ONE PIECE Returns April 5 With Elbaf Arc and a Late-Night Time Slot After 18 Years

eyebrow: /ONE-PIECE title: "ONE PIECE Returns April 5 With Elbaf Arc and a Late-Night Time Slot After 18 Years" hero: /assets/Special-03.jpg date: "2026-04-16" author: ABBY TRANT panel: red dek: "Toei Animation is ending One Piece's 27-year run of continuous broadcast with a 13-episode cour for the Elbaf arc — and moving the series out of its family-friendly Sunday morning slot for the first time since 2007 so the darker Elbaf material can air uncensored."

Toei Animation is making two structural bets on One Piece at once. The twenty-second season, which opened on Fuji TV on April 5, adapts the Elbaf arc starting from volume 111 of Eiichiro Oda's manga — and does so under a new 13-episode cour format, ending the show's 27-year run of continuous year-round broadcast.

"Elbaf asks more of our production than any arc since Marineford. Cour-based scheduling lets us keep the storyboards honest." — series director Tetsuo Yajima, in a Toei press release.

The move to a late-night time slot is arguably the bigger shift. One Piece had aired in the Sunday 9:30am family block since 2007 — the change to late night bypasses daytime broadcast content rules, clearing the way for the darker political themes the Elbaf arc pushes: World Government annexation, war crimes, and the Knights of God campaign against the Giant Warrior Pirates.

Both Crunchyroll and Netflix are simulcasting the run, which is scheduled to resume with a second 13-episode cour later in 2026.