Anime has become one of the most consumed media worldwide, with such a great importance that even with the passing of time we have seen its influence in very different environments to where it was thought in the beginning, although what happened a few hours ago has left all fans speechless. The Vatican, the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church, presented its new mascot that will represent the new sacred year 2025, and in this case the model chosen is that of a cute kawaii girl in anime style.
Luce is the kawaii anime girl the Vatican has chosen to represent them in 2025.
Thinking about the next holy year 2025, the Vatican presented a few hours ago what will be its new official mascot, which left the whole internet speechless, being that in this case the model chosen was that of a cute kawaii girl in anime style. This is more than surprising, as to see a purely religious institution, and one of the largest on the planet, choose an anime girl as its representative face for the coming year, is something that not many expected. Her name is Luce, which means light in Italian, and according to official sources, she was chosen to ‘get closer to the young public’.
Archbishop Rino Fisichiella, one of the most important members within the Vatican, spoke about the choice of an anime girl as part of their strategy to reach out to a younger audience, arguing that this is a good move, as ‘pop culture’ is very dear to them. In addition, it was mentioned how, throughout the sacred year of 2025, Luce will be tasked with not only satisfying the audience that is the main focus of her creation, but also guiding visitors to the country for as long as she is available.
Alongside this, it was confirmed that Luce will make her official debut this week at ‘Lucca Comics and Games’, an event held in Italy focusing on comics, video games and more where the Vatican will seek to make the first step towards introducing people even more to the kawaii anime girl. Even so, there’s more, because, although Luce will be the main face of the Vatican, she won’t be coming alone, as along with her will come a series of friends (Fe, Xin and Ski) who accompany her and who follow her same aesthetic of mackintoshes and rain boots, very much in the style of pilgrimage.
In their quest to make this anime girl even more globally recognised, Luce and her friends will also be part of the Holy See’s pavilion at Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan, so anime fans in that part of the world will come face to face with the official mascot of the church. Finally, the design of Luce and his friends was done by the pop culture brand tokidoki, and co-founder Simone Legno was very happy to work on the project, hoping that this will be a great step for young people to get into the religion.
With this we can see the great impact that anime has nowadays in the general culture, being that it changed a lot its idea of being only consumed by a few to be part of the life of millions, together with how companies see it as a great marketing movement. Now we will only have to wait and see what kind of real impact Luce’s appearance as the face of the Vatican will have in the next holy year 2025 and if we will see new anime waifus forming part of worlds very different from where they were intended.
