One Piece is coming back for new episodes of the anime later this year, and the franchise has confirmed that its next major update for the Elbaph Arc is on its way very soon. One Piece wrapped up the anime’s take on the Egghead Arc last year, and with it made a massive change to how the anime will be produced from now on. The series has moved over to a seasonal release schedule rather than dropping new episodes every week like before, and is returning this Spring with the start of the Elbaph Arc.
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One Piece: Elbaph Arc will be making its debut with its new episodes later this April, but there has only been a brief reveal of these new episodes in action so far. Thankfully, that’s going to change soon enough as the franchise has confirmed that One Piece will be revealing a new update for this arc (and new spinoff anime) as part of a presentation during the AnimeJapan 2026 weekend on March 28th in Japan. Check out the announcement below.
One Piece: Elbaph Arc Anime Update Confirmed for AnimeJapan 2026
One Piece: Elbaph Arc will be getting a new update as part of the franchise’s presentation during AnimeJapan 2026 later this March, and that’s going to line up perfectly with its upcoming premiere on April 5th as part of the Spring 2026 anime schedule. This is following a massive schedule shift for the anime’s production too. The series is no longer going to be releasing a new episode every week through the year like the first near 30 years of the anime adaptation, and instead will now be releasing only 26 episodes a year across two cours.
The team behind the One Piece anime revealed that this new 26 episode a year schedule will also result in a much different kind of anime than seen before. The team promised to adapt at least a chapter for each episode, and have a pace that’s more in line with Eiichiro Oda’s original manga series. This means that the anime is going to take a much different kind of shape than ever before, and sort of be unpredictable in terms of how far it’s going to get every year.
What to Expect From One Piece: Elbaph Arc
One Piece’s Elbaph Arc is currently working its way through what seems to be a pivotal stage of its run with the latest chapters of Eiichiro Oda’s manga original. It’s not clear at this point how much longer the arc will last, but the anime won’t likely come near this point until 2027 at the earliest. Given how much has happened with the Elbaph arc thus far, and the fact it includes one of the biggest flashback arcs in the series to date, the anime still has quite a lot of ground to cover.
That’s not all that is on the way from One Piece this year. There’s not only a brand new anime spinoff all about its heroes dubbed One Piece: Heroines, there’s a second season of the live-action series coming to Netflix later this March (with a third now in the works), and even a movie currently being developed for a launch at some point as well. There’s just so much to keep an eye out for.
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images courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
