ABSTRACT
Discrimination is a social phenomenon that refers to unfair or different treatment
of individuals or groups based on certain identities, such as race, ethnicity,
religion, gender, or social status. This study aims to describe the representation of
discrimination in the anime One Piece (ARC) Episode 396 from the perspective of
Roland Barthes’ semiotics. This study uses a qualitative approach using Roland
Barthes’ semiotic analysis method. The results of the analysis conclude that the
denotative meaning in the anime One Piece Episode 396 is that the sentences
spoken by human race characters in the scene explicitly emphasize that they view
other races not as humans but as property that can be bought and sold. In addition,
the connotative meaning of the act of racial discrimination is something or an
action that is considered normal, legitimate, and even legitimized by the social
system that applies in the fictional world of One Piece. Based on the results of the
study, this study succeeded in revealing the hidden meaning behind visual, verbal,
and nonverbal signs through two levels of meaning, namely denotative meaning
and connotative meaning.
Keywords: Racial discrimination, One Piece, Roland Barthes’ semiotics,
representation, episode 396