One Piece is going on a two-week break, due to the author’s poor health

This has been a rough week for One Piece fans. A few days ago, the MANGA Plus app listed the new chapter’s release date for next week, before going back to normal, which led fans to speculate whether the manga was going on break or not.

However, we just got confirmation that the One Piece manga is going on break not only for one but for two weeks. The most recent issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump included an official statement from the magazine’s editorial department, which @pewpiece on Twitter/X translated, in which it confirms that Eiichiro Oda is indeed taking a break because of his “poor physical health condition.”

This week’s issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump still has One Piece listed in its postcards and in its table of contents, but the editorial department clarified that it wasn’t able to make the correction in time, which explains why the MANGA Plus app still erroneously lists the release date of the next chapter for this Sunday. Lastly, the statement confirmed that One Piece will return to the magazine in the December 2 issue. Stephen Paul, the manga’s official English translator, also confirmed this abrupt hiatus yesterday on his personal Bluesky account.

It’s an abrupt hiatus, but One Piece will be back very soon

Naturally, fans are worried about Eiichiro Oda’s health and are wishing him a full recovery. Over the past few years, more and more people have been talking about the strict working conditions and tight deadlines that manga authors often have to deal with, especially after a few big industry icons, like Berserk’s Kentaro Miura and Dragon Ball’s Akira Toriyama, suddenly passed away.

However, it’s important to keep in mind that One Piece recently went on another two-week break because Eiichiro Oda recently traveled to South Africa to research and supervise the production of Season 2 of Netflix’s live Action One Piece show. It is possible that elements like different timezones and jet lag may have affected him, and he may have caught a regular illness, like the flu.

While Weekly Shōnen Jump didn’t disclose what Oda’s exact health issues are, the fact that the manga is going on break for just two weeks (instead of going on an indefinite hiatus) imply that he’s already doing a proper recovery and that he will be back writing One Piece sooner than later.