deliriouslove1970. The life & times of Gary and Denise Flanders. (Free and worth every penny. If you would like to compliment the editor, send to garytheflan@deliriouslove1970.com. If you would like to complain, call your mother.)

The Straw Hat Pirates’ Jolly Roger is a pirate flag predominantly featured in the Japanese One Piece manga and its franchise, wherein it is used to identify the Straw Hat Pirates, the pirate crew featuring the series’ protagonists, who often fight for liberation of oppressed people.

It has become a symbol for youth-led protest movements globally such as the August 2025 Indonesian protestswhere people began using the flag in lieu of the national flag as a form of protest against the government, and the practice was emulated in other countries. Notably, the flag saw widespread use during protests in Nepal and Madagascar which overthrew their respective governments. The flag has also seen use in protests in other Asian and African countries, Europe, South America, and the United States.

The official name of the flag is ‘One piece manga’ – What is magna? “Manga (漫画), Japanese for “comics” or “whimsical pictures“, are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Manga developed from a mixture of ukiyo-e and Western styles of drawing, and took its current form shortly after World War II. Manga, apart from covers, is usually published in black and white but it is common to find introductions to chapters to be in color and read from top to bottom and then right to left, similar to the layout of Japanese plain text. Financially, manga represented 2005 a market of ¥24 billion in Japan and $180 million in the United States. Manga was the fastest-growing segment of books in the United States in 2005. In 2020, Japan’s manga industry hit a value of ¥612.6 billion due to the fast growth of the digital manga market, while manga sales in North America reached an all-time high of almost $250 million.”

In one of comic series a character designs a flag to be used when he protests against the fictional government who is oppressing people, especially poor people.

In Eichiro Oda‘s One Piece series, each pirate crew has its own distinct Jolly Roger that reflects its traits and beliefs. Although the flag was originally drawn by the main series protagonist Monkey D. Luffy, his poor sketch led one of his crewmates Usopp to redesign it.

The flag’s anti-authoritarian usage is a reference to a major storyline involving the fictional world government, which controls most of the manga’s locations, and the Straw Hat Pirates’ struggles to fight back, while subsequently hunting for the titular treasure. As described by CNN, “the flag symbolizes Luffy’s quest to chase his dreams, liberate oppressed people, and fight the autocratic World Government”. Multiple academic works have analysed how the manga draws parallels to real world politics and authoritarianism.

All around the world this flag has become a symbol used primarily by Gen Z’ers to demonstrated against oppressive, authoritarian governments.