One Piece ended its main-story broadcast for 2026 with episode 1180, “Elbaf of Despair – The Devil’s Contract: Domi Riversi,” which aired on September 27. This year’s run followed a January–March hiatus, with the Elbaf arc airing for just six months starting in April; the next installment won’t air until 2027. Starting in October, Dragon Ball takes over the same timeslot. On 5ch, discussion spread in all directions — from criticism of the long-running anime’s pacing, to how to read a 2.4% TV rating, to comments on the aging voice cast and the use of AI.
One Piece Already Wrapping Up Its 2026 Broadcast… What’s Behind the “New Rule”? Dragon Ball Takes Over in October as National Icons Pass the Baton
The TV anime One Piece, broadcast on the Fuji TV network, ended its main-story broadcast for 2026 with episode 1180, “Elbaf of Despair – The Devil’s Contract: Domi Riversi (黒転支配),” which aired on the 27th. The next broadcast is set for 2027, with further details yet to be announced.
Throughout 2026, One Piece ran the “Elbaf arc,” but the season didn’t actually start until April — January through March was a hiatus — making for a six-month broadcast run.
One Piece and Detective Conan — just let me see the ending before I die.
76AnonymousSep 30, 2026 17:35
Re: #4
I think a fair number of people have already died waiting.
96AnonymousSep 30, 2026 17:53
Re: #4
Conan has no intention of ever ending.
One Piece at least intends to end.
5AnonymousSep 30, 2026 16:50
This is probably the right way to adapt a still-ongoing manga — no pointless padding, no cliffhangers where everyone just stares at each other until "to be continued next week."
6AnonymousSep 30, 2026 16:51
Oda keeps saying he'll never give anyone time-based or water-based powers, then quietly introduces that kind of power anyway. He's also said the One Piece treasure is something tangible — but there's still a chance it ends up being something abstract, like "One Piece = friendship."
7AnonymousSep 30, 2026 16:51
Back in the day, the anime and movies were just bonus extras to the manga anyway — nobody made a fuss over the ratings numbers.
10AnonymousSep 30, 2026 16:53
The blatant self-promotion (daima, slang for a show shilling its own merch) was the worst part — even Anpanman, a toddler show, handles that better.
16AnonymousSep 30, 2026 16:54
Re: #10
Stealth marketing (stema) is even worse.
14AnonymousSep 30, 2026 16:54
Ratings are down in the 2% range now — just cancel it already.
17AnonymousSep 30, 2026 16:55
Even if it's just a rehash, I'm still happy to get more Dragon Ball.
22AnonymousSep 30, 2026 16:57
Both Dragon Ball's and One Piece's lead voice actors are pretty elderly at this point — are they actually making concrete plans for successors? Mayumi Tanaka isn't as old as Masako Nozawa, but at the current serialization pace, it's doubtful she can keep up a proper voice-acting career all the way until One Piece actually finishes. Even the new Netflix remake — no matter how much faster-paced it is than the TV broadcast version — there's no way it finishes airing in time either.
44AnonymousSep 30, 2026 17:05
Re: #22
Just use AI already.
Get Nozawa's own permission now, while she's alive, to use an AI voice after she's gone.
Though knowing you, you'll complain just as loudly once the voice actually changes, right?
24AnonymousSep 30, 2026 16:57
This way Oda-sensei can focus on the manga now.
25AnonymousSep 30, 2026 16:58
Honestly, they should stop doing "one manga chapter = one anime episode." The content's already thin as it is, and stretching it out further just makes it a chore to watch.
26AnonymousSep 30, 2026 16:59
Voice acting as a profession is probably going to disappear — a time is coming when AI does the voices.
27AnonymousSep 30, 2026 16:59
The fight with Katakuri was brutal padding — it moved so slowly I remember just fast-forwarding through most of it.
28AnonymousSep 30, 2026 17:00
Everything about One Piece has gone downhill except the trading cards.
30AnonymousSep 30, 2026 17:02
With over 900 episodes, nobody's going to work up the motivation to start from episode 1, and it's not like it'll ever get rerun either. What's even the point of making the anime at this stage?
37AnonymousSep 30, 2026 17:04
Re: #30
Wasn't there supposed to be a separate new anime starting over from episode 1, apart from the one currently airing?
38AnonymousSep 30, 2026 17:04
I was expecting Luffy's Nika transformation to be as cool as Goku going Super Saiyan, but when it actually happened it just looked like the Genie from Aladdin.
86AnonymousSep 30, 2026 17:47
Re: #38
To me it just looked like Jim Carrey in The Mask.
39AnonymousSep 30, 2026 17:04
Already 51, huh.
Kentaro Miura died at 54. Osamu Tezuka died at 60.
90AnonymousSep 30, 2026 17:50
Re: #39
Shigeru Mizuki died at 93. Leiji Matsumoto died at 85.
41AnonymousSep 30, 2026 17:05
Dragon Ball Kai moves briskly and is easy to watch.
46AnonymousSep 30, 2026 17:06
Re: #41
It's only brisk up through partway into the Namek arc.
Once you hit the Frieza fight, it's not brisk at all anymore.
42AnonymousSep 30, 2026 17:05
TV Ratings
2.4% — One Piece (September 6)
88AnonymousSep 30, 2026 17:49
Re: #42
Figured as much lol
What absolute garbage.
47AnonymousSep 30, 2026 17:07
They should've ended the broadcast even sooner — poverty, discrimination, women being kidnapped and held captive… that's way too dark and messy for a show airing in the morning.
51AnonymousSep 30, 2026 17:09
Re: #47
It airs at night now — 11pm.
72AnonymousSep 30, 2026 17:28
"One Piece lost to Narou (the isekai web-novel site)" — ✗
"Shonen manga lost to Narou" — ✓
79AnonymousSep 30, 2026 17:39
Re: #72
Nah — at least when it comes to anime adaptations, Narou hits almost always get turned into garbage adaptations with few exceptions, while Jump, Magazine, and Sunday titles keep getting god-tier adaptations. Shonen manga is still way ahead when it comes to budget and connections with animation studios…
91AnonymousSep 30, 2026 17:50
Old-school anime used to throw in original filler arcs whenever they were about to catch up to the source material — do modern shows just not do that anymore?
92AnonymousSep 30, 2026 17:51
Nika was already bad, but it got even worse once Loki and Imu showed up. Every character besides Luffy and Loki has basically turned into a background extra ("Bob-ified") — makes you wonder what's going to happen to Shanks and Blackbeard when they show up later. There's no sane way to power anyone up further from here.
99AnonymousSep 30, 2026 17:56
Re: #92
One Piece never does anime-original filler at all. Before the hiatus, it used to run a recap compilation episode once a month, and it also burned a few minutes at the start of each episode recapping the previous one to stretch out the runtime. With this latest shake-up, both the monthly recap episodes and the previous-episode recaps are gone.
Background and Key Points of This Topic
One Piece resumed its anime adaptation this April with the Elbaf arc, following a January–March hiatus, and wraps up its 2026 broadcast with episode 1180 on September 27. The comments about aging voice actors and AI use reflect the flip side of the source manga passing 900 chapters, with long-term serialization now the norm. The thread split over how much weight to give the TV ratings — one side argued for cancellation based on the 2.4% figure, while the other said it should be judged on overall strength, including streaming and merchandise revenue. There’s also criticism of past padding, like the Katakuri fight, but some pointed out that this latest restructuring cut the recap compilations and previous-episode recaps to pick up the pace — so a simple “it drags on” criticism doesn’t fully capture the current reality. One point readers can easily get wrong: “ending the broadcast for the year” doesn’t mean cancellation or the series wrapping up — it’s simply a hiatus until 2027.
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