Athletics and Exploitation: Extra Olympia Kyklos and the Politics of Adaptation

Abstract Extra Olympia Kyklos (EOK) is a 2020 anime that adapts Mari Yamazaki’s manga, Olympia Kyklos (2018–2022). Both narratives follow Demetrios, an ancient Greek athlete who travels through space and time to modern Japan to learn about the contemporary Olympic Games. While Yamazaki’s manga is critical of the Olympics’ inherent nationalism and exploitation of athletes, the anime positions these competitions as a celebrated alternative to war. In this comparative analysis of the manga and anime, I argue that the thematic shift from Olympics-as-exploitation to Olympics-as-salvation reflects a concerted effort to use EOK to promote the controversial 2020 Tokyo Olympics. By juxtaposing each text’s rhetorical situation, I discuss when a work of Classical reception created by nonwhite, non-Mediterranean people challenges the white supremacist assertion that Europeans and Americans are the rightful inheritors of the Classical tradition, and when such a work replicates this same logic of appropriation to suit a different ethnic and political context.