The history of the One Piece manga is quite rich, and you can imagine the amount of content there is in a manga with over 1,000 chapters. As Oda slowly approaches the final story of his magnum opus, there is still much to be said. This article will focus on a special chapter that was released on November 30, 2009, and was later collected into the cult classic One Piece Volume 0. The chapter we're talking about is, of course, Chapter 0, and in this article, you'll discover everything you need to know about it and its status within the franchise.

Chapter 0 tells us the history of the world before Luffy's time

At Marineford, Garp was informed that Roger and Shiki were meeting at Edd War and decided to set sail immediately to try to arrive in time to stop them. The Golden Lion offered Roger an alliance: the former's military strength and the latter's recovered ancestral weapon would allow him to conquer the entire world in a short time. Roger, however, did not accept the proposal, so an enraged Shiki attacked him with all his ships, and despite their clear disadvantage, Roger's crew began to counterattack.

Just as the battle seemed to have been decided, a sudden storm destroyed half of Shiki's fleet; this, along with an accident to the captain, brought an end to hostilities and allowed the Oro Jackson to sail. Two years later, Roger accomplished a feat considered impossible by reaching Raftel, becoming the Pirate King. After this, the crew mysteriously disappeared.

Another year passed, and rumors spread that the Navy had captured Roger and planned to execute him in Rogue Town, his hometown. Shiki was furious that the Navy would kill his former rival, whom he deemed unworthy, and that his death would come in the weakest of the four seas. Because of this, he attacked the Navy headquarters alone and was intercepted by Sengoku and Garp. After a very long fight that leveled half the buildings on the island, Shiki was arrested and sent to Impel Down.

A week after Shiki's capture, Roger was executed. His last words marked the beginning of the great era of pirates. Reactions around the world were very mixed. Shiki escaped from Impel Down by cutting off his legs and returned to his crew. Some time later, he reached Whitebeard aboard the Moby Dick and proposed an alliance, but the latter did not accept. A disappointed Shiki left but revealed that he intended to remain in the shadows for a while.

On the Marvel Archipelago, the "Land Hidden in the Clouds," Shiki spoke with Doctor Indigo. According to the scientist, it would have taken twenty years to complete preparations for the plan to conquer the world. Shiki agreed to wait, confident that at the end of this long wait, he would be able to bring hell back to earth.

Chapter 0 is definitely canon

Now that we've explained what Chapter 0 is about, we can reveal more details about its release and canonical status. As mentioned, Chapter 0 was originally released on November 30, 2009, under the title "Strong World" as a special chapter; it was released simultaneously with Chapter 565. The chapter served as a prequel to the main story, providing more details on some of the events from Roger's time, i.e., before Luffy's time, and introducing Shiki to the series, thus serving as a prequel to One. Movie in Pieces: Strong World.

So, with that said, do we know if Chapter 0 is canon or not? Well, special characters are often tricky… if you look at other famous examples, like Bleach, there’s a whole “special” arc (Turn Back the Pendulum), which contains historical chapters written and illustrated by Kubo, which give us a glimpse into the history before the main timeline, but are undoubtedly canon, as they’re written and illustrated by Kubo. So, is it the same with Chapter 0 of One Piece?

Well, if you've ever had any lingering doubts, we can confirm that Chapter 0 is canon. Not only is it written and illustrated by Oda, which is enough in itself, but it also fits perfectly into the series' lore, meaning there's absolutely no way it's not canon. But why are people doubting its canonical status if that's the case?

Well, Shiki is actually the source of this confusion in most cases. Namely, Shiki, as a character, was first introduced in the One Piece: Strong World movie, and movies are generally not canon (there are exceptions, but more often than not, a movie is not canon). Since Shiki was initially perceived as a non-canon character, some fans believed that Chapter 0, due to its focus on Shiki, was also non-canon and only served as a tie-in to the movie. However, as we explained, this is false, as the chapter is indeed canon.

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