An event for "ONE PIECE," an anime based on Eiichiro Oda Oda's popular manga, was held on December 22nd at Makuhari Messe (Mihama-ku, Chiba City) as part of Jump Festa 2025, where voice actor Kazuki Yao, who played Franky, graduated from the Straw Hat Pirates. Yao has played Franky since his debut in 2005. It was also announced that Subaru Kimura will take over as Franky from April 2025.
As part of Yao's graduation ceremony, a "Special Live Original Drawings: Franky's Best Scenes" was held on stage, where the voice actors dubbed various famous scenes from Franky live. Afterwards, the new voice actor for Franky was announced, and Kimura appeared on stage. He shook hands firmly with Yao and exchanged a hug. There was also a moment on stage when Yao taught Kimura Franky's catchphrase, "Super."
Original author Oda also sent a message, writing, "Super!!! Yao-san! I'll never forget the day you took me to that Kamabakka bar! Thank you for being Franky for so long!! We'll be friends no matter where we go!! And Subaru-san, I look forward to working with you in the future!!"
The Straw Hat Pirates' voice actors, Mayumi Tanaka (Monkey D. Luffy), Kazuya Nakai (Roronoa Zoro), Akemi Okamura (Nami), Kappei Yamaguchi (Usopp ), Hiroaki Hirata (Sanji), Ikue Otani (Tony Tony Chopper), Yuriko Yamaguchi (Nico Robin), Cho (Brook), and Katsutoshi Houki (Jinbei), gathered at the event. Each of them sent a message to Yao. At the end, they all sang the song "Family" together, bringing the event to a close.
After the event, Yao appeared on stage again, bowed deeply to the audience, then placed Franky's trademark pants on the floor and left the stage. Kimura then appeared, picked up the pants Yao had placed down, and left the stage with them pressed against his lower body, passing on the tradition to loud applause from the audience.
"ONE PIECE" is a manga that depicts the adventures of Luffy, a young man with a straw hat whose limbs can stretch like rubber, as he and his companions journey across the open seas in an attempt to become the King of Pirates. The series began serialization in 1997 in "Weekly Shonen Jump" (Shueisha). The total number of copies of the comics published in Japan is over 410 million, and the total number of copies published worldwide is over 510 million.
It was also announced that the TV anime will change its broadcast time slot from April 6, 2025, and will be broadcast nationwide on Fuji TV at 11:15 pm every Sunday.
