Image taken from http://bit.ly/2bQEoUo
Just a few days ago, on the 21st of August, the Closing Ceremony of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games was held at the Maracanã Stadium, Rio de Janeiro, amidst a few good showers and, despite all, great enthusiasm. Fortunately, and putting aside a few incidents, this year’s Olympics have not been stricken by any major terrorist attacks, a possibility that, together with the Zika virus threat, worried both athletes and visitors alike and caused much less participation overall than Brazil would have desired.
Nonetheless, during the ceremony the Maracanã sparkled with wondrous fireworks and held a gorgeous visual and musical performance that joined together hundreds of enthusiastic dancers on the arena, in a Carnival-themed festival joyously shaken with a plethora of colourful parades, technological light effects, frevo, and the live songs and music by eminent samba myth Martinho da Vila, Brasilian singer Mariene de Castro, and Norwegian superstar DJ Kygo, amongst many others. Towards the end, the Olympic flame was slowly put out under a light, artificial drizzle, amongst much solemnity.
But one of the moments that have sparkled more interest worldwide during the ceremony has been the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games’s presentation. Already on September the 7th, 2013, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that Japan was the winner bid to host the XXXII Edition of the Summer Olympic Games, in 2020. The great news were received with much thrill on the part of all the Japanese community, and since then the Japanese Olympic Committee, led by Tsunekazu Takeda (who has also been/is involved in the organisation of the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano and the 2010, 2014, and 2018 Winter Olympics), is totally immersed in the planning and presentation of the best Olympic Games ever – a bet that could spectacularly benefit Japan as regards not only tourism, financial gains and product, infrastructure investments, but cultural openness and wide-reaching societal promotion; principally as regards their particular idiosyncrasies and overly hi-tech lifestyle.
The Tokyo 2020 presentation has already given us a tasty appetiser. Japan is not afraid to uphold their best and most demanded national products in front of any international audience, be they highly advanced technology props or their most cherished pop or mainstream fiction. Following the moment in which Rio Mayor, Eduardo Paes, after waving it for one last time handed the Olympic flag to the President of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, Tokyo’s Governor, Yuriko Koike, dressed in a gorgeous and discreet traditional, golden-coloured kimono, graciously received it from Bach’s hands and gently bowed in appreciation. The Japanese national anthem, Kimi Ga Yo, was then played while a group of robotic-like performers gradually formed the shape of the Japanese flag on the arena, filled with expressions of gratitude, first to Rio and Brazil and subsequently in all the languages in the world. And then the funny part began:
After a promotional video showing Japanese athletes “warming up” in the crowded and orderly streets of Tokyo, portraying both images of the most emblematic buildings and anime and videogame characters from Captain Tsubasa, Pacman, Doraemon, and Hello Kitty, the Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzō Abe, finally catches a red ball with which the athletes have been playing around. Still in Tokyo, and realising he’s not going to make it to Rio on time, he decides to release his inner Mario, from Nintendo’s Super Mario videogame series. With the red ball in his hands, and aided by a flying Doraemon who produces a green pipe for him, the 3D Mario representing Shinzō Abe goes through the center of the earth until the real Shinzō Abe finally arises, “at the other side of the green pipe”, in the middle of the Maracanã Stadium, still carrying the red ball (which clearly represents the Japanese flag) and the Mario cap on top of his head.
What’s so attractive about this? In our Western culture, we’re not used to seeing high-rank politicians dressed-up as fictional characters, even not many grown-up celebrities. Actually, although much less than years ago, it is still considered by many as a flaw of character to indulge too much in fanboying or fangirling over works of fiction, particularly after reaching adulthood. By contrast, for Japan leisure, fantasy and pop culture they are able to produce and export globally are considered a hard-earned and well-deserved success, the fruits of their work, and as worthy of display as a well-groomed Western suit or a traditional dress. Thus, we can see a 62-year-old Prime Minister at such an important event flashing the symbols of a videogame with which many of us we’ve played as kids. For us otakus and hi-tech geeks, it’s a powerful, enticing symbol of what’s to come during Tokyo 2020.
And it’s mouth-watering.
The XXXII Summer 2020 Olympic Games will be held from the 24th of July to the 9th of August. We are already talking about “Olympics 2.0”: there’s no doubt the next Games will be filled to the brim with classy technology and many other amazing surprises. Who knows what the Japanese will arrange for such a great occasion? A new, spectacular stadium packed with the newest and most amazing equipments? Huge, robotic sculptures portraying exemplary characters from their pop culture, like the 59-feet-high Gundam on display in Odaiba, Tokyo, since 2009, to celebrate its 30th anniversary? Augmented reality of such a high quality that we might get the feeling, with just a computer or a phone and a pair of technological glasses (or even less than that), that we are virtually talking to a series of computer-made characters while we walk through the streets of Tokyo?
Whatever it is, what’s for sure is that it’s going to be very tough to wait for four more years, starting from now, until we finally see it.
Sources:
http://thediplomat.com/2014/03/how-japan-could-truly-benefit-from-the-2020-olympics/
[…] Source: Tokyo 2020 Olympics Elation: Japan’s PM Shinzō Abe Flares Inner Mario […]
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