The One Piece anime has held fans’ hearts in its grip for a long time now, with a major reason behind weebs falling in love with the characters being the remarkable voice actors. Recently, this incredible cast of unarguably brilliant voice actors has faced an addition – one that has weebs screaming ‘YAAAY’ in excitement.
Adding to this is the fact that this newest addition has further added what fans are calling a “plot twist” to the saga. Thus, this turn of events has baffled everyone because not only is the latest voice actor cast for voicing Monkey D. Dragon making Monkey D. Luffy’s father sound even better, but he is even linked to a very special character from the Naruto saga!
Warning: May Contain One Piece Episode 1097 Spoilers Ahead!
Monkey D. Dragon Gets a New Voice Actor in One Piece!
Monkey D. Dragon, one of the most tremendously powerful characters in all of the Pirates universe created by Eiichiro Oda sensei, has recently gotten a new voice actor. This happened in the most recently aired 1097 episode of the currently ongoing season 21 of the anime, The Will of Ohara! The Inherited Research.
As pointed out by fan @_omin0us_ on Instagram, Kazuhiko Inoue has joined the ensemble of voice actors behind the masterpiece anime series to lend his voice to Dragon. What’s to note here is that this episode features a flashback from 22 years ago when Dragon met with Vegapunk, and Inoue voiced that younger version of Luffy’s dad.
What’s even more interesting than that is the fact that the 69-year-old Inoue is also the very voice actor who is renowned for doing a splendid job while voicing one of the most fan-favorite protagonists in the Naruto saga: Kakashi Hatake, the beloved teacher of Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, and Sakura Haruno.
Moreover, the older and current version of Dragon had been spectacularly voiced by the 86-year-old voice actor Hidekatsu Shibata. But there’s a twist here too: For those who may not know, Shibata was also the legendary voice behind the mics for the Third Hokage of Konohagakure in the Naruto universe, Hiruzen Sarutobi.
While Shibata did a good job, his voice inevitably sounded a bit too old and rough for Dragon, who doesn’t look half as old as his voice. On the other hand, Inoue’s voice fits a bit better to the character, making him seem more manly than old like before. Thus, these reasons have weebs as excited about Inoue’s casting as ever.
Fans React to This Newest Addition to the One Piece Cast
As expected, fans are loving this new change for their favorite pirate. Not only are they commending how much more youthful and manly he sounded with Kazuhiko Inoue’s voice, but they’re also respecting Hidekatsu Shibata for lending his voice to the character for so long as well.
Besides these, they also have some incredibly creative responses to this news as they connect the dots between the One Piece and Naruto universe. All in all, here’s how they’re reacting in the comment section of the Instagram post:
“From 3rd hokage (Sarutobi Hiruzen) to 6th hokage (Hatake Kakashi) ~ @pedroommiguel
Omg…. Kakashi is Luffy’s dad. What a plot twist. ~ @jennny_sama
A good successor in my opinion. Old VA did a great job to keep going till his age. ~ @otkpr43
I respect the old Voice actor, but The New one sounds more like How Dragon would sound ~ @pidrinobrabo
Wayyyyy better. I always thought the old Va sounded too old like it should’ve been for an elderly village leader. ~ @joshuamposada
Tbh, current va actor far better than the old one. Old va sounds like a old man in his deathbed. ~ @arcuz_x”
Well, for what it’s worth, all of these fan reactions are making it evident that they like the new voice for Monkey D. Dragon better. The rest we’ll leave to the decision-makers of the fan-favorite anime to choose better!
You can stream One Piece anime on Crunchyroll.
