One Piece creator talks about the story of Monsters

The anime of the one-shot manga “Monsters: Ippaku Sanjō Hiryū Jigoku” in Eiichiro Odathe creator of the manga One Piecewill premiere on January 21st on Netflix and in an extra panel the famous mangaka explains the reason for the title.

Eiichiro Oda stated:

A dragon-slaying manga, Monsters. I kind of forced the title when I made this manga. I mean, when I drew this, I was in the mood for titles ending with lots of ‘ters’. Something like ‘Drifters’ ‘Southern All Stars’ or ‘Grift-ers’ and ‘Mobsters’ from the movies. I really wanted to have a title like that, so when I decided on the basic plot, I thought, ‘Oh, it’s going to have a dragon and a bunch of strong guys. They are all like monsters. That’s it: Monsters!’

Oda He also talked a little about the story:

Now let’s get to the story. The story revolved around the fact that I simply wanted to draw something like a dragon being killed on a double page spread. I also wanted to draw something about a confrontation between a rough samurai and a noble knight.

If I use cuisine as an example, it would be something like eating a homemade samurai miso and medieval knight marinade seasoned by a cowboy movie with a side of ‘dragon soup’ and a bottle of refreshing ‘chivalry rose’…’ How is your dinner?’ ‘Lovely, chef, you have very acrobatic taste.’ ‘Thank you Madam'”.

Oda shared that he drew the manga Monsters at 19 years old:

I drew this when I finished my work as Kaidani Shinobu-sensei’s assistant and started helping on Tokuhiro Masaya-sensei’s ‘Jungle no Ouja Taa-chan’.

I can never forget; I was 19 and this was during… the summer? Eh… autumn? …Spring? Hmm? Maybe summer? Oh, I want to eat tripe hotpot.

The anime is titled Monsters: 103 Mercies Dragon Damnation and is a new anime special that adapts Oda’s one-shot special that was first released in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine long before One Piece become a serialized manga series. It has some ties to the world of One Piece and also features the legendary samurai Shimotsuki Ryumawhich appeared during the arc ThrillerBark and has great ties to the bow Wano Country.

With just 1 episode, the animation of Monsters was delivered to the studio E&H Productionand the director is its founder, Sung Hoo Park (director of Jujutsu Kaisen and Jujutsu Kaisen 0).

Synopsis for Monsters: 103 Mercies Dragon Damnation

MONSTERS takes us back in time to the story of the samurai Ryûma. Years before, a dragon’s horn with magical powers was stolen, and the samurai finds himself involved in the catastrophe surrounding the dragon’s horn and the devastating appearance of a dragon in the city…