Just a couple of months after the release of Netflix’s live-action One Piece series in December 2023, Netflix announced it was expanding its work with the franchise with an unexpected project. Partnering with WIT Studio, they revealed a remake of the original One Piece anime. This new version aims to retell Eiichiro Oda’s story with updated animation and a fresh perspective. Fans were thrilled with the announcement, as they’ve long hoped for a revitalized version of the anime. But the biggest source of excitement was the promise that this remake would address many of the issues fans had with the original series.
For over 25 years, Toei Animation has consistently produced the One Piece anime, releasing more than 1,000 episodes with only short breaks. This dedication has made the show incredibly popular, but recently, the animation quality and speed of the story have become issues as the anime tried to stay ahead of the manga. Now, Toei Animation has announced significant changes to fix these problems, potentially making Netflix’s live-action One Piece remake redundant.
One Piece Anime’s Latest Changes Make Netflix’s Remake Pointless
Big news for ONE PIECE fans! The manga will be taking a three-month break, starting in January, and will return in April 2026 with the beginning of the Elbaph Arc. Additionally, the anime series will also get a new production schedule starting in 2026, splitting releases into two parts.
— Toei Animation (@ToeiAnimation) October 28, 2025
During a live event in Japan on October 28, 2025, Toei Animation announced some big changes coming to the One Piece anime in 2026. While new episodes will continue to air weekly for the rest of this year, the anime will switch to a seasonal release schedule next year. Toei plans to release 26 episodes annually, split into two parts. The anime will pause from January to March 2026, then return with the first set of episodes from April to June 2026 (Spring). It will likely take a break during the summer before airing the final 13 episodes in Fall 2026.
The recent change in the anime’s release schedule is being seen as a good move, allowing for regular breaks for the studio and longer gaps between seasons. However, according to series producer Ryūta Koike, the primary reason for this shift is to adapt the final story arc with a better rhythm and flow, staying truer to the original manga. For over 15 years, ever since a major time jump in the story, the One Piece anime has been criticized for its inconsistent pacing. Fans previously expected the series to stick with its usual weekly releases, preserving its history, while Netflix’s new One Piece anime was intended to address this long-standing problem and attract new viewers with a more streamlined experience. But these recent changes suggest that Netflix remake might no longer be needed, and several signs point to this possibility.
I remember when Netflix announced they were remaking One Piece at the end of 2023, but it’s now August 2024 and we haven’t heard a single update – that’s over a year! It’s kind of funny, because the whole point was supposed to be fixing the show’s pacing, yet the remake itself is taking forever. With no news at all, and Toei Animation actually doing something to address those same pacing problems with their new approach, it makes me wonder if Netflix quietly dropped the project. It increasingly seems like Netflix was just hoping to profit from One Piece’s popularity, while Toei is genuinely working to improve the story. They’re even taking breaks between seasons, which gives them a chance to go back and refine older parts of the story – and they’ve already shown they can do that.
One Piece‘s New Changes Might Allow for Fixing Old Arcs
When the anime paused last time, Toei Animation didn’t just stop working on One Piece. They spent the six-month break improving the Fishman Island Arc, shortening it from 57 episodes to a faster-paced 21 episodes. With this new approach of releasing episodes seasonally, Toei might keep doing this – polishing up older storylines during breaks to improve how quickly the story moves. This would fix one of the biggest issues with the anime: its pacing. The animation and story are generally strong, but the pacing has always needed work.
The upcoming Netflix remake of One Piece, which many fans hoped would improve the later story arcs, is now facing some doubts. With little news about the project and production moving slowly, it could be almost ten years before viewers see these arcs with better pacing. If Toei Animation continues to improve the pacing of the original anime, the remake might not even be needed by then. However, if the Netflix version does eventually come out, it could still be airing into the 2040s, meaning fans will likely be enjoying One Piece for many years to come.
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2025-11-01 15:11