One Piece Prequel Monsters Is Getting an Anime

In the years before One Piece, creator Eiichiro Oda spent a lot of time creating one-shot manga. Some of these, like Romance Dawn, ended up becoming the basis for One Piece, while others were largely experimental and mostly forgotten about. One in particular, though, ended up being canon in a roundabout way, and it’s now being made into an anime.

As reported by ANN, it was revealed during a One Piece Day 2023 event over the weekend that Eiichiro Oda’s Monsters is getting a proper anime adaptation. Monsters was first released in the 1994 Shonen Jump Autumn Special, and told the story of the legendary Samurai swordsman Ryuma.

Monsters has Ryuma tracking down a person called The King, said to be the greatest swordsman alive, so he can go toe-to-toe with him. Things get complicated when an ancient relic called the Dragon Horn shows up, and after another character blows on the horn, a devastating dragon is called forth to wreak havoc.

For a long time, it was thought that Monsters was just a random one-shot with no connection to One Piece. Then, during the Thriller Bark arc, Ryuma – or at least his resurrected corpse – showed up, where it was revealed that he was the direct ancestor of the Straw Hat Crew’s own legendary swordsman, Zoro.

ANN reports that the anime adaptation will be directed by Sunghoo Park, who is best known for his work on Jujutsu Kaisen. Like Jujutsu Kaisen and its film, Jujutsu Kaisen 0, Monsters will be produced by Park’s E&H Production, so it’s sure to be a feast for the eyes.

As for how – or if – this will tie into the One Piece anime, you probably shouldn’t get your hopes up. Chances are that One Piece won’t be mentioned or alluded to at all. It’s almost certainly going to be a faithful adaptation of the manga, and since the Monsters manga was released years before One Piece was even a thing, and it’s set hundreds of years in the past, you probably won’t be seeing Luffy and his friends.

Monsters doesn’t have a set release date yet, but when it finally airs, it’ll be about the length of one episode of anime — or about 25 minutes or so.