The End of an Era: One Piece and the Death of Weekly Anime

The End of an Era One Piece and the Death of Weekly Anime

A grand anime tradition died on Oct 28 2025 For many decades if you lived in Japan you could turn on the TV on a specific day every week and know that your favorite series would be on no matter the time of the year (except for a few holidays) In the West the process was not exactly the same before streaming but nonetheless the golden age of anime was headlined by series such as One Piece Bleach and Naruto (collectively known as “the big three”) which had one thing in common: each week a new episode was on air

Now the last bastions of the old-school way of making anime have embraced the inevitable progress Starting in 2026 after a three-month hiatus Toei Animation will produce only 26 One Piece anime episodes per year split into two seasons Furthermore each episode will adapt no less than one chapter of the manga meaning no more padding (unnecessary stretching of scenes to kill time) or filler episodes for anime itself that deviate from the source material to allow the mangaka to produce more original content

Toei Animation Moves Forward

Understandably One Piece was the last important anime that still hadnt adopted the seasonal format Every other manga of the “big three” has long since ended while Eiichiro Odas masterpiece has just crested chapter #1163 and shows no signs of stopping (even if the ending is in sight but with no precise timeline yet) That meant that the anime still had a quasi-weekly source of material to adapt But things werent so simple

First of all Oda works at a slower pace than other mangaka (and in my opinion he has earned the right to do so) In 2024 32 chapters of the One Piece manga were released while 34 episodes of the anime premiered in the same year In 2023 the episode count was 52 meaning the anime did not skip a week That speed was not sustainable without heavy use of filler and padding which is no longer acceptable Nowadays fans just want a good anime They dont want recap episodes “anime-only arcs” nor scenes that stretch for an unreasonable amount of time Things like One Pieces Ocean Dream arc (where the crew lost their memories for six pointless episodes) are by todays standards a waste of time that sullies the good reputation of a show More importantly the level of animation quality expected from a series is higher than ever One Piece has improved vastly on that front in the past couple of years

From January to April 2025 the anime series took its longest hiatus ever to give the production team the time it needed to deliver the quality fans have come to expect In hindsight Toei Animation was probably testing the waters before deciding to switch to the seasonal model followed by basically every other anime Massive hits such as Jujutsu Kaisen My Hero Academia and Demon Slayer come out seasonally with one or two “cours” per year giving their staff the time to produce a great anime If an ongoing manga is the source material than this also gives it time to accumulate many chapters to be adapted

A Nostalgic Goodbye

A generation of otaku like me grew up watching Naruto One Piece Bleach and more every day Depending on where you lived you often had to get creative on how to watch it but there was that reassurance that the anime was still going on somewhere and sooner or later new episodes would be available Heck Ill say it: I even miss learning what filler was (brilliantly explained by Gintama in the video below) and how to navigate and avoid itToday quality is king Were learning it the hard way from the disconcerting reactions to One-Punch Man season 3 If the Naruto anime came out today with its wild shifts in animation quality it would probably be canceled before Shippuden With Bleach instead Pierrot Studios had the opportunity to pioneer this shift when it returned with Thousand-Year Blood War which adapted the last arc of the manga that the original anime didnt get Starting in 2022 TYBW is a seasonal anime that emphasizes quality and good pacing and the results have been spectacular

Boruto and the End of an Old Formula

The only other vestige of the old school of weekly anime was Boruto which somehow attempted to continue Narutos tradition airing nonstop between April 2017 and March 2023 It was a disastrous project considering that the manga changed from a weekly to a monthly publication in 2019: as a result the number of epiler increased by 70-80%

Looking Ahead: Quality Over Quantity

Will fans be happy with less One Piece but with better quality? I think the answer is yes considering theres no shortage of content from the franchise including the manga the ongoing live-action series the movies and the announced remake of the anime Also remembering the spectacular episodes produced by the likes of Megumi Ishitani and Vincent Chansard while working on a tight schedule I cant even begin to imagine what they will do with more time and resourcesThere are more aspects to consider regarding the end of the weekly anime era This model was suited for television and while seasonal anime still air on TV in Japan the cultural shift is undeniable Will Fuji TV still be willing to pay good money for One Piece when it can profit from it only 26 weeks per year? Interestingly the network recently replaced its Tuesday night drama slot with anime programming in an effort to consolidate profits

The Legacy of a Bygone Age

Over the past decade anime has become one of the most profitable and fastest growing entertainment industries in the world With such an impressive pace change is inevitable: the advent of streaming multi-million dollar movies and more Amidst all of that One Piece anime seemed to be the last bastion of a bygone era Since this is now over I have a bittersweet feeling and duty to praise the series for its ability to stay relevant for nearly three decades

ShadowChan