“What’s One Piece?” asked my mom after watching some youtube videos on the latest country’s craze on One Piece.
In Indonesia, some people raise the One Piece Flag, that black flag with skull and straw hat on it. This pirate emblem has become some type of symbol to protest the government. Although I failed to see how it could relate to the resistance, even my mom was curious enough about it.
Rather than watching the anime, I proposed to my mom that we watch the Netflix adaption One Piece (2023) . While I watched parts of it a long time ago, I was up to refresh the story of Monkey D Luffy and his ambition to become the King of The Pirates and trying to see why the symbolism came to be and why a lot of young people in the country display the One Piece flag.
The Netflix adaptation gives quite a bit of background on why Luffy became who he is. It serves well as an introduction especially for those who never follow this famous franchise. For my mom who eventually watched the series, she eventually learned about some of the main characters in the series.
Even for me, it was the first time watching the live action. To me, Luffy itself is a bit of a complex character. You know, at first I thought he was just a kid with a harsh life and without a notable background but later in the series, you can see his family lineage that he’s connected through notable admirals like Garp. However, it seems like despite such lineage, he even went against his grandfather who wanted him to work for the marine and has this ultimate goal to find that One Piece.
As of now, that One Piece hasn’t been found yet and from what I know, even the story is on-going and who knows if One Piece is not really a thing but merely symbolic.
The netflix adaption gives me the impression it was made with quite a bit of a high budget. The graphic and visual were aesthetically pleasing. For some reason, it was the colors that were striking. But to my mom and I, we cared more about the story and finding out why it became a symbol of critique in the country.
When we unveiled layers of it, there were a couple intriguing to us. There’s this idea of generalization by the marine that all pirates must be terminated but that’s not the whole truth. There are pirates that can be considered “good” even though the morality of the pirates can be something that is a little gray. From what I know, Luffy works within some code of conduct. He cares about his crew, he has this compass within him that actually guides his action. Even to me, the show was written in an interesting way. By that I mean, the character is not the typical hero that we tend to get in series/animation. There’s inherent flaws about it and the struggles to be in places where bad pirates are the norm.
But to connect it to the whole ruckus in the country, some people believed that the plot is similar to what’s been happening in the country.
Perhaps there's a connection between the two but perhaps not. The One Piece universe is too big and most importantly, I applaud the writer for writing such a masterpiece. If you haven't watched the live action, I definitely suggest that you should!
And season too is about to be released too!