Fans of One Piece should not miss this episode. In a few weeks, Monsters: 103 Mercies Dragon Damnation (original title: Monsters: Ippyakusanjo Hiryu Jigoku) will be released on Netflix. You don’t have to prepare for long binge-watching nights, as the “series” consists of only one episode.
When does the episode start? Monsters will be available exclusively on Netflix starting January 21, 2024 (via Twitter). There will only be one episode, which is supposed to be 25 minutes long.
The German Netflix account does not yet show the date, but in other countries the date is already visible on the platform. We assume that in a worldwide release, the date will also apply to Germany.
The story is based on a manga from 1994 by Eiichiro Oda, who is also the creator of One Piece. Both animes are related in terms of story. The Monsters protagonist Ryuma Shimotsuki is likely known to many fans in One Piece as the zombie general on Thriller Bark.
In a short teaser trailer, we see what monster Ryuma has to face:
Monsters takes place many years before One Piece
What is Monsters about?
- Eiichiro Oda published the manga in 1994 as a short story; three years later, he released One Piece.
- It is about the samurai Ryuma Shimotsuki, who uncovers a criminal organization that has stolen a valuable dragon horn, which can summon the flying beings.
- Throughout the story, he faces a real dragon. The dragon threatens to destroy an entire village, and Ryuma tries to prevent the powerful being from doing so.
- The manga is part of the One Piece story, as Oda revealed in SBS issue 47. The protagonist has a cameo with the Straw Hat Pirates.
The animations for the episode are produced by the studio E&H production. The director will be Sunghoo Park, who has previously worked on the action-packed scenes in Jujutsu Kaisen.
Why shouldn’t fans miss the anime? Monsters is part of the official One Piece story. Protagonist Ryuma Shimotsuki is an ancestor of Lorenor Zorro, as Oda reveals in the 105th issue of SBS. Since Ryuma also appears in the One Piece anime and manga, the two stories are directly connected.
The anime is set in Wano Kuni, the land of ninjas and samurai. The Straw Hat crew has just set sail and is heading to Egghead Island. But before that, we had the chance to follow them for several real years on the island where Luffy developed his Gear 5.
There are other similarities like the dragon, the sword Shisui, and the title of the anime, which is also the name of an attack by Zorro. If you’re not particularly into dragons, you might enjoy the following anime: A new anime could compete with Jujutsu Kaisen and Demon Slayer in 2024 with its gigantic monsters
