‘Death Note’ character used to encourage voting in this recent election

It seems that anime and politics are continuing to go hand in hand with each other. Earlier this month, Rep. Paul A. Gosar (R-Ariz.) was censured over an edit of Attack on Titan that involved President Joe Biden and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y). A bit more recently, Kanji Yamanouchi, Ambassador and Consul General of Japan in New York, took to social media to shred on guitar to Demon Slayer’s opening song to welcome the recent Anime NYC convention.

Now, it looks like it’s time to bring Death Note into the mix. The Observatorio Democrático Juventud Honduras (Democratic Youth Observatory Honduras) NGO posted an ad featuring Light Yagami from the series to encourage people to vote in Honduras’ presidential election. The ad, which was published to the organization’s Facebook page, reads: “The Power Is In Your Hands.”

While the ad does make sense in context, it does seem like an incredibly dark implication. In Death Note, Light Yagami finds a notebook that allows him to kill anyone whose name he writes within it.

Despite the potentially dark tone of this campaign, it does appear that ads like these and others were highly important in getting the word out for people to vote. According to Al-Jazeera, the electoral council in Honduras said there was “a massive turnout” for the election, with over 2.7 million ballots cast in an initial tally of votes, with even more expected when all votes are counted.

Xiomara Castro, poised to be the first female president in the Central American nation’s history, was declaring herself the winner on Monday, according to a Guardian report.

What do you think of Death Note being used to help get people to vote? Is it weird seeing anime and politics collide? Tell us in the comments.