Soccer World Cup Teams Given Anime Girl Mascots

[Roofstone]

France and Netherlands are very cool. I like them!

I'd watch a soccer anime if it looked like this.

 

[TrevHead]

Lol at the little dig at England with the 3 cats one of which is asleep instead of 3 lions

 

[MrMan999]

Of course the US gets the Iron Man suit. Of course it does.

 

[nodlimax]

I think it's funny that Asuka from NGE is representing Germany. Anyway because someone said that our mascot doesn't have anything related to Germany in it, let me try to shed some light into, because I can at least think of a few things related to my country in the picture.

First of all the symbol on the weapon belongs to the german football devision (DFB = Deutscher Fußball Bund). In addition the 3 stars in the background are related to the three world champion titles from 1954, 1974 and 1990.

On the armor and weapon she's carrying it might be related to the fact that germany is number 3 world wide for weapon exports. Maybe some kind of social criticism. On the other hand - it's anime/manga, so it could just be wild imagination of the creator.

Other than the things I mentioned I can't find anything else related to Germany but the same goes for some of the other pictures.

Bosnia is just bad taste imho....

 

[RealRT]

Russia is kinda weird. Is that a character from some anime or something, like with Asuka and Germany? Oh well. Either way, the two-headed eagle looks cool.

Bosnia was just plain dark, what the hell.

 

[Jandau]

While I'm glad Croatia got a good one, the Bosnian one is... well... poor taste doesn't begin to cover it. Seriously, it's not a matter of being oversensitive, this is simply not OK...

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

So Nigeria had the only completely black girl because... Japan, I guess? Ghana and Cameroon, places of traditional ethnic people of darker skin tone... Eh, we already had Nigeria. Make them light skin.

And I think the artist was going for a Rhian Benson design for Côte d'Ivoire. But I could be giving credit.

 

[Kinitawowi]

I love how Colombia got reduced to "Carlos Valderrama's hair".

And Bosnia Herzegovina is just sad. That country is so much more than the recent tragedy.

Unfortunately this is pretty much the only thing that the average internet user knows about my country. There is tons of interesting things and things that my country is known for by the people on the Balkans, but farther than that, it's just the recent war. I'm still kinda happy that my country got so much attention with the world cup. Seeing so many people rooting for my team... it was nice for a change.

I'll be the first to admit that I could probably tell you the sum total of about four things about Bosnia; it used to be part of Yugoslavia, it's where WW1 kicked off (the 100th anniversary of which has just been observed), it was part of another war barely twenty years ago, and the 1984 Winter Olympics were held there.

I know it probably makes me a bad person, but it's not dissimilar to the way a lot of people see Vietnam - a war, not a country. (I kept an eye on them during the World Cup, because they were who I picked in the work sweepstake, and while they played well they got absolutely shafted by the referees throughout.)

 

[shirkbot]

Why does Croatia have a volleyball? I mean I don't understand several of these, but that's just the wrong sport entirely... Either way, I like the concept even if the execution could use some work. I'd actually like to see this in fighting game style splash screens for the various matches that have taken place.

 

[Scarim Coral]

The US one has a weird pose, I know how that pose suppose to work but it doesn't look like it was drawn correctly.

Overall Argentine is probably my favourite and England look pretty rad!

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

But if the artist was Japanese, well, their view of geopolitical and culture situations outside of the SEA region can be a bit skewed, to say the least.

Original pixiv account, so...probably.

http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=596139

[EDIT it's pixiv, so be prepared for some NSFW]

I liked the reference to Valderrama in the Colombian team. But WTF was Ghana about? Are those wooly bobble hats really popular over there or something?

 

[Michael Tabbut]

So Germany gets Asuka, but England doesn't get Saber? Boo

Yeah I was kinda disappointed about that too.

Of course the US gets the Iron Man suit. Of course it does.

To be honest I was expecting Captain America or a airhead valley girl stereotype so I'm not that disappointed.

OT I saw these last week and thought they were pretty cool (Bosnia notwithstanding).

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

We are pleased, but why does she have elf ears?

 

[RoonMian]

I'm from Bosnia and honestly when I saw the girl crying I at first thought that it was because of how the referees bent us over in our game against Nigeria (but obviously no one watched the game so it didn't happen), but yeah, the war reference makes more sense. Frankly, a little disappointed.

I watched that game. It sucked. But at least Nigeria got its ass properly whooped by France.

The only thing I liked was the Valderrama reference for Columbia. The rest was just random at best and very insensitive at worst. Especially Bosnia-Herzegowina, that war was 20 years ago. Depicting Iran as practically naked except of a veil is as tasteless as it gets, too.

I love how Colombia got reduced to "Carlos Valderrama's hair".

You gotta admit though, his hair is fabulous.

Why does Croatia have a volleyball? I mean I don't understand several of these, but that's just the wrong sport entirely... Either way, I like the concept even if the execution could use some work. I'd actually like to see this in fighting game style splash screens for the various matches that have taken place.

It's not a volleyball, it's a football. In old times they looked like that.

Spoiler: Plus it is an exact depiction of the logo of Croatia's football association

 

[Dr. Crawver]

Yaaay...more anime girls...

In all honesty I'm kinda sick of this "make X as cute anime girls" thing that's been going on a while. I can't help but feel anime as a medium, while has it's advantages (as does every medium in existence), it has some pretty dam huge flaws and issues that always seem to be swept to one side, and I just find it all so horribly over-rated.

And for the record, I liked the Aussies one, and Germany's one looks stupid.

 

[gridsleep]

That's a novel way of making a totally uninteresting subject interesting for about ten minutes. Excellent artwork, and for the record the artist's nom de plum is 大馬場十三 (Tsao Mai-to Shuzet)

When I saw the Australian mascot, I could distinctly hear Soldier saying, "I will deliver my condolences to your kangaroo wife."

 

[Riot3000]

These are great Ivory Coast is just adorable, France, Nigeria,Spain,Japan doing a transformation sequence and that kangeroo Austrailia to funny. That and Korea doing Gangnam Style pure gold.

But that Bosnia one was just why.

 

[Tono Makt]

Okay some of these are..bad. I mean, Iran, Algeria and Chile are..rather lightly clothed to say the least, though Chile is at least not as bad as the other two. And dear lord Bosnia/Herzegovina..thats just poor taste. Some of the rest are pretty cool-looking but god damn some of them are just bad.

Completely agree with that, about Bosnia - if the artist couldn't find something unique about the place to animate, just go with the generic Anime Girl. Going with a crying girl, collapsed to her knees, holding an AK-47, with a bunch of bullets (spent casings?) around her just strikes me as being horribly offensive.

Other than that, I think the artist simply fails at general geography. Cameroon and Ghana are AFRICAN nations, so portraying them as perky Blond girls is just wrong. Particularly when Nigeria and the Côte d'Ivoire have darker skinned anime girls. Colombia... not quite so bad, given how much Colombians seem to love their women dying their hair blond, or value blond hair. (See: Shakira) I'm inclined to include Brazil with Colombia, but I don't know how much Brazil prizes blond hair; they seem to be quite proud of beautiful women in all colours, both natural and colour-not-appearing-in-nature, so maybe a blond Brazilian isn't so terrible. Iran and Algeria seem to be designed to mock Islam - when most of the Euro nations are more covered up than the Islamic nations, it looks more like mockery than just artistic license. Not to mention how Iran looks like a Terrorist, with the bandoleer of bullets across her chest. (And the symbol on one of her thighs - is that the Radioactive symbol?) I have no idea what the artist thinks is in Costa Rica - bellying dancing ninjas? "MADNESS? THIS... IS... ECUADOR!!!"

Japan looks like a boy, which is more funny than anything else. Honduras too - she looks like the pathetic little home-made cheerleader-type you see in cartoons. Italy looks drunk... or maybe trying to look sexy. My first impression is to get up and close because she's about to fall over. Uruguay and Switzerland seem to have gotten their shoes mixed up while trying to make sure all their gear is on properly. England has their team depicted rather accurately as a sleeping kitten, so that's a nice bit of accuracy.

The rest either aren't noteworthy to me or are nice enough. Spain, France, the USA, Germany, Portugal... eh. Nice enough.

 

[WouldYouKindly]

Switzerland is possibly the single most stereotypical thing I've ever seen and it still made me laugh my ass off.

EDIT: To all those getting up in arms about Bosnia, what else do you know about Bosnia aside from the war? I know I've got nothing except it used to be part of Yugoslavia before it split. Is there any other reference an artist could make that most people would get? As bad as the depiction might be, would it be less of a slight to have Bosnia be the only country not drawn?