is a song recorded by Japanese singer

Shizuka Kudo , known by her maiden name , is a Japanese singer, actress and former idol, born in Hamura, Tokyo, Japan. She was a member of Onyanko Club between May 1986 and September 1987 and went on to have a successful solo career with 11 number-one hits. ...

. It was released as a single through

Pony Canyon , also known by the shorthand form , is a Japanese mass media publishing company founded on October 1, 1966. The company publishes mainly physical home media on compact discs, including music, films and TV shows and video games. It is affiliate ...

on June 2, 1993. It made its first album appearance on the compilation album, '' Super Best'', released later that same year.

Background

"Watashi wa Knife" was written by

Gorō Matsui is a Japanese lyricist born 11 December 1957 in Gifu Prefecture, Japan, though he considers Tokyo to be his hometown. Beginning with participation in the Yamaha Popular Song Contests, he made his debut writing the lyrics for the 1981 Chage and As ...

and composed and produced by

Tsugutoshi Gotō is a Japanese songwriter, bassist and music producer. Gotō broke into the Japanese music industry playing bass on tour for artists like Sadistic Mika Band, Bread & Butter and Shiro Kishibe. He went on to write and produce songs for other artist ...

. It is a pop song reminiscent of Kudo's earlier material. Lyrically, the song describes a protagonist proclaiming herself to be a metaphorical knife "starved" for love and willing to measure up to a rough lover. During the promotional cycle for ''Super Best'', Kudo revealed she doesn't like the title of the song. "I'm more of a saw", she said, half-joking. "Watashi wa Knife" received acclaim for Kudo's upfront vocals, as well as the song's "hard" hook culminating in an "epic" chorus, which were noted for producing an efficient change of pace and making the song memorable. Matsui and Gotō were praised for their practiced collaborative songwriting abilities.

Chart performance

The single debuted at number six on the

Oricon Singles Chart The Oricon Singles Chart is the Japanese music industry-standard singles popularity chart issued daily, weekly, monthly and yearly by Oricon. Chart rankings are based on physical singles' sales. Until 2017, Oricon did not track download sales. In J ...

, selling 75,000 copies in its first week. It charted in the top 100 for a total of nine straight weeks. With reported sales of 187,000 copies, "Watashi wa Knife" became Kudo's first single since her solo debut to not place in the top 100 of the year-end Oricon Singles Chart.

Track listing

Charts

Certification

References

{{Authority control 1993 songs 1993 singles Songs with lyrics by Gorō Matsui Songs written by Tsugutoshi Gotō Shizuka Kudo songs Pony Canyon singles