One Piece anime announces long hiatus, but it’s for a good reason

The One Piece anime is taking the longest break in recent memory, as Toei prepares for a new era for Luffy and the Straw Hats.

It’s remarkable that, over 1,100 episodes in, One Piece shows no signs of letting up. The anime show, based on Eiichiro Oda’s ongoing manga, has been a staple across multiple eras, outliving many contemporary franchises.

Staying consistent across all that time requires discipline and the occasional break, and one of the longer hiatuses in One Piece’s history has been announced. But, as of episode 1122’s airing, this hiatus is immediate and leaves a cliffhanger on one of the series major arcs.

The shonen anime is going to run filler episodes for over six months, until April 2025.

The move comes as part of a revamp for Luffy’s on-screen exploits. Upon returning next April, One Piece will have improved production quality, refreshed music and sound, improved pacing, and a brand new timeslot that places less restraints on Toei in terms of what the studio can and can’t show.

This timeslot hasn’t yet been revealed. For the time-being, a new version of the Fish-Man Island Arc will be shown starting October 27, 2024. First produced in 2011, the arc is getting another edit.

The Fish-Man redux starts after the one-off filler episode, ‘Fan Letter’, airing next week. One Piece’s television adaptation is still in the middle of the Egghead Arc, the first part of the Final Saga, where Eiichiro is apparently pushing toward the end of the journey for the Straw Hats.

Of course, in typical One Piece fashion, that conclusion could come in two years, or another 20. The only one who knows is Eiichiro. For now, we’re taking a small detour for everyone to catch their breath and put some more wind behind the property’s sails.

Rich bounties await, as amid this we have The One Piece, Netflix’s anime remake, and live-action One Piece Season 2 on the way. If you’d like to stay ahead of all of these, then check out our guide on Chapter 1129 to see what’s going down in the manga.