It’s the end of an era for ongoing anime, as Toei Animation announces a new production schedule for One Piece, which has been an ongoing series for a quarter-century, spanning over a dozen filler arcs in the process. Starting in January, after the Egghead Island arc wraps up, the anime will be going on a three-month break until April, when the Elbaph arc will begin.
Going forward, One Piece will produce two seasons every year for a maximum of 26 episodes. Toei says this will help the anime “dive even deeper into the heart of the ONE PIECE world — incorporating more content, tempo, and pacing of the original manga.” However, Toei ends by promising “exciting surprises” during the series’ break, which means more One Piece content, like Netflix’s live-action season 2, set to premiere during this gap.
The One Piece anime previously took a six-month break that began in October 2024 and ended in April 2025. The hiatus was for the production team to improve the animation quality and allow the manga to get further ahead to avoid a faster anime pace and lengthy recap episodes. The anime couldn’t benefit more from this break, and it has been able to supply fans with countless action sequences, high-quality animation, and less filler than ever before.
Although some recap episodes sprouted up during this season, the positive effects of this new production schedule far surpass the odd pause in the action. This also gives the manga, which is currently in the middle of the Elbaph arc, to gain more ground on the anime. According to the announcement made during the ONE PIECE NEWS segment on YouTube, as translated by @WSJ_manga on X, this may result in one episode of the anime covering one chapter of the manga, with some instead covering one and a half chapters or more to compensate for time.
It’s the end of an era for anime, as One Piece is the last big series to ditch the old-school way of production, which prioritized being on air for almost the entire year. It’s the reason why classics such as Naruto, Bleach, and of course One Piece have so many filler arcs, and the quality of the animation can change drastically between one episode and the next. Nowadays, anime production is structured in seasons, with one or two maximum coming out each year, allowing for better quality and more faithfulness to the source material.
