To show their excitement for the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, a group of Japanese artists have come together to create an unofficial promotion campaign for the international sports competition.
On the World Flags website, the artists reimagined the participating countries as cool anime characters who are ready to go into battle. Each character and their costume are designed using the country’s flag, culture, and history, incorporated into Japanese traditional samurai clothes.
“We feel so much respect for all of the countries around the world. They and their symbols (flags) are very important to us,” the artists told Bored Panda. “We know we can’t treat any of them in a way that would disrespect them and that’s what we’re constantly trying to do.”
“We started this project after recognizing the diversity between all of the people in the world. Also, we believe that illustration is the perfect tool to highlight this. Our motto is ‘The whole world is cool!'”
They clarified that the World Flags is not part of the Olympics. They just wanted to contribute as artists because they believed that anime can do wonders when it comes to “celebrating the bond between the Japanese culture and the rest of the world and acknowledging their differences.”
