Fonogenico -- Negaigoto（ねがいごと）

Hyakki Yagyō from Wikipedia

Although I saw and enjoyed the first series of "Kimetsu no Yaiba"（鬼滅の刃）, I'm generally not one for supernatural horror or sorcery, but when doing my due diligence for this song, I discovered that it had been used as the theme for an NTV show based on a manga titled "Hyakki Yagyō Shou"（百鬼夜行抄...Excerpts from The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons） which was televised back in the late nights starting from February 2007.

From what I could glean from its synopsis, it's not so much about good battling evil between the physical and supernatural realms; it's more about different spheres of life so I gather that things are somewhat more peacefully enacted and contemplative. 

Certainly the ending theme for "Hyakki Yagyō Shou" reflects this feeling. A few months ago, I introduced a duo that had a run in the 2000s called Fonogenico and enjoyed their 2007 "Orange no Suna"（オレンジの砂）. Vocalist/lyricist Naoko Takayama（高山奈帆子）and keyboardist/composer Masaru Kawaguchi（川口潤）came up with this ending theme at the same time that the show aired called "Negaigoto" (What I Wish For) as the title track for their mini-album. It's a lovely piano pop ballad that almost sounds as if it could have come from a couple of decades previously. In fact, I like the song so much that I was surprised that the mini-album only hit a ranking of No. 259 on Oricon before it disappeared from sight. But then again, its attachment to a late-night niche drama and the observation that there may have been a lot of contemplative ballads being released at the time possibly nullified any impact.

Fonogenico -- Orange no Suna（オレンジの砂）

Wikimedia Commons

I'd never heard of the 2000s duo Fonogenico before but when I encountered their May 2007 3rd single "Orange no Suna" (Orange Sand) some weeks ago, I figured that I had to put it up here on KKP. For one thing, the arrangement sounds so much like very romantic Tomita Lab（富田ラボ）and readers probably have already cottoned to the fact that I'm a fan of his, especially with those silky strings. It's quite the soulful pop ballad about a young lady holding the hand of the guy she's fallen for for the first time. Awwww!

The Kansai-born Fonogenico formed in 2002 with vocalist/lyricist Naoko Takayama（高山奈帆子）and keyboardist/composer Masaru Kawaguchi（川口潤）as they did live events and their songwriting. In the following year, they debuted as the duo Fonogenico and made their major debut in 2005 with their first single coming out in 2006. In total, they released four singles and a mini-album. Kawaguchi pulled out of the duo in 2008 and Takayama continued on as a solo act before calling it a day herself in 2010.