Japan Hails 100M Champ Lyles as ‘World’s Fastest Anime Fan’

Noah Lyles of the USA celebrates after winning the Men 100m final of the Athletics competitions in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, at the Stade de France stadium in Saint Denis, France, 04 August 2024. (EPA)

08:31-5 August 2024 AD ـ 30 Muharram 1446 AH

Japan Hails 100M Champ Lyles as ‘World’s Fastest Anime Fan’

Japanese media hailed Olympic 100m gold medalist Noah Lyles as the world's fastest anime fan after the American celebrated his win by miming an attack from "Dragon Ball".

Just five thousandths of a second separated the American champion from Jamaica's Kishane Thompson -- a thrilling finish that was the event's closest in modern history.

Wrapped in a US flag after the race, an over-the-moon Lyles thrust his hands forward, fingers splayed, imitating the "kamehamaha" attack used to unleash a powerful burst of energy in the Japanese manga and anime franchise.

The 27-year-old Lyles has made no secret of his love for Japanese pop culture, including comics and cartoons such as the global 1990s megahit "Dragon Ball".

At the Olympic trials in June, he delighted fellow anime enthusiasts by whipping out his "Yu-Gi-Oh" cards and showing them off to the cameras.

"Yu-Gi-Oh!" ran in the Japanese weekly comic magazine Shonen Jump between 1996 and 2004 and gave rise to a media franchise including a trading card game.

"Mankind's fastest otaku", blared a headline in Japanese sports newspaper Daily Sports -- using the term for hardcore superfans in a new nickname also used by other outlets.

Anime fans on social media also recalled how Lyles had paid tribute to "Dragon Ball" creator Akira Toriyama after his death aged 68 earlier this year.

"So sad to lose a legend Akira Toriyama... his work has forever affected my life," Lyles wrote on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, in March.

"I'm sure this kamehameha didn't go unnoticed by Toriyama-sensei," one fan said on X in response to his victory on Sunday.

The French men's fencing team also paid homage to "Dragon Ball" when they made "kamehameha" gestures in unison after winning bronze.

But it isn't the only anime that has inspired Olympians.

Brazilian volleyball player Darlan Ferreira Souza was seen in Paris with a tattoo on his arm featuring a slogan from "Haikyu!!", a series about high-school volleyball clubs.

The tattoo, saying "omoide nanka iran (We don't need memories)", elated "Haikyu!!" fans in Japan who saw the ink as proof of the anime's reach and impact.

"So happy to know 'Haikyu!' is travelling worldwide. Hope it will continue to inspire volleyball players across the world", one X post said.

Entertainment

‘I’m Still Here’: Joan Chen Plays Thwarted Immigrant Mom in ‘Didi'

Chinese-American actress Joan Chen poses during a photocall for Chinese director Jia Zhang Ke's film '24 City' at the 61st Cannes International Film Festival on May 17, 2008 in Cannes, southern France. (AFP)

07:19-4 August 2024 AD ـ 29 Muharram 1446 AH

‘I’m Still Here’: Joan Chen Plays Thwarted Immigrant Mom in ‘Didi'

Long before Joan Chen charmed Western audiences with seductive turns in "The Last Emperor" and "Twin Peaks" she was a child star in China, hand-picked for her debut movie role by Mao Zedong's wife.

That remarkable personal journey, from Red Army propaganda movies to glamorous Hollywood roles directed by Bernardo Bertolucci and David Lynch, could not appear more different to Chen's character in new coming-of-age film "Didi."

Chen plays Chungsing, a Taiwanese single mom and frustrated artist in California, whose 13-year-old is too busy trying to impress his skater friends and navigate adolescent crushes to be nice to his family.

Yet the role -- which is already earning Oscars buzz -- "poured out of me, because that's the life I've lived," Chen told AFP.

"I am, like Chungsing, an immigrant mother, who raised two American children -- with such an intimate, loving relationship, but also fraught with cultural chasm, misunderstanding, unmet expectations," she said.

It all started for Chen, aged 14, when she was spotted by a film director who worked for Chairman Mao's wife Jiang Qing.

"The director picked me out of school, then sent my dossier and my pictures for her to approve," recalls Chen.

"I was so happy that I happened to be the type that they needed. It wasn't my dream. I never thought about it, when they picked me to be an actress. And then slowly, I learned to love it."

She quickly became a beloved movie star in 1970s China -- a job that spared her from being sent to work in rural provinces during the devastating Cultural Revolution.

Chen moved to the US at age 20, studying film but skeptical about her prospects as an Asian woman in Hollywood.

She landed a lead role in Bertolucci's "The Last Emperor," as the wife of China's final dynastic ruler. The film won nine Oscars, including best picture.

Yet Chen, now 63, recalls: "Back then, there just weren't any Asian filmmakers or scriptwriters who could create a part for me."

"I could have been this ingenue, this breakout new lead (actress)... So that was a shame. Nothing could really follow up."

- 'Still here' -

In "Didi," out in theaters on August 16, Chen's character is a talented artist who had to forsake her ambitions for her family, in their new country.

Chungsing is stoic, quietly bearing her disappointment while devoting herself to her frequently oblivious, Americanized children.

Unlike her character, Chen continued to work prolifically through parenthood, acting and directing in both the US and Asian film industries.

Chen's part as femme fatale Josie Packard in "Twin Peaks" remains popular with fans of the cult TV series to this day.

But her Western roles have failed to match the success of her early career.

And she still reflects on the "night and day" difference between her daughters' experience growing up in the West, and her own arrival in the United States as an immigrant, with "that uncertainty of the ground you're standing on."

"The pains and joys we see in the film is a lived experience for myself as well," said Chen.

With "Didi" winning awards at the Sundance film festival, there are hints of a late-career comeback. Chen and director Sean Wang are earning mentions as dark horses for the next Academy Awards.

"I am so thrilled that young filmmakers like Sean exist... when there are enough scriptwriters, directors, then you create more parts for people who look like them," she said.

"It's wonderful. And I'm so happy that I'm still here."

Japan Hails 100M Champ Lyles as ‘World’s Fastest Anime Fan’

Japan Hails 100M Champ Lyles as ‘World’s Fastest Anime Fan’

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‘I’m Still Here’: Joan Chen Plays Thwarted Immigrant Mom in ‘Didi'

‘I’m Still Here’: Joan Chen Plays Thwarted Immigrant Mom in ‘Didi'

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