“The Cruel Angel’s Thesis” (Zankoku na Tenshi no Tēze), is a J-pop song performed by Japanese singer Yoko Takahashi. Toshiyuki Ōmori and Hidetoshi Satō composed the song, while Neko Oikawa wrote the lyrics. It was written for the opening theme of the anime television series Neon Genesis Evangelion, and was released as a double A sided single with “Fly Me To The Moon”, the show’s closing theme, in 1995. “The Cruel Angel’s Thesis” was also included in the series soundtrack releases and Takahashi’s albums.
Neko Oikawa was given the task of writing the lyrics; Toshimichi Ōtsuki, a member of King Records and the official producer of the animated series instructed her to write something “philosophical” and to use complicated language. She focused on the key concepts of “mother”, “boys and girls of fourteen” and “an adult woman”. Oikawa, following the directives, completed the song in two hours, after having received few details of the anime and without having met Hidetoshi Satō. The song begins with the voice of a woman who advises a young man to behave like an angel without mercy, encouraging him with the cry of shin wa ni nare (“become a myth”). For the woman, the boy is still innocent and naive; he looks at her, smiles and says nothing, and she gently invites him to rest. The woman, reassuring him their meeting was chosen by fate, says; “On your back you have feathers that will carry you into the future”.
For the title, Oikawa used the German word These (lit. “thesis”). Yahoo! Japan has noted the concept of These has been used, among others, by Hegel, philosopher and exponent of German Idealism. Oikawa also took inspiration from the manga A Cruel God Reigns (Zankoku na kami ga shihai suru), which was written by Moto Hagio and was being published at the time, and inserted the term tenshi, which usually refers to the angels of Christianity. An additional religious reference, the verse “Watashi wa sō jiyū o shiru tame no baiburu” (“This is the Bible with which you will learn what freedom is”), was added to the lyrics. An interlude chorus with the words faria and setameso was also included in the song; the interludes’ lyrics are not from an existing language and were created by arranger Toshiyuki Ōmori. The chorus was sung by Ōmori, Takahashi, and her brother Gō Takahashi. When asked about their meaning, Ōmori stated that “the words suddenly came down from the sky” during the writing.
“The Cruel Angel’s Thesis” enjoyed long-lasting success and frequently appeared in popularity polls even decades after the first airing of Evangelion. It is considered one of the best and most iconic theme songs of the otaku subculture, finding renewed popularity with the release of the Rebuild of Evangelion theatrical tetralogy. In 1996 and 1997, after the first broadcast of Neon Genesis Evangelion, “The Cruel Angel’s Thesis” was elected best theme song of the moment in the Anime Grand Prix, an annual poll conducted by the magazine Animage; in the second year, it got more than twice as many votes as the second-placed song.
In Japan, “A Cruel Angel’s Thesis” gained popularity, remaining for years in the Oricon Karaoke Chart The original version of the song was released as a single in October 1995, and charted twenty-two times on the weekly Oricon charts, peaking at number twenty-seven. It was later re-released together with Claire’s cover of “Fly Me to the Moon” and stayed on the chart for sixty-one weeks. In 1997, shortly after the end of the anime’s first airing and the release of the movie Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death & Rebirth, “A Cruel Angel’s Thesis” was awarded the gold and diamond record (named “Million” in Japan), while the edition with “Fly Me to the Moon” was certified platinum. The 2003 version stayed on the chart for nine weeks. A remix done in 2009 was also successful; in June and July of that year, “A Cruel Angel’s Thesis” became the most popular anisong of the period, appeared for fourteen weeks on the Oricon charts, and reached number twenty-two. Sales of the various versions collectively sold more than one million copies.
