The stage of Tokyo Comic Con 2025 witnessed a meeting of legends that has made pirate lovers, both in cinema and anime, vibrate. Hollywood star Johnny Depp has reunited with Hiroaki Hirata, the Japanese voice actor who has not only dubbed him for years, but is also the voice of the iconic Sanji in One Piece. But the real surprise of the night came from the creator of the most famous manga in the world.
A gift from "that guy who draws pirate mangas"
During the event, Hirata presented Depp with an "early Christmas gift": a specially illustrated noren (a traditional Japanese curtain). With a lot of humor, the voice actor introduced the artist as "a guy I know who draws a lot of pirate manga." That "guy" was none other than Eiichiro Oda.
The illustration on the canvas depicted Captain Jack Sparrow, the legendary character from Pirates of the Caribbean, drawn in Oda's unmistakable style. Johnny Depp was delighted, joking that he wanted to wrap himself in the curtain.
It almost canceled, but the fans won
This was the first meeting on stage between the two in ten years, since the film Mortdecai. It was revealed that Depp's appearance was almost canceled due to delays in his filming schedule, but the actor insisted on attending: "If people are waiting for me, I absolutely want to get on stage."
The "pirate" connection between One Piece and the actor has unleashed the imagination of fans, who now dream of seeing Johnny Depp making a cameo appearance in Netflix's Live Action in the future.
