Tokyo Begins 2020 Olympic Preparations With ‘Akira’

If you didn’t know, the Olympics are coming, and Japan isn’t about to sleep on the games. Come 2020, the metropolis will host the next summer Olympics, and it looks like work is already being done around the city to prepare Tokyo for its influx of visitors. So, naturally, the powers at be behind the 2020 Tokyo Olympics decided the city needed more Akira.

Move over, Tokyo! It looks like Neo Tokyo is coming for your spot.

For those of you visiting Japan in the near future, you will want to pay close attention to construction sites you stumble upon in Tokyo. Social media is being flooded with photos by fans who’ve walked across Akira wall art that is guarding the Olympics’ construction sites. As you can see above, the locations are kept hidden by towering white walls, and the often unsightly barriers are made all the more prettier with Akira artwork.

Of course, there is a certain sense of poetry to this Akira deluge. After all, the iconic sci-fi series does have a very unique tie to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The title made its debut way back in 1982 before the games were even a blip on Japan’s radar, but Akira knew something the world didn’t. Katsuhiro Otomo chose to set his story in 2019 in a post-apocalyptic world readying for the 2020 Olympics. Oh, and those games were just happening to take place in Tokyo.

Coincidence? Well, that’s for you to decide.

Akira may be taking over the Olympics for now, but there is no telling how the series may factor into the games as they grow closer. For now, fans do know the Japanese Olympic Committee has tapped a slew of anime icons to act as the event’s cultural ambassadors. Heroes like Naruto, Goku, Monkey D. Luffy, Sailor Moon, and more will act as guiding forces for the much-awaited games. So, there’s every chance Shotaro Kaneda could join those ranks.

Are you ready to see how anime is brought into the 2020 Tokyo Olympics? Should they have Goku compete in one of the events? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics, k-pop, and anime!