Bad and good news, One Piece fans: the anime is taking a break from its current arc until next spring. But it’s making up for that long break by going back to its past with some fancy new new visuals.
Toei Animation revealed it’s pausing production and airing new episodes of the present “Egghead” saga after today’s episode. The show won’t be coming back until April 2025, where it’ll have a brand new timeslot going forward. As for when it’ll return specifically, Toei said it’ll reveal that airdate on Sunday, December 22 at Jump Festa 2025.
But just because “Egghead” is on ice doesn’t mean One Piece’s anime is going away completely. Next week on October 20, there’ll be a special 25th anniversary episode centering on the Straw Hats reuniting after spending two years apart. The twist? They’ll be explored through the eyes of several NPCs (non-pirate characters), including a young girl that’s a big fan of navigator Nami. Then on October 27, a re-edited cut of the “Fish-Man Island Saga” (aka, episodes 517-541, then 543-574) will run from then until Sunday, March 30, 2025. This condensed, “special 21-episode cutdown” will feature re-shot scenes and wholly new animation scenes, plus a new opening (“We Go!” by Kitadani Hiroshi) and ending (“Sailing” by BE:FIRST) done in the show’s current visual style.
Despite being a shortened version of the original anime’s lengthy saga, the “Fish-Man” re-edit appears to be completely disconnected from WIT Studio’s upcoming One Piece remake in the works over at Netflix. That show is also meant to offer a shortened retelling of this massive, 1,122-episode story, though WIT hasn’t broken down how it’ll go about condensing. Still, at least there’ll be some One Piece to watch between now and the show’s full-on return in April.
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