A new, extra One Piece anime episode just dropped online for free

One Piece anime
(Image credit: Toei Animation/Crunchyroll)

A new bonus episode of One Piece has dropped online – and you can watch it for free.

The episode, which is just over five minutes long, is available to watch on the series' official YouTube channel. Per its official synopsis, "The time was the Great Pirate Era. This is an event that no one knows about, which happened after the Wano Country Heavenly Decisive Battle." Following Luffy and Trafalgar Law after the events of the Wano arc, the episode sees the duo dealing with a sea monster attack on an island. Unfortunately, it doesn't have English subtitles yet.

The episode, which first premiered at the MBS Anime Festival in Japan on January 19, is a nice surprise for viewers as the anime is currently on hiatus until April. The show announced that it was going on a six-month break last October "in order to achieve even higher quality".

In December 2024, Crunchyroll revealed that hundreds of episodes of the anime would be moved behind a subscription paywall in three different stages between December and February. Previously, all episodes were available to watch on the streamer's free, ad-supported tier but, from February 17 onwards, only the first 206 episodes won't require a Premium Membership.

Elsewhere, One Piece season 2 is also in the works at Netflix, with filming wrapping on the live-action series last month. The new season doesn't have a release date on the streamer yet.

While we wait for One Piece to return, check out our guide to the other best new anime on the way in 2025.

Entertainment Writer

I’m an Entertainment Writer here at 12DOVE, covering everything film and TV-related across the Total Film and SFX sections. I help bring you all the latest news and also the occasional feature too. I’ve previously written for publications like HuffPost and i-D after getting my NCTJ Diploma in Multimedia Journalism.