Anime

One Piece: Elbaph Arc Confirms Crunchyroll Release Date Ahead of Premiere

One Piece is going to be making its grand return to screens later this Spring, and Crunchyroll has confirmed when fans will be able to stream the anime’s big comeback for the Elbaph arc. One Piece fans have been left on a major cliffhanger ever since the Egghead Arc ended its run in the anime last year. Now that the anime is going into an entirely new schedule moving forward, fans are waiting for One Piece to make its comeback later this Spring with the next major arc of Eiichiro Oda’s long running series.

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One Piece: Elbaph Arc previously confirmed it was going to be making its return to screens in Japan this April, but a new update from Crunchyroll has now confirmed that the anime will be streaming with the service for fans in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Southeast Asia, and Latin America beginning on April 5th. Now that fans have a streaming home for the new episodes, it’s time to get ready for its big comeback this Spring.

What to Know for One Piece: Elbaph Arc

© Eiichiro Oda / Shueisha, Toei Animation

One Piece: Elbaph Arc will be making its premiere in Japan on April 5th, and will be streaming in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. They have also confirmed that English dub episodes for the Egghead Arc will begin releasing later this March, but have yet to set a release date for Elbaph’s English dub as of this time. Either way, it’s still a big new release to look forward to as the anime will be entering a whole new era of its production with these new episodes too.

One Piece‘s production team has announced a major change for the Elbaph Arc that will be shifting from the way it was made before. Rather than releasing on a weekly basis throughout the entire year, One Piece will be moving to a seasonal release schedule. There will now only be 26 episodes of the anime released a year, and each of them will have a pacing that’s much more in line with how Eiichiro Oda paces the story in the manga. But we’ll have to see how this all shapes up.

What Is the Elbaph Arc About?

Courtesy of Toei Animation

Crunchyroll has thankfully dropped the first tease for what One Piece fans can expect from the Elbaph arc as well, “After a daring escape from the Future Island Egghead, the Straw Hat Crew set their course for a legendary destination. Joined by the mighty Giant Warrior Pirates, they finally reach Elbaph, the long-awaited Land of Giants,” the synopsis begins. “New encounters with Giants, and long hoped for reunions unfold. A colossal new chapter begins as the crew heads into an adventure unlike anything before, all in the pursuit of the ultimate treasure, the ‘One Piece!’”

One Piece: Elbaph Arc has some (literally) big plans to pay off some of the story beats that have been teased in the anime for decades at this point, so it’s just a matter of seeing how it all continues to develop further. Now that the new episodes have confirmed their release date with Crunchyroll, all fans can do is wait for them to kick off.

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