Yoko Takahashi

Best known for her contributions to the Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise, Japanese pop singer Yoko Takahashi debuted in the early '90s with her first album, Pizzicato, and went on to foster a decades-spanning career that balanced mainstream trends and frequent anime-related collaborations. The most notable of those efforts remains "A Cruel Angel's Thesis," the famed opening theme song to the original Evangelion series that premiered in 1995. That track, and her contributions to the series, made her a pop culture fixture all the way into the 2020s, when Evangelion: Finally broke onto the U.S. album chart.