One Piece Animator Comments on Anime's Pandemic-Induced Hiatus

As the novel coronavirus continues to impact the anime industry, fans have seen how Japan's [...]

By Nick Valdez

As the novel coronavirus continues to impact the anime industry, fans have seen how Japan's declared state of emergency have led to the postponement of several major anime series over the last couple of weeks. In order to better protect the health and safety of those behind the scenes, Toei Animation announced that they will be delaying new episodes of One Piece for the foreseeable future as well. News of this delay definitely caught fans by surprise, but it apparently caught those working on the anime by surprise as well from the looks of it.

Henry Thurlow, an animator for One Piece, reacted to the news of the hiatus in an interesting way as Thurlow noted on Twitter that the production schedule had yet to be changed on Twitter, "News to me....who is still working (literally) right now with unchanged deadlines on a future episode." So while the hiatus means no new episodes will premiere, it appears that some aspects of them are still being worked on.

Toei Animation has yet to provide any updates on new episodes for the anime as of yet, and had the following message to fans during the initial announcement, "Due to the state of emergency in Japan caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, we have carefully considered the safety measures for the spread and have decided to suspend the simulcast and Japanese broadcasting of both "One Piece" & our new series, "Digimon Adventure:" for the time being. Updates on the return of both series will be provided as soon as we know. Thank you for your patience and understanding during this time. Please stay safe and healthy."

Toei Animation also confirmed Digimon Adventure will be holding off new episodes, but if they're still being worked on much like One Piece seems to be, perhaps this also means there will be some shifts in the schedule...potentially resulted in more time for each episode? Or if production does continue during the hiatus, perhaps it means there will be a stockpile of episodes ready to go upon its return? What do you think?

Will the hiatus have an impact on One Piece as a whole? Are you taking this time to catch up on older One Piece episodes? What anime are you checking out instead during these major hiatuses? Let us know your thoughts in the comments or talk to me directly about all things anime and other cool things @Valdezology on Twitter!

Trending Now: