It was announced today during a live stream that the anime adaptation of “One Piece” will take a three-month break from broadcasting at the beginning of next year. In addition, fewer episodes per year are planned in the future.
Three month break
According to Ryuta Koike, producer of the “One Piece” anime at Toei Animation, the broadcast of the series will pause from January to March 2026 before returning in April 2026 with the “Elbaph Arc”, for which the first visual can be seen below – then with the new concept of implementing one manga chapter per episode.
In the future, “One Piece” will only cover up to two cours per year (one cour corresponds to three months), so that a maximum of 26 episodes will appear annually. The exact number is still unconfirmed. Koike explained that this change is a »strategic decision to support the further development of the series« be.
So far, the anime has been broadcast on a weekly basis, but was interrupted every few weeks by small breaks for recap episodes. The last longer break took place between October 2024 and April 2025.
The simulcast on Crunchyroll, ADN and Netflix will also be affected by the change in broadcast schedule next year. All three streaming services provide the anime with German subtitles after the Japanese TV broadcast.
While ADN and Crunchyroll release the new episodes on Sundays, Netflix doesn’t follow suit until the following Saturday. The latter provider also announced a new German dubbed version of the series a few days ago.
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Monkey D. Luffy has only one goal: he wants to become the king of the pirates! Together with his Straw Hat gang, he sails across the seas, experiences countless adventures and takes on powerful enemies – always in search of the legendary treasure, the mysterious One Piece.
©1999 Toei Animation Co., Ltd. ©Eiichiro Oda/Shueisha, Toei Animation
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