The champion player shows off champion poses that set off a trending hashtag on Twitter in Japan.
Olympian Jun Mizutani may have won the admiration of the country for scoring Japan’s first-ever singles medal in table tennis, but he also won the hearts of anime fans with his innate ability to mimic character poses during his games, without even knowing he was doing so. The uncanny likeness inspired an incredibly long hashtag, ＃アニメの画像をアップすると近い構図の水谷隼の画像が送られてくる, which roughly translates to “Upload an Anime Image and an Image of Mizutani in a Similar Composition will be Sent Out”, which soon became a trending topic on Twitter, with people attaching the hashtag to their favourite anime images. Sure enough, keen-eyed fans were quick to prove the athlete’s anime style by matching up the pictures with Mizutani’s poses and sharing them online, resulting in some truly impressive side-by-side images!
The table tennis champion unwittingly takes up a pose from cool kid Sakamoto as he unwraps an onigiri rice ball in the Haven’t You Heard? I’m Sakamoto manga and anime series.
And here, Mizutani is matched up with pink-haired Kanae Shinjo from the sports comedy manga series Teekyu.
▼ The form of Cactuar from Final Fantasy pops up every now and then.
▼ The player’s shakehand grip can be seen on Sailor Moon.
▼ And even Patrick from SpongeBob SquarePants makes an appearance!
Mizutani’s match-time poses are just as dramatic as Mina Kazeyari’s from the Grimoire Magical School Academy game.
And he can bathe in glory as well as any member from Yowamushi Pedal‘s Hakone Academy Bicycle Club.
▼ Even his leap can be seen in the anime world!
Love Live! fans were spoilt with a number of similarities between Mizutani and the singing, dancing performers from the idol unit anime series.
▼ Even off the court, fans have found some hilarious similarities.
Having first appeared just over a week ago, the hashtag is still active on Twitter, with users continuing to send in their favourite anime images in the hopes of having them returned with a dramatic Mizutani pose. You can check out all the impressive images on Twitter, and don’t forget to use the hashtag ＃アニメの画像をアップすると近い構図の水谷隼の画像が送られてくる to join in all the fun!
Source: Twitter/#アニメの画像をアップすると近い構図の水谷隼の画像が送られてくる
Top Image: Twitter/@_gametaso_