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Cast: Yoshimasa Hosoya, Maaya Sakamoto, Hochu Otsuka, Yoshitsugo Matsuoka, and Takuma Terashima
Creator: Eiichiro Oda
Director: Sunghoo Park
Streaming On: Netflix
Language: Japanese (with subtitles)
Runtime: One episode, around 25 minutes
Monsters 103 Mercies Dragon Damnation Review: What’s It About:
Netflix seems to be all in the One Piece business, as recently they managed to have a massive hit with the One Piece live-action, renewing it for a second season, and also this year announcing that the new arc of the One Piece anime, the Egghead Island arc is going to release brand-new episodes each week on Netflix. To keep following this pattern, Netflix has chosen to adapt a one-shot created by Eiichiro Oda before he began writing One Piece, and goes by the title Monsters: 103 Mercies Dragon Damnation.
Monsters 103 Mercies Dragon Damnation Review: Script Analysis:
Monsters: 103 Mercies Dragon Damnation is undoubtedly a story written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda, who is now the biggest mangaka in the world and has held that title for a couple of decades. Monsters: 103 Mercies Dragon Damnation offers precisely what it promises: a glimpse into Oda’s early work. It serves to understand the author’s style and how much he has matured since he wrote this story, which was simply titled “Monsters.”
Monsters: 103 Mercies Dragon Damnation is an extraordinary anime episode because it will make it clear that since very early on, Eiichiro Oda had the talent of a true storyteller and someone who chose to stand out apart from other manga creators by being heavily influenced by Disney, and other western animated studios. As such, you can feel a confident classic Disney feel from the way the episode story develops and the way the characters behave; these characteristics would become a staple of Eiichiro Oda’s writing, and seeing them here makes for a pleasant surprise, especially for those who are already One Piece fans.
The episode is abridged but manages to start and close a story well. It introduces the characters, the conflicts, and the solutions to the situation in just 25 minutes while also giving us a link to One Piece, which makes everything feel much more critical and relevant. The way Eiichiro Oda expands his world is genuinely outstanding, and world-building will always be one of his greatest strengths as a writer; there is very little of that here, but the connection with the main One Piece storyline makes everything worth it.
So, Monsters: 103 Mercies Dragon Damnation is a straightforward story, but that doesn’t mean it is terrible. Many critics and many members of the audience would confuse complexity and innovation with quality, but nothing could be further from the truth. So while Monsters: 103 Mercies Dragon Damnation isn’t precisely original, being a classic Western story and not having a unique setting, it still manages to hit in ways other short forms of storytelling can’t work; why? Because there is intent, and the execution is quite impressive.
Monsters 103 Mercies Dragon Damnation Review: Star Performance:
Monsters: 103 Mercies Dragon Damnation’s cast is relatively small, which makes sense when realizing that the 25 minutes adapts the entirety of the one-shot, a conclusive story created by a manga creator for exposure or tie-in purposes. So, the cast only contains four main characters, three really if you don’t count one character just there to push the plot forward, but anyway, all the actors creating the voices do a fantastic job bringing these early sketches of characters to life.
Yoshimasa Hosoya brings Ryuma, a famous swordsman, to life, whose influence will be felt even way past the middle point of the One Piece storyline. Maaya Sakamoto also stands out in a powerful and emotional performance while playing the character of Flair. Hochu Otsuka is the only cast member who had previously worked on anything related to One Piece, and it is fantastic to see him back in the role of Cyrano, a character that is basically an early version of what would end up being the character of Dracule Mihawk in One Piece.
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Monsters 103 Mercies Dragon Damnation Review: Direction & Music:
Monsters: 103 Mercies Dragon Damnation is produced by E&H Productions, an animated studio founded two years ago by Sunghoo Park, who serves as the episode’s director. Park has worked in shows such as Jujutsu Kaisen and The God of High School, so he knows about good animation, and this being the first product coming out of the studio tells us that their future works will be something to look for. The animation maintains the essence of Eiichiro Oda’s designs but also adds that MAPPA flavor that people know and love nowadays.
Hiroaki Tsusumi takes the role of composer, having previously worked with Park in Jujutsu Kaisen, and his work fits very well the essence of what a One Piece piece of music should do. And yet, the music still stands as its own thing and not just a copy of what the main show does. The music gives the episode its own flavor, as it sounds way more modern than what the One Piece score continues to do in the main show, which feels more like something from the 1980s or 1990s.
Monsters 103 Mercies Dragon Damnation Review: Last Words:
Monsters: 103 Mercies Dragon Damnation feels like a good investment by Netflix as it confirms that they are compromised with the One Piece franchise, at least for the foreseeable future. It is also a perfect presentation card for E&H productions, who will be coming hard this year with their first complete animated series, Ninja Kamui. The episode feels like a nice bowtie, having finished the Wano arc recently, and bodes well for the future of One Piece as a brand that will keep expanding and adding new fans to its fandom.
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