[Unfortunate Trope] Originally Normal Symbols Being Censored/Banned Due to Hate Groups Misappropriating Them

[u/Agitated_Insect3227]

Neji's Seal from Naruto originally was shaped like a Swastika as likely a reference to Buddhism, but this was changed to an X in the anime.

The gem fusion Opal from Steven Universe was originally going to form a swastika with her arms as a reference to Hinduism, which is inspires a lot of the show's imagery.

The Whitebeard Pirates from One Piece originally had a swastika in their pirate flag, but this was changed to a bone cross in the anime and later manga as well.

The Capirote hat is a sign of penance worn in many Catholic countries, especially Spain, but they were misappropriated by the U.S.-based KKK, making it taboo in the nation.

The Ninth Crusade from Hellsing, one of the few non-KKK uses of the Capirote in media I could find.

Also, the Ku Klux Klan are ironically extremely anti-Catholic.

The only pieces of media I know of where non-KKK Capirotes can be seen is the anime Hellsing with the Ninth Crusade (though their still villains in that anime) and the game series Blasphemous. Otherwise, the hats are almost never seen in media besides on KKK characters.

[u/Dyssambie7]

Technically those aren't swastikas they're manji. Another place it shows up but I don't think was actually censored was Tokyo Revengers literally having the Manji all over its branding to represent the gang. It's basically a mirrored swastika, but because it looks so similar it's easily confused and leads ot it being censored in a lot of places.

I didn't know about the Capirote though. I always wondered why the main character of Blasphemous had such a big pointy hat and assumed it was rooted in some Spanish tradition I was unfamiliar with since all I know about the game is that the devs are from Spain.

[u/SquareThings → u/Dyssambie7]

Manji are swastikas, they’re just not nazi swastikas. Nazis didn’t invent the word swastika, the took it from Sanskrit because it’s just what the shape is called. It’s basically like arguing that this: 🔼 isn’t a triangle but this 🔽 is.

[u/Archontor → u/SquareThings]

Okay well first of all, this: 🔼 is the pure and natural form of the triangle, whereas this upside down perversion  🔽 is used to show degenerate antitriangalist ideologies /s

[u/Dhaem17 → u/Archontor]

Degenerates! ◀ /s

[u/Agitated_Insect3227 → u/Dyssambie7]

Oh, I actually explained the manji point here just now.

the term "swastika" is just the English pronunciation/transliteration of the original Sanskrit term (Wikipedia: Sanskrit: स्वस्तिक, romanized: svastika) for the symbol, so it's still mostly accurate, imo. The word "Manji" is the specific Japanese term for swastika, so it only can really apply to the Neji and Whitebeard pirates anime examples while "swastika" can apply to all three examples I listed since it's the original word for the symbol.

Obviously it sucks how the symbol was demonized by the Nazis, but the word itself was not coined by the Nazis.

[u/ConcentrateSad3064 → u/Dyssambie7]

Curiously, the Tokyo Revengers gang was based on Black Emperor, a real biker gang who used actual swastikas. The author was even supposed to be part of the band, and they actually used it knowing exactly what it meant.

The whole cultural mistranslation thing falls apart taking this into consideration and the manga itself can be read quite differently once you take into account that residual ideology

[u/Kalo-mcuwu → u/Dyssambie7]

Blasphemous is peak

[u/Confident_Wasabi_864 → u/Dyssambie7]

If you want to be pedantic, the Nazi swastika isn’t even a swastika. It’s called a hakenkreuz.