One Piece confirms Elbaph arc release date after 3-month hiatus

After a quarter of a century, One Piece interrupted its weekly broadcast and officially took on a seasonal schedule, like all modern anime. Although we knew the anime would return sometime in April, we didn’t know when until today. Crunchyroll and Toei Animation have revealed that a new season of One Piece will arrive on April 5.

The premiere will usher fans into the Elbaph arc, which finally sees The Straw Hats make their way to the land of giants, a location the crew has been dreaming of going to since before they entered the Grand Line. The timing couldn’t be better, as Netflix’s One Piece season 2 trailer features the Straw Hats entering the Grand Line and meeting Dorry and Broggy on Little Garden, the very giants who sparked their desire to visit Elbaph. Meanwhile, the manga is already deep into the arc, and it’s shaping up to be every bit as impactful as the Egghead Island arc that came before it.

Speaking of Egghead Island, the final episodes of the arc are getting an English dub, with episodes 1144-1155 arriving on Crunchyroll on March 22.

With Toei Animation moving away from a weekly schedule, the One Piece adaptation will now produce 26 episodes per year, split into two seasonal batches, or “cours.” Each episode will adapt at least one full manga chapter, signaling the end of drawn-out padding and anime-original filler. The One Piece anime previously went on a six-month hiatus from October 2024 to April 2025. The break gave the production team time to enhance the show’s animation quality while also allowing the manga to pull further ahead, helping prevent a rushed pacing schedule and the need for extended recap episodes.

Even though the anime takes breaks these days, the live-action series and weekly manga releases ensure fans don’t go without their favorite pirates. Viz Media and Shonen Jump have also made the first 155 chapters of the One Piece manga free until April 10.

Stream One Piece on Crunchyroll, with new episodes slated to premiere April 5.