Shonen Knife is a Japanese Pop Punk group, that started in Osaka when two sisters and their close friend decided they liked The Ramones enough to start a band and copy them. They started gaining overseas recognition in the late Eighties and early Nineties when such notable figures as Kurt Cobain and John Peel brought them into the limelight, and since then they've had a respectable fanbase both in their native Japan and in the Western world.
Like their heroes, Shonen Knife's songs largely have simple chords, catchy lyrics and manic energy. They also have a rather large number of songs about food.
Tropes related to the band include:
- All Drummers Are Animals: Risa. Full stop. She beats the everloving crap out of her drumset with a huge grin on her face.
- Action Girl: "Super Girl (Buttercup)," for The Powerpuff Girls's album Heroes & Villains.
- Baths Are Fun: "Public Bath".
- Careful with That Axe: A particular song called "Buddha's Face" due to its sound being borrowed from Heavy Metal had the singer screaming "Going, going, going to hell" near the end and then on the fourth time screams, "Going, GOING, going to hell".
- Cat Girl: "I Am A Cat." Possibly related to the novel
of the same name. - Cover Album: Osaka Ramones.
- Cover Version: They did a cover of "Top of the World" which appeared on a Carpenters tribute album and in the remake of The Parent Trap. They also recorded "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" (for a Burt Bacharach tribute album), "When You Sleep" (for an all-Japanese My Bloody Valentine tribute album called Yellow Loveless), "Daydream Believer" and "Jet"
- "Days of the Week" Song: "One Week."
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Quite so. The band had a very rusty start in the 1980s.
- Goroawase Number: 712, or Na-I-Fu ('Knife' pronounced in Japanese). Also a significant number, because the band was founded in December 1981.
- Gratuitous English: At first, but started to write English songs on their first album in the 1990s. However, their latest releases still have some sort of Gratuitous English in them, especially when Naoko sings, which leads to some indecipherable lyrics
- Heavy Metal: When not dressed in stage clothes, Naoko can be regularly seen wearing shirts of metal bands such as Judas Priest and Motörhead. The closest they got to making a metal song themselves is Mosquitoes.
- I Am the Band: Naoko Yamano.
- Mega Neko: "Giant Kitty."
- New Sound Album: "Strawberry Sound" which was deliberately after Shonen Knife's members were just the Yamano sisters.
- Revolving Door Band: Has become this, with Naoko Yamano being the sole founding member in some lineups. Atsuko has recently returned to the band.
- Rock Trio: For an amount of time, they became a duo due to Michie leaving the band. Then after Atsuko left, she is replaced by a new member. As of now, they are a trio once again with Atsuko moving from drums to bass.
- Sibling Team: At times, when Naoko's sister Atsuko is in the band.
- Snake Versus Mongoose: "Cobra vs. Mongoose" alludes to the rivalry between the cobra and the Mongoose.
