Olympic Athletes Struck Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball Poses

With the closing ceremony wrapping up this night in Japan, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics have drawn to a detailed. Like at earlier Olympics, there have been winners, losers, and upsets. However in contrast to different ones, the Tokyo Video games had extra anime references than ever.

Beforehand, Kotaku featured Miltiadis Tentoglou, who did a pose from One Piece earlier than profitable gold within the Males’s Lengthy Soar. He was hardly alone. Different athletes additionally received in on the act, making nods to beloved franchises earlier than, throughout, and after competitions.

Let’s check out extra Olympians displaying their love for manga and anime.

American shot putter Payton Otterdahl, for instance, made one other One Piece homage, doing Franky’s “Tremendous” pose (and even stated “Tremendous” as he did it!).

The official One Piece employees Twitter despatched the finalist a nice congratulatory note, writing, “We sincerely have fun the actions of our ‘NAKAMA’ world wide with the utmost respect to your efforts and achievements.”

After profitable bronze within the Males’s 200m, Workforce USA’s Noah Lyles celebrated with a Kamehameha. On Instagram, Lyles confirmed that it’s, actually, a Kamehameha and not a Road Fighter Hadouken. (China’s 400m Males’s Relay Workforce likewise did what was both a Kamehameha or Hadouken pose earlier than their competitors.)

Workforce Italy, in the meantime, additionally looks like massive Dragon Ball followers.

Mexican gymnast Alexa Moreno did her ground routine to the Demon Slayer soundtrack.

It’s not unusual for anime music (or online game music, for that matter) for use in routines or sporting occasions, however since that is Moreno’s final Olympics, the selection makes it further particular.

Determine skater Evgenia Medvedeva already proved that Sailor Moon works nicely with ice skating, and this 12 months Workforce Uzbekistan confirmed how nicely it goes with rhythmic gymnastics.

These weren’t the one references (extra here and here), with Assault on Titan and Jojo’s Weird Journey additionally getting the inevitable shoutouts. This was inevitable! Moreover the actual fact the Olympics have been held in Japan, manga and anime characters appeared on official merchandise. Plus, liking anime and manga has gone mainstream internationally.

Contemplating how anime and manga are particularly fashionable in France, don’t be stunned if poses like these grow to be a normal on the Paris Olympics in 2024.

Whereas anime nods have been in no scarcity, video video games definitely weren’t forgotten. The Tokyo Video games impressed an Olympic-themed JRPG Google Doodle, and the opening ceremony was packed with online game music.