Mercer Labs in NYC Looks to Stimulate the Senses with One Piece Collab

One Piece is everywhere, but that shouldn't be surprising considering that it has more or less become one of the largest and most popular franchises on the planet. This has led to collaborations with sports teams, food brands, clothing brands, and crossovers with other shows, among others. However, despite the franchise seemingly doing everything under the sun, Nasir Dean, manager of special projects at Mercer Labs, and Roy Nachum, co-founder and creative director of Mercer Labs, still hoped to bring a unique experience to the masses by leveraging the One Piece brand. In New York, Anime News Network attended a special sneak peek of this collaboration at the Mercer Labs Museum, where we witnessed an interactive viewing experience firsthand.

Getting the chance to speak briefly with Dean and Nachum, they commented that they wanted this collaboration to be all about inspiring creativity. One Piece is a franchise known to many, but they explained that the series also opens the door to inspire people, even in a passive way. The very different exhibits at the museum seek to highlight One Piece in a way that washes over you, whether it be padded rooms that gently serenade you with key tracks from the show's soundtrack or through theater rooms that display footage across large walls that light up the entire space.

There was a mirrored hallway that projected a gorgeous 3D render of the Thousand Sunny, and a stimulation room that overlaid mirrors with lights, using footage from the series to display iconic ambient noises. The room, in particular, I found interesting because it utilized sounds like rain from the fight between Kaidou and Luffy, with impact sounds from the fight itself. Mercer Labs even utilized the colors and sound effects of Luffy and Kaidou using Conqueror's Haki. Despite that being a relatively intense technique in the show, there was something excitingly stimulating about being in that room. You can tell that thought went into each exhibit to stimulate and enhance the senses. I can't speak for everybody's experiences, and unfortunately, some rooms weren't done during this sneak peek, but I feel like I got the intended effect.

If that was too stimulating for you, some rooms leaned more on the laid-back side. Probably my second-favorite room featured projections of wanted posters for the Straw Hat crew. But these weren't just projections or renders from the show; they were projections of colored pages that you yourself could draw right then and there. There were stacks of posters with colorful crayons that you could sit down to color on and then have projected onto the walls. There were a couple of kids on my tour, and this was hands down the one they seemed to enjoy the most.

Part of me was a little disappointed that most of the music and footage shown was almost exclusively from the Wano arc in the anime. Dean did explain their creative reasoning. If the whole point of the exhibit is to spark creativity and inspiration, then why not use one of the most consistently gorgeous-looking arcs in the franchise? They said they would love to utilize more footage throughout the franchise for potential future exhibits, but that they would also love to take a crack at other franchises should the opportunity arise. Particular ones whose names were dropped were Dragon Ball and Digimon. I quite enjoyed my time with this exhibit, and it was a unique experience. Here's hoping that there will be more collaborations like this in the future.