One Piece proposes some of the typical arguments of the western narrative, something typical of the manga, which as we know, often adopt strategies to be able to have a universal reception. The work investigates the way of life that seeks emancipation through the achievement of one's dreams. Starring Monkey D. Luffy, One Piece proposes a Homeric vision in a world where piracy emerges as a mode of social organization in a context dominated by the authoritarianism of the World Government.
Luffy throws himself into the sea to fulfill his dream, turning the narrative into a utopian message that stands out above all the value of friendship. The type of piracy carried out by the protagonists does not focus value on the accumulation of treasures and wealth but on the purpose of achieving liberation and fighting against the elite of the World Government and its armed forces.
In its first chapters, the story presents a typical structure of the shõnes, where the friend / enemy relationship is predominant. As the plot progresses, the events that occur take a much more serious tone, making us partakers of how the establishment of the World Government generates in the world of One Piece the separation of the population with its elite and the advent of pirates, bringing certain parallelism with reality.
"800 years ago ... Twenty countries and their twenty kings gathered in the center of the world. They founded an institution, a huge one, and called it World Government. The Creator kings decided to move to the Sacred Land of Mariejois with their families (. ..) Even today there are those who control the world ... The descendants of the creators: the Celestial Dragons "(Oda, 73, p. 24-26)
In the world of One Piece we observe a social structure dominated by the World Government (from now on GM), which with 170 countries in charge has the power of the globe. Those 170 countries have their own forms of government, their own leaders, their nobility and armies that, however, passed the laws that world leaders imposed. At the head of the GM we find the Gorosei, five elders little present in the plot but who are the highest authorities of each institution and the world in general, however they are at the service of a mysterious being, he / she named Im.
The navy is the main military force of the organization, although the GM also has a group that acts in the shadows in sabotage, reconnaissance, espionage and / or murder missions: the Cipher Pol. The Chief Commander oversees the work of the Marina and Cipher Pol, as well as the behavior of the 7 warriors of the Sea, former pirates who agreed to be placed under GM's orders in exchange for certain privileges; At least officially, the Chief Commander is the one with the most authority in the organization below the Gorosei.
Right next to all this military apparatus is a racial race known as the Celestial Dragons, untouchable by the rest of society (literally, because they even cover their heads with airtight helmets so as not to breathe the same air as the plebs). In One Piece they are the nobility, and tend to generate a helpful and slavery relationship with the rest of the population.
The GM has in One Piece religious and sacred connotations. The place where they live is known as the Holy Land, the place where the Gorosei resides is called Sanctuary, the World Nobles have the word Saint or Holy in front of their names, and ordinary people think it is a sin to challenge them. This was evident in the Sabaody Archipelago. Between the elite and the rest of the World there is a great leap of privileges; In the lower part of the pyramid are pirates and "lower races" (fish men and mermaids, giants and dwarves, among others).
All persons who have been reported for having carried out illegal activities or criminal acts are reported to the Marine Headquarters, where they are assigned rewards based on their level of threat. Among the reasons to prosecute criminals like Nico Robin is that his parents were also. Without going any further, an unknown number of women and babies were killed during the search for Ace, son of the former pirate king Gold D. Roger. This reminds the gulags of the Soviets, who punished relatives of those who committed crimes against the State even without having participated in the crime committed by their relative.
All these acts are performed to defeat "evil", following the maxim that any sacrifice is acceptable to achieve that goal and protect the future. The word justice has been used many times in the work, most of those times in the mouth of the Navy to capture pirates and criminals who alter order and somehow justify the inhuman way they have of applying the concept.
Within the universe of One Piece, the GM and the Navy personalize justice with capital letters, to such an extent that the word is stamped on the layers of the uniform of all officers and non-commissioned officers. The concept is often used by them as an archetypal model, for example when someone talks about doing things "in the name of justice" or "freeing the world from evil" (Oda, 57).
In conjunction with the antagonists of the work, the World Government is portrayed as a corrupt entity due to the ruthless use of its doctrine of Absolute Justice and the depravations of the World Nobles. Even within the organization itself there are characters who have questioned ways to enforce the law. Among them Vice Admiral Smoker, who advised his subordinate Tashigi to create his own personal justice, the latter deciding to help the Straw Hats to protect Arabasta from the pirate Cocodrile, until then an ally of the Navy. Admiral Aokiji also highlighted the volatility of the term justice within the context in which One Piece develops: "What we call 'Justice' changes its shape ... depending on which side you are on (Oda, 2015). Also Donquixote Doflamingo, one of the Seven Sea Warriors and Heavenly Dragon, reflect on the term: "Are pirates evil? Are the Marines good? These terms have been changing with the course of history. Children who have never known peace and children who have never known war have different values. Those at the top determine what is right and what is wrong. "(Oda, 2010, p. 91).
A hero or heroine is a character that faces key traits valued in his home culture. Straw Hats do not. Everyone in the crew embodies key features of the antihero: although their actions can be considered heroic by benefiting from them other characters, they live outside the law, in One Piece embodied by the World Government and the Navy. Although beauty is a subjective term, neither Luffy nor his companions have the physical traits that are attributed to the heroes, and their personality is molded so that they can be serious and threatening when they propose it but also tremendously comical when the situation demand.
Another characteristic of the antihero that absolutely all members of Luffy's crew embody is to carry on their backs sad events that have pushed them to live outside the law, the most obvious cases being those of Nami, Nico Robin and Franky for being his suffering consequence of the World Government's actions. It is important to see that the main characters with whom the reader normally makes an empathic connection relate justice to individual freedom.
Despite Luffy being a recognized criminal in the world of One Piece, in each of the islands where his ship docks we can appreciate a small "hero's trip" in which he approaches that position. Although until now he has not died to achieve his goal, Luffy is always willing to risk his life for what he believes and defends, which again makes him an example of inspiration for the rest, even from the first chapters, where Coby Overcomes his fears and decides to enroll in the Navy pushed by the vision of Luffy willing to risk his life for his dreams. That is one of the messages of the work: emancipation through the achievement of one's dreams.
A World Government is formed when a Super State emerges that subjugates others under its power, both military and economic. In the world of One Piece the World Government is very advanced in its conquest of the globe: it has a very high military power, it has high propaganda control and directs the hatred of the population towards pirates, simplifying a much more complex reality. The GM even has a unifying symbol, so necessary in totalitarian regimes.
Oda has not revealed many details about the origin of the World Government, but it has made clear the existence of a vacuum in history that the population does not know. In real life, authoritarian regimes similarly control information to somehow modify and hide those events that endanger their credibility. This has been going on since the 13th century BC, when in China Emperor Qin Shi Huang ordered to burn all the books of philosophy and history that came from outside his province. Throughout history, we have seen the event repeatedly, especially during Nazism in the Second Mumdial War. In the series, Oda has taken it to the extreme with a censorship that extends 100 years. With the destruction of Ohara and the persecution of Nico Robin, it is clear that in One Piece knowledge is not free and indoctrinated.
Having eliminated the past, the World Government dedicates its efforts to maintaining its hegemony by demolishing the least opposition. When the Straw Hat band broke up, Nico Robin went to Tequila Wolf, a prison camp that works for the World Government as slaves in the construction of a huge bridge that will bring together the residences of several World Nobles. There, Nico Robin lived with characters ranging from vulgar criminals to civilians from other countries not affiliated with the World Government. The use of political and war prisoners is reminiscent of the conquest style of the Japanese Empire, both in the Middle Ages and during World War II. The Cipher Pol allows the trafficking of weapons and people to maximize the military power of the GM, the most obvious case is that of Empress Big Mom being negotiated by the child trafficker Mother Carmen, revered by all as a Santa was posing as a nun to cover up their business with GM in what is known in One Piece as the Underworld. Cipher Pol remembers even as a secret police to the CIA and Interpol.
To legitimize its power, the GM chooses a group to focus hate and thus create a shared hate for governor and governed. Any government is against piracy, but it is the fact that they put a price on their heads serves to mobilize the population, make it participate, and therefore more cooperative. On the other hand, the higher prices are for the heads of criminals who have attempted against the institution rather than the population. With this, we can deduce that the World Government does not declare pirates directly as its enemies because they are criminals, but because they represent a danger to the power of the State.
Even when the Navy is responsible for protecting the islands from criminals, it has been demonstrated throughout the present observation its ineptitude, often intentionally. It is for this reason that some pirates like Edward Newgate decided in their days to take territories under their protection, using their fame to prevent other pirates from daring to work badly on them. Although Luffy does not seem interested in taking as his own the islands through which he passes, there are places that have declared themselves in favor of the pirate when verifying the lack of selfishness in their intentions: Arabasta and Dressrosa are examples of them, which the protagonist saved from be destroyed while the World Government was a mere spectator. Luffy, too, seems to have become the hope of all those submitted races like the Gyojin.
