“A Cruel Angel’s Thesis” is a J-Pop song that was used as the opening theme for the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion. Together with the anime series, this opening theme become an iconic song within the anime and otaku community in the 90’s and is still popular today.
It was originally performed by Yoko Takahashi, who also released the song as her eleventh single. This single was released under the Starchild record label on October 25th, 1995. A “director’s edit” of the track was also later released with Neon Genesis Evangelion Original Soundtrack on December 6th, 1995.
Production
Credits
Producer: Toshimichi Otsuki
Composition: Hidetoshi Sato
Arrangement: Toshiyuki Omori
Lyricist: Neko Oikawa
Vocalist: Yoko Takahashi
According to notes released with one of the soundtrack albums, director Hideaki Anno stated that he originally wanted to use a classical piece of music as the opening theme of Neon Genesis Evangelion, although this idea was scrapped in favor of a more upbeat, J-Pop style of song. This decision was made because it was agreed that using a classical piece of music may be considered unusual and confuse viewers. Before the final version of the song was completed, a male chorus was supposed to be included, but was later cut to emphasize a feeling of maternal affection.
When lyrics were being made for the song, Oikawa mentioned in a Twitter post that writing the lyrics only took two hours of work. She says that, after a thirty minute meeting with her manager, she was simply given free rein to write the lyrics however she pleased. Oikawa quickly skimmed through the proposal for the song, watched two episodes of the anime while fast-forwarding through it, then began her writing process. Many fans were surprised by this and, at the end of this tweet, Oikawa humorously apologizes for ruining everyone’s dreams by making the process seem so trivial.
The production of the single was lead by Toshimichi Otsuki from King Records (the company that created the Starchild label). Otsuki notes that he has never met either the lyricist or composer and that they all had little knowledge about Neon Genesis Evangelion.
Versions
Although the original release of the song occurred in October of 1995, “A Cruel Angel’s Thesis” has been re-arranged, re-released, and covered by other artists countless times. The following list is a highlight of the various versions of “A Cruel Angel’s Thesis” that have been released throughout the years:
Shiro Sagisu created two separate instrumental versions of the song as background music for the Finale of Neon Genesis Evangelion. These two tracks are titled “The Heady Feeling of Freedom” and “Good, or Don’t Be”. The former is a piece with a slower, reflective tone and features strings playing the melody while guitar and electric piano play harmony. The latter piece is much more upbeat and has its melody alternating between piano and guitar.
A re-release of the song was recorded by Takahashi in 2009 to celebrate the release of the second installment of the Evangelion Rebuild series, Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance.
Heavy metal bands Animetal and Eizo Japan (both sung by Eizo Sakamoto) released covers of the song on their respective albums (Animetal Marathon V and EIZO Japan 2).
Voice actors and actresses of the main characters have performed covers for “A Cruel Angel’s Thesis” as well: Kotono Mitsuishi (Misato Katsuragi), Megumi Hayashibara (Rei Ayanami), Megumi Ogata (Shinji Ikari), and Yuko Miyamura (Asuka Langley Soryu).
Reception
Initially, record sales for “A Cruel Angel’s Thesis” peaked at 500,000 units and its popularity only grew as Neon Genesis Evangelion became a hit. While the single peaked at 17th place Oricon’s album database, it would go on to appear a total of 61 times in the charts throughout the years. In 2003, the song remained on the charts for 41 weeks and peaked at 9th place while the 2009 re-release performed by Takahashi appeared for 14 weeks and peaked at 22nd place. In 2014, the RIAJ (Recording Industry Association of Japan) gave “A Cruel Angel’s Thesis” a Million certification, which is roughly equivalent to a Platinum certification for an album in the West.
Lyric Controversy
In an instrumental section between verses, a vocal chant can be heard. These words are not Japanese and their origin and meaning have been debated for years. The chant in question is the following (romanized from Japanese spelling): “Fariya. Seta (sometimes Sepa) messo. Fariya. Tuse” According to an article by Newtype Magazine, these lyrics may be a phonetic translation of words that originate from a dead language that was once used in ancient times. If this is true, then it would be impossible for these words to have any meaning today, as no person alive today could translate them.
Links
A Cruel Angel's Thesis'took just two hours to write says Evangelion lyricist Neko Oikawa
