We Are!, from One Piece, music by Kohei Tanaka, piano arranged by Animenz, played by Richard Yang on Yamaha N1X with Garritan CFX VST.
One Piece is the only modern anime that I seriously watched. Even so, I no longer follow it (after 700+ episodes) since it just never ends! We Are!, is obviously the most iconic opening theme for the series and I had to learn it. Without question, this made the Top 10 most difficult Animenz arrangements I’ve attempted. The piece is a lot more difficult than it looks/sounds, featuring intense rhythmic elements, deceptively difficult arpeggios, semi-suicide octave jumps, and crazy runs! I believe this piece took me the longest to learn (from Animenz) with actual touch time close to 2 months, which, by my standard, is a LONG time. The comforting thing is that once it clicks, execution is no longer that bad, kinda like Crying for Rain or Gurenge. In comparison (among my Top 5 most difficult), Unravel, Kantai Collection, My Dearest, and Snow Halation (suicide octaves and the finale) remain super difficult no matter what.
As with all of my performances, I have my own interpretation, so the tempo, dynamics, etc may feel quite different from the original recording. Simply put, I play the way I like it.
