In an article published in "The New York Times" on 27 July 2021, Mike Ives and Hikari Hida commented that, despite the typical importance of mascots in Japanese advertising, the mascots have had a "subdued" presence at the Tokyo Olympics, commenting that "the Japanese public is not really swooning over them either, according to fans and experts who study the country’s mascot industry". Ives and Hida described a common complaint being that the names of the mascots, Miraitowa and Someity, are difficult to remember. The article quoted a mother named Yuki Fuka, who commented, "Within the whirlwind of all the Olympic controversy, I think the mascots were forgotten somewhere along the way [...] The Games have just started and their existence is already an afterthought." According to Jillian Rae Suter, a professor of informatics at Shizuoka University, "They’re not hated, design-wise. They seem to be functional. They seem to be doing a good job [...] But there doesn’t seem to be a lot of passion for them." Because Miraitowa and Someity did not appear during the 2020 Summer Olympics opening ceremony, a social media user named Suekichiii tweeted a popular picture depicting them watching the ceremony from home.