Kitri -- Hikare Inochi（ヒカルイノチ）

 

Well, if I'm not mistaken, we're two-thirds of the way through "Komi-san wa, Komyu-sho desu."（古見さんは、コミュ症です。...Komi Can't Communicate） and it seems as if fans can't get enough of the title character and her evolving relationships with her friends throughout the first season (and indeed, I am also hoping that there will be a second season). 

About a month ago, I posted an article on the opening theme "Cinderella"（シンデレラ）by Cider Girl（サイダーガール）. In fulfilling an oft-repeated pattern in anime opening and ending themes, "Cinderella" is a perky and upbeat opener while the theme that started from the end of Episode 2 is more relaxing and mellow.

This would be "Hikare Inochi" which I believe means "Shine Life" and it's performed by the sister duo of Kitri from Kyoto. With lyrics by both sisters Mona and Hina while the former took care of the melody, it's a pleasant song with a bit of bossa nova talking about overcoming any hurdles and entering a happier level of life which is what "Komi-san" is all about.

The full song, which came out as Kitri's most recent single a little over a week ago, has a bit more dynamism due to some parts that didn't show up in the truncated version for the closing credits. 

According to their J-Wiki article, Mona and Hina began studying classical piano at a young age and when the two were in their teens, their piano teacher suggested that they could perform Piano Four Hands in which the sisters could play on the same piano at the same time. In 2015, they made their debut as Kitrif（キトリイフ）which was derived from the two Japanese words for "tree" and "island" and the word "leaf". A digital download album, "opus 0", under an indies label was released in November 2017 (in the same year, the duo dropped the "f" from their unit name to become Kitri), followed by a major debut in 2020. They've also released several singles. For the record, Mona handles the vocals and the bass part of the piano while Hina takes care of the treble part and the chorus.