MONSTERS was one of Eiichiro Oda’s One Shot manga chapters he penned before creating that little known series called “One Piece” and due to his much… MUCH more famous work it has been adapted into a 20-ish minute special episode on Netflix (with the subtitle “103 Mercies Dragon Damnation”, one of Zoro’s moves from One Piece for that extra bit of connectivity) How does it fair? It’s fine, for a short story. Let’s take a look!
The story focuses on Ryuma, a travelling swordsman who is in need of food and finds it thanks to the local restaurant and its worker Flare. Shortly after this though he challenges famed hero Cyrano to a duel after the two hit scabbards but Flare, who was saved by Cyrano when a Dragon destroyed her town five years ago, stops him. Shortly afterwards he knocks scabbards again, this time with someone known only as “D.R.” who then mysteriously gets stabbed and blames Ryuma before blowing a special horn that will attract a Dragon to the town. The local residents, Flare included, blame Ryuma for bringing disaster to the homes and flee as Cyrano proclaims he’ll stay in town to fight the Dragon off.
Cyrano’s big heroic moment!
Ryuma stays behind as well and finds Flare, who also hasn’t fled. She talks about the horrors of seeing the Dragon roast her old village but as they leave the building they overhear something far more terrible…
Again, it’s only 20 minutes or so, this was never going to be a long review! Still, it’s a fun little tale and worth your time if you have a Netflix sub.
Overall Thoughts:
Awwww. Isn’t she sweet? How could you break this girl’s heart? Well…
For 20-odd minutes you can’t complain about Monsters. It gives you just enough characterisation for the end consequences to mean something and has decent animation to boot. A good little distraction if you’re able to watch it.
The terrible thing heard coming out of the building? Cyrano and D.R. laughing about having scammed the townsfolk just to take all their possessions before using the actual Dragon Horn to summon the beast to destroy the town (and evidence). They also laugh about having done the same thing five years ago to Flare’s village and that Cyrano only saved the girl because he thought it would be a good opportunity to gain some fame, though he did kill her parents for the hell of it. Pretty nasty stuff, emphasised by constant shots of them laughing all the time… It’s pretty on-the-nose, that’s for sure!
Ryuma attacks the Dragon, which I know I haven’t mentioned yet but still… it’s a good screenshot so I used it.
As you’d image Flare is devastated but Ryuma is just disgusted, so he challenges Cyrano to a duel again and this time it not only actually happens, but Ryuma wins easily. He then kills D.R. but not before he calls for the Dragon… though shortly after it arrives Ryuma slices the massive beast’s head off. After the villagers return Ryuma leaves and someone suddenly remembers that Ryuma is the name of the greatest swordsman in the world. Post credits we then get a flashforward to One Piece’s Thriller Bark Arc, where the zombie Ryuma loses a duel to Zoro and gives him his sword, just to thoroughly place this as a prequel to One Piece, even if a not particularly important one nowadays!
Hogan Reviews 