The anime adaptation of Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece has been going on for nearly 25 years, and is still finding ways to impress longtime fans of the franchise. With Netflix’s upcoming take, the aim is to recapture some of the magic that enchanted viewers back in 1999, but via live-action for new audiences. Those who’ve been with the series for so long may have a tough time adjusting to seeing fresh new faces portray the Straw Hats in a new medium, but the new series is connecting itself to the anime through its voice cast.
During this weekend’s Anime Expo, Netflix revealed the Japanese voice actors for Luffy (Mayumi Tanaka), Zoro (Kazuya Nakai), Usopp (Kappei Yamaguchi), Nami (Akemi Okamura), and Sanji (Hiroaki Hirata) will be reprising their respective roles to dub the live-action show. Additionally, the live-action Luffy (Iñaki Godoy) and Sanji (Taz Skylar) will dub their respective characters in the Spanish dub. At time of writing, it appears that only the original Straw Hats are coming for this dub; Japanese actors for other key characters such as Buggy and Shanks have yet to be revealed. As for future Straw Hat members…well, that’ll depend on whether or not the live-action show gets a second season.
Not entirely unlike Ash Ketchum’s Japanese voice actor Rica Matsumoto, the cast for One Piece are as important to the anime as Oda himself. Beyond portraying their respective characters in spinoff media such as games and movies, they’ve all lent their voices to music tracks during the show’s run, including an all-cast version of the original opening, “We Are!” by Hiroshi Kitadani. It’s nice that Netflix has found a way to incorporate the original cast into this new take on the material. Hopefully, though, the live-action show (and its cast) will find a way to carve out its own identity separate from what’s come before and shows no sign of ending anytime soon.
One Piece premieres August 31 on Netflix.