Is Eiichiro Oda's Monsters anime canon to the One Piece series? Explained

One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda has been a busy man in recent years with the manga, the Toei Animation anime, the Netflix adaptation, the upcoming Wit Studio remake, and now the upcoming release of the Monsters anime. For those unaware, Monsters was a one-shot manga that Oda wrote in 1994 and eventually became a part of the Wanted! compilation, which groups all the stories the author created before his magnum opus.

This, of course, leads to a lot of people wondering if the one-shot and the upcoming Monsters anime are part of the One Piece canon. It makes a lot of sense that fans have this question, considering the similarities that it has with a lot of different points of the manga and the main character is Ryuma, which is a name that most people know in the fandom.

Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers for the One Piece and the Monsters anime.

The upcoming Monsters anime is connected to the One Piece canon

Expand Tweet

Yes, the upcoming Monsters anime is canon to the One Piece universe and lore. This adaptation is based on Eiichiro Oda's one-shot from 1994, which tells the story of a samurai named Ryuma, who is in his quest to fight a swordsman he considers the strongest and ends up aiding two people in their quest to deal with a legendary dragon.

The vast majority of fans of Oda's work would be familiar with Ryuma as he was first name-dropped in the Thriller Bark arc and his corpse was revived with Brook's shadow, having a memorable combat with the Straw Hats' swordsman, Roronoa Zoro.

This is also the first time that Wano country was named, which is worth pointing out since that is also the place Ryuma hails from in the Monsters one-shot.

As a fun fact, this is the only one-shot that Oda wrote and incorporated into the One Piece canon, which goes to show the level of care he has for this series.

It also adds to the series' ever-expanding lore and world-building as fans all over the world are going to be able to witness the real Ryuma in flesh and blood as he builds his legend as one of the greatest swordsmen in that universe.

The connection with Roronoa Zoro

Ryuma in the One Piece anime (Image via Toei Animation).

Now that the Monsters story is getting an anime adaptation, a lot of fans are going to notice a lot more similarities with the character of Roronoa Zoro.

While there have been theories over the years that Ryuma is the ancestor of the Straw Hats' swordsman, that has never been confirmed in the story nor by Eiichiro Oda, but it makes sense that people would make those connections.

Most people who have read the one-shot or seen the previews of the Monsters anime already know that Ryuma and Zoro have very similar physical features, plus the fact they are both swordsmen who have a lot of ambition and want to constantly improve.

Furthermore, they target the strongest swordsman they know to challenge them and win, with Ryuma doing this with "The King" and Zoro doing this with Dracule Mihawk.

One Piece also made another similar connection with the fact that Zoro fights an individual named King in the Wano arc, which also happens to be Ryuma's place of birth. It is a shame that Oda never focused on this element of his story during Wano and is something that a lot of fans have criticized in recent times, especially considering how Zoro's character could have used that kind of exploration.

Final thoughts

The Monsters anime is connected to the One Piece canon. This has been confirmed by Oda and was established since the Thriller Bark arc when Ryuma was introduced and was added to the series' lore.