After defeating the metal-mouthed Wapol and saving the Drum Kingdom, the Straw Hat Pirates departed to their next adventure at the end of One Piece Season 2, but with a new crew member in tow. Tony Tony Chopper, the human/reindeer hybrid voiced by the frequently-crouched Mikaela Hoover, agreed to become the crew’s doctor. But before he left home for the first time, he was able to witness the dream of his late adoptive father finally realized. Hoover shared with CinemaBlend how she pulled off this tear-jerking scene in the Season 2 finale, which aired last month on the 2026 TV schedule.
In “Reindeer Shames,” which chronicled Chopper’s origin story, Dr. Hiriluk, who adopted him, was certain that if he found a way to create cherry blossoms, it would cure the Drum Kingdom of all its ills. Although he was able to finally create a working formula, he blew himself up shortly thereafter and never got to actually test it. So before Chopper left, Dr. Kureha and Dalton released the artificial cherry blossoms into the sky, prompting Chopper to heartbreakingly cry. When I asked Mikaela Hoover what her process was like of getting in this emotionally heavy state for the Netflix subscription-exclusive show, she first said:
Well, I think Doctor Hiriluk and Chopper have such an amazing bond. He’s the first person or being, in fact, that ever saw Chopper and really not only saw him, but believed in him and loved him. Losing Doctor Hiriluk is one of the greatest traumas of his life. It's devastating. But then to see he's leaving and he's following his dreams, he knows Hiriluk would be so proud of him sailing the world. And then he sees the cherry blossoms, and it's so bittersweet. It’s like, ‘Why isn't Doctor Hiriluk here to see it, but also I'm so glad that it's actually happening,’ but also he's sad that he's leaving his life behind.
Before meeting Dr. Hiriluk, Chopper had already been ostracized by other reindeer because of his blue nose, but then his life took a turn for the bizarre when he ate the Human-Human Fruit. Unfortunately, the denizens of the Drum Kingdom viewed Chopper as a monster, but not Hiriluk. He was the first to treat him with compassion and affection, so naturally Chopper was devastated upon learning of his death. Hiriluk was already terminally ill in his final days and racing to come up with his cherry blossom formula, as he believed looking at them had cured him decades earlier.
Article continues belowSo as Mikaela Hoover so eloquently recapped, seeing the cherry blossoms was bittersweet for Chopper, as he’s happy that Hiriluk’s dream was finally realized, but sad that he wasn’t around to see it, nor bid the reindeer farewell as he’s beginning this new chapter of his life. In addition to voicing Chopper, Hoover’s facial expressions were also used for the character in One Piece, so it was quite the physically effort for her to portray his crying in just the right way. The actress explained:
We went in and tried so many different ways of that scene. I hadn't seen the anime, but I guess in the anime, it's very big and very kind of scream-y cry. And when we first did it, I did it more how I would do it, which is like I'd be crying, and then there wasn't so much screaming involved. And then we tried the over the top screaming I guess is more in the anime, and then we kind of met in the middle of the way that we wanted to do it, but it was really sad. And those days that we were filming, my face was so puffy from crying, and your body feels emotionally just drained.
Thankfully, Chopper has new friends to look after him as he ventures into the Grand Line. Monkey D. Luffy, Roronoa Zoro, Nami, Usopp and Sanji, as well as Princess Nefertari Vivi, have his back, so that support will make this life of adventuring he learned about from Hiriluk a lot easier than if he went at it solo. But obviously that doesn’t mean new challenges aren’t ahead, and I look forward to seeing Mikaela Hoover bring new life to more of Chopper’s emotional moments from the original One Piece manga and anime.
One Piece Season 3, subtitled The Battle of Alabasta, will be released sometime in 2027. Mikaela Hoover has been promoted to series regular for the next season, as has Joe Manganiello as Mr. 0/Crocodile, Lera Abova as Miss All-Sunday/Nico Robin, and Sendhil Ramamurthy as King Nefertari Cobra. We’ll also meet new characters in Season 3 like Cole Escola's Mr. 2/Bon Clay, Xolo Maridueña's Portgas D. Ace, Awdo Awdo's Mr. 1 and Daisy Head's Miss Doublefinger.
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