The Weeknd premiered a previously unreleased song during his After Hours Til Dawn Tour in Japan on September 19, introducing fans to a track built around Yōko Takahashi’s iconic “A Cruel Angel’s Thesis” from Neon Genesis Evangelion. The surprise performance took place at Belluna Dome in Tokorozawa, where Takahashi herself joined Abel Tesfaye onstage.
The song, which fans are currently referring to as “Tokyo,” had already generated speculation before its live debut. Tesfaye had been teasing the Evangelion connection for months, with footage from a Mexico City soundcheck in April showing him working the familiar melody into the transition between “Can’t Feel My Face” and another section of his set.
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Tonight’s performance turned those clues into a full-scale collaboration. Takahashi appeared during the new song and performed part of “A Cruel Angel’s Thesis,” while the stadium screens featured a visual package credited to Yoko Taro, the director behind NieR:Automata.
The connection to Japanese pop culture goes beyond a single surprise appearance. The Weeknd presented at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards in Tokyo in May, while Japanese promotional material for the tour had already prompted fans to notice references to the Evangelion theme.
“A Cruel Angel’s Thesis,” released by Takahashi in 1995, remains one of Japan’s most recognizable anime songs. Its inclusion in the new Weeknd track follows another Japanese musical reference in his catalog: Dawn FM’s “Out of Time” famously incorporates Tomoko Aran’s 1983 city-pop track “Midnight Pretenders.”
The new song arrives at an important point in Tesfaye’s career. Hurry Up Tomorrow, released in 2025, closed the narrative arc that began with After Hours and continued through Dawn FM, while Tesfaye spent much of the period discussing the possibility of stepping away from The Weeknd name.
That idea now appears to be changing. In a GQ Hong Kong interview published this week, Tesfaye said he had experienced “a glimpse of what retirement looks like” and decided it was not for him, adding that he is “hibernating” rather than disappearing and that “The Weeknd isn’t going anywhere.”
The Japan premiere could therefore mark an early glimpse into what comes next.
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