The Death of Long Running Anime: Why One Piece Is Ending Its Weekly Run and How It Changes Everything
The anime adaptation of Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece has witnessed the biggest shift since its debut in 1999, and this shift might change everything for it. According to a recent announcement made by the creators on the official social media handles and through a live stream, the series is now becoming a seasonal anime from April 2026.
One Piece has been a weekly anime since its inception, and this change would not only affect its weekly run, but it will more or less change everything. Toei Animation and producer Ryuta Koike have confirmed that One Piece will reduce its annual episode output, and this change has been made to improve the quality of the series even more.
How a Seasonal Format Could Change One Piece’s Production
According to Koike, who hosted the livestream with Hiroyuki Nakano, the former Editor-in-Chief of Weekly Shonen Jump and the current head of One Piece media, One Piece anime is becoming a seasonal anime with 26 episodes starting next year. It will be shifting to a two-split cours strategy after the conclusion of the Egghead arc later this year.
Egghead Island is currently ongoing within the anime, but it is expected to end by December 2025. Following that, the series will become a seasonal anime, thus marking the death of long-running anime altogether. For the first time in its 27-year history, the One Piece anime is stepping away from its weekly broadcast format, ushering in a new era for the legendary series.
The seasonal anime format has been on the rise for quite a few years now, and there were only a few projects like One Piece that followed a weekly schedule. Now that One Piece has also joined the masses, things will be very different and varied elements like pacing and animation quality will witness a decent enhancement that could work in the favor of the anime franchise.
Everything We Know About the New Changes For One Piece Anime
One Piece becoming a seasonal anime is not the only change that was revealed in the announcement. There are other major updates, and all of them are quite significant to the franchise. The biggest one out of all of them is that One Piece will take a three-month production hiatus from January to March 2026. The series will then return in April 2026 with the Elbaph arc that will be split into two cours, being released separately throughout the year.
Not only that, each new episode of the One Piece anime will cover one manga chapter from the Elbaph arc, which will help them maintain a safe distance from the manga series. While pacing has always been a major issue for Eiichiro Oda’s masterpiece, this change might help with it, as the series initially adapted less than a chapter in the earlier arcs.
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— ONE PIECE スタッフ【公式】/ Official (@Eiichiro_Staff) October 28, 2025
2026年4月 新章突入
─ エルバフ編 ─
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原作1話分をアニメ1話で楽しめるよう
来年のTVアニメは年間最大26話放送に！
1月〜3月を充電期間とし
4月からエルバフ編を放送します。#ONEPIECE#ONEPIECENEWS pic.twitter.com/J0Vio0cAqb
The announcement was accompanied by a key visual for the Elbaph arc featuring Luffy in his Viking outfit. This key visual has hyped up fans for the second phase of One Piece’s final saga and for the shift in the franchise as a whole. Hopefully, these changes will work in favor of the anime and provide a better experience to fans. Do you think this transformation was necessary for One Piece? Let us know below!
One Piece is currently available to watch on Crunchyroll.
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