“One Piece” is one of the longest-running anime series of all time. a truly legendary show that lives up to its reputation. Based on the manga of the same name by Eiichiro Oda, “One Piece” is still going strong after 25 years and has become a cultural institution. And after all this time, the show is better than ever. The most recent story arc, even the “Egghead Island Arc.” made it onto our list of the best anime of the year. Between the anime, the live-action show, and the upcoming Netflix animated remake, there’s never been a better time to be a One Piece fan. With a lot of source material left, it could be several years before we see the end of One Piece.
And yet, the anime has just suffered a major shakeup that has left fans devastated. After almost 20 years, one of the Straw Hats leaves the ship and says goodbye to the show. Kazuki Yao, who joined the cast in 2000 and voiced characters like Jango and Mr. 2 Bon Clay before portraying Franky, is officially retired due to health reasons. His roles will be replaced, with voice actor Subaru Kimura (Todo in “Jujutsu Kaisen”) taking on the role of shipbuilder Franky of the Straw Hat Pirates from 2025.
Unfortunately, the voice cast of the Straw Hat Pirates isn’t getting any younger. The youngest member of the cast is Akemi Okamura, who voices Nami and is 55 years old. Luffy’s voice actress, Mayumi Tanaka, is 69 years old herself, and as great as her voice is, the anime shows no signs of approaching the end of the story. Yao retiring and needing a replacement is just a sign of things to come. And across the Pacific, American fans should take a look at the evolution of “One Piece” to get a taste of the future of another cultural institution – “The Simpsons.”
The Simpsons will have to deal with its aging cast sooner or later
Without Yao, Franky wouldn’t exist. Oda himself created the character with Yao’s voice in mind, and it was the vocal performance combined with the distinctive design that made the character so special and memorable. He is like an older brother to the younger Straw Hats and offers Oda the opportunity to pursue his love of giant robots. In fact, Franky has become more and more machine than human and has built himself a giant robot, which he calls the Iron Pirate “General Franky”, much to the delight of the other Straw Hats – especially Chopper, Luffy and Usopp. That said, Yao’s performance was incredibly important to the character, but now that it’s here, the character is simply being recast.
It won’t be long before The Simpsons faces a similar conundrum. Even after 35 years, the iconic cartoon is still very popular The last few seasons have been the best in decades. We get episodes that experiment with the show’s formula and challenge the characters in exciting new ways. Similar to the Straw Hat Pirates, the cast of “The Simpsons” isn’t getting any younger. The youngest members of the main cast, Hank Azaria and Yeardley Smith, are 60 years old, while Harry Shearer is 81 years old. Clear, Shearer just delivered his best performance ever as Ned Flandersbut can he continue to pronounce Mr. Burns, Smithers or Skinner for much longer? How about Homer Simpson himself, Dan Castellaneta? The man is 67, while Julie Kavner, who voices Marge, is 74 (and her performance as Marge has undoubtedly suffered in recent years).
Speech cannot be reproduced
Pamela Hayden recently caused a stir when She announced her retirement after voicing Milhouse Van Houten for 35 years – as well as Rod, Jimbo Jones and many others. It looks like Disney and Fox are at least recasting their characters instead of using AI (thankfully) tries to keep her voice in future episodes, but what happens when Castallaneta is no longer able to voice Homer? What if Nancy Cartwright had to stop voicing Bart? Will they hire soundalikes like “Rick and Morty” did for the two title characters? Or will they go the way of Darth Vader, which Disney officially expresses using AI?
It remains to be seen (well, heard) how Kimura fares as the new voice of Franky, but hopefully he shows that going the recast route is much better than artificially trying to recreate an iconic voice. Voice acting is still acting, it cannot be reproduced by a machine or algorithm. Let’s hope The Simpsons remembers this when the time comes.
