From One Political World to Another:
How One Piece Sub-Culture Can Prompt Mainstream Political Engagement Online
With fantasy and fiction being sometimes conceived of in the popular mind as being disinterested in or irrelevant to the larger affairs of formal politics, it seems there is room for a work of such a nature to break the grounds (or rather build bridges) between these entities. Enter the Japanese manga and anime series One Piece, which is created by Eiichiro Oda and has run for almost 20 years now (the anime started July 19, 1997). The series, although fictional, contains various parallels and allusion (sometimes even direct references) to real world, formal political entities and historical events. The line of research I’ve focused on has concentrated on evaluations of the leadership of Monkey D. Luffy (One Piece‘s main protagonist) done by vloggers, bloggers, and other commentators online. Considering both the amount and depth of the discussions had by these groups on one political topic (leadership) and the politic-heavy nature of One Piece, their platform (online) and compatibility could facilitate local, national, and transnational discourse of political nature.
For fans of the series who enjoy it as it is, this is not to say that fictional elements of the communicative culture already created by One Piece should have elements taken from it or diminished, but rather that further non-fictional elements can be added to these already existing dialogues, in addition to the non-fictional political elements that are already existing in OP (One Piece).
For example, in the One Piece world, there is a group of characters called the tenryuubito, otherwise known as “World Nobles”, who, because of their dynastic history of amassed political gain and wealth, control some of the most powerful organizations in the world, including the world’s foremost and widespread military/law enforcement organization, the Navy, that often punishes criminals unjustly, but allows the tenryuubito immunity from the law and subsequent punishments that follow breaking it. This alone could invite One Piece fans and enthusiasts, who, as part of a subculture that can be seen as disengaged with mainstream political discourse, to consider the nature of actual injustice and privilege in the real world that parallels those found in the world of One Piece; and that’s just for starters.
These new conversations, because of their online occurrence, could transcend national borders and biases, leading to various groups of people being better educated and informed, which—as has been argued in many democratic societies and in the ever-growing globalized world—is part of being an exemplary citizen of their country, nation, and/or world. Thus, taken all together, contributions can be made from one world (One Piece) to another (the real world), by another (the Internet).