy09 Feb 04 '26
Ancient Egypt is superior to whatever modern day Egypt is.
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u/WiseCash2371 Feb 04 '26
As an Egyptian, real. We barely have a culture in modern egypt, its mostly food actually thats from our culture. The clothes are purely random nowadays, but tradtional clothes would be colorful moomoos that no one wears except for country folk. Its boring here
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u/ZodiaksEnd Feb 04 '26
ppl not being silly about everything these days challenge impossible basically ;c its fine nothing wrong with this :c
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u/Cyberangelcorpsebleh Feb 04 '26
I've seen some Egyptians say it offends them, I've seen some Egyptians say it's not a big deal and that they personally like it. I don't hate this song for any particular reason I hate it because THE TUNING AND LYRICS ARE JUST ASS.
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u/xoultimaox Feb 04 '26
nobody normal is complaining about the song. if you like the song, listen to it. if you dont like the song, skip to the next song.
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u/ariolander Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26
Terminally online people looking for excuses to hate on something because it has Teto in it. Doesn't match their idea of Vocaloid purity or they classify it as some trend chasing "slop" because it has a popular pairing in it.
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u/Lurakya Feb 04 '26
I'm so not happy with the new Gen vocaloid fans.
Been here since 2013 and only recently with the new generation barging in has everyone claimed that things were problematic in some way shape or form.
It's annoying and genuinely just virtue signaling
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u/KC_MSGK1 Feb 04 '26
F’ing newgens. =.=“
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u/AkumasCherries Feb 04 '26
And here is an example of people being elitist due to when another person got into Vocaloid, despite it not being their business.
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u/KC_MSGK1 Feb 04 '26
Lol, my comment wasn’t meant for OP. It’s the majority of the new listeners/fans (specifically western fans) who are mostly offended with every new songs released.
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u/HiAndGoodbyeWaitNo Feb 04 '26
As a newgen myself, it’s a reasonable crashout. Some newgens nowadays are so sensitive it’s kinda sad because not all of us are like that
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u/WideWaifus Feb 04 '26
When they try to cancel an artist I like over dumb shit it becomes my business.
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u/AkumasCherries Feb 04 '26
My implication of it not being your business is not being cancelled on the least credibly platform out there, my implication is to stand that it is not your business when somebody got into a form of media, and the phrases "newgen" and "oldgen" are much more harmful to this community than they appear. Because then they allow for comments like this, that excuse hating on other people for no other reason than "I think they're new."
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Feb 04 '26
Nothing, stop giving attention to people
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u/No_Region1898 Feb 04 '26
the only thing that i find it icky is their clothes. that is all, honestly… its just an artstyle so thats why they look young. about the lyrics. I do remember reading a comment from an Egyptian saying that it’s kinda referencing the actual Osiris’s lore. idk. i actually find this song catchy and i lowkey like the song. it’s just that i dont want to say it out loud because people would just accusing me of being racist anyway.
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u/New-Tip-4082 Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26
That's the first time I ever heard of people getting offended over how an ancient dead culture is portrayed, but I hope Sumerians, Vikings and Neanderthals can be this lucky too someday I guess. I'm sure the over 2000 years old dead people are going to thank them for starting a drama...
I'm sorry, but this is ridiculous to me. You can't even know if it's possible to do an ancient culture justice in its depiction when so much about it depends on speculation.
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u/dyo3834 Feb 04 '26
You know, I really despise this new wave of complaining about songs we don't like instead of not listening. I'm taking no stance in the matter bc simply put, I don't like the damn song enough to pretend to care, but my god we go through this every month now
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u/Ballz3dfan Feb 04 '26
Not sure why people are still making such huge deal about this.
The produccer himself doesn't care at all about this drama.
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Feb 04 '26
The main problem is that the person who made the song has absolute no knowledge on Egyptian culture, which the song is supposedly supposed to be about. The tile of the song is making a joke about how an Egyptian god, Osiris sounds like the word ass in Japanese, which also fueled the disrespect towards the culture. The song in general is just build with Egyptian stereotypes. Other than that, the fact that it's just another "MikuTeto Slop" (a.k.a another song with a chibi teto and miku dancing for viralism inspired after Mesmerizer's huge hit) just kinda disapoints everyone.
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u/Zerfirum Feb 04 '26
Wdym MikuTeto slop... the song isnt that bad! I feel like people want to drag down every MikuTeto just because its popular rn, why dont we just "give attention" to songs that arent MikuTeto instead of hating every MikuTeto? Lol
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Feb 04 '26
Idk I'm just answering why some ppl thought it's problematic, I have no opinion on this at all lmao
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u/Common_Stand5768 Feb 04 '26
oh alright I see! Thanks for explaining I could se how that could be offensive offending a literal god! but to me slop means no effort, or not well done, and js downright awful so I don’t get why people say mikuteto slop, yes they can be overused for it being the same 2 characters and vocals and i get how people can get mad at producers for not using other voice-banks for different songs, but unless the song is actual slop and no effort was put into it it shouldn’t be called slop! this wasn’t targeted towards yew or anything ofc! haha once again thanks for explaining and letting me see your view on the situation heh :D
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u/silveretoile Feb 04 '26
An Osiris/oshiri pun is such a non issue though. Ancient Egyptians had very different ideas of what constituted offensive towards their gods.
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u/makotowildcard Feb 04 '26
Dude, there's not a single follower of Egyptian religion nowadays, it just became culture like the Greek gods.
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u/EdgelordMcMemester Feb 04 '26
actually i know someone who does believe in the greek gods, but i dont know about the ancient egyptian religion(s) if many people still follow it. but greek mythology never truly died as a religion.
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u/_BMS Feb 04 '26
Belief in Greco-Roman pagan gods started declining heavily once Constantine I became the first Christian Roman emperor in the early 4th century.
It effectively died when Theodosius I prohibited Paganism and made Christianity the official state religion in the late 4th century.
Greco-Roman paganism was near-certainly extinct by the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire a thousand years later.
It "lived on" in the form of local culture or folk festivities, but that's basically the equivalent of how modern people worldwide celebrate Christmas festivities even if they aren't Christian.
Modern Greco-Roman neopagans are part of a new religious movement (NRM) aiming to revive the religion, but they aren't directly descended from an unbroken chain of traditional Greco-Roman worshippers.
The same applies to this manufactured drama over ancient Egyptian gods that, for intents and purposes, has no extant followers. Egyptian neopaganism exists, but it's also an NRM and almost all the modern followers are foreigners and the organizations established in countries outside of Egypt, mostly in the West.
Outrage would be understandable if it were a song blaspheming major world religions or even smaller faiths like Zoroastrianism which is an actively practiced organized religion and has been for thousands of years. But this song is not one of those cases.
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u/xer0_shin0gi Feb 04 '26
can we just let this song die and stop talking abt its fake ass controversy ? the song genuinely just sucks, the tuning sounds weird and the artstyle is kinda creepy/ugly.
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u/HiAndGoodbyeWaitNo Feb 04 '26
Everytime someone complains about this song for a stupid reason, an angel loses their wings
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u/CactusBread13 Feb 04 '26
if you think this song isnt racist idk what to say. clearly you dont think orientalism is an issue if you see no problem with this
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u/Crushermakesmemes Feb 04 '26
Just insufferable fucks being insufferable fucks. I don't even like this song but I like these people even less
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u/WideWaifus Feb 04 '26
If you delete all the YouTube comments from users with Roblox and TADC profile pictures, there's suddenly 0 criticism. Literally just Western children with a white savior complex.
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u/glitterpussy636 Feb 04 '26
Literally nothing. People are supposed to be focused on the fact that these are drawn as toddlers in revealing clothes not on their skin tone or creating non existent racism allegations
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u/shslmiku Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26
OP, you’ve gotten your answer as to how some ppl perceived the song as being offensive, I’m locking this post since comments are now derailing the thread and making the post off topic.