One Piece Anime Makes Surprise Return With Brand-New Episode: Watch

One Piece is now in the midst of one of the toughest times to be a fan of the series in its history, but the future is already looking bright as the anime has made a surprising return during the hiatus with a brand-new anime special. One Piece’s anime has been in a hiatus for the first time in its over 25 year history as the team behind the Egghead Arc is preparing to return for new episodes later this Spring. It’s been a tough several month wait thus far, but now the wait is going to be easier thanks to something new to chew on.

One Piece’s anime is still in the midst of its hiatus with a planned return this Spring, but the team has brought back the franchise for a brand new special episode. Taking place shortly after the events of the Wano Country arc, this new special (which unfortunately does not have English subtitles as of the time of this publication) was released directly onto YouTube and brings back both Luffy and Law for some fun shenanigans one last time. You can check it out in the video above.

When Does One Piece Anime Return From Hiatus?

One Piece: Egghead Arc will be kicking off Part 2 of its run on April 6th with new episodes picking up right from where it all left off when it went on hiatus last year. The series surprisingly announced it was taking a six month hiatus last October, and fans have been waiting ever since as the team gets ready for the next major phase of the Final Saga for the anime. One Piece Episode 1123 will be launching with the much later time slot of 11:15PM JST in Japan, but it has yet to be revealed how this will impact its international streaming release.

One Piece: Egghead Arc is the first major arc of the Final Saga for Eiichiro Oda’s long running manga series overall, and that means there are going to be quite a few developments for Luffy and the others before fans get to see what that really means for the anime. As the series heads towards the One Piece treasure itself, things are going to be running at full steam when the anime makes its highly anticipated return later this Spring.

RELATED: Netflix’s One Piece Casts Luffy’s Father And More For Season 2

What Does One Piece Have Planned for 2025?

One Piece still has quite a lot for fans to look forward to for the rest of the year. While the anime is still going to be on its hiatus for the next few months, One Piece’s manga has returned for its new chapters. Oda teased during Jump Festa 2025 last year that the Elbaf arc would have a big twist before it all came to an end, and after seeing everything that went down on Egghead, this twist could have major ramifications for what to expect heading into the grand finale.

But along with the manga, One Piece fans might get updates on some of its other big projects now in the works with Netflix too. Not only is Netflix expecting a second season of the live-action series as production ramps up for a potential release later this year (or early 2026 at the latest), but there’s also a brand new remake anime taking on the series from the very beginning. Now it’s just a matter of waiting to see how the rest of 2025 looks, and whether or not it’s better off than how 2024 ended.