By: Bryce L. Jackson

Japan is arguably the capital of gaming and the hands-down home of manga and anime. Both forms of entertainment have worldwide reach, so it’s no surprise that there would be athletes showing their love for their favorite property while they compete on the biggest stage in sports in Japan. Yet, I was pleasantly surprised as to how much

Gaming

The Opening Ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics used a variety of songs from games including Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Sonic Adventures, and way, way more. The thing is there could have been more. Music and props from Nintendo properties were set to be a part of the opening ceremony. Due to some PR issues with creative directors and the idea of continuing to host the games despite the ongoing pandemic, Nintendo pulled out of the games.

Russian Olympic Committee athlete Vitalina Batsarashkina won the gold medal in the 10m Air Pistol event wearing a medallion from The Witcher around her neck. She previously wore the medallion on her waist during the 2016 Rio Olympics, where she won silver.

USA beach volleyball player Kelly Claes uses her downtime to web swing through New York.

Anime and Manga

The Tokyo Olympics selected 9 anime characters to be the official ambassadors of the Tokyo Olympics.

Obviously, Team Japan utilized a variety of anime intros. Japan’s Archery Team took two chances to incorporate intro music vs regional rival South Korea in their semi-final face-off, using the Attack on Titan Season 2 theme “Guren no Yumiya” during an intermission. Then the team rolled in to “Gurenge” by LiSA from Demon Slayer - Kimetsu no Yaiba. They went on to win Bronze.

Japan’s Volleyball team was right on the nose, playing the main theme for Haikyu!! “Hikariare” during their match vs Italy.

Long Jump athlete Miltos Tentoglou of Greece hit Luffy’s “Gear Second” pose before winning Gold. Seems like it works in real life.

My Hero Acadamia’s Season 5 intro was used as the opening music for an Olympic broadcast.

The bicycle portion of the triathlon loops around the statue of the RX-0 Unicorn Gundam in Odaiba. A BBC commentator got the pronunciation of “Gundam” wrong and called it “Gandum, the famous robot” when referring to the RX-0 Unicorn Gundam.

That wasn’t even the only gaffe involving this Gundam. In another event that utilized the same area for a different sport, the BBC Sport Twitter account referred to the Gundam as a “Transformer”.

The Sailor Moon fandom was well represented during the Games. NBC, the US broadcaster for the games made an intro of some of Team USA’s biggest starts in the same animation style.

Uzbekistan’s Rhythmic Gymnastics team wore Sailor Moon- inspired leotards and featured the theme song into part of their routine.

The Closing Ceremony squeezed in one more “Gurenge” to cap off the weeb-tastic Tokyo Games.

Those were the ones I was able to track down. There may have been many more that but that’s what had enough coverage to get picked up by broadcasters and social media (before broadcaster copyrights erased them from existence). There are many more tweets and reactions from people that heard a familiar tune in passing. Or an athlete that’s a fan but they didn’t get coverage. It was so much fun seeing people that may not be full-time sports fans engage with the Olympics this way, encompassing the Games’ broader mission statement promoting harmony.