Review: Anime in Concert Edinburgh 2025, Fringe

Along with my teenage son I attended Anime in Concert, a production by Edinburgh Youth Arts. This concert was on two consecutive dates during the Fringe with this being the second event.

We bought a programme for £2 and this set out the order of the music along with which Anime shows each piece was from, including images and brief summaries of the different Anime series.

We liked how the program gave details of the different Anime. Not being too familiar with it myself, the program was very helpful to understand the music being played and from which series.

The vibe

The venue was Marchmont St Giles Church which was an ideal setting with high ceilings to aid the acoustics and plenty of seating. For this show the church was pretty full with not many empty spaces by the time the concert began. It was also very cool which was welcome on a very hot summer day.

Many of the orchestra were wearing tops featuring their favourite Anime shows/characters and many of the audience were doing the same. My son was wearing a new Jujitsu Kaisen t-shirt and was pleased to be complimented on it.

There was quite a mixed audience – lots of young adults, families with teenagers and some primary school age children.

The concert

The music was a great mix of different anime themes. It was upbeat and entertaining from start to finish. We were very impressed by the orchestra which was predominately teenagers with a few adults supporting. Their obvious enthusiasm about the music really came through.

After each piece the conductor identified and thanked each musician which was really lovely to see. 

Most songs featured the whole orchestra but there was a drums solo a strings piece and a guitar solo. Our favourite songs in the first half were Overtaken and Srums of Liberation (the drums solo).  

There was a 15-minute interval then in the second half a choir appeared for several of the songs. My son was eagerly anticipating the final section which featured four songs from Attack on Titan, his favourite Anime series. It was great that he had this chance to watch and listen to a live orchestra and also that it was mainly young people performing who were immensely talented.

Overall

An upbeat and entertaining concert. Perfect for anyone who is a big fan of Anime but also enjoyable to people who are not familiar. The concert only had two showings but they said it will run again next year at the Fringe so would recommend to get tickets early next year to avoid disappointment.