Shueisha and Toei Animation revealed at Jump Festa 2025 that Subaru Kimura has become the new Japanese voice actor for the One Piece character Franky. He will succeed Kazuki Yao, who has retired from the voice role for one of the series’ main characters that debuted in 2004.
Subaru Kimura is a half-German voice actor whose real name is Subaru Samuel Bartsch. He was born in Germany in June 1990. He made his Japanese voice-acting debut as Takeshi “Gian” Gouda for the newer generation of Doraemon anime series that launched in 2005.
Kimura also landed the role of Daisukenojo “Beat” Biito in Square Enix’s 2007 DS game The World Ends With You. However, he mostly had more voice roles from the 2010s, starting with Kanba Takakura in the 2011 anime show Penguindrum. Some of his notable roles in recent years include Vice in the 2021 Tokusatsu show Kamen Rider Revice and Balthus von Albrecht in the Nintendo Switch games Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes.
With Subaru Kimura confirmed as the new Japanese voice actor for Franky in the One Piece anime series, he will also assume the role in future video games for the franchise. The 2023 RPG One Piece Odyssey has thus become the last game in the franchise to have Franky voiced by Kazuki Yao.
Published: Dec 23, 2024 09:00 am