One Piece Cast Recreates Iconic Lion King Scene to Honor Series’ Box Office Feud

One Piece: Stampede is killing it at the box office in Japan as the film has even outperformed Toei Animation’s previous giant release, Dragon Ball Super: Broly, in many ways. But it’s not like One Piece is free from rivals at the box office as it’s currently running alongside the release of Disney‘s big The Lion King remake. This has sparked a friendly rivalry between the two films, and two One Piece stars hilariously called this out in an adorable way on Twitter.

Mayumi Tanaka, who provides the voice for Luffy, and Hiroaki Hirata, who provides the voice for Sanji, shared a hilarious photo of them recreating the iconic scene of Simba being raised to the sky shortly after his birth. Pledging that Tanaka will “be the new King of the cinema this Summer,” it’s a hilarious dig at their box office competitor.

One Piece: Stampede has been doing pretty well for itself so far. It was the fastest film to reach three billion yen at the box office out of all of Toei’s distributed films, and is continuing to make a name for itself with special fan screenings encouraging them to cheer at the screen. The Lion King is a pretty huge box office rival, however, as the 2019 reboot is now the highest grossing animated film of all time.

It’s one of Disney’s top performers for the year, and is the fifth film of theirs to reach the one billion USD mark at the box office. But this playful tweet shows that One Piece‘s cast isn’t paying that too much mind! One Piece: Stampede will get its support from fans regardless of what else is at the box office, and this is long before the film becomes available in other territories. One Piece: Stampede is now out in to theaters in Japan as of August 9th, but there is currently no word on its release in the United States as of this writing (much to the chagrin of fans).

Fuji TV officially describes the film as such, “The world’s greatest exposition of the pirates, by the pirates, for the pirates – the Pirates Festival. Luffy and the rest of the Straw Hat Crew receive an invitation from its host Buena Festa who is known as the Master of Festivities. They arrive to find a venue packed with glamorous pavilions and many pirates including the ones from the Worst Generation. The place is electric.”

There are new characters coming to the film along with all the returning fan-favorites too, and include Tsutomu Isobe as the central villain Douglas Bullet, Yusuke Santamaria as Buena Festa, Rino Sashihara as Ann, Ryota Yamasato as Donald Moderate, and Chinese fashion model and singer Ron Monroe, YouTuber group Fischer’s, and Naoto Takenaka in currently unconfirmed roles.