Ah My Goddess, Patlabor artists draw figure-skating gold medalist Hanyū

19-year-old male figure skater Yuzuru Hanyū won the hearts of fans in Japan and across the globe this week. It’s not just his Olympic gold medal in Men’s Free Skating that has everyone talking. Hanyū also bears a striking resemblance to Neon Genesis Evangelion Shinji Ikari. Viewers are also fans of his cute Winnie the Pooh tissue cozy.

Character designer Akemi Takada (Urusei Yatsura, Creamy Mami, Kimagure Orange Road, Patlabor, Fancy Lala) drew a “hasty” sketch of Hanyu as Shinji. A similar Photoshopped image has been circulating the Internet even before the final competition rounds began, prompting Shinji voice actress Megumi Ogata to comment.

【夜のTLに再放流】『にわかですみません…(;^_^A』 http://t.co/gEt1N1KWh6 え〜と、こうですか？(//∇//) #羽生結弦 #figureskate pic.twitter.com/rUzHszWb0t

— 高田明美(マミと野明の母(?)♡) (@AngelTouchPlus) February 15, 2014

金メダルおめでとうございます。さっき、名前間違えてTweetしたので、メダルの輝きを添えて再送…ヾ(＠⌒ー⌒＠)ノ #figureskate #羽生結弦 #Sochi pic.twitter.com/ScYyTesq07

— 高田明美(マミと野明の母(?)♡) (@AngelTouchPlus) February 14, 2014

https://twitter.com/hanyu_yudu/statuses/434677514594557952

Yukito Ayatsuji, the author of the Another light novel that inspired the anime of the same name, talked about the skater on Twitter, admitting that he had little interest in figure skating before, and only really became aware of it during this Olympics. He added that he might like to make the “cute-looking boy” a character in one of his novel projects — Satsujinki (Homicidal Killer). He mused that “Satsujinki: Winter Sports Edition” would have plenty of killing tools at his disposal.

それにしても金メダルの羽生くん。フィギュアスケートに元々あまり興味がないので、今回初めて認識したのだけれど、何とまあ可愛らしい男の子であることよ。そのまま登場人物に使いたいかも。「殺人鬼」とかの。

— 綾辻行人 (@ayatsujiyukito) February 15, 2014

Anime character designer Masami Obari predicted that there is going to be an avalanche of figure-skating anime proposals.

フィギュアスケートアニメの企画書が乱れ飛ぶ予感…(￣ω￣)

— 大張正己 /Masami Obari (@G1_BARI) February 14, 2014

One-time Weekly Shonen Jump new-artist award winner and pixiv member Takumi drew Hanyu (and his tissue cozy) in the style of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure artist Hirohiko Araki.

https://twitter.com/takumitoxin/statuses/434589249732489216

Manga creator Kousuke Fujishima (Ah My Goddess) also drew a portrait of the skater with a brush pen.