Beyond ‘The Greatest Living Show’ - Recommended works by Itoki Hana

Written by Rubin on Tuesday, April 4th, 2023 [Cross-posted 01/24/25]

I've been thinking about writing this up for a bit, but especially now that another collaboration has been released, I want to provide a resource for those who want to get into Itoki Hana's work, but aren't sure where to go after listening to The Greatest Living Show, Skies Forever Blue, and/or 74 (all in which she collaborated with Toby Fox).

2025 update: while I mention that Break of Dawn is her newest work, there's actually a couple more that have been released recently, many this year! Feel free to check the Final comments section for the link to her Youtube channel if you're curious.

Remixes and Arranges:

Before getting to the completely original work, I'm going to take a quick dip into some video game arranges! A lot of Itoki Hana's work focuses on the Kirby series (though it should come to no surprise that there are arrangements for the likes of Undertale, too).

Of these, my personal favorites are Moonstruck Blossom and Two Planets Approach the Roche Limit - both are kirby related, have vocals, and provide a chilling atmosphere perfect for the end game bosses the the original song is for.

Not all arranges are vocal, though - the Deltarune remix that she's made would be a good example of this.

Early Work:

After making several arranges, Itoki Hana would eventually begin making original work. earlier content would later be put on CDs such as PRAY or VOID, but there's a few works that don't ever make a CD appearance. Notably, Left Out and わたしのことなんて stand out as personal favorites of mine, but I would check her youtube channel out for any of her original work from 2015 and before.

Then would come the few set of CDS - 体内時計 and ROLEPLAY. Of these two, the album ROLEPLAY ends up using motifs for characters that we'll see more in her later works - and the song ROLEPLAY, aptly named after the album cover, is perhaps my favorite overall, hands down.

The next Album, SLEEP HOUSE, does just that - alongside a website that ties to both SLEEP HOUSE and ROLEPLAY, the several songs for Sleep House have an accompanying video with background on her works (Nightmare, Pillowman, and DO NOT DISTURB). It's also notable that SLEEP HOUSE is not fully a vocal album - but of the vocals, Nightmare and wake up are both excellent works.

I cannot stress, by the way, how much content that Itoki Hana makes for these characters - there are several websites with content about the setting, characters, and various other facts. It's been on my to do list for a bit to read into them a bit more.

Later Work:

After these CDs, Itoki Hana's first dip (as far as I know) into something commercial would be 環-cycle-, the first ending for the anime The Ancient Magus Bride. But this would not be the first - as not long after, the first collab with Toby, 74, was also made! 74 is also the first of the two collabs where we see Bani-chan's work (though this one's an image, not an animation).

Itoki Hana would then return to original work (with the occasional arrangement from a game). Of these, there's Heartless and UNREMEMERABLE SONG (both featured on the Album PRAY), and 偶像 (featured on the Album VOID), which i enjoy a bunch! Both VOID and PRAY, while having newer songs, also provide means to listen to some of Itoki Hana's older works (such as ROLEPLAY).

Recent Work:

Following the above releases, Itoki Hana's been focusing on single releases. Namely first is Libera, another personal favorite of mine.

Libera is definitely a song I recommend listening to AFTER some of her older works - after the buildup from Sleep House and ROLEPLAY, Libera provides a hopeful outlook to the tale that Itoki Hana has provided.

This is later reinforced further with As You Are - a song that, given where i was when it released, seriously motivated me to keep going despite feeling otherwise incapable of doing so.

It's about here where more collab work occurs - alongside the release of Skies Forever Blue, Itoki Hana provided work for the VR game Runner. The vocal tracks can be found on her bandcamp.

Itoki Hana finally rounds this out with the newest of her solo original work, Break of Dawn - comparing her animation from before to now, it's incredible to see how far she's gone, and I'd be curious to see what her future work holds. I'd also save this for last given the motifs it has from a lot of her older works.

Final Notes:

This information is all pulled from my head - I may have mixed up release dates or typo'd something for example, but I hope it doesn't detract from helping you find a song to listen to!! Also, If you find this useful, feel free to reblog this! But before you do, here's a final list of links for easy reference: