The children are our future. They also made a horrible decision that will affect our lives in 2020. Overnight, the Tokyo Olympic committee announced the result of a vote held by Japan’s schoolchildren to select the mascot for the next summer games, and they made a horrible decision.
Tokyo 2020 mascots aren’t Stoned Cat and Leaf Bear because kids have no taste
We could have had perfection, but the world wasn’t ready.
James Dator has been covering a wide range of sports for SB Nation for over a decade, with a special focus on the NFL.
Look, there’s nothing functionally wrong with the anime space rabbits they chose. Truth be told, they’re better than a lot of Olympic mascots we’ve seen over the years. However, I cannot abide them choosing such clearly inferior mascots when given the opportunity to choose the tanuki duo I lovingly referred to as “Stoned Cat and Leaf Bear,” when I tried to lobby for them back in December.
There’s a reason you don’t let young children make style choices. Ever seen a small child who has a parent who lets them pick out their own clothes? They come downstairs wearing a Batman Halloween costume from two years ago. You cannot trust a child to make a good decision on art and culture when the art and culture they’ve been exposed to consists of Peppa Pig.
Normally I wouldn’t be so worked up about this, but it’s because Stoned Cat and Leaf Bear were so ... perfect. There’s no other appropriate word. They are adorable, huggable, they would have been amazing on shirts and walking around the Olympic village. They are mascots who know how to party. It’s bad they weren’t selected. It’s even worse that they received the LEAST number of votes, according to Kyodo News, who put the C mascots at 35,291 to the winners’ 109,041.
I’ll take solace knowing that there were over 30,000 children who believed in the same ideals I do. They will go on to be the leaders of this world and the influencers of the future. They will go on to do great things, when the rest will have forgotten about the space rabbits they once chose because they were “cool.”
Stoned Cat and Leaf Bear were beautiful. They were timeless. I honestly can’t come to terms with the fact I may never see them again in an official capacity. But, the beautiful thing about life if that you can’t appreciate the sweet without the sour, and so I will cherish the three magical months we spent together as mascot and mascot-enthusiast. A time where it felt like anything was possible.
I’ll miss you, Stoned Cat and Leaf Bear. I love you.
