Do you know that political Twitch streamer Hasan Piker watches One Piece? Should you aren’t a daily viewer of Piker’s Twitch or YouTube streams, you might not know that he’s been going by way of his first One Piece watch. And his takes are impeccable. Piker was just lately on the YouTube podcast present Trash Style, the place he gave his “most controversial anime takes,” specializing in the Eiichiro Oda sequence One Piece and telling weebs that not solely is it brazenly “leftist,” however he thinks that Oda is a comrade. You inform ‘em, king.
“That is going to piss off everyone, however I’m so proper about this. Each single arc actually particulars the leftist politics, which I believe Oda is. Oda is one hundred pc a leftist,” he mentioned earlier than instantly taking a telephone from his pocket. “He has a Che Guevara picture in his studio. I’ve property. I can pull it up.”
I don’t know what I anticipated. As a leftist content material creator, Piker typically reads receipts for a dwelling, dredging up proof for his generally controversial takes with spectacular velocity. After displaying viewers a fuzzy {photograph} of what’s presumably Oda’s workplace, he particulars how Oda manages to include socialist politics into a number of story arcs.
“[The arc about the desert kingdom of Alabasta] is about useful resource deprivation,” he advised his YouTube hosts. “[The arc about the sky island] Skypeia is sort of actually about indigenous populations being faraway from their land and violently looking for autonomy and emancipation by way of violent means towards somebody extra highly effective than them. That’s like a “Land Again” motion,” he mentioned, referring to a political motion centered on giving Indigenous folks extra management over their very own land.
Piker appeared to get labored up when his hosts introduced up that there are numerous followers who assume that the anime doesn’t comprise any political statements. “[The pirate captain] Luffy is a terrorist. He’s a freedom fighter in probably the most honorable sense of the phrase,” he mentioned in regards to the sequence’ protagonist. “He’s combating towards an unjustifiable corrupt navy equipment that’s holding your complete world hostage. The world authorities and the navy. He’s actually killing cops. He’s killing sea cops, and motherfuckers are like, ‘No, that’s not politics’.”
G/O Media might get a fee
I don’t know why his hosts have been laughing, as a result of Piker is completely on the cash. In truth, I’d go even additional and say that Oda is aware of about Karl Marx’s theories of historic materialism, which t asserts that historical past is formed by financial circumstances, and that contradictory forces will repeatedly drive society to rework itself. Each One Piece villain finally falls whatever the measurement of their military or the power of their magic powers—both as a result of the tyrants’ useful resource extraction is unsustainable or the present inhabitants will get fed up with not with the ability to management their very own livelihoods.
However what makes the tales outstanding is that the protagonist Luffy isn’t the supply of all these revolutions—the social rigidity had at all times existed. Whether or not it’s the racial division between the fish-men and the land dwellers or who controls water within the desert kingdom of Alabasta, Oda portrays revolution as a historic inevitability. Shounen anime usually options protagonists who’re capable of overcome destiny. One Piece is exclusive in that it reveals how everyone seems to be beholden to it—and its creator suggests to the viewers that that has liberatory potential.
Even the pirates are affected by materialism. The protagonist associates piracy with freedom, however not even the sequence’ most lawless faction is freed from geopolitical forces. When some of the highly effective pirates on the planet falls, territories are redrawn in response to the ability vacuum. The islands with out highly effective sponsors are in fixed peril. Even our carefree heroes are compelled to hitch alliances and sponsor islands with a purpose to keep the civilians’ independence. Freedom in One Piece will not be an empty preferrred, however a query of who has political energy and navy would possibly.
Piker additionally mentioned that One Piece’s creator was “clearly anti-racist” and introduced up the power of the Fish-Males Island arc. The present’s host mentioned that each anime had a slavery arc these days, to which he rebutted: “Yeah, however that is very particularly moving into the main points of how slavery depersonalizes the opposite individual and dehumanizes them with a purpose to self-justify it.”
Possibly it’s an excellent factor that One Piece is so lengthy, or Oda can be catching shit from filthy casuals who can’t respect the depths of its socialist politics. For many who are prepared to keep it up long run, it actually pays off. Simply ask Piker. “I’ve folks in my fan base who don’t know me for politics however simply take heed to me discuss One Piece,” he mentioned.
As they need to.