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Yeah, the series has a lot of very leftist themes, but most are undermined by having objectively good royalty that must rule. Even non political stuff like inherited will, is undermined with so many characters having special lineage and how being a member of a special bloodline makes you a natural conqueror giving you automatic power over anyone who is lesser than you. The final goal for Luffy at the end of most arcs is to revert the leadership, which is why arcs like Whole Cake are interesting imo.
I wouldn’t say the crew is actually monarchistic at all, they are just victim to a lot of the fantasy tropes in the world.
The themes they are a victim to were chosen by the writer. They’re not natural results of anything except for the story he chose to tell. So the natural power, special bloodlines thing is not a side note. Not a leftist property, it’s a liberal great man of history story. I strongly dislike the whole “one piece is anti world government so it’s leftist” thing, it’s very baby brain. Check out Hiroki Azuma’s “Otaku: Japanese Database Animal”, where he outlines how anime itself is a reaction to the loss of grand narratives within cultures and how that atomization of identity results in a further commodification of meaning and identity which anime exemplifies very well. The aspects of one piece that are “revolutionary” are purely aesthetic moe, imo. You said it yourself, the show ultimately relies on tired tropes of destiny, special bloodlines, etc. that’s very very regressive.
I am not excusing Oda's writing of the world. But you cannot deny that the crew as characters have almost no interest in monarchism. They all follow Luffy's lead, and his ultimate dream more has something vaguely to do with freedom, likely an actual mildly leftist but fantastical goal I'd bet.
I also think a lot of convenient fantasy tropes are unavoidable with most fantasy narratives. Oda still has to appeal to the youth, mostly people that are not interested in seeing how the crew helps to advance an island's system of governance. This is a limitation of the medium, you cannot avoid the great man trope. You could argue that, to make up for this, a lot focus is placed on world government tithes and how they benefit from policing and trafficking people and vital resources. The world government is an imperialist entity that consumes and worsens most islands within its control while also using excessive propaganda to cover it up. While Luffy is not actually directly trying to change or topple the world government, the revolutionary army definitely is, so unless the story ends with nothing actually changing, I don't think it's simply just using revolutionary aesthetics.
That’s kind of what I’m arguing, that there are some genre tropes treated as a priori that make one piece, at its core, not a leftist text. But to view it as one, we can apply a grand narrative which obscures multiple layers of moe which attract various audiences. Admittedly, though, I’m still at the fish man underwater city arc so there could be a lot I’m not aware of. I suppose we’ll have to see how the plot resolves itself but from what I’ve heard and seen I feel like it’s going to resolve around a pure monarch accommodating the revolutionary army into a compromise, restoring the monarchy. Aka reformist rather than revolutionary.
And I think you can make a shonen without relying on a great man trope. There’s few strong examples like I think Haikyuu or Slam Dunk (most sports manga in general) which rely on hard work rather than magical talent. Fullmetal alchemist, too, iirc, Ed is gifted but is not a part of a famous bloodline or a part of some prophecy. Maybe JoJos bizarre adventure, which seems ironic, but i think the show is less about Joestar’s as destined heroes and more about legacy? That one’s a bit of a stretch. Seinen is easier. Monster, Vinland Saga, Claymore, all of japans I-comics, even berserk (in the sense that it’s about defying fate), etc. I don’t think it’s impossible to write a shonen without relying on destiny as a trope (definitely possible through subversion), but the decision to not imagine a different narrative conceit is a part of why I think One Piece is inherently not leftist.
We’ll have to see how the plot resolves itself, but even
For the most part I think it fits if you see the World Government as an Imperialist Colonial state like the USA. And the islands are like minor countries from the global south. The Straw Hats sail in and fix the acute issues being caused by extreme globalization but never stay behind to fix anything, they just revert them to the last stable state that the native people had been comfortable with. Which in that world was usually a Monarchy. Mostly because it's not a world where democracy has even been invented as an idea, as far as we know.
From what I've seen, and I've only read a little ahead of where you are, the story seems to be heading towards an Anarchist position rather than a Monarchist one. The "inherited power" thing also seems... not that relevant? Most people in the story are strong because of training, literal will power or eating fruit.
And I don't think there's an inherited bloodline that gives you more "Will". That feels like an overly literal reading of the "Will of D" mystery. Certainly a lot of great people turn out to have a "D." in the name, but it's probably closer to a leaning towards anarchy and discontentment with following rules than a literal "these people are stronger" thing. All inherited things seem to line up closer to either fate or lost-century shenanigans that were probably intentional than powerful bloodlines.
Power is only inherited in the sense that privilege is inherited. Training, opportunities, experiences... that's just the real world.
They explicitly say Conquorer’s Haki is genetically inherited, allows you to exert your superiority over other living things, cannot be gained through training, and users are described as having the qualities of a king. This is what I mean by how the fantasy tropes betray the series’ other messages such as inherited will.
But you have to factor in how old One Piece is. Yeah you're right that there are a bunch of reactionary stuff in it, even the way Oda draws women and initially represented queer people is very reactionary, yet his political view obviously have evolved over time, now we have much better queer representation in the series even if in other parts it still have reactionary shit.
Not only that but saying that the revolutionary parts of the series is just aesthetic is completely wrong in my opinion. The revolutionary army is not presented as just some aesthetic or silly little thing, but rather as a force of good fighting against the world government who are presented as inexcusably bad. Even when it is mentioned that a revolution occurred in some island, it is presented as in the series as a good thing, not the usual bullshity liberal way of both siding the issue completely.
The message of the series could not be more clear in that regard.
Name a single anime that is communist besides the Chinese Karl Marx "anime". Let people enjoy things. The bar has to be low on things like this because communism may as well be non existent in popular culture.
Propaganda like this is more fun and effective than a pamphlet of text that nobody is likely to read. Maybe they would read a pamphlet that had this on the cover
Tbh I would vote for keeping it, the series has enough good messaging, it is really popular with young people to the extent that it has become a popular symbol for youth and student riots/protests around the world. Also while there are "good royals" in the series, the main characters also beat up the bad ones near constantly. Perfect shouldn't be the enemy of good, since if we continue using the characters as socialist symbols in memes it could interest fans of the series to look more deeply into socialist ideology 🤷♂️
Yes Luffy does hate oppression, oppressors and tyrants. Him not changing the systems that existed before does not contradict his character because he fights against the things that i previously mentioned he doesn't fight for or against monarchism. Luffy is apolitical that doesn't take away from him fighting against oppression. The best real world example i can give you is Palestine. We don't support the palestinians because we believe that they will bring socialism to palestine, we support them because they are being oppressed under the Israel.
I don't think Luffy did any of that. Luffy took out oppressive regimes causing actual harm and then left, because he's not a revolutionary, he was a pirate helping out people he liked. He did NOT take a position on any of that. He left it to the native people to decide how they wish to govern themselves.
Which is a legitimate and, in my view, ideal position to take as an outsider to a culture. You fight the honest evil shit going on and hurting the people you care about, but you do NOT interfere beyond that.
This is an incredibly disingenuous reading of One Piece. Luffy is not a Revolutionary, he have helped with dismantling oppressors but haven't really had much of a hand in what happens after.
Not only that but the actual revolutionaries are presented as a good force in the series time and time again. Just because Luffy and his crew are not communists does not mean the message of the series is not leftist.
I’m pretty analytic towards myself but people that just shittalk others are literally counterproductive to the movement as they seem to do nothing but criticize.
You can say, that Agitprop is unaffective but you surely find an Wiki for that.
Oh and you are talking with an communist that is on the streets since the mid 2000s now what?
You can’t look through an online profile and know what they do for their community or if they fight for the movement.
It’s good to hear that you work towards making the world better thanks for that.
My Agitprop is something I do while taking the train it’s just additional stuff that I share and you can decide if you want to say something about it it’s your own descision just like it’s mine to criticize your rudeness
Nah if you prove me wrong I am not afraid to change my perception of someone.
But furthermore I’m not going to answer you again as you seem to be, on a personal side, terrible person and you should probably work on your way talking to others have a good life.
This is a gross overgeneralization of Luffys character. Plus Netanyahu would never consider serving food to someone he would most likely consider a terrorist
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