"Luffy is a terrorist": One Piece anime labled socialist by Twitch's Hasan Piker

One Piece is highly praised for its intricate plot, which has substantial worldbuilding and a variety of unresolved mysteries. Monkey D. Luffy, the central character in the anime series, is an epic hero. On his journey to becoming the pirate king, Luffy conquered naval strongholds, came out alive from a buster call, and set free oppressed nations, among many other accomplishments.

Nonetheless, there has lately been one contentious comment made concerning Luffy. Trash Taste produced a new podcast video on April 1, 2023, which was posted on its official YouTube channel and featured Hasan Dogan Piker claiming that Luffy is a terrorist.

"Luffy is a terrorist...he is a freedom fighter in the most honorable sense of the word. He is quite literally fighting against the unjustifiable, corrupt military apparatus that is like holding the entire world hostage...the world government..."

Hasan Doan Piker, popularly known as HasanAbi, is a Turkish-American Twitch streamer and political pundit with a left-wing viewpoint.

Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers. All external media belongs to their respective owners, and Sportskeeda claims no ownership of the same.

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Hasan Piker considers One Piece to be an extremely political anime

Trash Taste is a weekly audio and video podcast by Joey Bizinger, Garnt Maneetapho, and Connor Colquhoun, all Tokyo-based content makers specializing in anime and Japanese pop culture. On April 1, they featured Hasan Piker and discussed numerous anime such as Attack on Titan, Hunter x Hunter, Dragon Ball, One Piece, and others.

As the podcast progressed, the conversation turned to One Piece. At first, Piker compared the series to a Biblical text that, although first appeared to be excessively long and include an excessive number of episodes, was quite enjoyable once he got into it. Piker then mentioned a fan page that edits his videos when he discusses One Piece refereeing.

As the anime fandom discussion came to an end, Piker stated that the series is a very political anime. When questioned about how the series is extremely political, Piker responded that save for the first few, it is quite leftist in character. He went on to say that Oda is a socialist who has a Che Guevara portrait in his studio.

A still from OP anime (Image via Toei Animation)

He next sketched the Arabasta arc, which is similarly highly political due to resource depletion. Piker said that the story of the SkyPiea arc is about indigenous people being driven from their land and using force to fight for autonomy and independence from a more powerful person, which reminds him of the Land Back campaign.

Piker added that while having fun with your friends is certainly a part of One Piece, "Luffy is a terrorist," to which Garnt Maneetapho nodded in agreement but despised the statement. Piker declared that Luffy is a freedom warrior battling against the corrupt world government, which holds everyone hostage.

A still of Dragon's ship from OP (Image via Toei Animation)

He went on to say that in One Piece, Luffy is murdering police officers while everyone claims it's simply Gum Man having fun. Piker then discussed how Oda indicated that Fidel Castro inspired the Dragon design. He said that, while he is not certain, Dragon's ship name is based on Fidel Castro's ship name.

Yet, Maneetapho observed that many Japanese manga artists would simply put it up because it looks good and decent, but Piker argued that there are too many coincidences. He proceeded by saying that the Granma, which happened to be the name of Dragon's ship, was used to transport 82 Cuban revolutionaries from Mexico to Cuba during the Bolivarian revolution.

However, Maneetapho asserted once more that the anime is the finest at world-building, with so many unique worlds that require a great deal of knowledge of the outside world, including history, which inspires many storylines.

Some admirers, however, have varied opinions about Piker's opinion on One Piece. Several fans said that the hosts pretended to be clueless to avoid alienating the audience. Others stated that if you look at Luffy as a terrorist, then every protagonist in the anime is.

Several admirers complained that Piker's opinions were extremely skewed. But not everyone was critical; some fans enjoyed listening to the program, while others truly thought that OP was political.

It is up to fans to judge whether One Piece is political. Nonetheless, most viewers put their political beliefs aside when watching anime and enjoy the program.

One Piece episode 1,057, titled For Luffy: Sanji and Zoro's Oath, is slated for Sunday, April 9, 2023. While One Piece chapter 1080 will be released on Monday, April 10, 2023, at 12 am JST.

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Stay tuned for more anime and manga updates as 2023 progresses.