Should the One Piece anime remake have new voice actors?

Everyone was surprised when Jump Festa 2024 was announced The One Piecea remake of the anime by One Pieceby the hands of Wit Studioresponsible for animes like the first 3 seasons of Attack on Titan, Great Pretender, Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress It is Ousama Ranking.

In Japan there is debate whether it would be wise to replace the current voice actors in this new project and the Japanese portal Myjitsu shared an article analyzing the debate on the subject.

In the article from Myjitsu we can read:

During the JUMP FESTA 2024 event held on December 17th, shocking news revealed that the story of “ONE PIECE” will be “reanimated” from the beginning. The question that is bringing together the community of fans of this franchise is whether the seiyuu from the adaptation currently being shown will return to play their roles in this remake.

Titled “THE ONE PIECE”, the new project aims to revive the original story from the beginning. Production is carried out by WIT STUDIO, a popular animation studio recognized for “SPY x FAMILY” and “Shingeki no Kyojin”. Although Toei Animation’s version has a long history, many original sections were added to allow the original manga to move forward, so fan opinions are divided on the matter.. The revival by WIT STUDIO hopes to omit these segments and be a project that seeks pure quality.

However, what provokes debate is whether the seiyuu will repeat their roles or whether they will be replaced in this project. Opinions appeared on the Internet such as: “I hope they don’t change the Straw Hat Pirates seiyuu” It is “I would never accept the original voices being changed”. But there were also others like: “Personally, I think there will be no problem changing the seiyuu” It is “A reanimation also involves replacing the seiyuu”.

The current voice cast of ONE PIECE has remained unchanged for a long time since the anime began airing. However, the average age of the entire cast is increasing year after year.. Mayumi Tanaka, the voice of Luffy, is currently 68 years old; Kazuya Nakai, the voice of Zoro, is 56 years old; Hiroaki Hirata, the voice of Sanji, is 60 years old; and Katsuhisa Hoki, the voice of Jinbe, is 77 years old.

An industry expert commented: “Seiyuu’s voices change as they age and sometimes stop fitting the character’s image along the way. Lately, the changes of seiyuu in long-running anime have also attracted attention, and recently Keiko Yamamoto, who played the role of Shota Yamada in ‘Chibi Maruko-chan’ for over 30 years, retired from the role at that time, at 80 years old. Yamamoto also left the role of Hanako Hanazawa in ‘Sazae-san’ in October, but as it was already rumored that her voice had reached its limit, fans were saddened by the change but also understood.”

On the other hand, in the trailer released on the same day as the announcement, Luffy reads the phrase “First of all, to gather companions, I want ten people”, and it is believed that it was Mayumi Tanaka herself who read these lines. Furthermore, the “reanimated version” will be a Netflix project just like the live-action version of “ONE PIECE”, but the Japanese voices in that series are using the same seiyuu from the original Toei franchise. Animation. Plans for a remake should already have been under discussion at that time, so it could be interpreted as Netflix intending to continue with the same voices.

If a remake is aimed at an audience that does not know ONE PIECE, this would open the doors for new voices to join the project which, it is inferred, is intended to last. What is the production team thinking?