One Piece Passes Dragon to Kakashi’s Voice Actor: Watch

It seems the time has come to welcome a new actor to One Piece. Some time ago, reports revealed the anime was eyeing new talent for Dragon, Luffy’s mysterious father and leader of the Revolutionary Army. Now, that new voice has come to life. One Piece finally revisited Dragon on screen after years away, and the voice actor of Kakashi has stepped in to voice the sailor.

As you can hear below, Kazuhiro Inoue was brought in on One Piece to handle Dragon. The actor, who is 69 years old, replaces Hidekatsu Shibata. The actor turns 87 later this month, and he has stepped back from several of his roles in recent years. Still, fans will remember Shibata best as the voice of Hiruzen Sarutobi in Naruto as well as Igneel in Fairy Tail.

Now, Shibata’s role as Dragon has been handed to Inoue. For anime fans, the new actor is best known as Kakashi from Naruto, but he has quite the career under his belt. Inoue has had major roles in everything from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure to Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. And now, he can add One Piece to his list.

As for Dragon, the army leader sounds as fearsome now as ever. He has reared his head in One Piece‘s Egghead Island arc as part of a flashback. It turns out Dragon and Dr. Vegapunk have a history that no one saw coming. So if you want to learn more about their past, you can brush up on the One Piece anime thanks to Hulu, Crunchyroll, and even Netflix.

Want to know more about One Piece? No sweat! You can read up on its official synopsis below:

“As a child, Monkey D. Luffy was inspired to become a pirate by listening to the tales of the buccaneer “Red-Haired” Shanks. But Luffy’s life changed when he accidentally ate the Gum-Gum Devil Fruit and gained the power to stretch like rubber…at the cost of never being able to swim again! Years later, still vowing to become the king of the pirates, Luffy sets out on his adventure…one guy alone in a rowboat, in search of the legendary “One Piece,” said to be the greatest treasure in the world…”

What do you think about this One Piece update? Let us know what you think in the comments below as well as on Twitter and Instagram. You can also hit me up @MeganPetersCB to share your take!