Paris Saint-Germain fans paid tribute to Monkey D. Luffy, the captain of the Straw Hat Pirates from One Piece, during a Champions League match against Bayern Munich.

Photos have surfaced of Paris Saint-Germain fans holding up multiple banners to form a giant image of Luffy performing his signature Gum-Gum Gatling Gun attack, as seen in a Reddit thread. Across the stadium, fans continued the tribute by forming an image of Luffy’s elongated fist smashing a target featuring the Bayern Munich logo. The Twitter account FFLose was also able to photograph the banner from the Champions League match. Unfortunately for the anime fans of Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich beat their team with a 1-0 victory. The international football match happened on Feb. 14 at Parc des Princes in Paris, France.

PSG fans with the Luffy Tribute in the Big PSG vs Bayern match in Champions League from OnePiece

The scene from Parc des Princes isn’t the only way fans worldwide have honored One Piece. Cosplayers have created breathtaking costumes of their favorite characters from the series, such as Yamato, the son of Kaido of the Beasts, and Carrot, an anthropomorphic rabbit from Mokomo Dukedom.

One Piece Fans Affected the Anime

Fans have also had an impact on the One Piece anime TV series by Toei Animation. A pivotal moment during Luffy’s match with Kaido from the Wano Arc was obscured by the overuse of visual effects, taking away the impact the scene had in the manga. Following fan backlash, the anime toned down the new visual effects for Episode 1033. Fans reacted positively to the subtle changes, declaring Episode 1033 as one of the best animated One Piece episodes in the series.

For over 25 years, One Piece continues to dominate worldwide. The manga, created by Eiichiro Oda, reached 500 million copies in print worldwide on Aug. 3, 2022, leading to the series breaking its own Guinness World Record for “the Comic Book Series with the Most Copies Published by a Single Author.” A live-action adaptation of One Piece will air on Netflix later this year. Matt Owens, the showrunner and Executive Producer of the Netflix show, shared which classic scene from the series he’s excited for fans to see adapted into live-action.

The One Piece anime TV series is available on multiple streaming services like Netflix, Crunchyroll and Tubi.

Source: Reddit, Twitter