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Following the incredible finale of Sanji and Queen’s fight in the last episode, fans truly cannot wait for the official release of One Piece episode 1062. With the preview indicating that the installment will center nearly entirely on Zoro's fight versus King, anticipation is growing as the days pass until its official release.
However, fans will have to wait a while longer since One Piece episode 1062 appears to be on hold based on current information. This piece of news is officially confirmed, meaning that fans won’t be seeing the next canonical installment of the anime series until it releases in Japan on Sunday, May 21, 2023.
What fans will instead get next week is a recap of Zoro and King’s fight thus far ahead of what’s expected to be the finale in episode 1062. While not necessarily a bad choice by Toei Animation, it’s certainly a frustrating one at the moment for fans, who simply want to see the next battle of the Onigashima raid completed.
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One Piece episode 1062’s delay unfortunate but likely signals big-budget animation coming
While the recap break is frustrating, fans can rest easy that it’s only a one-off installment rather than a string of filler and/or canon recap episodes. Likewise, the upcoming special episode will at least get viewers excited for the Zoro versus King finale in One Piece episode 1062 next week, rather than distracting them with pure filler.
It's unlikely that the episode's delay is the result of Toei Animation's funding or production problems. A delay of this nature would likely merit a long-term hiatus, as well as see a formal announcement made by Toei regarding the state of the series. Other Toei Animation series would also be affected as well, which is seemingly not the case as of this article’s writing.
As such, the reason for One Piece episode 1062’s delay likely comes down to two major factors. First, Toei and the adaptation team want to build hype and excitement for the upcoming episode by recapping the fight first. Likewise, this will also get people talking about the fight on social media, which may help others realize that its finale is imminent, thus generating more interest in the show.
The second major reason why the installment is delayed by one week is that Toei Animation is likely putting a lot of work into One Piece episode 1062. While production was likely finished several weeks, if not months, prior to the upcoming episode's release date, such work likely merited incorporating a one-week break into the anime's release schedule. Hence, the choice was made to recycle old footage of the fight into a recap episode.
While this is purely speculative, these are the only two reasons that make sense when considering all factors involved. The fact that no other Toei Animation series is facing a delay, as mentioned above, further supports such a hypothesis. It’s also an approach that Toei has taken in the past that has more often than not resulted in a remarkably animated canon episode airing after the special episode.
Be sure to keep up with all One Piece anime, manga, film, and live-action news as 2023 progresses.
