In the past, we've seen talented artists turn fast food chains and even unique Japanese KitKat flavors into gorgeous anime characters. Perhaps setting a new bar for such awesome anthropomorphism, a group of Japanese artists have joined up to form the "World Flags" project, an unofficial campaign to get people excited for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics through art, as well as deepen knowledge about competing countries and their flags.
World Flags writes that they wish to "introduce the flags of the world and some information about them using cool Japanese traditional clothes" of samurai, firefighter, monks, among others. Each design transforms competing countries into their own impressively designed anime character, using characteristics of each country and their flag to flesh out a specific style. Expertly illustrated, it makes us want to see a combative anime series inspired by the upcoming Olympic games. World Flags is requesting fan art using the hashtag #worldflags_fa on Twitter. Be sure to follow them there and their homepage as well for more awesome designs.
Below are a few designs.
Australia

Canada

China

Finland

Great Britain

Japan

Russia

South Korea

USA

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- External Link
- https://grapee.jp/en/
16 Comments
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JJ Jetplane
I’m speechless.
theeastisred
Russia is not part of Oceania.
Mike Wyckoff
Canada has 13 provinces and territories, not 12.
carsonjon2
Skilled artist, but I don't much care for anything that tries to enforce stereotypical physical traits of a certain peoples....but alas, this is Japan.
I still get asked "if you're American, why aren't your eyes blue and your hair blonde?" from time to time. sigh
Strangerland
They probably should have joined up with an English proofreader as well.
Fox Sora Winters
These are some really nice designs. I'm quite fond of the Great Britain one. Japan and Canada look really nifty as well. I'll have to take a look sometime and see what other designs there are. I reckon they'll do a good job with France, but I wonder what they can pull off for Spain, Italy or Switzerland.
Neither is Britain. What's your point?
Is there really any need to nitpick? Instead of criticising, try contributing. Isn't the spirit of the Olympics to set aside our differences and come together as one? Being so pedantic is just a little divisive.
Strange, considering that's the stereotypical appearance of Scandinavians. But then, people these days are morons.
Meistro Johnauge'r
but....the point of the Olympics is peace (why the flag is white). Wouldn't in make more sense if they were anime style representations of famous scholars and holy men from the countries?
Luddite
Oh dear.
Vince Black
and the kardashian dress gets attacked....
JJ Jetplane
@carson jon
Yes. It does feed into nothing but stereotypes.
Americans and Canadians are a wide range of colors.
An interesting fact I learned from Family Feud is that only 4% of Americans are blonde.
As for guesses. I consistently tell people in Japan that I’m Korean when they say “I’m definitely African.” It’s fun to shock their minds when I communicate only in Korean and pull out my Korean ID.
theeastisred
The text accompanying that illustration says that it is.
TrevorPeace
I wouldn't mind buying a copy of the collection, as a nice big coffee table book.
HOstess_in_tokyo
Just another thing for the world's "otaku" to get excited about. The artist have literally captured nothing that represents each country.
sf2k
Wow that's great! I demand outfitters at every airport to deck out every Canadian. We're not all blond hair blue eyed so that would be a subtle way to tell Japan that Canadians are more diverse
sf2k
a better challenge would be to combine this somehow with hockey equipment?
Mike Wyckoff
LOL
pointing out a factual error is not being divisive. In fact, tell the people of Nunavut they’re territory doesn’t matter and see whose the divisive one.
The art is great but lacks respect for the real heritage of some of the countries.