The Tokyo 2020 Olympics are, naturally, a gigantic flipping deal. Japan’s pulling out all the stops advertising for it, including bringing in the likes of many of anime’s greatest characters like Luffy, Goku, and Sailor Moon. Other celebrations include sending Gundams to space, SEGA making four separate games based on the Olympics, and even Final Fantasy XV mastermind Hajime Tabata making something special specifically to commemorate the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. You’d think that’d be enough pop culture crossover right? Well, today word got out that two of manga’s greatest living treasures, Hirohiko Araki and Naoki Urasawa, have been tapped to create posters for the 2020 events.
Hol your horses! These promotional posters by Araki and Urasawa haven’t been released to the public yet. Hirohiko Araki has always been a household name with manga readers in Japan but the resurgence of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure this decade has made him one for Western fans too. The creator’s taste for high fashion, increasingly creative super powers, and flamboyant testosterone have made him a favorite in our community. I’m very excited to see what his take on these Olympic posters will be. We don’t even know if he’ll use his previous characters, illustrate something entirely new, or focus his efforts on graphic design entirely.
Where Araki’s known for creating one singular long-running epic, a masterpiece of the medium, Naoki Urasawa’s instead known for the totality of his work. With little exception, you could point to any major title he’s created, like 20th Century Boys or Monster, and say ‘no one can do what this man can do’. His talent for turning emotion into sequential art is second to none. His poster will also be interesting; however, Urasawa definitely excels at making comics that you need to read to get the full effect. A single image of his may not have the flare of a solo Araki drawing, but with Urasawa’s ways of reaching under people’s skin, I’m sure he won’t let the Tokyo 2020 Olympics zeitgeist down.
These Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics Posters will be unveiled in the near future, we hope.