It's the end of a long-standing era for long-running series, with the production studio revealing a new production schedule for One Piece, which has run continuously for more than 25 years and included numerous non-canon storylines. Starting in January, once the current storyline wraps up, the animated series will go on a quarterly break until April, when the Elbaph arc kicks off.
Updated Production Plan
From now on, the series will produce two seasons every year for a maximum of 26 episodes. Toei explains this will enable the anime to “explore further into the heart of the ONE PIECE world — including more material, rhythm, and pacing of the original manga.” Yet, Toei end by promising “thrilling developments” during the hiatus period, which suggests more related projects, such as Netflix's live-action season 2, scheduled to debut during this gap.
Previous Hiatus Benefits
The series anime previously took a six-month break that began in late 2024 and ended in April 2025. The intermission was for the animators to enhance the visuals and let the manga to get further ahead to prevent a rushed adaptation and repetitive summaries. The anime greatly benefited from this break, and it has been able to supply fans with countless fight scenes, high-quality animation, and reduced non-canon content than ever before.
Embracing Seasonal Format
Although a few summary installments sprouted up during the recent run, the benefits of this updated approach greatly outweigh the odd pause in the story. This additionally allows the original work, which is presently in the middle of the Elbaph arc, to extend its lead on the anime. According to the news, this may result in one episode of the anime adapting a single manga chapter, with others instead handling one and a half chapters or more to compensate for time.
It's the end of an era for Japanese animation, as One Piece is the final major title to abandon the old-school way of creation, which focused on being on air for almost the entire year. It's the reason why classics such as Bleach, and of course itself have so many filler arcs, and the standard of the animation can change drastically between installments and the following. Today, anime production is organized in seasons, with one or two maximum coming out each year, enabling better quality and more faithfulness to the original work.
