Minori Chihara -- Arigato, Daisuki (ありがとう、だいすき)

Well, about a week ago, I wrote about the opening theme song for "Nagato Yuki-chan no Shoushitsu"（長門有希ちゃんの消失...The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan）, "Fure Fure Mirai"（フレ降レミライ）which has those echoes of the crazy-popular ending theme from the original "Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu"（涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱...The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya）.

However, I have to say that I fell for the ending theme for "Nagato Yuki-chan" first. There is something about Minori Chihara's（茅原実里）singing of "Arigato, Daisuki" (Thank You, I Love You) that just summed up her character of Yuki-chan in this new, non-cosmic world that I wouldn't have thought possible with the original reality-warping version.

The version for the TV series was fine enough but then on hearing the full version, I just thought that she was going for the full Celine Dion...and that's not a bad thing here. As with "Fure Fure Mirai", the song was written by Aki Hata（畑亜貴）but the music this time was provided by rino.

I've heard Chihara sing the other themes in the "Haruhi" franchise, but with "Arigato, Daisuki", I think, especially in the first several seconds, that she sounds like a higher-pitched version of Ayaka Hirahara（平原綾香）. In any case, the song was released as her 22nd single in June 2015. On the regular Oricon charts, it managed to peak at No. 15 while on the Billboard Japan Hot Animation charts, it made it as high as No. 9.

There are only 3 more episodes left for me to watch in "Nagato Yuki-chan" after the past month of psychological melodrama, so things might be getting a bit lighter again. My only hope is that Yuki-chan decides to pick up an electric guitar and rock out on the stage.