A pirate flag from a Japanese manga as a symbol of resistance, challenge, and freedom. A cartoonish skull with a straw hat on a black banner that has transitioned from fandom to various Asian realities stirred by chaos, oppression, corruption, and unemployment. The phenomenon of One Piece, as it happened in the past with the masks from V for Vendetta or Money Heist, or with the three-finger salute from The Hunger Games series, goes beyond comics and screens to become a symbol of popular discontent.
It was the young Japanese who first, on a small scale, waved this version of the traditional Jolly Rogers flag last year in protests against irregular financing scandals rocking their government. Later, in South Korea, some protesters also displayed them during massive marches against former President Yoon Suk Yeol, who declared a brief martial law that, for a few hours, brought this vibrant Asian democracy back to a dark past marked by military regimes.
This summer, the iconic pirate flag reappeared in Indonesia. A group of angry truck drivers over new restrictions on overloaded vehicles responded by raising this cartoonish standard to a call from the country's president for people to wave the national flag for Independence Day.
The Jolly Rogers from the manga and anime was later seen during an anti-corruption march at universities in the Philippines and, in early September, also became one of the symbols of the historic youth uprising in Nepal. Even a few days ago, in France, some university students carried this flag during protests that have spread across various parts of the country against budget cuts.
Youth movements have once again turned to popular culture to express their outrage against rulers. Now, the trend embraces the flag of the colorful crew of Monkey D. Luffy, the protagonist of One Piece, who sails the seas in pursuit of a legendary treasure that would make him the king of pirates. Luffy presents the skull with a straw hat as a declaration of rebellion and freedom to live according to his own ideals against the rules established by a dystopian regime.
The father of One Piece is the mangaka -comic creator- Eiichiro Oda, who never shows his face in interviews. "He is extremely reserved and does not allow his face to be photographed," noted The New York Times after a meeting in Japan with the author. In his country, Oda has appeared on several television programs, where he always imposes a condition to preserve his anonymity: his face must be replaced on screen by the drawing of a fish.
A whole generation has grown up with One Piece, first published in 1997. The most loyal fans have devoured a manga with over 515 million copies in circulation in 61 countries. It is the best-selling series in history. Meanwhile, many millions of followers have followed its animated series, which has already aired over 1,000 episodes.
In 2023, Netflix successfully premiered the first season of the live-action, with a lively Luffy played by Mexican actor Iñaki Godoy. The series reached number one on the platform in 84 countries shortly after its release, accumulating 140 million viewing hours in its first week. Overall, the adaptation was well received by critics. The second season will arrive in 2026.
In the recent massive protests in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, the One Piece flag went viral on Western social media along with messages calling on young people to take to the streets after the government of that country decided to block most of these social media platforms. Platforms like Facebook and YouTube had been used for several weeks by young people and teenagers of the so-called Generation Z to denounce the luxurious lifestyle of the political elite in a country plagued by extreme inequality and unemployment.
The skull with a straw hat -the one Luffy wears in the manga- also appeared printed on some t-shirts worn by Nepalis who engaged in fierce clashes with riot police. "The corrupt world of One Piece reflects our current country. It's time to rise up and rebel," one of the messages shared among the Nepali youth who took to the streets to defend themselves against what they denounced as a campaign by corrupt politicians against freedom of expression and in favor of their impunity.
In the last decade, long before the emergence of the One Piece flag as a symbol of resistance and rebellion in various Asian countries, especially in Southeast Asia, one of the most common gestures against tyranny in the region was the three-finger salute from the Hunger Games series. The first to adopt it were protesters in Thailand during the military coup in May 2014, followed by pro-democracy movements in Hong Kong in 2019 and marches in the Philippines in 2020 that opposed the war on drugs by former President Rodrigo Duterte.