Midnight Blue (Megumi Hayashibara song)

"Midnight Blue" became the first solo release by Hayashibara associated with the Slayers franchise. The title track served as theme song for Slayers The Motion Picture, which premiered in Japanese theatres on July 29, 1995.^[2][3] Although uncredited, voice actor Sōichirō Hoshi provides backing vocals on the track.^[4]

For its release, the song was coupled with "Shining Girl", which served as image song for the same movie.

Both songs were first included on the movie soundtrack released on September 6, 1995,^[5] and later on Hayashibara's studio album Bertemu released on November 1, 1996.^[6]

The single was made available for streaming on March 30, 2021, along with the entire Megumi Hayashibara discography.^[7] The soundtrack album of Slayers The Motion Picture featuring the song was made available for streaming worldwide on September 10, 2025.^[8]

J-Pop Time Traveler described "Midnight Blue" as "a mysterious and powerful medium-tempo track that symbolizes the golden era of 90s anime songs."^[4] Jonathan Leiter of The Cinema Warehouse, described it as a "darker" track compared to the endings of later Slayers films, such as Slayers Return and Slayers Great, characterized for being lighter and more upbeat.^[9] Leiter commented that the song had "more grit," as well as a more “weird” angle compared to subsequent Slayers movie theme songs, with "a bit more rough, perhaps a slight bit more dated sounding with the particular synth sounds utilized in its answer section of the sort of question (lyric) answer (synth riff) sections of the chorus."^[9] Anime Fringe also gave a positive review on the song.^[10]

"Midnight Blue" debuted and peaked at number 27 on the Oricon charts,^[11] becoming Hayashibara's first Top 30 entry on the Japanese charts with 19,560 copies sold on its first week.^[12] The single charted for seven weeks, with cumulative reported sales totalling 71,550 copies.^[12]