Warning: spoilers for One Piece chapter 1051!
With the winding down of One Piece's action-packed "Wano Country" story arc, creator Eiichiro Oda has decided to follow in the footsteps of his star character Luffy, stepping back to take a break.
Hiatuses are nothing new in the world of manga, with many major series taking extended breaks between arcs. In One Piece's case, the epic clash between Luffy and Kaido more than justifies taking a beat before continuing to the franchise's finale, with the series approaching its ending in the next few years. Thankfully for fans, in the context of past hiatuses, One Piece's absence will functionally be a blip.
In a June 7 tweet from the official One Piece Twitter account, Eiichiro Oda announced that after the publication of One Piece chapter 1053 later this month, the manga will be going on hiatus from June 27 to July 25, 2022. For fans, however, the most interesting reason Oda listed for needing to take a break was so that he would have time to consider and plan the manga's final chapter, confirming past comments that the series will likely end 2025/26. With Luffy's Gear 5 transformation giving him godlike powers, the defeat of two of the Four Emperors of the Sea - Kaido and Big Momma - and the World Government revealed to be increasingly vulnerable and worried about Luffy's transformation, the narrative is clearly coming to a head.
With Oda's announcement of the manga's final arc, however, the writing is undeniably on the wall. There is no more need for fans to guess what other stories can be told. Instead, the new focus of fan debate will likely switch to how Oda will tie up the many loose ends floating along the Blue Line, such as what will happen when Luffy meets up with Red-Haired Shanks again. As the tweet goes on to say, the break is necessary to allow Oda time to prepare for the upcoming 25th anniversary of One Piece in July, the August release of the animated movie One Piece Film: Red, and a trip to visit the set of Netflix's live-action adaptation of One Piece, as well as the numerous appearances, talks, and meetings that are necessary and included in these events.
While a month break may not seem like a long time to American comic fans, where a month between issues is the standard practice, for more than a year Oda has been publishing about three One Piece chapters a month, with some months getting a chapter a week. Now, with the end of the manga on the horizon, a month might not be long enough for One Piece fans to get used to that fact.
Source: One Piece Official