Early One Piece

Shanks was first featured in the first pilot of One Piece Romance Dawn V.1 in the Shonen Jump specials showcasing upcoming artists, about a year and a half before One Piece began. Much of his storyline remained the same with the major difference being that Higuma the Bear was absent from the story in this version. Another minor difference was that his arm was bitten off by a shark instead of a Sea King. Shanks himself is described as Peace Maine type of pirate.

In the second pilot Romance Dawn V.2 of One Piece (featured in Weekly Shonen Jump magazine itself), Luffy got both his hat and the Devil fruit he ate from his grandfather, not Shanks. According to Oda the reason for not featuring Shanks was that he wanted Shanks to be kept a secret until One Piece was serialized so he would have a greater impact.[36]

Unlike Luffy, there was no real significant change in appearance from Romance Dawn V.1 to the final version. Even with change of art style, aside from being drawn less realistically, he is the same, the only real exception being the absence of his black cloak, although he did wear a decorative short cape over his left shoulder at the end of the chapter.