The Composer of ‘One Piece Film: Red’s Longtime Hit Song Was Surprised To Even Get the Call

Perhaps the only thing better than One Piece Film: Red is the soundtrack to One Piece Film: Red. Both have had incredible staying power, especially in Japan. In fact, a new month-long re-release of the film in October pushed Red past Princess Mononoke and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone to become the sixth all-time highest-grossing film in Japanese box office history.

That incredible longevity has proven true for the film’s incredible soundtrack as well, though it’s hard to overstate how big it was on its initial release. The lead single, “New Genesis,” was the first Japanese song to ever top Apple Music’s Global 100 playlist. It was the number one song in Japan for a whopping six weeks. In fact, in August and September 2022, several songs from the Red soundtrack charted on Japan’s top 10. The soundtrack features seven original songs from the film (and one extra song, “Bink’s Sake,” for fans of the series). All songs are performed by the film’s central character, Uta, a pop star giving her first live concert.

In reality, Uta’s singing voice is semi-anonymous J-Pop star Ado, and each of the seven songs were written by a different band or musician. On December 2nd, Ado is about to give her very first televised performance, despite the fact that her songs have garnered millions and millions of listens for three years. What songs would she pick for such a momentous occasion? Her new single, “Show,” and “Tot Musica” from Red.

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If “New Genesis” was the mega breakout hit from Red’s soundtrack, “Tot Musica” has won the long-term chart-topping marathon. It’s currently number three on Ado’s Apple Music streams, only behind her two career-making hits, “Ussewa” and “Odo.” In some ways, it’s rather surprising—”Tot Musica” is an incredibly intense song, pulled from the climax of the film. On the other hand, “Tot Musica” was composed by the best in the business for intense climactic songs: Hiroyuki Sawano, who wrote the score for series like Attack on Titan, Kill la Kill, Seven Deadly Sins, and the upcoming Solo Leveling.

At Anime NYC 2023, in a middle of an interview about his collaboration with breakout singer SennaRin and ahead of both of their first-ever Stateside performance, I had the chance to ask Sawano about composing the song. Sawano was gracious enough to take time off the major topic at hand to answer.

Hiroyuki Sawano on his approach to “Tot Musica”

To anyone who’s ever watched an episode of Attack on Titan, Hiroyuki Sawano is the obvious person to call if you want a scene where a nightmarish giant monster emerges to feel terrifying and epic. The team behind One Piece Film: Red knew this, too, because they approached Sawano with an offer to specifically write the song for the climactic scene of the film, where (spoilers) Uta summons the formidable magic of a power called the Tot Musica.

But Sawano, speaking through a translator, was surprised to get the call. He recognized that “Tot Musica” is different from the other songs in the film, which are represented more-or-less as if they’re songs Uta either wrote or picked up somewhere. By contrast, the sheet music for “Tot Musica” exists in the film itself, and singing it summons the so-called “Demon King of Songs.” It’s part pop song, part incantation, and part background music. After all, characters talk over it in the film.

Sawano thought of the song primarily as the latter. “It’s more like a song, but for me it was as if it’s like the background, like a music that brings the demon out,” Sawano explained. “And so I think it was similar for me to the Attack on Titan music. So that’s where I saw the similarities and how I created the song.”

The Attack on Titan similarities are easy to hear—we’re familiar with those prominent bass hits whose timbre immediately etches a sense of foreboding into your very soul. But Sawano thinks of the drums and percussion as the primary source of evoking that feeling of dark magic. He also wanted to emphasize the incantation for summoning the demon. Instead of having that incantation be spoken, Sawano turned it into part of the melody. The incantation, by the way, is vocalized and spelled out in ancient Germanic runes which date back to 500 BCE. It makes the lyrics of the song look terrifying.

What was Oda’s involvement?

One Piece fans tend to be incredibly intrigued about the ways in which Eiichiro Oda, One Piece‘s mangaka, is involved in the ever-increasing world of wider One Piece projects. Oda is credited as an executive producer for One Piece Film: Red, and the film’s producer told CBR he was even more involved with Red than with his previous executive producer credit for One Piece Film: Strong World. I’ve also heard first-hand from people who have met Oda that he’s a huge music fan, with a wide berth of knowledge. So I put the question to Sawano: how involved was Oda when he made “Tot Musica”?

Sawano said that no one on the Red team, including Oda, was telling him how to write the song. “I created the song and sent it over to Oda-san so he could listen to it. His response was like, ‘Kakko ii deeeesu.‘ (It’s really cool / nice one / etc.) And I was like, ‘Oh, it’s over?’ “

So similar to the live action, it seems like Oda gave the ultimate stamp of approval to the songs from Red, but overall let the creatives involved do their thing.

For a spooky song about summoning a Demon King to destroy reality, “Tot Musica” has had remarkable staying power among both One Piece and Ado fans. So much so that, over a year later the film’s premiere and over the six-week-long number one hit, Ado is performing it in her inaugural televised performance. The annual Best Artist 2023 program will air on Nippon TV on December 2, 2023, from 7 to 11 pm Japan time. Those of us outside of Japan will simply have to pray a kind soul posts it on the internet.

(featured image: Toei Animation)