It seems that the secessionist sentiment* in parts of the UK (probably a backlash against the EU, but let’s not go there) resulted in the Telegraph taking open submissions for a new flag design. After that, they took the “top designs” and ran an online poll. Unfortunately, they didn’t realize what they were letting themselves in for, as animé fans managed to slip in several designs based on their favorite characters, and then conspired to flood the poll in the last few days. The British weren’t quite clueless:
Some [designs] were serious, some scurrilous, some frankly ridiculous. Many came from Japan, where our competition sparked a national craze after it was picked up by a popular online forum.
I don’t know if a bunch of otaku on 2chan should be thought of as nationwide. Crazy, yes, but nationwide? Still, the result? According to the Telegraph, this is the winner of the new flag poll, with no less than 55% of the vote:
They’re not fully clued in for other details, such as what the hell the center of the flag is.
The dragon itself was inspired by a Japanese anime television series.
Whatever. Clearly, this should be added to the list as reason #187 to never pay attention to internet polls: “May result in unintentional piercing of the heavens with your drill.”
*Update: Nationalist sentiment, actually. A Welsh MP suggested changing the Union Jack to add the Welsh dragon.
… THAT IS COMPLETE AND TOTAL EPIC WIN. Gurren-Lagann FTW. Pierce the heavens with our otaku awesomeness~ ^_^
[tongue firmly in cheek]As far as I’m concerned, any anime blog worth its salt will eventually have that flag somewhere on their site.[tongue retracted from cheek]
Churchill as Kamina was one of my reactions, actually. I had the thought to find some photos of Churchill, the more dramatic the better, and add on “subtitles” of Gurren Lagann (-ish) lines. But not the time and energy to actually do it.
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