Anime sensation One Piece is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. With that celebration comes a one-night only concert performance in Las Vegas on July 20, 2024. One Piece Music Symphony creator and producer Julien Mombert discusses bringing the iconic music of this series to life in an unforgettable performance.
About One Piece
One Piece is an anime and manga created by Eiichiro Oda. The story follows Monkey D. Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates as they travel the seas in search of the legendary treasure called the “One Piece.” Currently, there are over 1,000 episodes of the anime and over 100 volumes of the manga. This epic tale is still going, with chapters published weekly to Shonen Jump. Also, it is now a live-action series on Netflix.
Interview with the Creator of the One Piece Music Symphony
Q: What about One Piece inspired you to create a symphony such as this one?
Julien: “It was back in 2012. I have loved anime background music (BGM) since childhood, dreamt of seeing one as a kid, and was looking to produce a live orchestra show of Japanese anime music, which had never been done outside of Japan (at least under a proper and official license from all the rights holders).
At that time, I thought, ‘Which recent anime that I personally like has the potential to gather a large enough audience for the show to be successful?’ One Piece was at the top of my list! Both the original composer Kohei Tanaka and Toei Animation were very interested in the idea, and we developed the show together and premiered the first version in 2013.”
Q: Is this the first time you have created and produced a symphony about anime?
Julien: “At that time, it was the first. Since then, we also produced the first ever official concert of Saint Seiya (Knight of the Zodiac), Pegasus Symphony: Music from SAINT SEIYA, which had never been done, even in Japan, and then Sailor Moon (Sailor Moon Symphony).”
Q: Can you walk us through what it looks like to put on a touring show like this?
Julien: “The first difficulty is always to convince music professionals that One Piece music is a big thing! Any anime fan knows that One Piece is the most popular manga and anime in the world, and the younger the people are, the more likely they are to be knowledgeable about anime. But people of my generation are always skeptical… at first! The second thing is to make sure that everyone understands that as fun as it is, anime is a serious thing and that they are committed to working on our shows as professionally as they would for any other. But to be honest, things have changed a lot over the past few years, and it is no longer uncommon for a venue manager or orchestra musicians to be fans!”
Q: Is this a production that could change as the anime and manga of One Piece continues?
Julien: “The show has already changed multiple times. We have had three iterations already. The first one focused on everything until Marine Ford, the second from Fishman Island to Dressrosa, and the third from Zoo to the first half of Wano Kuni. This year, being the 25th anniversary of the anime, we decided to make a fourth one, which is a new and special version of the show, a kind of a ‘best-of’ the whole saga from the very beginning to the Egg Head Arc (but also including some great new things like the new opening “Assu!” and the amazing new Gear 5 theme “Ore no Saikyo Chiten”). The next show will likely cover the second half of Wano kuni, Egg Head, and everything that happens until then!”
Q: With One Piece being so expansive, how do you go about choosing which arcs/stories to tell in your performances?
Julien: “This is the main difficulty in developing this show. As you know, just one arc of One Piece is usually longer than most anime TV series. Each concert covers about 300 episodes (which is already between two and 10 times more than most anime series), and there are so, so many things happening that summarizing this in a two-hour concert is a huge challenge each time.
We usually start by isolating what absolutely needs to be included, the major events of the show that everyone is aware of, the biggest events, and each arc’s biggest fights. This usually represents 60%–70% of the concert program. Then, we try to highlight some key events that we know or feel will play a larger role in the bigger story in a near future, which leads to about 90% of the concert program being decided. The final 10% usually represents our personal preferences, events that really moved us, although they could potentially be ignored in a two-hour summary.”
Q: Are there any other anime you would want to compose music about?
Julien: “We are not composing music but rather producing and presenting it live. We create live arrangements and orchestral scores working with original composers, the music publisher, and the licensor of the anime. This ensures that the show is legal and official, and equally as important, of very high quality and high fidelity to the original (beware of the various illegal and poor-quality knock-off performances and shows that clumsily use anime music that still pop up from time to time!).
There are many other anime we want to bring to life in an orchestral format. The anime music market is finally booming (a very different situation than in 2012 when we started!), and we hope to bring much more in the near future!”
The musical symphony will take the stage live at the theater in the Virgin Hotels in Las Vegas on July 20th as part of their world tour!
