One Piece: Luffy's Voice Actor Is Ready to Work For Another 10+ Years

By Evan Valentine

Since One Piece's anime debuted on October 20th, 1999, one voice actor has been responsible for voicing Monkey D. Luffy in Japan and has given the captain of the Straw Hat Pirates in one thousand plus anime episodes, a handful of movies, a number of video games, and much more. In a recent interview, voice actor Mayumi Tanaka, currently age 68, revealed that she is willing to stick with the character for quite some time, though with the Final Arc in full swing in the manga, her time with the character might be coming to an end.

Ironically enough, the One Piece franchise is only one of the major anime series that Tanaka has been a part of playing the roles of Krillin in Dragon Ball for decades, Koenma in Yu Yu Hakusho, and even the Pokemon known as Yogiras in the anime adaptation. Tanaka is hardly alone with older voice actors who have been a part of anime franchises for decades though, as Dragon Ball's Masako Nozawa has been playing the roles of Goku, Gohan, and Goten for years, and despite being 86 years old, hasn't hinted at a potential future retirement from the Shonen series any time soon.

One Piece: How Long Can Luffy Go?

In chatting with Japanese Outlet, Livedoor News, Tanaka stated that she believes she can "do her best work for at least ten years", which would put her at 78 should she stick with the series for that long, though as mentioned earlier, it will be interesting to see how many additional episodes the anime adaptation has in the tank as the Final Arc is underway in the manga.

A big moment in One Piece's history is preparing to take place as the War For Wano hurdles toward its explosive conclusion, with Luffy specifically preparing to receive a new transformation that is an open secret at this point thanks to the manga and its brief appearance during One Piece: Red. While the design has yet to hit the small screen, it should be interesting to see if Tanaka changes her take on the Straw Hat Captain thanks to his more cartoonish form.

Do you think Tanaka will stick with the series for ten more years? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and the world of the Grand Line.

Via Livedoor News

Trending Now: