During the ONE PIECE DAY ’23 celebration to mark the franchise’s 26th anniversary, an anime adaptation of Monsters was announced, the first one-shot written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda in 1994 and therefore the author’s first work before One Piece.
This animation project is being produced by the animation studio E&HProduction! and to celebrate this announcement, the first promotional image of “Monsters” was shown, where we can see an imposing dragon that takes place among the first stories created by Eiichiro Oda.
The story tells about the first adventure of a swordsman named Ryuma and his quest to kill a dragon… Familiar? This story was already mentioned in the One Piece anime during the Thriller Bark saga. Later Q&A with Eiichiro Oda (aka SBS): “Is the swordsman ‘Ryuma’ who is said to have once defeated a dragon the same Ryuma who starred in the one-off MONSTERS of his compilation called ‘Wanted!?’
The author has confirmed that they are indeed the same character and story, and therefore “Monsters” is a standalone story set in the same universe as One Piece, just prior to the events of the anime.
