One Piece Anime Release Schedule Slowing To Max Of 26 Episodes A Year

By Elijah Gonzalez  |  October 28, 2025 | 12:47pm
Anime News One Piece
One Piece Anime Release Schedule Slowing To Max Of 26 Episodes A Year

One Piece is undoubtedly among the most intimidating series to get into, with its anime adaptation spanning 1147 episodes and counting. However, it seems that after years of running almost weekly since 1999, Toei Animation’s adaptation will finally be slowing down.

Today, during a One Piece News livestream, it was announced that the series’ release schedule will be reduced to a maximum of 26 episodes a year starting in 2026. Specifically, following the conclusion of the anime’s latest arc this year, it will take a three-month hiatus from January to March 2026, before returning in April 2026 to start adapting the manga’s Elbaph arc over two parts, which will likely be divided into two 12-13 episode cours.

A teaser image for the upcoming arc can be seen below.

Monkey D. Luffy wearing a red outfit with fur trim and horned helmet flies holding a sword over a vast snowy landscape with ice formations and distant mountains. The background features blue-tinted snow and ice. At the bottom the One Piece logo in black and white Japanese and English text appears.

In a Tweet, Toei Animation explained that the change is being made “in order to dive even deeper into the heart of the ONE PIECE world — incorporating more content, tempo, and pacing of the original manga.”

The One Piece anime has long been criticized for its relatively slow pacing, and at 1147 episodes, it’s a rare adaptation that almost has more episodes than its manga has chapters (the manga is currently on chapter 1163). For context, it’s fairly common for most anime to adapt roughly 3-5 chapters per episode, and One Piece is clearly way off that ratio.

As a result, Toei Animation’s adaptation has frequently had to rely on “filler” arcs, which are anime-only additions that are included to ensure that the anime doesn’t catch up to the manga. Once the anime reaches the upcoming Elbaph arc, which begins on chapter 1126 (again, out of 1163), it will be only a couple of dozen chapters behind the manga. However, with the new release format, it won’t catch up quite as quickly.

Meanwhile, the long-running manga has allegedly entered its final stretch, and while it’s unclear just how long that will take to fully wrap up—especially given that the manga has been running since 1997—it’s likely that Toei Animation’s new release strategy is a reaction to the legendary series finally winding down.

Additionally, WIT Studio is still working on an anime remake of the series, which was announced back in 2023, while Netflix’s live-action adaptation is set for a March 10, 2026 release date.

 
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