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According to the official website, the OP theme song of Sukitte Ii na yo. was announced to be the late singer and song writer Okazaki Ritsuko's song "Friendship", which was originally composed for Love Hina. Okazaki passed away in 2004 at the age of 44 due to scirrhus stomach cancer.

Friendship by Okazaki Ritsuko

The first episode of Sukitte Ii na yo. will be aired on October 6th following a theatrical preview on September 29th.

Source: Sukitte Ii na yo. official website

"For Fruits Basket", Ritsuko-san's one of the masterpieces

and "Agape" from UFO Princess Valkyrie (not in her relation list. what a shame).

I love her voice, opening songs for Fruits Basket and Princess Tutu were just amazing...

A very sweet way of honoring her. Plus the song's lovely.

It's really sad she passed away, which I didn't know at the time... Better be late then never, R.I.P.

An opening theme for a 2012 anime done by a singer who's passed away years ago is brilliant and respectful.

Side Note: Her voice is so soft and beautiful, she's amazing.

Agreed! This is a beautiful way of honoring her :)

It could be count as second time. Two of her songs were used for 2007 series Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight. But that time they used different singer for vocal part

Very nice.

what a sweet way of honoring her. :') I'm still so sad that she died....I'm so glad they're doing this for her. I'm sure she'll be really happy looking at the anime from heaven. :')

a fitting song for the shoujo manga to anime renassaince...<3

Wow, interesting.

hope that it's a good song

I love that song, it's beautiful~

I would like to add the (supposedly) last works that she had written in her life. It comes from Symphonic Rain, a (SFW) Visual Novel which revolves around music and depressing-yet-beautiful rainy atmosphere.


The opening of the game, "Sora no Mukou ni", sung by Okazaki Ritsuko herself (there's another version with another singer, though)


"I'm always close to you.", one of the song from the secret (and final) route. Many people consider this song as her farewell words for her fans.

The singer for the ending is Hiroko Kasahara, a J-Pop artist that also voiced a musical fairy named Phorni. Okazaki Ritsuko also composes all of the song that used in this VN, and sung by various people (including Nakahara Mai, the seiyuu for the twin main heroines). If I'm not mistaken, she also made a cover album for all of the song from Symphonic Rain, including "For Fruits Basket" as a bonus track, but (again, CMIIW) she never saw it released by herself.

Ritsuko-san produced so many atmospheric songs, that for some reason are very distinguished-able and have a certain melancholic atmosphere. I like her songs very much. Her song in Symphonic Rain also contributes a great deal of atmosphere for the game, and I would recommend people to play the game just to hear her songs alone (not counting that the game itself are very good and has a very brilliant twists and a very desirable ending, too bad it's not popular and tend to be underrated at the first sight)

@zeroyuki92

VN's are just not so popular overall. As for me I finished Liselsia's route and hope to finish other ones sometime soon.

That's really nice.

Great Song ^_^

This is kind of OOT so I'll spoiler this. Nothing spoilerish here.


Edit : I just realized that the Friendship link is clickable o____o

It's a very beautiful song, and also strong in Ritsuko-san staple atmosphere. May watch the series for the OP alone.

That's a lovely song, can't wait to hear it again when the anime airs! :) R.I.P Ritsuko-san

@zeroyuki92

It's translated so it's popular enough. And I saw it in a couple of VN recommendation lists

beautiful song, and really shoujo-ish x)

and it's really nice how they choose her song for the anime :)