Protesters from France to Nepal are using a common symbol: a pirate flag from the long-running Japanese comic “One Piece.”
The series, in publication since 1997, centers on the adventures of a group of freedom-fighting pirates and their struggles against various enemies, including local tyrants and the military and intelligence forces of the “World Government.”
Their flag, seen at the protests, is a skull-and-crossbones wearing the straw hat sported by the comic’s main character, Monkey D. Luffy.
“One Piece” is popular in Japan and abroad, and holds the Guinness world record for most copies published for the same comic book series by a single author, with more than 416.5 million copies sold as of 2022.
Young anti-corruption protesters have used the flag, as well as graffiti of the skull-and-crossbones, to express their anger at corruption in Nepal, the Philippines and Indonesia.
“We see the flag as a symbol of liberation against oppression … that we should always fight for the future we deserve,” Filipino protester Eugero Liberato, 23, told The Guardian.
Bikhyat Khatri, one of the organizers of Nepali protests that toppled the country’s government earlier this month, told CNN that “a lot of youths in Nepal love anime. We wanted the movement to feel like a Gen Z movement, so the slogans and symbols used during the protest were linked with things that Gen Z youths could relate to.”
The office of Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto said protesters who flew the pirate flag during demonstrations around Indonesia’s Independence Day on Aug. 17 risked undermining the country’s own flag, according to Reuters.
One lawmaker, Firman Soebagyo, called the display of the flag treasonous, according to the BBC.
Police in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta said in August that they were “monitoring the use of non-national flags and symbols that don’t align with the spirit of nationalism, including pirate or fictional-themed flags,” according to the BBC.
Indonesian artist Kemas Muhammad Firdaus told Reuters, “They didn’t have to do all that, accusing them of dividing Indonesia – that’s wrong. It’s just art.”
The “One Piece” flag has also shown up at various demonstrations in France.
The flag “represents freedom for all. In One Piece, there are transgender people, gay people, oppressed people… Luffy’s crew fights for them, for minorities,” Nora, 20, who recently attended a Paris protest where the flag was flown, told Le Monde, as translated from French.
