Week End (Gen Hoshino song)

Though the production period was long, Hoshino felt that the songwriting environment – which he described as the best of his career – allowed him to not worry about time constraints and instead focus on what he and the staff team could do.

[4] By the completion of Yellow Dancer, he looked at "Week End" as a vital part of the album's identity, in contrast to tracks such as "Sun", which he viewed more strongly as individual songs.

[9] Hoshino released a listen along video for "Week End" on November 27, 2015, featuring part of the song and an explanation to the contents of Yellow Dancer.

It features Ryosuke Nagaoka on electric guitar, Hama Okamoto on bass, Hajime Kobayashi on Wurlitzer piano, Noriyasu Kawamura on drums and cowbell, and Eiko Ishibashi on synthesizer and background vocals.

An ensemble of nine play violin and viola on the track, and the sound of wind instruments is incorporated via trumpet, trombone, and tenor saxophone.

[17] "Week End" was received positively from critics, who praised its sound as energetic; a writer for Rockin'On called the song representative of Yellow Dancer.

[18] A reviewer for CDJournal found the track's soul and disco arrangement reminiscent to Earth, Wind & Fire's "September" (1978),[12] whereas Kulture staff likened the song's groove to Off the Wall (1979) era Michael Jackson.

[21] The CDJournal reviewer praised Hoshino's vocals, opining that, while he illustrates a fun and exciting weekend, his singing is not overly flashy, helping the voice keep a good feeling and giving the song a "stylish" sound.

[18] A report by Natalie.mu of the Osaka performance wrote that "Tokiyo" and "Week End" created a happy atmosphere before Hoshino departed the stage.

[27] Teppei Kishida, in a different article for Rockin'On, described the song's performance at the Nippon Budokan as "disco time", where the stage was enveloped in "pop magic" from the distinct movements of the attractive but elegant dancers, backed by soft lightning to focus the audience on the quality of the music.

[33] Subsequently, Hoshino performed the song for Ronson's Love Lockdown: Video Mixtape project in 2020, a livestream promoting social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic.