Japanese net users amused by One Piece’s Luffy making hypocritical public service announcement

shoplifting

Japanese net users were amused after an advertisement which depicted Luffy (the hero of best-selling manga and anime series One Piece) warning readers not to shoplift began circulating online. In case that doesn’t quite strike a chord with you, all you need to know is that Luffy’s dream is to become the King of the Pirates–in other words, the ad is totally ignoring the fact that you know, stealing is kind of what he does, by profession.

Since all we have is the one picture to go by, it’s not exactly clear to us what the context of the advertisement is. But judging by the logos on the bottom of the page, it seems to be a public service announcement from Shueisha, One Piece‘s Japanese publisher, asking readers not to shoplift merchandise during their ongoing Natsukomi 2015 summer prize promotional campaign.

The picture drew lots of attention online when one Japanese Twitter user uploaded it with the following comment:

▼ “This guy’s a pirate, so why is he saying that?”

こいつ海賊のクセに何言ってるの http://t.co/isyZfX2j7R
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:..o◈☼雷卵マヨ☼◈o..: (@torosalmonn1) July 20, 2015

The text in Luffy’s speech bubble reads, “STOP shoplifting! I’ll smack down anyone who shoplifts!!!”

Japanese net users were amused by the post, and tried to interpret its seemingly hypocritical contents in a variety of creative ways:

“Maybe he’s trying to say something like, ‘This is my turf, so anyone who messes with it will have to answer to me’?”

“The cast of One Piece don’t actually engage in much pillaging, so it’s fine.”

“I wonder if they’re saying not to pirate illegal copies? Hehehe.”

“‘It’s OK if I do it but not OK if you do it’…right?”

“Got it! So shoplifting is bad but plundering is allowed.”

Luffy, it looks like you (or your publisher) should think twice about what you’re advertising next time!

Source: Hachima Kiko
Top image: Twitter/@torosalmonn1 (edited by RocketNews24)