Imagine this: The National Stadium goes dark and a crimson blur cuts through the night, prompting a roar of applause from the audience. It doesn’t take long to figure out what is streaking across the grounds — it’s the high-tech bike piloted by Shotaro Kaneda, the antihero of the cyberpunk manga and classic animated film, “Akira.” As the crowd in Tokyo grows louder with excitement, millions of viewers watching from home churn out reactions and memes via their social media accounts, the red hot moment topping the global trending charts almost instantly.

In some other timeline, this is how the opening ceremony for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics would have kicked off. Thanks to the ongoing pandemic, however, the event will take place on July 23, 2021 — a year after its original date — with limited spectators in attendance and most of the fanfare accompanying the official start to the Summer Games scaled down.

What audiences will see on Friday evening may still make for a memorable event that gets things off to a positive start, but the performance itself will almost certainly not resemble the original plan that was presented by some of Japan's most creative minds to the International Olympic Committee (IOC).