Neon Genesis Evangelion‘s opening theme is one of the best and most iconic tunes to ever grace anime.
Initially, Evangelion creator Hideaki Anno wanted classical music for the anime’s opening theme but decided an upbeat pop song might have a wider appeal. The result was “A Cruel Angel’s Thesis,” sung by Yoko Takahashi.
The song was originally released in 1995 when the anime debuted. King Records is now re-releasing the track in HD.
While it’s the first time King Records has put a hi-def version on YouTube, this isn’t exactly a first per se. Back in 2014, the original anime got an HD Blu-ray release.
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9 responses to “Neon Genesis Evangelion Theme Gets An Official HD Music Video ”
This is pretty terrible. The visuals are just random shots from the original opening, don’t sync up properly to the music at all the way the actual opening animation does.
Yeah, it’s a bit messy. Disappointing.
The constantly changing scenes is pretty off putting.
On an upside, I now want to rewatch the entire series again.. plus the original movie… end of evangelion…. and.. those remakes????
I havent rewatch it since EoE came out.
Completely agree. The TV intro not only matches the beats, it also matches the mood as the song rises and falls, tempting and avoiding climax until the very end. That intro is a masterpiece of visual/aural storytelling and this is nowhere near that.
Ah the memories….
shame they didnt use the original intro footage or spruce it up a bit but damn that theme is always good to hear
My first proper anime series… Shame the ending of the show was bleak as f*** and poor 11 year old me was destroyed by it.
Its also heavily interlaced 🙁
The original video is an interlaced source, would be why. Youtube doesn’t natively de-interlace videos. If you download it and watch it in a player that can deinterlace it’ll look fine.
Was watching it and thinking the interlacing is shocking.
I always (slightly) preferred Megumi Hayashibara’s solo version of this song. I don’t believe it’s on any of the OSTs, but it’s one one of her solo records from around this time. It’s got a more rock feel to it and the production (at least versus the original production of Yoko Takahashi’s version) is a bit cleaner. It’s a cool alternative take on the classic that’s worth tracking down.
Sadly, it doesn’t seem to exist on Youtube so here’s a live version performed by Takahashi at what I think maybe be one of those King Records live shows that happens every few years:
This looks cool to be honest