Yep, Kocurek said it in the One Piece Podcast sometime last year. Really weird situation…and at this point it's anyone's guess what the current Brand Manager's words of this being a "relaunch" of sorts for One Piece really means. I hope it meant surprise acquisitions and announcements but if all he meant was what we already knew (in that we're getting post-timeskip episodes on DVD this year) then that's a huge disappointment.
@o-chan:
I think in both the English and Japanese versions it's very, very slight in the early episodes before the actors settled into their normal speaking tones. I do think Eric Vale's Sanji does sound a little more "manly" when I saw the Gold Special but it's not noticeable in the episodes since he's in horny mode almost all the time. One change that they emphasize in both versions is Luffy is a little more direct in his speaking.
According to Joel even back for Film Z the intent was for there to be very subtle elements of change and growth in the voices, though nothing too drastic or out there due to the age range. That seems to be what people here are hearing and referring to and I gotta say I couldn't help but notice myself in a few cases, particularly Luffy's in both languages. I hope Colleen keeps this range and explores it more over the course of the rest of the series instead of just falling back into the slightly higher pre-timeskip tone.
Curious what you mean exactly in terms of Luffy being more direct dialogue-wise, though. Any specific cases aside from possibly his Hancock interactions?