Non-Canon

Definition of non-canon
Non-canon is material that does not appear as part of the original One Piece manga written by Eiichiro Oda, including all spin offs and adaptations of the source material.

Although the One Piece anime generally adapts the canon story line very closely, there are also significant deviations such as adding additional story arcs. These non-canon anime arcs are often known as filler, as they are not usually regarded as relevant to the overall plot of the series.

How do fillers work in One Piece?
In the anime, fillers are generally used to fill time and avoid the anime catching up to the storyline in the manga. This is necessary because a single episode usually covers more than one manga chapter. For example, the Syrup Village Arc consisted of 20 manga chapters adapted into 10 anime episodes. Because both the manga and anime are released weekly, adapting the manga without additional material would cause the anime to quickly run out of material to adapt. Later episodes of the anime have tackled this problem by adding and extending scenes rather than creating new story arcs; for example, the Impel Down Arc contains more anime episodes than manga chapters.

Some anime-original episodes are included for other reasons, such as Episode 291 celebrating it's airing date of Christmas Eve and the Little East Blue Arc and Z's Ambition Arc setting up upcoming movies.

Sometimes, including an original story arc will involve changing events compared to the manga, such as moving Kuzan's introduction to after the Foxy's Return Arc and changing the Straw Hat's arrival into the New World to include the Z's Ambition Arc before the Punk Hazard Arc. This can sometimes introduce plot holes to the anime which were not present in the manga. The anime occasionally references earlier filler arcs, but at other times ignores them.

In One Piece, fillers take form of:


 * History on the characters that were never featured in the manga.
 * Scenes taking longer than they did in the manga.
 * Extra story-lines that were not part of the original.

In One Piece, unlike many other series, some of the filler characters are designed by Oda himself. Some of the stories, such as the Loguetown Arc fillers, were ones Oda himself wanted to include in the manga, but did not in order to move the storyline along faster. Some plot points presented in the anime first, such as extra details about where the Straw Hats landed in the Straw Hat's Separation Serial and Kuzan's post-timeskip injures, appeared in the anime first and were later confirmed as canon when they appeared in the manga.

Did Oda have any part?
Oda had occasionally been involved in non-canon material:


 * Oda wrote the story for One Piece Film: Strong World and executive produced One Piece Film: Z and One Piece Film: Gold.
 * Oda has designed many anime-only characters for Toei (anime) and Bandai (video games).
 * Oda provided character designs for the first OVA characters. Sketches of these can be found in one of the early volumes.
 * A novelization of the Loguetown Arc written in 2000 had the story of Usopp's encounter with Daddy Masterson and his daughter Carol, explaining where he got his goggles. Oda stated that he did want to include this story in the manga but could not due to the pressure to start the Grand Line story exactly at chapter 100.
 * The character Musshuru was created by Oda for the 9th One Piece movie as Wapol's brother. Due to many of the other changes in the story, including the inclusion of Robin and Franky to the story of the discovery and joining of Tony Tony Chopper, it cannot be considered canon in the continuity.
 * Oda has also designed other non-canon characters such as Accino, Gasparde, Z, Ratchet, and more.

Is Filler treated the same as Canon?
Adaptions with content created for the anime can create plot holes, for example:


 * Chopper ate two Rumble Balls during the filler Davy Back Fights without repercussions, but in the manga it was stated he could not eat more than one in a period of six hours without losing control over his transformations.
 * Zoro stated he could cut anything during the Warship Island Arc and proceeded to cut chains which were apparently steel although he had not yet acquired the technique until the Alabasta Arc, where he stated that he cannot cut steel. During his fight with Daz Bones, Zoro went back remembering what he was taught about cutting steel, after that he applied it for the first time.
 * Several times in the filler episodes between the end of the Baroque Works saga and the beginning of the Skypiea Saga, Luffy, Zoro and Robin's bounties were all noted. However Luffy and Zoro had no knowledge of their bounties until Jaya Arc and Robin was only confirmed to be travelling with the Straw Hat Pirates in the Davy Back Fight Arc.
 * In the anime, Coby and Helmeppo went through Reverse Mountain, but in the manga, they went through the Calm Belt to reach the Grand Line. However, in episode 315 of the anime Coby and Helmeppo explain to Luffy that they actually did go through the Calm Belt with new technology created by a Marine scientist named Dr. Vegapunk.

An "Anime and Manga Differences" section or a non-canon history section can be included on a page to cover extra adaptation information, while episode pages can detail more fully what has been altered.

It should be noted that the anime and manga have different continuities and the two are distinguished separately on this wiki.

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