This weekend, Japanese figure skater Yuzuru Hanyu won Olympic gold. In Japan, people were excited and online, they quickly pointed out that Hanyu’s dramatic poses and intense stares look like something straight from Final Fantasy
Update February 20 – 2:00am: An earlier version of this story included clips of Hanyu apparently skating to Final Fantasy music (here and here). However, as reader Chat points out, it appears the original videos (here and here) did not include Final Fantasy music. We regret the error.
On Twitter, folks noticed that Hanyu looked like a character drawn by Final Fantasy artist Yoshitaka Amano.
天野喜孝先生が描いた羽生君より写真の方が天野感が出てるのはどういうことだ？？ pic.twitter.com/acCnsqhIFk
— mamou (@mamoclochan) February 17, 2018
Which lead to the inevitable Photoshops:
「羽生君のこの写真、ファイナルファンタジーってロゴ入っててもおかしくないな」というpostを見たので10秒で作りました pic.twitter.com/TqECke3v3J
— タツヤ＠5年目も放課後 (@tatsuya_GETB) February 17, 2018
Namely, this one, which has been retweeted over 70,000 times and liked over 135,000 times. It inspired numerous other Photoshops.
https://twitter.com/embed/status/964983391551549440
よりファンタジー感を増幅させてみました。 pic.twitter.com/VTxKQyx2Wq
— あご (@orphe_strahl) February 17, 2018
違和感なさすぎて私も作ってみました！
これ、楽しすぎますね！！！！ pic.twitter.com/wb69yBprbZ— エリカ🌏無職 (@CaravanERICA) February 17, 2018
絶対流行ると思って絵と音を合わせて2時間で作りました pic.twitter.com/jtBVYOY7DJ
— SKHR (@sekihirowashoy) February 18, 2018
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