Oikawa Neko (及川眠子) is a Japanese lyricist.
She is perhaps best known for writing the lyrics to the 1996 Takahashi Yoko song Zankoku na Tenshi no Thesis.
History[]
She came up with her writer's name in middle school (her real name has yet to be revealed to the public) and around this time decided to become a lyricist as a career goal. However, at first she struggled to find work as a lyricist, and worked as a writer in over 12 different job positions after graduating high school. In 1985, she submitted a song she wrote to the Showa Mascot Song Contest and won first place out of over 13,000 entries. The song later was recorded by Wada Akiko and she finally began her career as a lyricist. She first apprenticed under fellow lyricist Akimoto Yasushi, and made her debut by herself in 1986, writing for the idol group Popins.
Starting in the late 1980s she became a popular lyricist for idols. In the early 1990s she began expanding out of idols and into other various genres. In 1996, she wrote the lyrics to the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion's opening theme song after being given a basic synopsis and a request by the director to make the lyrics "hard to understand." Incredibly, the lyrics to the song matched very well to the overall themes of the series, which also became incredibly successful. As a result, Oikawa became one of the most well-known lyricists in Japan from this song alone.
In 2018, she established the "Oikawa Neko Award" for authors of non-fiction works, as this is her favorite category of literature.
Works Written For[]
(WIP)
Trivia[]
- She got married to a Turkish man in 2000. They divorced in 2013 after money problems and living in different countries became too much for them to handle.
- She has written over 1200 songs in her lifetime.
- Oikawa has reported she makes around 30 million yen annually just from royalties associated with Zankoku na Tenshi no Thesis alone.