The Tokyo Olympics are bringing some uniquely Japanese flavor to the games by providing competing countries with a manga-style samurai to represent them. The World Flags project is a small team of 15 artists creating samurai characters themed around each country's flag, while also incorporating some famous cultural aspects into the design.
With the COVID-19 pandemic still an issue in many parts of the world, including Japan, the Olympic arenas have been closed to spectators, leaving the competitions to take place in some very lonely-feeling empty spaces. The artists behind World Flags, such as project creator Kamaya Yamamoto, have taken part to help re-invigorate some of that international camaraderie and Olympic spirit that seems to be missing this year, hoping to get fans excited online.
According to the BBC, each of the 84 characters (so far) draws primarily from the Japanese perspective of the country, so there are some familiar elements in many designs. The American Samurai Justin, for example, has blonde hair and blue eyes, as many American characters in anime and manga do. Countries with unique elements to their flags, like Mexico's eagle, also tend to feature prominently in the artwork, giving the characters more variety than might seem possible. When the artists felt they didn't know enough about a country, they opened up Twitter for suggestions, which helped to correct some controversial elements—like a matador motif that was present in early versions of Spain's character, Iniesta. While the characters were initially posted online with some simple fact sheets including information like blood type, hobbies, and favorite food, they've more recently begun to feature in manga and comics that the group puts out. Although no official English translation exists as of yet for these comics, fans who've been following the project have been quick to provide fan translations.
Comedic four-panel manga (often called yonkoma) appeared first, but a more traditional Shonen action series is also in the works, with at least one chapter out. This first chapter of the World Flags manga casts the anthropomorphic nations as warriors in a special group known as the Flag Samurai, under the command of an organization called Babel, who are defending the planet against an invasion of man-eating demons called "Brigantes" in the year 2050. While that might seem like a far stretch from the starting point of Tokyo Olympic mascots, the idea of international unity is held up in the story. The story follows young Kamamoto, a high school boy whose parents were killed by the Brigante and who now seeks to join the Flag Samurai as Japan's representative.
While the future of this project is unclear, the popularity of some of the figures, such as Sri Lanka's, seems to indicate that World Flags characters may be sticking around for a while. The creators hope that the project will help fans to learn about other countries and cultures, so World Flags' continuation will mean carrying that combination of anime and Olympic spirit of international friendship and cooperation forward for years to come.
Source: BBC, World Flags