With only weeks left until One Piece’s anime returns from its excruciating hiatus, fans could not be more excited. The series is supposedly set to return with even better animation for the exciting second half of the Egghead Arc where things are expected to spiral out of control very quickly. That said, besides higher-quality animation and a new voice actor for Franky, One Piece’s Egghead Arc is also expected to return with a new evening time slot for the first time in 18 years, and the change is secretly genius.
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As per the announcement at Jump Festa, part 2 of One Piece’s Egghead Arc returns on April 6th, 2025, though instead of its old morning 9:30 AM slot, new episodes will be released at 11:15 PM JST, making One Piece a late-night show for the first time in its broadcast history. Unexpected as the change may be, the reasoning behind it is rather ingenious as according to Oricon, the shift to a late-night time slot was to align with the Weekly Shonen Jump chapter releases, thus allowing fans to smoothly transition from watching the latest One Piece episode to reading the newest manga chapter right after.
[RELATED: Netflix Confirms One Piece’s Return Will Stream on the Platform in April]
One Piece’s New Anime Schedule Lines Up With the Manga Release
Since its debut in 1999, One Piece’s anime has changed time slots a few times, initially airing on Wednesdays at 7:00 PM from October 1999 to March 2001, before switching to Sundays at 7:30 PM in April 2001, and then 7:00 PM in January 2005. That said, since October 2006, One Piece, for the last 18 years has aired on Sunday mornings, aligning with its target audience of young children. However, One Piece’s audience has grown up alongside the series over the last two decades, making the new late-night slot a stroke of genius as it makes for the perfect streamlined weekend for these very fans who not only enjoy the anime week after week but also keep up with the manga.
New chapters of One Piece’s manga are released online every Monday at 12:00 AM JST, exactly 45 minutes after the new anime time slot. This means fans can watch the latest episode of the Egghead Arc and dive right into the manga for the latest events of the Elbaf Arc almost immediately, making for the perfect way to cap off the weekend for One Piece’s now adult fan base. Furthermore, reading One Piece online has never been easier, with the series even recently launching a dedicated app for the same named One Piece Base.
The same holds true for One Piece fans around the world with Viz and Manga Plus both offering simultaneous releases. For One Piece fans in North America in particular, the new time slot means fans can now begin their Sunday mornings with the anime and the new chapter back to back, which just about sounds like the best way possible to kick off the day.
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Image courtesy of Max
