Manga / Wanted! (1998)

Wanted! is a collection of short stories written by a teenage Eiichiro Oda long before his work with One Piece. Some elements of these stories were later re-used by Oda in his later work. The five stories are:

• "Wanted!": Gill Bastar is an extremely skilled gunslinger who has killed a lot of men, all of them in self-defense, and now has to deal with the ghost of a vengeful bounty hunter who needs him dead.
• "God's Present to the Future": Bran is a skilled pickpocket, so incorrigible that God himself decided to kill him by dropping a meteor on him. But he writes down the name of a large shopping mall instead. So it's up to Bran to prevent a disaster and find a solution.
• "Demon's Night Parade": The young monk Guko is looking for his master, a wise and powerful demon-hunting monk. However, he's asked by the people of a remote village to help them against the evil Cannibal Ghoul who's infesting the woods around the village.
• "Monsters": The young samurai Ryuuma aims to be the strongest swordsman in the land. He encounters a young waitress, the mysterious knight Cyrano, and a legendary horn that can summon a dragon.
• "Romance Dawn" (second version): A prototype of One Piece, where Monkey D. Luffy has to help the young girl Anne to save her pet bird, Baloon, from the wicked captain Spiel the Hexagon.

Romance Dawn has two anime adaptations: One Piece: Romance Dawn Story, an OVA based on the first version in 2008, and a Toei anime special episode based on the second one titled 20th Anniversary! Special Romance Dawn in 2019. The OVA adaptation of "Monsters", titled Monsters 103 Mercies Dragon Damnation was released on Netflix on January 21st, 2024.

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Wanted! provides examples of:

"Wanted!"

• Art Evolution: The story is, chronologically, the first of the five in the anthology and features cruder drawings.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Gill manages to nail Sino in the head from a ludicrous distance.
• Cat Scare: Played for laughs when Sino is startled by a black cat while looking for Gill... cat which he tries to shoot.
• Crime of Self-Defense: Gill is indeed an infamous killer... but every time he shot, it was in self-defense. Despite this, a bounty was put on him, meaning that every time he defended himself, more bounty hunters would come after Gill, causing a feedback loop.
• Demonic Possession: The bounty hunter's ghost at one point possesses Gill to make him walk back into the bar and insult Sino so that he can start the fight.
• Guns Akimbo: Gill is so skilled he can shoot with two handguns at the same time.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: Gill and Sino are both considered the strongest sharpshooters, as seen when Gill nails Sino in the head from a building on the other side of the village with a pistol. Played for Laughs with the latter when he fails to hit a cat who scared him.
• Let's You and Him Fight: The ghost tries to force a showdown between Sino and Gill so that he can have his revenge and move on.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: Despite the western setting, the ghost of the bounty hunter resembles a typical Japanese Yurei (white kimono, smoke lower body, triangle-shaped head ribbon and wisp flames).
• Psycho for Hire: Sino Phoenix, a dangerous killer, was hired to stop Gill. Lampshaded by Gill, who rhetorically asks how could the government hire someone like him.
• Sinister Shades: Sino Phoenix is a merciless killer who constantly wears pitch-black sunglasses and has a cold demeanor.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Gill has an Oh, Crap! and quickly leaves the inn when he notices that Sino Phoenix is right beside him, not wanting to pick a fight with him.
• Verbed Title: "Wanted!"

"God's Present to the Future"

• Anti-Hero: Bran is a selfish slacker who can't resist the urge of pickpocketing anyone he comes across. His apparent inability to change irks God so much that he decides to drop a meteor on him.
• Artifact of Doom: The Notebook of Doom is owned by God himself and temporary lend to Bran. Whatever is written on it with the Pen of Doom will happen. It can be nullified only by the Eraser of Doom, but god actually lost it.
• Badass Normal: Bran. Seriously, he managed to pickpocket GOD himself!
• Beware the Nice Ones: Bran appears as an unremarkable, if cleptomaniac person. He then pickpockets some Yakuzas to get a pistol with which evacuate an entire shopping mall at gunpoint, feigning a terrorist attack.
• Calling the Old Man Out: Bran to God, after he's told about the meteorite that will strike the Branchi Mall and, essentially, being forced to clean up God's own mess.
• Cassandra Truth: No one believes Bran at first, treating him like a blowhard. Bran has to use a gun to make everyone run away.
• Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?: Bran steals the Pen of Doom from God and rewrites himself a happy ending.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Bran is a serial pickpocket who can't bother to do good. God is so annoyed by his attitude that he tries to drop a meteor on him! Unfortunately his angel distracts him and he ends up writing the name of the Branchi Mall instead.
• Graceful Loser: God just shrugs and smiles after seeing that Bran did save everyone from the Meteor by pickpocketing Him.
• Jerkass: Bran is rather selfish and a petty thief who can't be bothered to correct his way of life, though by the end he comes off as a Jerk with a Heart of Gold and does the right thing.
• Never My Fault: When Bran angrily points out that the people of Branchi Mall are endangered only because of God's mistake, the latter tries to turn the thing into a moral test to judge Bran's worth.
• Urban Fantasy: Unlike its fellow stories, this story takes place in modern-day Japan; it may well be the only thing Oda has written to take place in contemporary times.
• Yakuza: Bran, at one point, come across some yakuza guys walking down the street, from whom he pickpockets a pistol he'll use later. They're depicted in a stereotypical way, one of them even has a bokuto (wooden sword) across the shoulder.

"Demon's Night Parade"

• Anachronism Stew: The story is seemingly set in ancient Japan, but the houses in the village seem to have electrical doorbells and lights.
• Beware the Nice Ones: For nearly all the story, Guko is portrayed as a crybaby and a nice person who prefers dialogue over violence. After finding out that the Cannibal ate his master, he grabs the Kami's sword and chops the Cannibal in half.
• Diagonal Cut: How Guko slays the Cannibal.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Used as a gag: when Guko confronts the Kami in the temple and learns that he uses his oni mask to prank travelers, he concludes that he must have ran into him before, when he was in the woods. The Kami confirms that he remembers having scared a traveler in the eastern woods; Guko laughs... before realizing that he came from the western wood.
• God's Hands Are Tied: The Kami explains that he has great powers, but unfortunately he will lose all of them if he interfered with mankind. He almost forsake his powers when he learns that his old friend Koshin was devoured by the Cannibal.
• I Am a Humanitarian: The Cannibal ate Guko's master while he was trying to Talking the Monster to Death.
• Informed Ability: The powers of the Kami watching over the village are unknown (but he said that kamis can't interfere with human business).
• Kick the Dog: The Cannibal reveals that he killed and ate Guko's master, Koshin, after he tried to reason with him and states that he wasn't much of a meal anyway.
• Monstrous Humanoid: The Cannibal resembles just a normal human, except for his oversized, grotesque face stuck in a perpetual grin.
• Regret Eating Me: When confronted by the presumed Cannibal, Guko starts saying that he's all skin and bone, his flesh stink, his bones are extremely hard and being a Buddhist, he'll probably make the monster sick.
• Took a Level in Badass: Guko at the start of the story is scared shitless of the Cannibal's threat and tries to run away or grovel when confronted. Upon realizing that his master has been devoured by the Cannibal, his rage is so great he's able to confront the monster and kill him with one blow. He then proceeds to take up the Kami's sword and travel the world to vanquish monsters with his blade.
• You Killed My Father: The Cannibal ate Guko's master, Koshin. This royally angers both the Kami and Guko

"Monsters"

• Absurdly Sharp Blade: Ryuuma's sword can slice bronze statues in half.
• Adaptation Deviation: In the original manga, Ryuuma is shown to be using a katana that has a noticeable design difference compared to Shusui, the katana he is famous for using when he was transported to One Piece. The OVA replaces the katana with Shusui, black blade and all.
• Adaptational Ugliness: In the original manga, D. R. had a normal appearance outside of the initial-shaped tattoos around his eyes. The OVA adaptation gives him a chubbier complexion, pale skin, a long tongue, and purple broccoli-shaped hair.
• Actually, I Am Him: Inverted. Ryuuma expresses the desire to meet and duel the "swordsman king" who is said to be the greatest swordsman in the world. After he saves the town from a dragon and leaves, one of the residents remembers that Ryuuma himself has been called the swordsman king by the various people he has saved.
• Anti-Hero: Ryuuma is just passing through and talks to Flare because she fed him. He still ends up helping the village when the situation calls for it.
• Badass Unintentional: Ryuuma seeks to become a great swordsman and fight the 'King', who is considered the strongest warrior in the world. The thing is, Ryuuma IS the "King", unknowingly given the nickname by all the people he's saved in his quest to be the best.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Cyrano seems to be very civil, polite and reasonable, but is also slightly patronizing to Ryuuma. He's also the man behind the Dragon attacks with his associate D.R..
• Break the Cutie: Flare breaks down when Cyrano, the man she viewed as her hero for years, was actually the one who destroyed her hometown and killed her father and everyone else in the village, directly or not. What made it even worse is that Cyrano was laughing about the whole thing. She tried to hold her tears, but eventually broke down and cried.
• Canon Immigrant: Ryuuma reappears as a resurrected zombie in the Thriller Bark story arc of One Piece, where he clashes with Roronoa Zoro. We later learn his full name in the Wano arc, Shimotsuki Ryuuma, and his backstory is slightly reworked (as in, he never left the land of Wano).
• Call-Forward: There are several call forwards to One Piece in the OVA adaptation:
  • The subtitle 103 Mercies Dragon Damnation derives from King of Hell, Three-Sword Serpent: 103 Mercies Dragon Damnation Zoro's finishing move against King in the Wano Arc.
  • The narrator's voice actor is the same one who voices Zoro in the One Piece anime and at the end of the OVA.
  • After the dragon is defeated, the OVA jumps forward to the Thriller Bark arc, specifically the scene where the undead Ryuuma bequeathes Shusui to Zoro.
• Diagonal Cut: Ryuuma takes down both Cyrano and the Dragon. The latter is beheaded by the slash.
• The Dragon: A literal one for Cyrano.
• Double-Meaning Title: The title seems to refer to the dragons, but actually refers to Cyrano and D.R., in a sense they are vile.
• Implausible Fencing Powers: Ryuuma can effortlessly slice through bronze statues and cleanly beheads a dragon of gigantic size with one swipe of his blade, as well as defeating Cyrano and D.R. in a Single-Stroke Battle.
• Inconsistent Spelling: The official Viz translation of the original manga spells the waitress's name as Flare, while the Netflix OVA adaptation spells her name as Flair.
• Informed Ability: Cyrano's swordsmanship. D.R. is even worse, as he never even handles a sword.
• Irony: Ryuuma's goal is to find the legendary swordsman known as "The King", unaware that it's actually the moniker people gave him after seeing his prowess.
• Jerkass: Cyrano under his facade is completely self-centered, motivated solely by greed and privately mocking Flare.
• Katanas Are Just Better: Ryuuma has a katana as a Samurai. The other notable swordsman in the story is Cyrano, who fights with a medieval longsword.
• Large Ham: D.R., when he claims that Ryuuma has stabbed him and proceeds to blow the Dragon's Horn. Invoked, as it's all part of the plan and has to draw attention.
• Monster Protection Racket: Cyrano and D.R. uses the Dragon's Horn to summon a Dragon so that they can pillage cities. During a previous attack they also only spared Flare so they can be remembered as heroes.
• Off with His Head!: Ryuuma kills the dragon by decapitating it in a single slash.
• One-Word Title: "Monsters"
• Our Dragons Are Different: Is huge, long-necked and quite fat. It gets beheaded in one hit by Ryuuma.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Cyrano saved a young Flare from the flames only to have her spread the tales of his good deeds and bravery.
• Rule of Cool: Word of God said that this story was made because Oda wanted to draw a samurai killing a Dragon.
• Serious Business: Ryuuma picks a fight with Cyrano when the latter accidentally touches the scabbard of his katana with his own, even if Cyrano didn't mean to and apologized. Deconstructed when Cyrano has D.R. use this trick to make Ryuuma pick a fight, only to fake his wound and blow the Dragon Horn so that everyone in town will blame Ryuuma for the arrival of the Dragon.
• Single-Stroke Battle: Ryuuma kills Cyrano, D.R. and the Dragon with a single strike each.
• Sole Survivor: Flare is the only one left alive from a village that was destroyed by the previous Dragon's attack. It is revealed that Cyrano deliberately spared her to be remembered as a savior.
• Tranquil Fury: Ryuuma, after he learns the truth about Cyrano and Flare breaks down in tears.
• We Can Rule Together: D.R. proposes this to Ryuuma after seeing the latter cut down Cyrano with one blow. He gets a taste of Ryuuma's sword for his trouble.

"Romance Dawn"

• Bad Boss: Spiel burns alive one of his members for losing to Anne.
• Berserk Button: Don't talk loudly about Spiel's head shape...
• Beware the Nice Ones: During most of the story, Luffy is nice, easy-going and careless. He then defeats an entire ships of pirates and send their magic-wielding captain flying over the horizon.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Compared to the finished product, we have Luffy's power being unique, Spiel being an actual magician rather than a Devil Fruit user and the distinct presence of two kinds of pirates, the idealistic, adventure-loving Piece Main and the ruthless Morgania. Luffy's grandpa is also a pirate rather than a Marine Vice-Admiral.
• Evil Sorcerer: Spiel, who apparently uses "magic" and can fly on a broomstick.
• Fantastic Medicinal Bodily Product: Anne reveals that her bird friend Baloon belongs to a rare species of monstrous birds whose blood can give long life to people, which is why Spiel is after him.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Luffy debuts by accidentally grabbing Baloon as he was trying to fly away, doing Spiel a favor. Spiel was about to reward him, but Luffy mentioned how weird his head is...
• No Name Given: Luffy's grandfather remains unnamed, unlike his One Piece counterpart.
• Playing with Fire: Spiel can somehow conjure flames with his powers.
• Rubber Man: Luffy, of course. In this continuity, it is because of the fruit of the Gum-Gum Tree, which grows once every 100 years.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: In-Universe, the pirates who roam the sea are divided into two groups: Morgania are vile pillagers who seek only wealth and power, while Piece Mains are idealists who want adventure. Luffy is on a quest to join the latter.

Tropes from the collection itself

• Title Drop Anthology: A collection of five one-shots by Eiichiro Oda, with "Wanted!" as the first.

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