One Piece is the anime that actually centers on fighting systemic government oppression, the World Government, Celestial Dragons, corrupt marine hierarchies, and the cost of freedom. That’s why its symbols (Straw Hat flag, Luffy’s crew) keep showing up in Gen Z protests from Nepal to France. Most of the other cosplay (Piccolo, Goku, Akatsuki cloaks, etc.) is just people using a big public moment to dress as their favorites. That’s normal fandom, not a coordinated political message. Critics treating every anime reference as “terrorism” or “defaming Japan” are overreacting and missing the point. Pop culture has always been a language for resistance when traditional politics feel closed off. One Piece has repeatedly been used as a protest symbol precisely because its story is unusually explicit about a corrupt global government, elite impunity, and ordinary people resisting. Other series have political or anti-authoritarian elements (Code Geass, Attack on Titan, parts of Fullmetal Alchemist, etc.), but One Piece’s World Government, Celestial Dragons and Marine system is one of the most sustained, central explorations of institutional oppression in mainstream shonen. Treating every Straw Hat flag as “terrorism” ignores that pattern and the fact that Gen Z in multiple countries has independently reached for the same symbol.