Light Yagami At The Olympics

Submission 7,970

Part of a series on 2024 Summer Paris Olympics. [View Related Entries]

About

Light Yagami At The Olympics refers to a parody image in which Japanese football coach Hajime Moriyasu is labeled "Light Yagami" and pictured writing in a notebook, referencing the protagonist of the anime and manga series Death Note. The image convinced some online that Japan actually had a coach named Light Yagami during the 2024 Summer Paris Olympics, leading fact-checkers to clarify that the image was not legitimate. In late July 2024 during the Olympic games, the image of Hajime Moriyasu labeled "Light Yagami" was notably used in a number of memes on various platforms.

Origin

On December 1st, 2022, Japan defeated Spain in the World Cup.^[1] During the match, Japan's head coach Hajime Moriyasu was pictured writing in a notebook, generating headlines in Japan.^[2]

On December 3rd, Redditor tengenmv posted an edit in /r/WorldCup^[3] of Moriyasu writing in the notebook with his name edited to "Light Yagami," with the names "Germany" and "Spain" crossed out in a font reminiscent of the anime Death Note. In Death Note, the protagonist Light Yagami is able to kill others by writing their names in the titular Death Note. The post gained over 1,700 points in 18 months (shown below).

Spread

The image began trending after numerous reposts in 2024 during the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics. On July 28th, the Instagram account @animelif3_^[4] posted the Moriyasu / Light Yagami image with the caption, "It's over for other Olympic Teams," gaining over 3.1 million likes in two days (shown below, left). The following day, the image was posted to Twitter by user @SABO_SHINJI4^[5] with the same caption, gaining over 22,000 retweets and 184,000 likes in one day (shown below, right). It was also reposted to the subreddit /r/memes^[9] on the 28th.

In a follow-up tweet on July 29th, Twitter user @SABO_SHINJI4^[6] clarified that the post was a meme, showing a picture of Hajime Moriyasu that garnered nearly 160,000 views in less than a day (shown below).

The virality of the image led to explanations from Sportskeeda^[7] and Fandomwire^[8] in late July 2024.