Osaka's World Expo 2025 Logo / Inochi no Kagayaki-kun

About

The Osaka's Expo 2025 logo refers to the logo chosen for the upcoming World Expo to take place in 2025 in Osaka, Japan. The logo, a ring-shaped blob with multiple eyes, has been subjected to multiple parodies, humanizations and fan art after it was revealed on late August 2020.

Origin

On August 25th, 2020, the Twitter account of the Osaka's World Expo 2025, revealed the winner of the contest to decide the logo for the event. The design, created by Shimada Tamotu,^[1] consists of a crown of red circles with a smaller white circle in the middle with a blue dot, resembling a globular mass of blood-red spheres fused together with five eyeballs, gaining 4,600 likes and 5.200 retweets (shown below).

／
大阪・関西万博　ロゴマークが決定🏆
＼

今後、本作品を公式ロゴマークとして、大阪・関西万博の周知と更なる機運の醸成に活用していきます✨

作品の応募や最終候補作品へのご意見、ありがとうございました😌

詳細はこちら👉　https://t.co/kmZ1f4burF #Expo2025#万博#ロゴ#logo pic.twitter.com/L7EhzaIxjd

— 2025年日本国際博覧会協会【公式】 (@expo2025_japan) August 25, 2020

A few minutes later after the reveal, the twitter account of the Japanese ministry of economy shared the same announcement, with the exclamation "May it be a symbol loved by the world", getting 42,300 retweets and 48,400 like (Shown below).

【大阪・関西万博ロゴマーク　決定！】
皆様からお寄せいただいた5,894作品の中から、2025年大阪・関西万博のシンボルとなるロゴマークが決定しました。世界中から愛されるシンボルとなりますように😊 pic.twitter.com/PqoJKP2VLT

— 経済産業省 (@meti_NIPPON) August 25, 2020

Spread

Immediately after the reveal, people started to express how cute and unsettling they found the logo, giving it the nickname of "Inochi no Kagayaki-Kun" (“Bright Life of Light-Kun”) based on the meaning the artist intended with it “the bright light of life."^[2] Twitter artists quickly began creating fan art, humanizing and parodying the logo. One of the earliest examples was done by the Twitter user koga042^[3] scoring 82,300 likes and 26,700 retweets (shown below, left). A few hours later the artist ueshita723^[4] shared a drawing of a schoolgirl bringing the creature to her classroom, gaining 32,500 Retweets and 105,100 likes in less than a day (shown below center, translation on the notes of the image). A few hours later the user kentamatsunaga^[5] shared a photo of a piece of bread shaped like the logo, gaining over 112,200 likes and 26,900 Retweets in the following hours (shown below right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable

External References