Representations of Hegemonic Power and Resistance in One Piece’s Enies Lobby Arc.

Abstract

This study examines representations of hegemonic power and resistance in the Enies Lobby arc of the One Piece anime series. Applying Antonio Gramsci’s theory of hegemony as its central analytical framework, the study addresses two research questions: how hegemonic authority is represented through the World Government, and how resistance against that authority is represented within the arc. A qualitative approach was employed with purposive sampling, selecting thirteen scenes from the Enies Lobby arc as primary data. Data were collected through repeated viewing of selected episodes accessed via Bstation and analyzed through close textual reading of visual composition, dialogue, symbolism, and narrative events. The findings reveal that hegemonic authority is constructed through four interconnected mechanisms: the normalization of institutional presence, the legitimation of coercive force through official procedure, the operation of hidden state apparatuses, and the embedding of authority within symbolic and spatial structures. Resistance is represented through three distinct but interconnected forms: symbolic resistance, which targets the ideological foundation of the World Government’s legitimacy through the destruction of the government flag and Luffy’s public declaration of war; psychological resistance, illustrated through Robin’s reclamation of her own identity after years of internalizing the criminal designation imposed by the state; and collective and strategic resistance, which emerges through the mobilization of multiple social groups united by shared moral opposition to institutional injustice. Collective resistance is identified as the most dominant form, as it provides the social foundation upon which symbolic and psychological resistance derive their broader counter-hegemonic force. These findings demonstrate that Gramscian theory retains its analytical precision beyond Western political contexts and that One Piece functions as a cultural text that engages substantively with the dynamics of power, legitimacy, and resistance.

Keywords: hegemony; resistance; counter-hegemony; One Piece; anime