New Delhi: For Gen Z, One Piece has become a worldwide symbol of revolution and criticism of the government. Recently, rapper Encore ABJ from the duo Seedhe Maut was seen wearing Monkey D Luffy’s straw hat at a protest. Luffy is the main protagonist of the manga series; he has quickly become a popular symbol at the Jantar Mantar student protest led by the Cockroach Janta Party.
The One Piece manga started in 1997 by Eiichiro Oda. For anime fans, Luffy is not just a symbol of protest, nor is he a saviour or revolutionary. He is just a man who wants to live his life to the fullest without obeying authoritarian rules.
That is exactly why he is resonating with so many protesters. Students asking for accountability over negligence represent the same energy as the character. The “Jolly Roger” flag from Luffy’s ship can also be seen in many posters. The flag was designed when Luffy’s entire crew were underdogs; they were struggling but had hopes of making their dream come true.
Even at the Kolkata protest, which echoed with slogans demanding the resignation of the education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, protesters were seen wearing Luffy’s flag like a superhero’s cape.
However, this is not the first time Gen Z has used One Piece’s themes of freedom and liberty in a protest. Last year, during the Nepal protest that toppled the government, Luffy’s straw hat and flag were popular symbols of dissent. In one iconic photo, Luffy’s flag can be seen hanging from a gate as the Singha Durbar Palace burned in the background.
Bikhayat Khatri, who helped organise the Nepal protest, in an interview with CNN last year, defined the flag as a “symbol of aggression and determination to push anything that comes in the way.”
“We wanted the movement to feel like a Gen Z movement, so the slogans and symbols used during protest were linked with things that Gen Z youths could relate to,” he said.
Apart from Nepal, One Piece iconography was also used in protests by the younger generations in Indonesia, Malaysia and Paris.
(Edited by Insha Jalil Waziri)