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This marks the conclusion of a long-standing era for ongoing anime, with Toei Animation revealing a new production schedule for One Piece, which has run continuously for more than 25 years and featured numerous non-canon storylines. Starting in the new year, after the current storyline wraps up, the anime will take a quarterly break until spring, when the Elbaph arc kicks off.

New Release Strategy

Going forward, the series will produce a pair of cours every annually for a cap of two dozen installments. The studio explains this will enable the anime to “dive even deeper into the heart of the ONE PIECE world — including more material, tempo, and pacing of the source material.” However, Toei conclude by hinting at “exciting surprises” during the hiatus period, which suggests more One Piece content, such as Netflix's live-action season 2, set to premiere during this gap.

Previous Hiatus Benefits

The One Piece anime previously took a half-year pause that started in October 2024 and ended in April 2025. The intermission was for the animators to improve the animation quality and let the comic to build a lead to avoid a faster anime pace and lengthy recap episodes. The anime greatly benefited from this break, and it has been able to supply fans with numerous fight scenes, superior graphics, and reduced non-canon content than previously.

Adopting Modern Trends

Although a few summary installments sprouted up during this season, the positive effects of this new production schedule greatly outweigh the occasional interruption in the action. This also gives the manga, which is presently in the thick of the latest arc, to gain more ground on the anime. Per the announcement, this may lead to one episode of the anime adapting one chapter, with some alternatively covering one and a half chapters or more to compensate for scheduling.

It's the end of an era for anime, as the epic saga is the last big series to ditch the old-school way of creation, which prioritized being on air for almost the entire year. This explains why classics such as Bleach, and naturally One Piece have numerous filler arcs, and the quality of the art can change drastically between one episode and the following. Today, anime production is organized in cours, with one or two maximum coming out each year, allowing for better quality and more faithfulness to the original work.