The One Piece anime has closed out its 2026 broadcast year. Episode 1180, titled “Elbaph in Despair – Diabolical Covenant, ‘Domi Reversi’,” aired on September 27 as the show’s final episode of the year, and the production has confirmed the series will return in 2027.
The episode is streaming now on Crunchyroll. It also ends a run that started on April 5, when One Piece came back from a three-month break and picked up with the Straw Hats on Elbaph, the island of the giants.
What happens in Episode 1180
Preview material for the episode showed Imu using the skill Domi Reversi while facing the giants, which is where the episode’s “Diabolical Covenant” subtitle comes from. The Elbaph arc has been building toward a direct confrontation that puts Imu — the shadow ruler of the World Government — against the giants of Elbaph rather than the Straw Hats alone.
As a year-end episode, it lands at a deliberately charged point in the story rather than on a clean resolution, leaving the arc open for the 2027 return.
A new voice in the cast
During this run, Yuichi Nakamura was revealed as the voice of Loki. He made his debut in the Elbaph Arc alongside the cast for the Knights of God, one of the arc’s major new groups.
The arc’s theme songs
The ongoing Elbaph arc has an opening theme, “Luminous” by AiNA THE END, and an ending theme, “That Future” by Jisoku 36km. Both debuted with the current batch of episodes.
The franchise behind the episode count
Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece manga began in July 1997, and the series exceeded 600 million copies in circulation worldwide in March 2026. The anime adaptation, produced by Toei Animation, started in October 1999 and is still running. The franchise marked the anime’s 25th anniversary in 2022.
That history is the reason an episode number like 1180 carries weight: the show has been on the air for more than two decades, and it now runs on a schedule that pauses between batches of episodes rather than airing continuously all year. The 2026 season followed exactly that shape — a break, a resumed block from April, and a stop before the end of the year.
Why it matters
For anyone watching week to week, the practical takeaway is simple: there are no new One Piece episodes for the rest of 2026. The confirmed 2027 return means the Elbaph arc will continue next year, and the two open questions are the exact date and whether the show comes back in the same block format it used in 2026.
The series has not announced a specific month or month range for the return, so any date circulating at this point is unofficial. Episode 1180 is the last confirmed new episode for now.
One Piece is currently one of several long-running shonen titles juggling seasonal breaks and multi-year returns; you can track the confirmed 2027 line-up in our 2027 anime releases guide, and see where the current season lands in our Fall 2026 anime season guide.
Source: Anime Corner
Featured image: Promotional visual for the One Piece anime, via Anime Corner.
