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One Piece's Jolly Roger Flag Spreads to Protests in Nepal, Philippines, France

It started as a symbol for Indonesian protesters in August, and now the Jolly Roger flag of the One Piece manga and anime's Straw Hat Pirates has spread to protests in Nepal, the Philippines, and France. CNN reported on Saturday that Gen Z protesters in Nepal flew the Straw Hat Pirates' Jolly Roger while protesting corruption in the national government. Bikhyat Khatri, who helped organize the Nepal protests, said to CNN, "A lot of youths in Nepal love anime. We wanted the movement to feel like a Gen Z movement, so the slogans and symbols used during the protest were linked with things that Gen Z youths could relate to."

The Nepali protests come in the wake of Gen Z Nepali citizens' frustration with the national government. In a BBC report last Wednesday, Ashish Pradhan, a senior adviser at the International Crisis Group, stated the protests were "a wholesale rejection of Nepal's current political class for decades of poor governance and exploitation of state resources." According to the report, protests sparked due to the Nepali government banning 26 social media platforms, along with growing negative sentiment to children of powerful Nepali politicians flaunting their wealth on social media.

The flag also flew in protests in the Philippines and France. The Straits Times reported that the flag appeared during anti-corruption protests at the University of the Philippines Diliman in Quezon City, and during protests against President Emmanuel Macron and planned spending cuts in France.

The Jolly Roger was first seen during protests in Indonesia in August. Reports at the time noted that the protests came from frustrations with "numerous controversial policy changes since President Prabowo Subianto began his term as president." The most recent change that sparked the protests was "a revision to Indonesia's National Armed Forces Act, which would allow military officers to also serve as members of the civilian government without resigning from their military position."

Sources: CNN, CNN's YouTube channel, BBC, The Straits Times