Is Eiichiro Oda’s Monsters canon to One Piece?

The story of Monsters was crafted by Eiichiro Oda before One Piece. Since both these stories feature some similar aspects, let’s find out if the former is canon to the latter.

Eiichiro Oda is a fantastic author, as he has blessed the animanga community with the spectacular One Piece series. The long-running franchise has become so popular that many may have forgotten that Oda worked on other material that never got the same recognition. However, the end of 2023 came with the intriguing announcement that the anime adaptation of Oda’s one-shot manga, Monsters, would be coming to Netflix in early 2024.

The previous year was marvelous for anime fans, partly due One Piece. The animanga franchise broke several records, whether it’s the manga, anime, or Netflix’s live-action series, with the latter breaking th curse of anime adaptations.

Now, after the arrival of Monsters, the fandom wants to know if there’s a connection between this new anime and One Piece.

Is Netflix’s Monsters canon to One Piece?

Yes, Monsters is canon to One Piece.

Initially, when Eiichiro Oda planned to work on Monsters, he never thought of making it a canon to any of his future works. However, when One Piece’s ‘Thriller Barc Arc’ arrived, Ryuma, the main protagonist of Monsters, appeared in a zombified appearance, making the one-shot canon to One Piece.

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Even though Monsters has an entirely different storyline that focuses on Ryuma and his struggles, Eiichiro Oda spilled the beans about the connection between the two of his works in the SBS section of One Piece manga Volume 47. For the unacquainted, the SBS section is a special column in the physical copies of the manga which features a Q&A session between Oda and his admirers.

Oda revealed that One Piece and Monsters do not share the same storyline, but the Ryuma featured in these are indeed the same. So, it would be safe to say that the latter belongs to the same universe, and it is canon to the famed Japanese media franchise.

What is Monsters about?

The story of the one-shot starts with a powerful dragon horn that was stolen a long ago, but no one clearly remembers it. Ryuma, the protagonist of the story, gets kicked out of a restaurant as he isn’t able to pay the bills for the food he ordered. On the other hand, waitress Flare comes across Cyrano, who once saved her life and eventually became a hero. However, when she witnesses Ryuma standing outside the restaurant and continuously looking at Cyrano’s plate, she gives him something to eat.

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Ryuma was hungry for several days, so he showed gratitude to the waitress. Later, Ryuma finds out that Flare’s town was once attacked by a dragon, and no one survived the calamity except her and Cyrano, who saved her. Ryuma looks forward to knowing more about the whole incident. However, before he can find out anything, he gets falsely framed for an act that he didn’t commit.

He gets accused by the people for all the tragedies that happened in the town. Cyrano convinces everyone to evacuate the town, but Ryuma decides to investigate. He finally uncovers the truth and learns that Cyrano and another swordsman D.R. were in collusion with each other from the beginning, and they were the ones who orchestrated all this.

Who is Ryuma?

Ryuma is a swordsman who hails from the Wano Country. His swordsman skills have earned him the title of “Sword God,” and he is also nicknamed “King” by the people he protects, but he’s not aware of the title. He has an incredible grasp on the sword that lets him slice off even the toughest metals with a little effort. Ryuma also defeated the huge dragon that D.R. summoned.

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Ryuma has a kind soul that doesn’t let him forget the ones who helped him along the way. In fact, he never misses a chance to show gratitude towards them.

However, when he dies, and his corpse is reimagined by Brook’s shadow, he returns as an antagonist in the ‘Thriller Bark arc’ as a Zombie, only to get defeated at the hands of Zoro.