Japan, Feb 8, 2017: Dragon Ball Super is a popular Japanese animated television series, which released its fifth season Universe Survival Saga and has faced overt criticism from a community leader from the US over the portrayal of Lord Ganesha as one of the eight 'evil gods of destruction'.

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"It is trivialisation of our highly revered deity and a distortion Lord Ganesha is worshipped as god of wisdom and remover of obstacles and was invoked before the beginning of any major undertaking," said Rajan Zed, a social activist in a statement on his website.

Zed urged Toei Animation Company Limited of Tokyo, the producers, and FUNimation Entertainment of Texas to withdraw the character from the series which resembled Lord Ganesha. "Inappropriate usage of Hindu deities or concepts for commercial purposes is not okay as it hurts the devotees," he said to PTI.

"Hinduism is the oldest and third largest religion of the world with about one billion adherents and a rich philosophical thought. It should not be taken frivolously. Symbols of any faith, larger or smaller, should not be mishandled," Zed noted.

prepared by Shambhavi Sinha of NewsGram. Twitter: @shambhavispeaks