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All the One Piece news lately has had a bit of a theme to it, and that theme is “hiatus.” The anime is on an extended break until April – the longest gap between episodes in its 25-year run – and now the manga is having its second two-week hiatus in as many months. The next chapter of One Piece will run in Weekly Shonen Jump on December 2, 2024.

One Piece previously went on a two-week break starting on October 27 so that Eiichiro Oda could gather research materials for upcoming issues. This break, however, is for a slightly more concerning reason. As confirmed on social media, Oda, who is 49, is currently in poor health and needs a few weeks to recover. Fortunately, the legendary mangaka is in recovery from whatever health issue he’s run into. The post didn’t give more details, so it could have been something as simple as a bad cold for all we know.

For decades now, One Piece has been one of the most consistent properties in the manga industry, to the point where we almost forget it is produced by a small team of people under the direction of one man. We often joke that the three constants in the world are death, taxes, and Oda churning out new chapters of One Piece at an alarming rate, but that kind of pace does take a toll on people. Hopefully, he will be able to recover fully and return to work when he is ready because we need Luffy more than ever in these trying times.

Each week, Popverse's resident anime expert Trent Cannon runs down the latest and, dare we say "greatest," in anime and manga in Popverse Jump. Some recent columns have included... 

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