Amin Abbas

DUBAI: Hiroaki Hirata, the veteran Japanese voice actor of Sanji in ‘One Piece’ franchise, was a special guest at the Dubai’s Times Square Center meet and greet event on Jan. 11-12.

The event, organized by Speedy Comics Middle East and Popcon Middle East, invited fans of anime and video games were able to take pictures and get autographs from Hirata.

Hirata told Arab News Japan he was very pleased to be in the UAE for the first time. “I have been watching TV programs about Dubai and its beauty, but I was amazed when I came here and saw the actual huge buildings and the fascinating sights in the city.”

The event also featured various artists and entrepreneurs who showcased and sold handmade items and new products of their creations. Local collectors displayed and sold various collectables and merchandise, such as: retro games, Funko pops, comics, trading cards and other pop culture memorabilia.

Other activities such as trading card game workshops, woodworking workshops, gaming tournaments, and more were featured at the event.

Hirata said his career began as part of the Theatre Company Subaru where he performed on a stage.

“My manager at the time asked me one day if I was interested in doing voices for western movies and I auditioned for one of them and I have been doing dubbing for many movies since then,” Hirata explained.

“I was invited later on to do voice for an animation movie project at Toei Animation in the early 1990’s called ‘Rokudenashi Blues’ and it was my first official anime role, and I got a lot of invitations to do voices for other animation projects after that,” he added.

Hirata mentioned that he checks on the anime series that he is a part of, like One Piece and his favorite manga series is KochiKame: Tokyo Beat Cops.

He told Arab News Japan that during his audition for Toei Animation, he had initially voiced Zoro at the beginning for the production of One Piece series.

“However, it didn’t satisfy the production team, but one of the producers believed in me and kept me as one of the main characters of the series. As the anime went on through the first 20 episodes, I got the role of Sanji for One Piece,” the voice actor said.

“I didn’t feel the role of Sanji at the beginning as the character remained the same for some time. But after time of voicing the character, I gained experience that helped me out in voicing many characters for different series over the years,” he added.

Hirata also announced to fans to keep an eye out for his upcoming roles and activities in anime and video games.