
Fro one pirate king to another
Written by Ross Locksley on 08 Dec 2025
In a wonderful demonstration of cross-cultural appreciation, Johnny Depp appeared onstage at Tokyo Comic Con 2025 and was joined by the voice actor for One Piece's Sanji (and Depp's dub actor) Hiroaki Hirata.
Hirata told Depp "I have a friend who draws a certain manga about pirates" before presenting the Pirates of the Caribbean actor with a noren curtain featuring Jack Sparrow, drawn by Eiichiro Oda.
Depp has made quite the splash at the show, proving incredibly popular as he made sure that he spent meaningful time with every fan that queued to see him. One of the more famous attendees, Beastars author Paru Itagaki spent 5 hours waiting to see the Hollywood actor.
Depp's Pirate movies have accumulated more than $4.5 billion at the box office, but probably more meaningful is the work he's done behind the scenes as his iconic Jack Sparrow character, visiting children's hospitals across the world to bring some joy to serious and terminally ill children. He started the tradition after his own daughter, Lily-Rose Depp, was diagnosed with a life threatening condition caused by an aggressive E. coli bacterial infection which led to acute kidney failure. She was treated and eventually cured at London's Great Ormond Street Hospital, to which Depp gifted $2 million.
Depp's devotion to the character and willingness to give back as much as he can has made him something of a legend among the industry and fans, which has clearly spread to Tokyo given the huge amount of love he's been shown at the Comic Con 2025 event.
Ross founded the UK Anime Network waaay back in 1995 and works in and around the anime world in his spare time. You can read his more personal articles on UKA's sister site, The Anime Independent.
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