One Piece’s Elbaph Arc Just Subtly Confirmed One of Its Best Movies Is Officially Canon

Chapter #1131 of One Piece is packed with details that deepen the Elbaph Arc storyline, with the Straw Hats getting more engaged with the lore and events of the island. Among the chapter’s highlights are Loki’s confirmation that the mysterious Adam Wood originates from the Jewel Tree Adam, and Luffy learning that Shanks recently visited Elbaph. However, a subtle detail in their conversation has also confirmed that one of the best One Piece movies could be considered officially canon for the series.

Over the past two decades, the One Piece series has released numerous movies, each offering a unique adventure outside the main manga storyline. Yet, One Piece Film: Strong World always stood out as particularly connected to the manga’s narrative, especially since Eiichiro Oda himself wrote it. Fans have long speculated about its canonicity, but a major hint in Chapter #1131 finally confirms it.

One Piece Reveals Elbaph’s Connection With Shiki and Strong World

Shiki May Have Visited Elbaph To Collect His Animals

One Piece Film: Strong World‘s main villain, Shiki the Golden Lion, is a former member of the Rocks Pirates who aimed to take over the world. To achieve his ambitions, Shiki injected some wild animals he had captured with a drug called SIQ, which accelerated their evolution and granted them special abilities. The movie features a variety of these enhanced animals, and in chapter #1131 of One Piece, it becomes clear that the animals seen in Strong World actually came from Elbaph.

During their conversation in this chapter, Loki tries to intimidate Luffy with the humongous and fierce wild animals that populate Elbaph’s Underworld region, but Luffy easily befriends them. The four prominent animals here look like the original version of the mutated ones featured in the 2009 One Piece film. Later in the chapter, two additional animals are shown, including one encountered during Hajrudin and Stansen’s hunt. The reindeer-dinosaur hybrid seen during the hunt was also part of Shiki’s animal army. The final animal, spotted swimming around the Great Eirik ship at the chapter’s end, also appeared in Strong World.

One Piece Could Bring Shiki Back

The Former Rocks Member May Still Have a Role to Play

While it’s easy to assume that Oda drew inspiration for these animals from the movie, the intriguing twist is that Shiki, the main antagonist of the 2009 film, was later confirmed as a canon character and a member of the infamous Rocks Pirates. This coupled with the fact that Oda himself wrote the story for One Piece Film: Strong World suggests that the animals appearing in the film may have originated from Elbaph. Shiki might have visited Elbaph, captured similar animals, and enhanced them through injections to make them even more formidable to achieve his goals.

Given that Loki has been trapped in the “Underworld” for six years and has had a close bond with these animals since childhood, it’s plausible that Shiki may have obtained the animals from him. If that’s the case, the upcoming plots in the Elbaph arc in One Piece might further establish Shiki’s connection to the story and lend more weight to the events of the Strong World movie as canon within the series, possibly even reintroducing Shiki into the official manga storyline.