The popular Japanese anime series ‘Yu-Gi-Oh!’ accused the White House on Wednesday of using without permission some images of the program in a propaganda video about the U.S. Army published on the social network X, in the midst of the war with Iran.
“It has come to our attention that a publication on the official White House X account used images from the anime series Yu-Gi-Oh! This was done without the authorization of the rights holder,” assured the official account of the series on the same social network.
Officials clarified that “no one associated with the manga or anime had any involvement, and no permission was granted for the use of this intellectual property.”
Yu-Gi-Oh! creators disagree with what The White House did
The video in question, 42 seconds long and posted on March 6 at 11:11 Japan time (02:11 GMT), shows images from various series, movies and video games interspersed with what appears to be U.S. Army bombings, as well as an image of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, along with the phrase “AMERICAN STYLE JUSTICE”.
At minute 0:37, near the end of the video, ‘Yu-Gi-Oh!’ protagonist Yugi Muto can be seen just after a loud explosion on a ship recorded with a night vision camera is observed.
The video was released at the height of the escalating conflict in the Middle East, which began on Saturday, February 28, with a series of U.S. and Israeli strikes against Iran in which the Islamic republic’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed.
Iran responded with attacks against Israel and countries in the region allied with Washington, reported Agencia EFE, and the conflict has generated concern about its impact on energy prices due to the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which around 20% of the world’s crude oil supply passes.
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