Here’s Why It’s a Huge Deal That Netflix’s ‘One Piece’ Will Be Dubbed by the Japanese Anime Voice Actors
During Netflix’s panel at Anime Expo on Saturday, an announcement was made that basically set One Piece social media into party mode. We know that One Piece‘s mangaka, Eiichiro Oda, is deeply involved in Netflix’s live-action adaptation. Little did we know that the involvement of the Japanese team wouldn’t stop there. Netflix announced that all five of the anime voice actors for the Straw Hats will provide the Japanese-language dub for the live-action series. We are talking the voice actors: Mayumi Tanaka as Luffy, Kazuya Nakai as Zoro, Akemi Okamura as Nami, Kappei Yamaguchi as Usopp, and Hiroaki Hirata as Sanji.
The hugeness of this news is impossible to overstate, especially when it comes to Tanaka as Luffy. The One Piece anime has been ongoing, with new episodes almost every Sunday morning, since 1999. 24 years! And these five actors have been voicing these characters the entire time.
To celebrate, Netflix filmed Iñaki Godoy (the live-action Luffy) dropping in on Mayumi Tanaka as she was recording. The entire meeting is enough to make my heart explode. Tanaka places a straw hat on Godoy’s head, saying the exact same lines Shanks says to Luffy in that moment. Even Mackenyu (who plays Zoro) loses his s*** during the playback.
But to understand the enormity of this news, you have to understand that One Piece’s voice actors go beyond just the anime. They’ve done all fifteen One Piece movies, all 56 (!!) video games (some of which pull lines from the anime, but not all of them). They’ve done very ridiculous tie-in ad on Japanese television. (I once saw Luffy say he was going to be king of the puzzle games.) They’ve even recorded bespoke audio for theme park attractions and stunt shows, the latter of which make the live actors lip sync to an audio track. That is how ubiquitous and attached these voices are to these characters.
It’s like how we think of Luke Skywalker as Mark Hamill. It’s difficult for us to imagine Luke being played by anybody else—so much so that there’s a weird digital recreation of a young Mark Hamill in The Mandalorian. This is the near-exact oral equivalent. Mayumi Tanaka’s voice is Luffy for millions and millions of people, and I include the hugeness of Star Wars in this analogy, too. It’s very hard to draw an American equivalent for One Piece’s popularity and ubiquity in Japan. It’s like if Harry Potter were published weekly for 25 years (and counting) and not marred by … uh … “controversy.”
All of which amounts to this being an absolutely gargantuan announcement, especially when you consider all the surely nightmarish licensing negotiations which must have happened behind the scenes. It’s another step in which this adaptation is showing that it truly cares about One Piece, its fans, and its legacy.
It also means that I guess I’m watching this adaptation at least twice.
(featured image: Netflix)
Have a tip we should know? tips@themarysue.com
