August 6, 2025
JAKARTA – The pirate flag from the One Piece manga series has become a new trend to criticize the government’s performance ahead of the 80th anniversary of Independence Day on Aug. 17.
Such high enthusiasm has led to heightened orders for Dendi Christanto, the owner of Wik Wiki Apparel garment factory in Jati village, Jaten district, Karanganyar regency, Central Java.
Dendi has received thousands of orders for the Straw Hat Jolly Roger flag, flown by the Straw Hat Pirates, led by Monkey D. Luffy in the manga series, which has been adapted into an anime series, anime movies and a live-action movie.
“The trend started to pick up by the end of July. I could receive hundreds of orders a day from all over Indonesia,” Dendi said on Monday, as quoted by tribunnews.com.
He said the trend started from social media posts which popularized the Straw Hat Jolly Roger flag as a form of freedom of expression and social criticism ahead of the Independence Day celebrations.
“One Piece is like the ‘state of Konoha’ and was just in time for the Independence Day,” Dendi said, referring to Naruto, another Japanese manga icon. “It was starting to get intense in end of July, so many people ordered the custom flag.”
Read also: Pirate anime flag becomes tool of protest ahead of Independence Day
Konoha is a village in the Naruto manga series, where the namesake protagonist comes from. Konoha is often used as a euphemism for Indonesia on social media, due to likenesses in social demographics and leadership.
Dendi said he produces flags in various sizes, starting from smaller flags to 2 meters wide. The price was affordable, starting from Rp 10,000 (US 61 cents), depending on size and material.
He said his factory used three materials of polyester, satin and peles cloth (habutai silk), and that many orders were still coming.
The phenomenon of waving flags from Japanese series is not new, Dendi said, but it has found a resurgence ahead of the Independence Day celebration.
“Some use the flags to decorate their rooms while the other carry the flags to big events or concerts,” he said.
Posts on social media show many people putting the flags on their vehicles or houses. The flags are often flown independently but sometimes flown together at a lower position on the same pole with the red-and-white flags.
It seems that the public is not deterred by threats issued on Saturday by Coordinating Politics and Security Minister Budi Gunawan, who warned of legal consequences for anyone flying the One Piece flag.
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Budi, a retired police general, cited Article 24 Clause 1 of Law No. 24/2009 on State Flag, Language, Symbol and National Anthem, which bans anyone from flying the state flag below any other flags or symbols. There have been, however, no reports of such cases taking place.
He said that flying the anime flag was a provocation to reduce the authority and degree of the state flag and reminded the public of criminal consequences of doing so.
Meanwhile, traders at Jatinegara Market in East Jakarta were reluctant to sell the One Piece flag, although many customers were looking for them.
“I am not brave yet, I am afraid it will be banned and I will be suffering losses if the flags are confiscated without clear reasons,” a trader, Dodi, said on Sunday, as quoted by kompas.com.
Dodi said that despite some garment factories had produced and sent the flags to traders and buyers, traders at Jatinegara Market were reluctant to take the risk by selling the flags.
“We are not brave enough to display them here but there are many orders through online markets. We are just playing it safe,” he said.