[Fish Sandwich]

I've come around to thinking that Hajimari no Kimi e deserves to be a sort of "adopted" part of Hibiki by virtue of still being all the exact same people making the song as Shounen Yo. Like, even if the series didn't get prematurely canceled (as Switchblade would say), they probably still would've used it, you know? I feel like it's kind of an unfair victim of circumstance more than anything. I've given it a hard time myself in the past (I mostly just hate how abruptly it always starts in those episodes that totally don't exist), but it's a good song, and not any less Hibiki than the original OP/ED duo.

Kagayaki is still my favorite Hibiki song, though? It's very subtle, and manages to perfectly capture Hibiki without the aid of any lyrics whatsoever, which I find impressive, and very fitting for the series' musical motif. Especially after listening to the demo versions included on the show's final soundtrack, where you can feel Toshihiko Sahashi go from

"Eh, it still needs a little something..."

All the way to "Ooh, I think I'm on to something here!" (Note how this one even has the space for Asumu's narration at the start)

Which then of course led to the treasure that is the "final" version, in quotes because Sahashi did like a dozen different arrangements of it to create a truly evolving theme song from episode to episode, which is not something you see every day. (Hibiki was a pretty cool show, huh?)