One Piece's anime is currently celebrating its 20th Anniversary, and like many anime series the cast has been the same from the very beginning. This means that a lot of fans only think about certain voices fitting for the series' characters, so potentially taking on the mantle after one of the current stars is most likely a heavy burden. With the current cast steadily aging, the voice of Luffy Mayumi Tanaka recently addressed this issue.

On a recent segment during a Japanese talk show (via Narinari.com), Tanaka actually spoke about who might replace her should the series continue after she passes. Noting that series creator Eiichiro Oda joked that the series could take long, Tanaka remarked, "I might not even be alive by the time it ends. When the time comes, I hope that One Piece fans can accept the person I choose as my successor."

Tanaka's son was also in attendance along with another prominent voice actress, Masako Nozawa, and he joked that Nozawa should take over, "The only person I can think of who could possibly replace you is Masako Nozawa." But Tanaka cheekily shot down this idea, "What's the point if it's someone older than me?" Tanaka, who is 62 at the time of this writing, is a lot younger than Nozawa, age 82. But that won't stop Nozawa, who joked that she could continue acting at least until 100, or even age 128.

Fans of anime should recognize Nozawa's work as she performs the voice of Dragon Ball's Goku, and is the voice of Doctor Kureha for One Piece too. If there does come the day where Tanaka has to pass down the role of Luffy, fans probably wouldn't mind Nozawa taking over the role. But with more seriousness in mind, there will probably be a lot more consideration paid toward taking on Luffy in full.

With Tanaka's words, it's clear that she has no problem passing on the Luffy mantle if the series does continue past the point where she's not able to perform for the character anymore. It's just a matter of whether or not the fans would accept it. That's tough to say for now, of course, but maybe it's something fans might have to face for One Piece's 40th anime anniversary.

Could you see someone else as the voice of Luffy? Who would you suggest to take on the role after Tanaka? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

Eiichiro Oda's One Piece first began serialization in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump in 1997. It has since been collected into over 80 volumes, and has been a critical and commercial success worldwide with many of the volumes breaking printing records in Japan. The manga has even set a Guinness World Record for the most copies published for the same comic book by a single author, and is the best-selling manga series worldwide with over 430 million copies sold. The series still ranked number one in manga sales in 2018, which surprised fans of major new entries.

via Narinari.com, Anime News Network