One Piece has announced that the anime is going on a very lengthy hiatus, and those behind the scenes have explained why the anime is going away for such a long while. One Piece will be fully celebrating the 25th anniversary of the anime’s very first broadcast on October 20th in Japan, and with it will be entering a whole new era of the Final Saga from Eiichiro Oda’s original manga franchise. But while the anime is ready to kick off this grand new adventure in the future, One Piece instead is going to be taking some time off to better prepare for what’s next.
One Piece has officially announced that following the premiere of Episode 1122 this past weekend, the anime is now going to go on a hiatus for nearly six months. Chief producer Ryuta Koike explained during a special live stream event announcing the news that One Piece will begin airing in a new time slot when the anime returns for new episodes beginning in April 2025. Which means that the anime will be going into a “charging period” while the team behind it all gets ready for the next phase of the Egghead Arc and beyond.
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Why One Piece Is Taking a Break
As Koike explained to fans, this hiatus will begin following the debut of the One Piece Fan Letter anime special airing on October 20th, the anime will be heading into a “charging period” until March 30th next year. Koike revealed that the time aside is so the team behind the anime can improve. Noting that as Eiichiro Oda’s original manga is getting more exciting with each new release, the anime team would “like to take this opportunity to make the anime even more powerful” when it starts to air its new episodes next April in its new time slot.
As for this new time slot, news about One Piece‘s new schedule will be revealed during Jump Festa 2025 later this December. It was also noted during the special live stream that the anime seems to be getting more “powerful” with its cinematic presentation for big scenes in a weekly anime (Shanks’ attack on Captain Kid being the example given), and this makes a lot of sense to be pointed out considering that the anime production has been keeping up with the demands for its weekly releases since the Wano Country arc back in 2018, and thus it eventually would lead to some level of the production needing to slow down.
What One Piece Is Doing During the Hiatus
The One Piece anime is going on break for quite a while, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be new episodes to watch. Airing in the meantime, One Piece Log: Fish-Man Island Saga will be a new remake of the original Fish-Man Island arc of the anime series. This is going to be a touched up and re-edited version of the arc with updated visuals, sound effects, and new material when needed. It’s going to be condensing the 58 episodes of the original run, and will be editing it into 21 episodes for its new run. It will then end when the anime is ready to return in full.
One Piece: Egghead Arc is promising to return to Luffy and the other Straw Hats on Dr. Vegapunk’s future island laboratory. They are currently trying to escape from the island while the Navy is closing in, and have tried to find the missing Dr. Vegapunk while all of this goes down. It’s gotten the attention of the entire world, and will be shaking up the franchise when it’s over as it’s the first real arc of the Final Saga for Eiichiro Oda’s original manga series. Lots of reasons to be ready for next April.