Megumi Hayashibara -- Kagirinai Yokubou no Naka ni (限りない欲望の中に)

It’s a been a long time since my last entry for Megumi Hayashibara (林原めぐみ), and the main reason is that most of her songs are not on Youtube anymore.

“Kagirinai Yokubou no Naka ni” is not one of the songs I listen to the most from her, but it’s one I know for a long time, since I was 14 or 15 years old in 2005. At the time, I liked to watch everything related to the Slayers franchise (スレイヤーズ), from movies and OVAs to the anime itself… and “Kagirinai Yokubou no Naka ni” happened to be the theme song for the “Slayers Special” OVA (スレイヤーズすぺしゃる), which got aired in three separate episodes between 1996 and 1997.

Since I’m talking about a song from my favorite singer, it has a lot for me to like, with Megumi’s very professional vocals (she shines as a singer here) being important to notice. Besides that, what I like the most here is the build… from the mysterious verses and warm pre-chorus, to the explosive and strong chorus. And the arrangement, with all the keyboard and wild guitars punctuating the song, is typical from its era. All in all, “Kagirinai Yokubou no Naka ni” succeeds in being what it is: a good Shounen (少年) anime song.

 “Kagirinai Yokubou no Naka ni” was released in May 1996, reaching #20 on the Oricon chart and selling 69,510 copies. Even though not included in any of Megumi’s original albums, it was finally part of her “Slayers Best album”, which is called “Slayers MEGUMIX” (スレイヤーズ MEGUMIX) and was released in June 2008. Lyrics were written by Satomi Arimosi (有森聡美), while music was composed by Hidetoshi Sato (佐藤英敏). As for the arrangement, Sho Goshima (五島翔) was the responsible.

"Slayers MEGUMIX", from my personal collection