From Pokémon to Demon slayer the anime effect

Most of the popular anime whether its Naruto, bleach or One piece have shonnen heroes. Shonnen is a term for Mangas or Anime targeting adolescent boys or young men. Since these works come as weekly issues in the jump magazine (a popular magazine that will have several manga titles, latest chapters for a week) imagine Balarama but for an older audience.

And gowing up the years changed and my access to the platforms changed my choice of anime also changed from time to time, it started with with simple stories like beyblade or pokemon where the plot was more or less simple and straightforward with 2D characters.

Anime as an artform always stood out and resonated with a wider audience as it could weave everything from convoluted world topics like anarchy and totalitarianism to the philosophy of nietzhe in its plot.

Then over the years I got introduced to a number of titles with very engaging world building from tittles like Full metal alchemist, attack of titan, cowboy bebpop etc. suddenly i was learning more about chemistry and concept of evil and good and duality from these so called cartoon’ for the general public

Most anime last for 20-30 minutes in most cases and there will be multiple seasons, I was in 3rd standard when I first saw Ask ketchup from pokemon and its now 2025 and he is still the same age, same things go for titles like dragon ball z too. But from all this anime like naruto and one piece stood out as they had better world building and multiple character arcs and sub plots within sub plots.

During my engineering days also I retained from watching one piece as the animation looked goofy the seasons spammed endlessly and its was already 18 years and still the protagonist nor the viewers had any idea what is the one piece.

Then the pandemic happened and suddenly I was stuck in my room and there was lots of time and just to kill time I downloaded one piece, the whole process took me 4 days to get 20 plus seasons and then I decided to start from the middle of the show.

I was introduced to the greatest war arc ever in fiction in the Marine Ford arc, it was something similar to what we had witnessed in movies like the lord of the rings or brave heart but with emotions and adrenaline rush on steroids.

After the arc each day I tried to binge the episodes as much as I can and finally at MBA One piece was my solace the quotes from the main characters became mantra during exams and it reached a point where I used to even play the famous “walk to arlong park” bgm when I used to step out, but I lacked something essential a crew or rather any nakamas’. The word nakama means more than friend its someone whom you trust with your life and dreams and so thats what monkey d luffy had friends who believed in his dreams and wanted him to see fulfil his at any cost.

20 plus years and we still dont know what is the one piece or what the protagonists dream, it can be anything from getting the worlds biggest tressure to room filled with endless meals.

The world of one piece is eerily similar to ours there are regular people then the marines who are supposed to protect them and rulers who rule over everyone, the show over the years had portrayed everything from racism to tyrannical rule and climate change impact on sea levels.

It had reached a point where its clear that the black flag or the jolly roger signifies freedom or a separation from the world govt, each crew has its own flag and pirates used the flag to mark their territory and their protection is extended their. And any interference will mean a war with that pirate.

Maybe that’s what all the protesters hoped when they switched from hoisting their national flags with the jolly rogger of the straw hat pirates.

Lately the flag has popped up in many places across asia like Nepa, Indonesia philippines and even in the streets of paris.

Initially the authorities thought the symbol was a craze like Labubu and will die down,but it just flamed like wild fire and spread across the world. In the world of one piece there are multiple interpretations of freedom, freedom to laugh, freedom to eat your favourite meals, and even a freedom to commit crimes.

Currently the world of one piece is locked in a war between emperors (yonko) like Monkey D luffy, the wold govt, the rulers who rule over everyone and other pirates in a bid to get to the one piece and uncover the truth of the world.

Currently the wold is in awakening to an anime craze with the latest demon slayer movie minting 600+ million world wide, being a malayali i never thought I will be standing in ques for a midnight show for an anime at my home town.

Currently anime is wrecking dominance in terms of both soft power and hard power across the world. From shattering box office records to kicking out tyrannical rulers its having a major sway.

And recently the US president Donald J Trump has taxed 100% taxes on movies made abroad ltargeting movies like nezha2 and demon slayer, but is this just to protect the home market or something more sinister.

The New Era of Freedom