It's the end of a long-standing era for ongoing anime, with the production studio announcing a new production schedule for the beloved series, which has been airing for over a quarter-century and included dozens of filler arcs. Starting in the new year, once the Egghead Island arc wraps up, the anime will go on a quarterly hiatus until April, when the Elbaph arc kicks off.
Updated Production Plan
From now on, the series will produce two seasons every annually for a cap of two dozen installments. The studio explains this will enable the anime to “explore further into the core of the universe — including more material, rhythm, and pacing of the source material.” Yet, Toei conclude by hinting at “thrilling developments” during the hiatus period, which suggests more related projects, such as Netflix's live-action season 2, set to premiere during this gap.
Learning from Past Breaks
The series anime had a half-year pause that started in October 2024 and ended in April 2025. The intermission was for the production team to enhance the animation quality and let the manga to build a lead to avoid a faster anime pace and lengthy recap episodes. The show greatly benefited from this break, and it has been able to deliver fans with numerous fight scenes, high-quality animation, and less filler than previously.
Embracing Seasonal Format
While a few summary installments appeared during this season, the benefits of this new production schedule far surpass the odd pause in the action. This additionally allows the manga, which is currently in the middle of the latest arc, to extend its lead on the anime. According to the announcement, this may result in one episode of the anime covering a single manga chapter, with some instead covering one and a half chapters or additional to compensate for time.
It's the end of an era for Japanese animation, as the epic saga is the last big series to ditch the traditional method of creation, which focused on being on air for almost the entire year. It's the reason why iconic series such as Naruto, and of course itself have numerous filler arcs, and the standard of the animation can vary widely between one episode and the next. Nowadays, anime production is structured in cours, with one or two maximum coming out each year, enabling better quality and greater accuracy to the source material.
