CLANNAD Music Artist Kikuchi Hajime Passes Away

It’s a sad day for JPOP fans. Keyboard player and songwriter, Kikuchi Hajime, from Eufonius, has unfortunately died. He was forty-four years old. The cause of death was acute heart failure. Kikuchi’s death was first made public by Eufonius singer, Riya, via Twitter on November 30th.

Roughly translated, Riya mentions that Kikuchi Hajime’s death came as a shock to everyone and that Eufonius was about to begin their 20th-anniversary celebration. Kikuchi’s funeral was held privately, with relatives only. Riya expressed her gratitude to all the fans who’ve supported Kikuchi and Eufonius throughout their career.

In twenty years, Eufonius had released eighteen studio albums alongside their visual novel collaborations. The highest charting song was “Hiyoku no Hane” (2010), used as the main theme for the anime adaptation of the game, Yosuga no Sora. The song peaked at number 16 on the Oricon charts.

A Visual Novel Legacy

Riya and Kikichi Hajime formed Eufonius in 2003. They are notable for composing soundtracks for visual novels. Their most recognized collaborations included CLANNAD, Island, Grisaia no Kajitsu, narcissu, Himawari -Pebble in the Sky-, and Irotoridori no Sekai.

CLANNAD in particular maintained steady collaboration with Eufonius as it evolved from a visual novel to a multi-media franchise. The series uses recurring themes of family and relationships. The story stars Tomoya Okazaki, a high schooler who comes from a broken and abusive household. During his third year in high school, he meets Nagisa Furukawa. Together, they decided to rebuild the disbanded drama club. It attracts several girls, each with their own hurts. It’s up to Tomoya to help them work through their trauma and come of age to start his ideal family.

At the time of writing, the future of Eufonius has not been commented on.

Are you a fan of the CLANNAD series? Right now we have several titles on sale, complete with English support.