Although this year’s 2016 Olympics had the spotlight all on Rio, Brazil, the show ended with an awesomely clever and fun virtual-realistic animation hybrid starring none other than Super Mario, Doraemon, and Shinzo Abe (Japan’s Prime Minister) themselves.
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To mark the changing of the guard, per tradition, Brazil gave Japan a section of its closing ceremony to highlight the next major Olympics.
The two-minute 2020 Tokyo Olympic promo features Abe complaining about being late for the Brazilian closing event.
Between his sexy appearance and that of Abe as Mario (again: The Japanese Prime Minster as MARIO!), we forgot all about Ryan Locthe for a few hours last night. The personification of Super Mario was indeed amusing to many.
Below, watch (most of) the Tokyo 2020 “warming up” video, including Prime Minister Abe’s warp pipe entrance.
This story has been corrected to show that Abe was not the originator of the Super Mario idea.
“He popped up from a pipe grossly contaminated by radiation”, said one tweet, apparently referring to the Fukushima nuclear power plant that was crippled by a massive 2011 tsunami.
The governor formally accepted the Olympic flag with which the 2016 Games came to an end.
The facility is being decommissioned and that is expected to take decades to achieve, while some areas around it remain uninhabitable due to high levels of radiation.
Tokyo 2020’s organisers have been careful to respect their predecessors, saying there is much they can learn from Rio, which is true, but much of that will be cautionary tales about the need to test venues and transport plans, and start selling tickets as soon as possible.
“Donning Super Mario hat & popping out of VG manhole has to be the wackiest thing Shinzo Abe has ever done #ClosingCeremony#Rio2016”, says another.
Mr Abe himself seemed satisfied.
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“I wanted to show the world Japan’s influence with the help of a Japanese character”.
