Landscape and Air Imaginary in the Representation of Space through the Anime One Piece

Abstract

One of the ways in which the dreams and hopes of cities are observed very acutely is through imaginary representations filtered by the audiovisual media. These media, through specific narratives, are able to provide a very interesting cognitive orientation, by virtue of the constant distinction between reality and fiction. Such demarcations are part of systems of symbols, bearers of expectations that reveal that our future hopes are decisive projections in the construction of human identity. For this reason, authors such as Wilhelm Schapp point out that the stories, the narratives, are authentic forms of orientation of the consciousness of the self (ego) and others (alter). In this sense, popular culture as a significant expression also develops a reading of space through poetic imagination. In this article, from a proposal of semiotic and narrative analysis of the anime One Piece, leading to the observation of the metaphorical analogy based on the context of the air element, we offer a description of the characteristics of the visual and narrative communication that make the topological imaginary of this Japanese series of the fantasy genre a plausible interpretation of the global cultural and urban landscape. That is, a representation anchored in archetypes of territorial expressions with great symbolic resonance today.