After a nationwide vote by schoolchildren, Japan has finally unveiled its Olympic and Paralympic mascots.

The spiky-eared pair do not have names yet but certain details about their personalities have been unveiled.

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According to their official profiles, the duo are allegedly have ‘opposite personalities’. However, before anyone starts worrying they’ll have a dramatic fight before the games can begin, the profile is quick to remind readers that they are ‘very good friends’ and ‘respect each other’.

Considering they’re going to have to work together until the summer of 2020, their positive fictional relationship can only be a good thing.

Another interesting element that sets Japan’s mascots out from the crowd is that they are superheroes as well as athletes.

The blue creature is the official mascot of the Olympics has the power to teleport. Meanwhile, the pink creature is the Paralympic mascot and has multiple powers: it can talk to stones and the wind, and also has telekinetic abilities.

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The pair also have well-rounded personalities. The blue creature respects tradition but likes to keep its finger on the pulse. It is also very athletic (as you might hope from an Olympic mascot) and has a strong sense of justice.

The cherry-blossom based pink mascot is usually calm but can get very powerful when necessary. It loves nature and has a dignified inner strength.

Both of the creatures are, thus far, genderless.

How were they chosen?

The Olympic mascots were chosen out of 2,042 designs. Marketing and branding experts narrowed the choices down to just three pairs of mascots.

Once these three pairs were chosen, the winning designs were picked by a public vote amongst schoolchildren from 16,769 Japanese schools.

Ryo Taniguchi, is an illustrator from Fukuoka in southern Japan is the designer of mascots. Speaking about his design being chosen he said:

“I’m just so spaced out at the moment. I just want to tell my beloved wife that I’ve been chosen.”

How are people reacting?

So far, the reaction to the mascots seems generally positive.

However, others seemed to think that there was a better design that wasn’t chosen…

But everyone is making the same joke about how the mascots look like Pokémon characters:

We’ll probably see the mascots out and about in the lead up to Tokyo 2020 Olympic games. The games are due to begin on 24th July 2020.