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It's the end of an iconic period for long-running series, with Toei Animation revealing a revised release plan for One Piece, which has run continuously for over a quarter-century and included numerous non-canon storylines. Starting in January, once the current storyline concludes, the anime will go on a three-month hiatus until April, when the Elbaph arc begins.

Updated Production Plan

From now on, the series will produce two seasons every annually for a maximum of 26 episodes. The studio explains this will enable the anime to “explore further into the core of the ONE PIECE world — including more material, tempo, and timing of the original manga.” However, Toei conclude by hinting at “exciting surprises” during the hiatus period, which means more One Piece content, 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 pause that began in late 2024 and concluded in April 2025. The intermission was for the production team to improve the visuals and let the comic to build a lead to avoid a faster anime pace and lengthy recap episodes. The show couldn't benefit more from this break, and it has been able to deliver fans with numerous action sequences, superior graphics, and reduced non-canon content than previously.

Embracing Seasonal Format

While a few summary installments sprouted up during the recent run, the benefits of this updated approach far surpass the odd pause in the action. This also gives the manga, which is currently in the middle of the latest arc, to gain more ground on the anime. Per the news, this may result in one episode of the series covering a single manga chapter, with some instead handling more material or additional to compensate for scheduling.

It's the end of a generation for anime, as One Piece is the last big series to ditch the traditional method of creation, which focused on airing for almost the entire year. This explains why classics such as Bleach, and naturally One Piece have so many side stories, and the standard of the animation can vary widely between one episode and the following. Today, anime production is structured in cours, with a couple at most coming out each annually, allowing for improved visuals and more faithfulness to the original work.