The Origin of Alysa Liu’s Pochita
Two gold medals at Milan-Cortina. A Chainsaw Man plushie tucked under her arm the whole way. That’s not just sporting success — that’s main character energy, and the internet has rightfully lost its mind.
The unlikely lucky charm
Here’s where it gets brilliant. That Pochita tissue box didn’t come from some merch stand or PR package. A Japanese fan on X, simply known as Ii
, handed it to Liu during the Figure Skating Grand Prix final in Nagoya, December 2025. One gesture. One gift.
Next thing you know, Liu’s rocking it at competitions from January onwards, and her Instagram stories confirmed the little chainsaw devil made the trip to Italy.
- No sponsorship
- No strategy
- Just a fan and a skater
And somehow it stuck.
A comeback written like peak fiction
Let’s be honest — Liu’s trajectory reads like something from the very anime she’s embracing.
- The pressure mounted
- COVID hit
- She walked away from competitive skating in April 2022
Most athletes don’t come back from that. Most stories end in the what could have been file.
But Liu returned in March 2024. Gold at the 2025 World Championships. Then double gold in Milan-Cortina, sharing the individual podium with Kaori Sakamoto and Ami Nakai — a Japanese sweep of silver and bronze beside her American gold.
The bigger picture
There’s something genuinely refreshing about an athlete performing at the highest level while refusing to hide what they love.
No sanitised media training. No carefully curated brand. Just elite sport and unapologetic otaku energy coexisting beautifully.
What would it look like if more athletes brought their full, unfiltered selves to the world stage — and would we finally stop pretending that professionalism means leaving personality at the door?
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