Tonight during a special online One Piece news event live streamed from Japan, Toei Animation announced the restructuring of the global hit series’ production schedule beginning in 2026 — coinciding with the highly anticipated start of the show’s Elbaph Arc.
During the global stream on the official One Piece YouTube channel, series producer Ryūta Koike revealed that beginning this January, the series’ broadcast will be divided into two cours (“parts”) per year — totaling up to 26 new episodes in 2026 and thereafter. While this reduction in total episodes annually as in prior years, Koike explained that this change was a strategic decision to support the advancement and evolution of the anime series.
The anime is based on the manga by Eiichiro Oda; historically, 11 to 12 episodes would encompass four to five volumes of the manga. Going forward, under the two cours structure, new episodes will incorporate more of the content, tempo and pacing of the manga while continuing to leverage the unique storytelling capacity of animation.
Elphab Arc key visual
The new One Piece episodic production schedule and broadcast of Cour 1 for 2026 will commence in April 2026, following a three-month production hiatus from January through March. During this series’ break, there will be numerous opportunities for fans to enjoy “World of One Piece.”
The hour-long news event was co-hosted by Hiroyuki Nakano, One Piece Media editor in chief, together with Koike. In addition to the anime series production update, the global stream also discussed the manga, new projects, marketing highlights over the past year and even updates on local Japanese events like Jump Festa. This included an in-depth look at new Issue 113 of the manga and numerous visual reveals from both the upcoming One Piece Heroines anime and One Piece, like new teaser art for the Elbaph Arc. Viewers were also treated to a variety of images and videos from the past year’s One Piece location-based entertainment from the LA Lakers and BVB (German Professional Soccer Club) to the LA Dodgers and New York Comic Con exhibition.
Based on the best-selling manga of all time created by Oda and brought to life by Toei Animation, the One Piece episodic series follows pirate Monkey D. Luffy and his Straw Hat Crew on their epic quest to find the “One Piece,” the legendary treasure of Gol D. Roger, former King of the Pirates. Now over 25 years since the episodic series’ Japanese TV debut in 1999, One Piece has taken its place in mainstream pop culture as one of the most successful and enduring anime franchises of all time, attracting millions of fans of all ages around the world. Today, the franchise currently spans 15 feature films, multiple video games, a trading card game and an ever-growing catalog of licensed merchandise and location-based entertainment.
