In just the last month, Nepal, Indonesia, the Philippines and Madagascar have all experienced large protests led by young people outraged over government corruption and inequality. Flying above each of the protests was a common flag: a grinning skull and bones wearing a straw hat.
The flag comes from a long-running Japanese manga and anime series called “One Piece,” which follows a scrappy crew of pirates as they take on a corrupt and repressive government. The franchise, recently relaunched as a live-action series on Netflix, has been dubbed in more than a dozen languages and has amassed a huge following, with more than 500 million copies of the print version published.