Anime fans invade football match with massive One Piece display
Truly iconic.
The One Piece anime is everywhere — fromthe t-shirts you wearto thefitness gym you go to, and now, it’s in the football match you watch.
Paris Saint-Germain fans surprised football viewers during the UEFA Champions League 2022/2023 round of 16, held at the Parcs des Princes stadium in Paris, France. Supporters of the Paris-based team prepared a remarkable visual display for anime fans to marvel at before the game started.
One Piece anime is real, and it’s at this football match in France
Before the much-awaited game between Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern, PSG fans showed their love for Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece anime series with a grand tifo featuring Monkey D. Luffy, the protagonist of the anime.
For non-football fans, a tifo is a choreographed display where fans hold banners to form a giant image.
In the display, Luffy is wearing a PSG jersey while making one of his most powerful attacks, Gomu Gomu no Storm. Using this attack, Luffy rains down a barrage of punches against enemies.
One of the punches extends to more than half of the viewing area, making this tifo all the more impressive.
Written at the bottom is “Virage Auteuil,” one of Paris Saint-Germain’s biggest supporter groups.
Just across the Luffy display is a banner of theStraw Hat pirates’ iconic ship, Going Merry.
Unfortunately, Paris-Saint Germain lost to Bayern in this match, which might just be the most Luffy way of facing opponents, where the anime protagonist almost always loses to enemies at first try.
Eiichiro Oda’s staff saw a video of the spectacleand thanked everyone for their continuous support of the franchise.
The anime revolves around the journey of Monkey D. Luffy and his crew, the Straw Hat pirates, in search of the treasure called One Piece. It is one of the most popular anime shows in the world, not to mention one of the longest-running anime series with over 1,000 episodes.
Check outNetflix’s upcoming One Piece live action adaptation,One Piece locations in real life, and theworld’s first-ever One Piece fitness gym.
READ MORE:7 best sports anime that every athlete must watch
