Interest

Olympic Archers Show Off Their Anime Fandom

Is there something about archery that attracts anime fans? After scoring a bronze model as part of Japan's men's archery team on Monday, 36-year-old Takaharu Furukawa told the press: "My heart feels like it's bouncing (pyonpyon)." The phrase is a reference to lines from the Is the order a rabbit? anime's opening theme song "Daydream café."

Meanwhile Deng Yu-Cheng of the Chinese Taipei team, who earned a silver medal that same day, became an internet sensation when a fan who follows the athlete on Instagram revealed a conversation with Deng translated as follow:

Fan: "When you shoot off an arrow, do you say 'I am the bone of my sword'?"

Deng: "No, actually, I generally say "Stella!!!!!"

The phrases are references to the iconic lines of Archer in Fate/stay night and Arash (of the Archer class) in Fate/Grand Order respectively.

Deng's Instagram page features frequent examples of the athlete's extensive anime figure collection, including from Re:Zero, KONOSUBA, and A Certain Magical Index. On his official athlete profile on the Olympics website, he lists "Japanese animation and comics, mobile games" under his hobbies.

Japanese pop culture has been a key aspect of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, with the opening ceremony last Friday featuring video game tunes and placards evoking manga.

Source: NTV 24 via Nijipoi, Otakomu