Kappei Yamaguchi has been giving his voice to the Grand Line for decades, bringing to life One Piece’s Usopp with an energy that makes the sniper stick out amongst Luffy and crew. While the Straw Hats have some serious powerhouses like Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji, Usopp has been able to earn his place amongst the swashbucklers more times than we can count. In a recent interview, Yamaguchi himself addressed the differences in strength between Usopp and his fellow pirates and whether he feels that the Straw Hat confidence man should get a boost as the shonen series sails toward its grand finale.
Yamaguchi recently attended the Mumbai Comic Con 2025, answering several questions when it came to his part in Eiichiro Oda’s masterpiece. The voice actor shot down the idea that Usopp needed a Devil Fruit and/or the energy known as Haki to be a worthy member of the Thousand Sunny, “I personally feel that Usopp is plenty cool enough as he is right now. I hope he continues to live true to himself in future works, and I believe I’ll always be able to feel the joy of getting to portray him that way.” As One Piece fans know, even without a Devil Fruit power, Usopp has been a force to be reckoned with given the circumstances.
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The Perfect Usopp
After playing Usopp for over twenty-five years at this point, across hundreds of episodes and more than a few feature-length films, Kappei is confident in his ability to bring the anime character to life. “After playing Usopp for 25 years, I feel like I’m the perfect person for the role. It’s the closest character to who I am now.”
Ironically enough, Usopp is far from the only anime character that Yamaguchi has played in his long career. Some of the biggest figures of the medium he has brought to life include Death Note’s L, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure’s Shigekiyo, Inuyasha’s Inuyasha, and Super Dragon Ball Heroes’ Fu. Even with One Piece inching toward its end, Kappei definitely has the chance to stay in the anime game moving forward.
Usopp’s Curtain Call
In One Piece’s final saga, Usopp might not be throwing punches at the World Government himself during on Future Island but the manga has seen one of his biggest dreams come true. Eiichiro Oda has brought both Usopp and the Straw Hat Pirates to Elbaf, the land of the giants that the sniper has been hoping to visit since early on in the shonen’s history. Despite Usopp’s dream becoming a reality, this doesn’t mean that the island is filled with sunshine and rainbows as Elbaf has its own challenges facing Luffy and crew.
Want to see what the future holds for Usopp in the shonen’s grand finale? Follow along with Team Anime on ComicBook.com for the latest updates on One Piece and hit me up directly @EVComedy to talk all things comics and anime.
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