One Piece fans all over the world associate Luffy's voice with his iconic voice actor, Mayumi Tanaka. Takaka has been voicing the character since the anime adaptation debuted in 1999.
While Tanaka will always be known as the voice of Luffy, she wasn't the first person to voice the Straw Hat captain. Now, almost 30 years later, Luffy's original VA has returned to the anime.
Luffy's First Voice Actor Returns As Joy Boy
Luffy was first voiced by Urara Takano in the 1998 OVA special, "Defeat Him! The Pirate Ganzack!", which was produced by Production I.G. And was released a little over a year prior to Toei's adaptation. Now, Takano returns to the anime as the voice of Joy Boy.
You can hear Takano voice Joy Boy in Episode 1151, during Emet's brief flashback. It all happens very fast, but there's an unmistakable familiarity there. Takano seems to be pretty excited to return to the series, and it seems like she'll continue to be the voice of Joy Boy going forward. We don't know exactly how often she'll come in and voice the character, but we'll certainly hear her reprise the role again sometime down the line.
I appeared in "ONE PIECE"!
Long ago, I was involved in "ONE PIECE" just once.
27 years have passed since then. This time, I'll live on as the role of "Joy Boy" within various memories.
Those 27 years feel so long, like 800 or even 900 years…
But I'll return to my original spirit and do my best!
Takano is best known as the voice of Maria Tachibana in the Sakura Wars franchise and Kai Hiwatari in Beyblade. She's also voiced characters in Hunter x Hunter, Hetalia, Macross, and Fate. Her voicing Joy Boy for Episode 1151 and presumably future episodes is an unexpected development, but it's one that One Piece fans seem happy with.
Is This a Cool Easter Egg, Or A Sign of Something Bigger?
Having the only other person to ever voice Luffy come in and play Joy Boy is a great bit of fan service. But is that all there is to the decision? Joy Boy is an incredibly important character in the series, even if he was only alive hundreds of years prior to One Piece taking place. Could casting a voice actor who once herself voiced Luffy hint at some sort of connection between the two characters?
The two are already connected via the Gomu Gomu no Mi. With Luffy having awakened the Hito Hito no Mi, Model: Nika, and serving as the second coming of Joy Boy, this could all just be a fun easter egg the studio put in for fans. But we've seen important characters be connected to one another in various ways throughout the series.
Does Luffy and Joy Boy sharing a voice actor hint at some sort of deeper relationship that we haven't learned about yet? Ultimately, the only one who can answer that is Oda. We'll just have to wait and see if the decision by Toei has any significance outside of being a fun callback.
Source: X
One Piece
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- October 20, 1999
- Network
- Fuji TV
Cast
-
Mayumi TanakaMonkey D. Luffy (voice) -
Kazuya NakaiRoronoa Zoro (voice)
WHERE TO WATCH
One Piece is a Japanese manga written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda. The series follows protagonist Monkey D. Luffy and his Straw Hat Pirate crew as they explore the Grand Line to find the King of the Pirates' ultimate treasure, the One Piece, in order to become the next king. The manga's popularity helped it spin off into a larger media franchise, including an anime with more than 1,000 episodes.
- Studio
- Toei Animation
- Creator
- Eiichiro Oda
- Number of Episodes
- 1122
- Streaming Service(s)
- Crunchyroll, Netflix, Hulu, Pluto TV
- MyAnimeList Score
- 8.72
