One Piece anime to go on 3 month hiatus with reduced number of episodes in 2026

A major production shift has been announced for the One Piece TV anime, which will fundamentally change its release schedule in 2026 when its highly anticipated “Elbaf Arc” is set to debut.

Toei Animation has officially announced that the anime will be moving to a new format, with a maximum of 26 episodes being broadcast per year.

This move is designed to allow the production to adapt the original manga at a one-to-one pace of one manga chapter per anime episode.

For years, the One Piece anime has maintained a continuous, weekly broadcast schedule.

This has often led to a famously slow pace, with less than a single manga chapter being stretched to fill an entire 20-minute episode, a common point of criticism from fans as the anime tried to avoid catching up to the ongoing source material from Eiichiro Oda.

This new, seasonal-style approach promises a higher-quality, better-paced adaptation, more in line with other modern, critically acclaimed anime.

To facilitate this new production, the One Piece TV anime will enter a “recharge period,” or hiatus, from January 2026 to March 2026.

The new, high-quality “Elbaf Arc” will then premiere immediately following this break, in April 2026.

The “Elbaf Arc” is one of the most anticipated storylines in the entire series, as the land of the giants has been teased as a destination for the Straw Hat crew for over two decades.