NARUTO THE SYMPHONIC is Coming to the Aronoff Center in March

NARUTO The Symphonic Experience will visit more than sixty cities on its first North American tour, including a stop at the Aronoff Center’s Procter & Gamble Hall on Wednesday, March 26, 2025 at 7:30 PM. The event is part of the Cincinnati Arts Association’s 2024-25 Season.
 
For the first time ever, audiences will get their chance to see an original, unforgettable two-hour feature film (shown with subtitles) meticulously created by Julien Vallespi and Quentin Benayoun from the first 220 original episodes of the beloved NARUTO animated series that is currently celebrating the 20th anniversary of its original TV anime adaptation. The orchestra will perform the most iconic songs and themes from the series, live-to-picture, as scenes are projected on a full-size, HD cinema screen.

"We invite NARUTO fans to celebrate NARUTO with this unique, live-to-picture experience. We created a two-hour film enhanced with a live, symphonic orchestra because the soundtrack plays such a huge role in the anime’s success and is praised by the legions of fans time and time again,” says producer Julien Vallespi. “The original score, composed by Toshio Masuda, is a perfect blend between pop and rock arrangements as well as traditional Japanese instruments like the Shakuhachi and Shamisen.”
 
With worldwide popularity and more than 250 million copies sold, NARUTO, by Masashi Kishimoto, is a shonen manga that started in Weekly Shonen Jump in 1999 and concluded in 2014 after 700 chapters. The story revolves around Naruto Uzumaki, a ninja who overcomes his past and battles countless rivals as he dreams of being Hokage, the leader of the Village Hidden in the Leaves.

The anime began airing on the TV Tokyo network in 2002, followed by NARUTO SHIPPUDEN (2007–2017). The 20th anniversary of the TV broadcast was commemorated in October 2022. Being distributed worldwide immediately after broadcast in Japan has made NARUTO an internationally celebrated series beloved by people all over the world. Eleven animated feature films have also been released, as well as apps, games, and merchandise, art exhibitions, 2.5D musicals, music festivals, and Kabuki performances.
 
Vallespi spent months selecting the best and most iconic moments from more than seventy hours of the first 220 episodes, identifying and choosing appropriate narrative arcs, and combining the best dialogue, scenes, and musical sequences. Significant synchronization work had to be done to match the score to the film, and to make everything as smooth as possible for the conductor and the musicians. “This symphonic-rock show is a tribute to Kishimoto’s anime and Masuda’s music,” says Vallespi.
 

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