Soccer commentator hyping Animal Crossing is the best thing I’ve seen all week

Thanks to coronavirus, sports no longer exist, at least for now. But the people who work in sports are still around, of course, as are video games, which means there’s still plenty of ways to keep the public thoroughly entertained.

Kosuke Hiraiwa is a former announcer for the Asahi Broadcasting Corporation in Japan, who now bills himself as a voice actor and esports caster. Recently, Hiraiwa took up the mantle again to commentate over Animal Crossing: New Horizons as if it were a sports match. The catch is that what folks do in the life sim is much more subdued than you might find in, say, a soccer game — and the contrast is hilarious. Hiraiwa gets pumped for the villager’s axe swap to chop down some fruit. While I can’t understand everything that he’s saying, I don’t need to. The enthusiasm is enough.

The hype feels more fitting for a different Hiraiwa clip, where he gives a play-by-play of a villager going up against a fearsome tarantula. The player initially fails and gets bitten, but this only makes the next showdown more intense, as he enthuses about the player’s tactics against one of Animal Crossing’s trickiest “enemies.”

I love it. Maybe I don’t need sports to come back, after all.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons

• $60

Prices taken at time of publishing.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is “a much-needed escape from everything,” according to our review.

• $60 at Amazon

Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. For more information, see our ethics policy.