Japan 2018/22 World Cup Bid Unveils Secret Weapon: Astro Boy

October 9th, 2009 | by: Daryl |

astro

The World Cup 2018/2022 bidding war just got serious. First we had the Australia 2018/22 team engaging in some guerrilla marketing by handing out goody bags at a rival England 2018/22 event. Now the Japanese 2018/22 team have unleashed Astro Boy (above).

For those unfamiliar, which until about 15 minutes ago included myself, Astro Boy (also known as the Mighty Atom) is a legendary Japanese manga character. He’s a powerful robot boy with human emotions. Right now his emotion include feeling patriotic about Japan’s 2018/2022 World Cup bid, as he’s going to be their Goodwill Ambassador.

I’m not 100% sure this is a good idea. Mostly because things that look cute in manga tend to look absolutely terrifying when made three dimensional. I’m submitting the unblinking image of Astro Boy the mascot (above) as Exhibit A.

But Astro Boy could be a useful mascot in another way. As Jeremy who sent us this email suggests: Astro Boy is a robot so powerful he could conceivably fly around the world and destroy every stadium in every other bidding nation. Imagine the look on the English FA’s faces if they had to rebuild Wembley again?

Thanks to Jeremy for the tip. If you’ve got anything you think we should share with The Offside or WorldCupBlog readers, send it to tips[at]theoffside[dot]com

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http://france.worldcupblog.org Laurie

Pretty sure he does inappropriate things with his hair spikes when nobody’s looking.
http://epl.theoffside.com Rob

Aw, I love Astro Boy. If England weren’t in the running though, I’d be supporting Japan, and I sort of hope they get the 2018 if we get 2022. I love how much their fans got into it back in 2002. Even if it meant me getting up in the morning to watch football, which was weird.
http://scotland.worldcupblog.org Ian

I just can’t see Japan getting it twice in the span of six tournaments when there are so many deserving places that haven’t had their shot. 2002 was a fun tournament to watch (especially if you like host bias) but I’d back Australia and England (I just hit myself) over Japan again.
Ian

Surely we Australians can bring out Skippy the bush kangaroo to battle with Astro Boy. Maybe Jack Warner will appreciate that?
http://www.LaCelesteBlog.com Fernando

Japan wants another World Cup? They just had one in 2002 with Korea… or did they forget?

By the way the old school Astro Boy cartoon was off the hook, he’s more like a Mighty Mouse type, flies around and what not, doing do-gooder like activities like saving the world. The new Astro Boy movie though looks like absolute garbage… the Manga cartoons are 1000X better.

Australia should use the “Phantom” character, I hear in Australia, the Phantom is very popular… I always thought the Billy Zane movie was alright, a little corny but decent in spots. I prefer if Australia hosts the next World Cup, not because of the Socceroos but because of the women & beer, that enough should be incentive for FIFA to reward Australia.