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It's the end of a long-standing era for ongoing anime, with the production studio announcing a new production schedule for the beloved series, which has run continuously for over a quarter-century and featured dozens of non-canon storylines. Starting in the new year, after the current storyline wraps up, the animated series will take a quarterly hiatus until spring, when the Elbaph arc begins.

Updated Production Plan

From now on, One Piece will release a pair of cours every year for a maximum of two dozen installments. The studio explains this will help the anime to “explore further into the heart of the ONE PIECE world — including more material, tempo, and pacing of the source material.” However, producers conclude by hinting at “thrilling developments” during the hiatus period, which means additional One Piece content, such as the upcoming live-action adaptation, scheduled to debut during this gap.

Learning from Past Breaks

The series anime previously took a six-month break that started in October 2024 and concluded in April 2025. The intermission was for the animators to improve the animation quality and allow the manga to build a lead to prevent a faster anime pace and lengthy recap episodes. The show greatly benefited from this break, and it has been able to supply fans with countless action sequences, high-quality animation, and less filler than previously.

Embracing Seasonal Format

Although a few summary installments sprouted up during the recent run, the benefits of this updated approach greatly outweigh the occasional interruption in the action. This also gives the manga, which is presently in the thick of the Elbaph arc, to gain more ground on the anime. According to the news, this may lead to a single installment of the anime covering a single manga chapter, with others alternatively covering more material or additional to compensate for time.

This concludes of an era for anime, as One Piece is the last big series to abandon the old-school way of production, which prioritized 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 quality of the animation can vary widely between installments and the following. Today, series creation is structured in cours, with one or two maximum coming out each annually, enabling improved visuals and greater accuracy to the source material.