The Spring 2026 Anime Preview Guide

ONE PIECE Elbaph Arc

After a daring escape from the Future Island Egghead, the Straw Hat Crew set their course for a legendary destination. Joined by the mighty Giant Warrior Pirates, they finally reach Elbaph, the long-awaited Land of Giants.

New encounters with Giants, and long hoped-for reunions unfold. A colossal new chapter begins as the crew heads into an adventure unlike anything before, all in the pursuit of the ultimate treasure, the "One Piece!"

One Piece Elbaph Arc is based on the One Piece manga by Eiichiro Oda. The anime series is streaming on Crunchyroll on Sundays.

It's simultaneously weird and cool to be covering One Piece—whose episode count is giant (pun intended) enough that you could watch 3 episodes a day, every day, for a year, and still not be caught up—for the preview guide. On one hand, One Piece's new release schedule feels like the ending of an era. On the other, especially as anyone else who was watching the One Piece anime throughout the 2010s (especially around the middle of the decade like during the Dressrosa arc—when the pacing was at its all-time slowest, and the animation quality was as wildly inconsistent as ever) will attest, it needs this. The anime really turned a corner, production value-wise, in the Wano arc, that persisted into Egghead. Like many other One Piece fans, I hope to see that continue even further! And doing things this way seems like the best way to get that to happen. So bearing all that in mind, let's talk about the anime debut of what's arguably One Piece's single most long-anticipated arc, whose foundations were laid well over 1,000 episodes ago in the Little Garden arc.

As has become typical with One Piece, the intro—or, really it's more like a prelude—to the arc is more about showing us some tableau of who's doing what and where. In particular, whilst the Straw Hats feast with their friends (before subsequently losing track of a few of them), we get a scene between the lovable Luffy fanboy, Bartolomeo, and Luffy's idol—Shanks. Then another with Blackbeard, as awareness of the ponegliffs spreads, and we see him strategizing and gathering what he sees as bargaining chips—namely, Garp and Pudding. It's an unusual duo, of course, that carries a lot of heavy implications and could easily stir no shortage of political turmoil.

While the Blackbeard scene is obviously important, it's the one with Shanks and Bartolomeo that's the more fun of the two to watch—and not just because these are both two fan favorite characters. Scenes like this, actually, demonstrate exactly why people love them both so much. On one hand, you have the relatable Bartolomeo, who's just all about the Straw Hat pirates, and wanting to promote his oshi, Luffy. In another world, Bartolomeo would've been all about fandom culture—he'd totally have a Luffy ita bag. And then you have the King of the Gingers, who's nothing if not the first, founding member of the Luffy fan club—not that Bartolomeo really understands the depths of Shanks' and Luffy's relationship with one another, so there's an obvious streak of irony in this interaction. And ultimately, the whole thing ends up without any blood being shed, but a ship is sunk—again, ironically, not unlike many other fandom arguments.

All in all, a very promising start to one of the most highly anticipated arcs in One Piece's long history. Production value seems as solid as it's been in the past few years and love the new eye catchers. If things continue at this pace, we're in for a fun ride.

After a first season that contained a respectable 1155 episodes, One Piece is finally back with the premiere of the Elbaf Arc! Expectations were high going into the current king of shonen's return, and I'm thrilled to say that it effectively sets the stage for what's to come in this story arc and maybe even tees up what could be the end game for the franchise.

While the Straw Hat Pirates are partying with the Giant Pirates, the focus of this premiere turns outward and this episode becomes an exercise in what One Piece has always done best, worldbuilding. While stanning for his favorite future pirate king and taking care of some punks along the way, Bartolomeo accidentally earns the ire Shanks and his Red Hair Pirates. It's been a minute since Shanks and company have played a more active role in the story of One Piece and, while it's always a shock to see them doing actual pirate stuff instead of just partying all the time, their return here promises big things in the episodes ahead. Some kind of confrontation, or at least proper reunion, between Shanks and Luffy has always felt like it would be a pillar of the eventual conclusion of One Piece to me, and the Emperor's presence in this premiere makes me think that we're finally gonna see some payoff to some of the longest teases in the franchise.

Similarly, Marshall D. Teach and his Blackbeard pirates seem like they're going to be driving some of the more economic and political developments in the episodes ahead. With the hero of the Navy, Garp, under their lock and key and the crew at least partially involved in an effort to destroy shipments of food to the Celestial Dragons, this might be the most we've seen the World Government on the backfoot this entire season. Considering how brutal and destructive both of these bodies respond to what they view as a potential threat, it really feels like some wild stuff, even by One Piece standards, is in store in the episodes ahead.

In the closing moments of this episode, the original members of the Straw Hat crew have somehow been kidnapped, with Nami waking up in what appears to be a hallway made out of legos. As someone who's caught up on the manga, this episode effectively sets the stage for the monumental events ahead, and makes everything look damn good in the process. While I am still a bit disappointed that, in pursuit of these improved visuals, the anime has seemingly flattened previous fun details in the franchise like skin-tone variety and more legible costuming; it's clear already that One Piece is going to keep being the biggest anime in the world as this season continues.