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Kenshi Yonezu’s new single “Tsuki Wo Miteita – Moongazing” is featured as the theme of Final Fantasy XVI, the latest installment in the hugely popular video game series. The J-pop hitmaker says the franchise has held a special place in his heart since childhood and that it has greatly influenced him as an artist.
In writing the song for the new game, Yonezu and game producer Naoki Yoshida held in-depth discussions to create a song that would deeply resonate with the story when heard in the context of the gameplay.

Music writer Tomonori Shiba caught up with the multi-hyphenate, who shared the process of the song’s production, his love for the Final Fantasy game franchise, how he feels about the expansion of his reach outside of his home country and more in this interview for Billboard Japan.

What was your first thought when you were tapped to write the theme for Final Fantasy XVI?

Kenshi Yonezu: I never thought I’d be able to work on the theme song for a game series that I’ve been playing since I was a kid. I feel like I’ve been saying this a lot lately, but it was simply an honor. It really felt like a unique opportunity.

What did the producers of the game discuss with you off the bat?

First, Mr. Yoshida spoke super passionately about the outline of the story and his thoughts that went into it. After that, I received a text-based script for the entire game and brief character descriptions. I was asked to create the music to be played during a particular scene in the game, so I think they were willing to let me do what I wanted with that to a certain extent, to create music based on what I felt.

Did you communicate with Mr. Yoshida while you were producing the song?

Yes, we did. Quite often. He’d come by regularly and show me visuals of how far the game development has been proceeding or how the battle system looks like at the moment. I could see how passionate he was about what he does. He spoke with great enthusiasm about what he was working on and what the game was like, while also taking pride in what he was doing. Of course it’s only natural, but I could sense that they took this project very seriously, and felt that I couldn’t take it on half-heartedly.

You’ve always mentioned Final Fantasy as one of your favorite games. How did you first come across it?

My family got a PlayStation when I was in first grade, and while I don’t remember what game I got first, I noticed one day that we had a copy of Final Fantasy VII. I don’t know if someone had bought it or if it’d been given to us, but there it was so I decided to give it a try. That’s how I started playing it.

What was that experience like for you?

Now that I think back on it, it feels like this work had a lot to do with my current tastes and preferences. The story is serious and the cityscape has a steampunk feel to it, and I still get excited when I see things like that. Looking back, I think it had a great influence on the development of my personality.

How would you say that those influences from the series appear in your own works as a musician and artist?

I’ve loved fantasy since I was a kid. I’ve been into it since I was in kindergarten or elementary school. Fantasy is a simple word to describe the concept, which is about things that could never really exist in our everyday lives, being there like they were commonplace. I spent my childhood yearning for such imaginary spaces. Looking back now, I think it’s been one of the main pillars shaping my life.

From there I got into drawing and making music, and even now that I do those things professionally, a lot of the music I make and pictures I draw still come from that fantastical, imaginary point of view. I always really liked playing alone, so I spent my childhood reading books and playing games at home, having fun letting my imagination run free and conjuring up fantastical things in my mind, rather than getting pleasure from communicating with others. That continues to this day and I think I learned a lot from it.

It’s called fantasy, but there’s quite a bit that mirrors reality. Reality is always reflected in fantasy and the two are inseparable, like the two sides of a coin. So I think there’s certainly a kind of true nature of reality that can only be acquired through fantasy, through a fantastical story. Fantasy is filled with a shape of reality that can only be expressed in that way.

What was the starting point of the idea for the song?

I thought a lot about what a theme song for a game is all about. After all, compared to movies, anime and TV drama series, a video game takes much longer to get through, as in dozens of hours. Plus, you become the player through the controller, immersing yourself in the game and experiencing the world for yourself. So I think your attachment to that world is much deeper than other media. When I was asked to write the music for this project, I felt it shouldn’t be something that evokes a kind of squalid everyday life.

So while you’re the one writing the song, the original concept was to write something that wouldn’t drag players back to reality when they heard it in the game.

Right. I’ve been asked to write many theme songs in the past and have worked with various stories, but I think I placed more emphasis on the game itself than ever before for this one. Since I make pop music, I have to create music that’s appropriate for each story while also reaching people who aren’t involved in that story, who are unfamiliar with it. Whenever I work on a theme song, I always try to find the right balance between the two, but this time the balance is quite off and the music leans heavily toward the game.

How did that change the way you wrote the song?

It became more of a selfless dedication. I had all kinds of distracting thoughts going through my mind when I was writing it. Stuff like, “Maybe I should do certain things to make it easier for people who haven’t played the game to understand” or “Maybe if I added certain sounds, it would make it better as a pop song.” Such distracting thoughts would swirl around and I tried to be aware of doing away with them this time. So it was selfless in that sense. I simply made music for the sake of the story. I really went in that direction more than ever before for this song.

So the concept of this song was different from your previous experiences writing themes for anime and drama series.

The theme song for a drama series on TV is played in every episode, and the scenes and situations where the song is heard will be different. That means the song has to be abstract in some ways. The task is to find where the root of all 10 episodes of the series lies. For example, I’d try to come up with three important elements of the story and work though various incidental details to get to what remains at the end. Then I embellish that in my own way. For a song like this one that would be played at a particular scene in a video game, I didn’t think such an approach would be appropriate.

The way the song is written, when you hear it after playing the game, you realize what it’s about and leads to a better understanding.

I mean, it’s not too much to say that I wrote it just for that purpose. When you finish playing the game and hear the song, the pieces all fit together for the first time. That’s the way it had to be done. Considering the numerous video games I’ve played in my life, I felt that if I did it any other way, I wouldn’t be sincere to who I am. I guess on a certain level it’s not sincere as a piece of pop music, but in this case, I had a feeling it was the right thing to do.

Could you share what resonated with you after you finished playing Final Fantasy XVI?

FF16 is a very serious game, and as you identify yourself with the harsh reality of the protagonist through the controller, your desire for them to be happy grows and grows. The protagonist is born under oppressive conditions and is forced to fight grinding battles all the way from there. When you think about how unfortunate that is, you begin to feel strongly about wanting them to find redemption. I thought about such things when I wrote the music. But I also had to include the scars he left behind in the song. I felt it wouldn’t be fair if I didn’t, so I tried to write a song that would give a feeling of redemption while also encompassing a kind of grudge that will never completely go away.

I’d like to ask you about the international expansion of your reach. Last year you released “Kick Back,” the opener for the anime Chainsaw Man, and the track gained popularity in many countries and regions outside of Japan, among people who speak many different languages. How do you feel about that?

I’m grateful. As someone who makes popular music, I want many people to listen to what I put out. In that sense, I’m grateful to Chainsaw Man for giving me the opportunity to write that song.

And “Tsuki Wo Miteita – Moongazing” is featured in Final Fantasy, a series with ardent fans of all ages not only in Japan but also in many other countries and regions, also among people who speak various languages. What are your thoughts on that?

The song is in Japanese and I’m not sure how people will feel about this Japanese song. I feel nervous about how people interpret it, and right now I’m just hoping that the game hasn’t been ruined because of the song’s inclusion in it.

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I think emotions expressed in music transcend borders and languages, and kind of imagine you want that to be the case, too.

Yes. The song is basically in Japanese, so what’s being sung won’t come across (to speakers of other languages). But I’ve experienced moments where I’m moved by something even though I’m far removed from its meaning linguistically. I’ve certainly had experiences where I’m strongly drawn to a voice or the music from foreign countries, in foreign languages I’m not familiar with. I hope this song will be taken in that way.

One last question. Aside from Final Fantasy XVI, are there any other video games that you’re into or curious about?

I’ve been playing Minesweeper all the time lately. I’ve talked about it a lot at my concerts, and I’ve been feeling firsthand how addictive it is because of its simplicity.

—This interview by Tomonori Shiba first appeared in Billboard Japan