One Piece’s anime has been hit with another surprising delay this Summer as it prepares to end its major flashback arc. One Piece took a brief detour from the present day events of the Egghead arc to explore Bartholomew Kuma and Jewelry Bonney’s shared past. The past few weeks have shared a look into how much Kuma had been suffering through all of his life, and revealed why he’s made some of the decisions he has over the course of the series’ history. But now it’s time to finally continue Luffy and the Straw Hats’ stories in the coming episodes.
The latest episode of One Piece officially brought Kuma’s flashback arc to an end as it was revealed that we were seeing all of this through Bonney’s exploration of his memories, and the anime then teased a return to the present day struggles against Saturn on Dr. Vegapunk’s future island laboratory. But the anime has been hit with an unfortunate delay this month, so fans won’t be able to see the next episode until July 27th. It’s going to be an extra week of waiting to see what’s next.
One Piece Episode 1137 Release Date Revealed
According to a new update on its broadcast schedule, One Piece Episode 1137 will not be airing on July 20th as fans had initially hoped due to election coverage in Japan. Instead, the new episode will be airing a week later on July 27th. This isn’t the only anime to be hit with a surprising delay this Summer thanks to the election coverage (with Gachiakuta being a notable example), but is likely going to sting the hardest given the number of breaks and delays that One Piece has had in the weeks since returning for One Piece: Egghead Arc Part 2 earlier this Spring.
In fact, One Piece has been under fire for these breaks in the last few months too. One Piece: Egghead Arc Part 2 returned earlier this Spring after taking a six month hiatus to work on the next wave of episodes. While the series has been impressing fans with each new moment seen thus far, it’s also resulted in some of the biggest backlashes when the anime takes a week break to instead air recap specials in between. But this time it’s at least out of One Piece’s hands this time, so hopefully fans don’t react to negatively to the additional wait.
What’s Next for One Piece?
Thankfully, the first look at One Piece Episode 1137 confirms that Kuma’s flashback arc has come to an end. This means that two months (and eight episodes) after the flashback began, fans will finally get to return to the cliffhanger that saw Bonney in Saturn’s clutches. The last we had seen of her, she angrily attacked Saturn despite the fact he was unleashing his full devil form for the first time on screen. But this is only the start of the chaos that will be unfolding over the course of the rest of the arc.
One Piece: Egghead Arc has a lot to resolve before it all gets better as Luffy and the Straw Hats are surrounded by the Marines as they seek to wipe out the entire island. But their goal is to somehow escape with Dr. Vegapunk and head to the next island on their journey. As the series continues to set the stage for its grand finale, fans are going to want to keep an eye on One Piece‘s future developments with new episodes streaming with Crunchyroll and Netflix.
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