The One Piece anime voice actors for Zoro and Luffy sat down to discuss their lines, and their answers about their favorite pieces of dialogue may surprise fans.
Nikkei Entertainment magazine sat down Luffy's anime voice actor, Mayumi Tanaka, and Zoro's voice actor, Kazuya Nakai, on Nov. 4, 2023. With translations by sandman, fans were able to learn the pair's favorite lines. Tanaka's came as a group, with Ace's "I wonder if I shouldn't have been born" followed by Garp's "You'll find out as you live it." These lines were exchanged at the war in Marineford, otherwise known as the Summit War. As Ace awaited his execution, he witnessed not only his adoptive father, Whitebeard, arrive to rescue him but also his brother Luffy. Scorned from a young age as the Pirate King's son, Ace found himself questioning whether he was just a burden that should be discarded. This reply from a powerless Garp speaks to his internal struggle between familial bonds and justice.
Zoro's voice actor Nakai's favorite line wasn't a surprise, as it is one of the most important lines in the anime. The iconic "Nothing happened!!" was said by Zoro to Kuma just after the battle at Thriller Bark, and it is among the top showings of Zoro's loyalty to the Straw Hats. "Luffy is sometimes very cool, but Zoro is ALWAYS cool," Tanaka says. "Nakai is resolute and cool when he is acting in front of the microphone, but when he has finished acting, he becomes a friendly person." Nakai was humble, replying, "In the early days of the One Piece anime, I was often depressed after watching the anime broadcast because I was the only one who was not a good actor compared to the other amazing Straw Hat VAs."
While many fans found it exciting to hear the voice actors' favorite One Piece moments, it also highlighted that the anime won't last forever. "The Netflix live-action cast will grow up," Tanaka said, "so they need to shoot the drama quickly. But we anime VAs are much older, and we don't know how many more years One Piece anime will last, so we need to stay healthy." This was reminiscent of Tanaka's bittersweet comments from 2022, which included the statement, "I've voiced many young boy characters in my time, and I want to conclude my work in the voice acting industry with Luffy."
One Piece can be watched on Crunchyroll, which recently started releasing English dubbed versions of the anime in July. The anime is currently concluding the "Wano" saga, with the latest developments described by Crunchyroll as follows: "Luffy’s journey takes him and his group to the ruins of Oden Castle where Kin’emon tells them about the past and his plans to battle at Onigashima. The Straw Hats search for allies in Wano Country, but Kaido isn’t going to let them operate freely under his watchful gaze."
In September, Netflix's One Piece live-action adaptation announced an upcoming Season 2. The second season's writing team was previewed in a recent behind-the-scenes last month.
Source: Nikkei Entertainment, X (formerly Twitter)
