Prisoner of Love (Hikaru Utada song)

"Prisoner of Love"
Single by Hikaru Utada
from the album Heart Station
Released	March 26, 2008 (Download)[1] May 21, 2008 (CD)[2]
Recorded	2007–February 2008
Studio	Bunkamura Studio EMI Music Japan Studio
Genre	Pop, R&B
Length	4:46
Label	EMI Music Japan
Songwriter(s)	Hikaru Utada
Producer(s)	Hikaru Utada
Hikaru Utada singles chronology
"Heart Station" (2008) "Prisoner of Love" (2008) "Come Back to Me" (2009)
Music video
"Prisoner of Love" on YouTube

"Prisoner of Love" is Hikaru Utada's 21st Japanese single and 30th single overall. It was cut from her fifth Japanese album, Heart Station (2008), making it her first Japanese recut single in nine years since "First Love" in 1999. "Prisoner of Love" is the theme song for the Fuji TV dorama Last Friends, making it her first song since "Sakura Drops" in 2002 to be used as a main theme song. It was released as a digital download on March 26, 2008, and as a CD single on May 21.

Musically, "Prisoner of Love" is a pop ballad heavily influenced by R&B music. The song lyrically depicts a sense of being trapped and unable to escape the intense emotions of love, highlighting the complex nature of relationships. "Prisoner of Love" received positive reception from most music critics, who praised Utada's vocal performance and production and noted the song as a standout from her vast discography.

Commercially, the song gained massive success. The physical single peaked at number two on the Oricon Singles Chart and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ). The song fared much better digitally, selling one million full-length downloads and ringtones each. An accompanying music video was shot by Wataru Takeishi, which is a recreation of the song's production. The song was performed during Utada's two date concert series Wild Life in December 2010 and has since appeared in several greatest hits albums by Utada.

Background and production

In January 2008, Utada posted a photo of the string recording of "Prisoner Of Love" on her official website.^[3] The track "Prisoner Of Love" was originally written for her English language album This Is the One, but Utada decided that she wanted to write it in Japanese, so she added Japanese lyrics and included it on the album Heart Station.^[4] When writing the English lyrics, she chose sharp lyrics, but when translating them into Japanese, she was conscious of not wanting the lyrics to sound flat, and used a crisp arrangement and singing style that is more black-like to avoid a heavy, muddy melody.^[5] Utada also said that when she first listened to this song through, she was moved to tears for the first time in a long time. At first, she wanted to make it a love song, but she was asked to write lyrics that could be interpreted as either friendship or love, as she thought there might be a tie-up with a dorama, and this made the writing process very difficult.^[5] Incidentally, the lyrics for "Prisoner of Love," as well as "Celebrate" and "Heart Station" were written in a family restaurant during a span of about three or four hours.^[5]

Musically, "Prisoner of Love" is a love song that follows an R&B influence; Utada stated that the song was inspired by the rest of the album's "honest" theme, and recognized it as her return to R&B music.^[6] According to Utada, the chord progression and the opening part are very similar to her 2000 single "Wait & See (Risk)".^[5] She had written this type of song several times before, so she had been avoiding this type of song for a while, but this was the song that she felt like writing again after a long time.^[5]

Reception

Music critics gave "Prisoner of Love" positive feedback. A reviewer from CDJournal described the song as "well-programmed" when reviewing the single.^[7] Meg from JaME World gave the song a glowing review, praising Utada's vocal performance and asserted that it was an excellent theme choice for Last Friends.^[8] Retrospectively, Neil Z. Yeung, who contributed in writing the biography of Utada at AllMusic, highlighted the song "Prisoner of Love" as some of her greatest work.^[9] It won the Best Theme Song Award in the 57th Drama Academy Awards.^[10]

Commercial performance

"Prisoner of Love" debuted at number two on the Oricon Singles Chart, selling 38,902 copies in its first week.^[11] It dropped to number seven the next week, selling 14,289 copies.^[12] "Prisoner of Love" then slid to number seventeen,^[13] before dropping to number eighteen on its fourth charting week and out of the top twenty entirely the following week.^[14] "Prisoner of Love" ranked in the top 100 for nine consecutive weeks and in the charts for twelve weeks as a whole.^[15] The Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) certified the single gold in May 2008 for shipments exceeding 100,000 copies.^[16] In December 2008, Oricon named "Prisoner of Love" the 95th best-selling physical single in Japan that year, with 81,626 copies sold.^[17]

Digitally, "Prisoner of Love" was a great success in Japan. On May 13, 2008, Barks.jp reported "Prisoner of Love" had sold over 1.5 million downloads across all formats,^[18] and on July 7, 2008, Yahoo!Japan reported it had sold over 2.9 million downloads.^[19] "Prisoner of Love" was the third most downloaded song in Japan during 2008 behind Greeeen's "Kiseki" and Thelma Aoyama's "Soba ni Iru ne."^[20] The RIAJ certified "Prisoner of Love" million twice for selling over one million full-length downloads and ringtones each,^[21][22][23] as well as gold for selling over 100,000 legal downloads on PCs in the country.^[23] This pushed the tallied sales volume for the song to 2.182 million, making "Prisoner of Love" one of the best-selling multi-format singles in Japan.

Promotion

"Prisoner of Love" (Quiet Version) serves as the insert song for the Japanese television drama, Last Friends, while the original version is used in the opening theme.^[24] The song was performed during Utada's two date concert series Wild Life in December 2010.^[25]

The video for "Prisoner of Love", directed by Wataru Takeishi,^[26] features Utada writing, arranging, and composing the song.^[27] She is seen doing push-ups and punching the air, while the scene switches back to her crafting the song and having writer's block.^[27] This was Utada's idea, and almost all of the items in the video, including the various equipment, lyric notebooks, work table, sofa, etc., are her personal belongings.^[28]

The video is her first to use various references to her U3 blog.^[27] She is seen peeling and eating an orange-like fruit called a mikan, and in her blog she mentioned having a surplus of them.^[27] She is also seen drawing her inventive superhero, Super-Kuman, based on Kuma Chang, her stuffed bear, which is the subject for her song "Boku wa Kuma".^[27]

Track listing

CD+DVD Version

CD

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Prisoner of Love"	4:46
2.	"Prisoner of Love ~Quiet Version~"	4:34
3.	"Prisoner of Love (Original Karaoke)"	4:44
4.	"Prisoner of Love ~Quiet Version~ (Original Karaoke)"	4:34

DVD

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Prisoner of Love (Music Video)"	-:--

Chart rankings

Weekly charts Charts (2008) Peak position Japan Hot 100 (Billboard)[29] 2 Japan Singles (Oricon)[15] 2 RIAJ Reco-kyō ringtones Top 100[30] 2 RIAJ Reco-kyō ringtones Top 100[30] Quiet Version 27 Charts (2010) Peak position RIAJ Digital Track Chart Top 100[31] 83

Year-end charts Chart (2008) Peak position Japan Hot 100 (Billboard)[32] 48 Japan Singles (Oricon)[17] 95

Certifications and sales

Certifications and sales for "Prisoner of Love"

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
Japan (RIAJ)[34]	Gold	83,626[33]
Japan (RIAJ)[35] Ringtone	Million	1,000,000^*
Japan (RIAJ)[36] Download	Million	1,000,000^*
Japan (RIAJ)[37] digital sales; PC Download	Gold	100,000^^
Streaming
Japan (RIAJ)[38]	Gold	50,000,000^†
^* Sales figures based on certification alone. ^^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. ^† Streaming-only figures based on certification alone.

References

1. "[2008/03/19] アルバム「HEART STATION」着うた(R)/RBT配信スタート！". EMI Music Japan. Archived from the original on March 25, 2008. Retrieved November 10, 2024.
2. "Prisoner Of Love". EMI Music Japan. Archived from the original on April 27, 2008. Retrieved November 10, 2024.
3. "みんな変態". Hikki's WEBSITE. Archived from the original on February 28, 2020. Retrieved May 21, 2015.
4. "コムギ". Hikki's WEBSITE. Archived from the original on December 28, 2019. Retrieved May 21, 2015.
5. Utada, Hikaru (2009). 点―ten―. Japan: EMI Music Japan. p. 222. ISBN 9784930774224.
6. Channel Ai Staff (December 2, 2008). "Utada Hikaru MSN Interview – Heart Station". MSN; published through Channel Ai. Archived from the original on December 4, 2008. Retrieved November 15, 2018.
7. CD Journal Staff (May 21, 2008). "Utada Hikaru / Prisoner of Love (single review)". CD Journal (in Japanese). Retrieved June 16, 2016.
8. Meg (May 20, 2009). "Utada Hikaru - Prisoner of Love". Jame World. Retrieved January 29, 2016.
9. Eremenko, Alexey. "Hikaru Utada – Songs". AllMusic. Retrieved July 15, 2016.
10. "テレビ番組表 - テレビ欄・番組表のSmartザテレビジョン". Smartザテレビジョン. Retrieved May 21, 2015.
11. Oricon Style Staff (June 2, 2008). "Oricon Singles Chart – Chart Week June 2, 2008". Oricon Style; published through Yahoo! GeoCities (in Japanese). Archived from the original on November 10, 2012. Retrieved June 9, 2024.
12. Oricon Style Staff (June 9, 2008). "Oricon Singles Chart – Chart Week June 9, 2008". Oricon Style; published through Yahoo! GeoCities (in Japanese). Archived from the original on November 10, 2012. Retrieved June 9, 2024.
13. Oricon Style Staff (June 16, 2008). "Oricon Singles Chart – Chart Week June 16, 2008". Oricon Style; published through Yahoo! GeoCities (in Japanese). Archived from the original on November 10, 2012. Retrieved June 9, 2024.
14. Oricon Style Staff (June 23, 2008). "Oricon Singles Chart – Chart Week June 23, 2008". Oricon Style; published through Yahoo! GeoCities (in Japanese). Archived from the original on November 10, 2012. Retrieved June 9, 2024.
15. "Ｐｒｉｓｏｎｅｒ Ｏｆ Ｌｏｖｅ - 宇多田ヒカル" (in Japanese). Oricon. Retrieved September 17, 2010.
16. ゴールド等認定作品一覧 2008年5月. RIAJ (in Japanese). June 10, 2008. Archived from the original on June 17, 2008. Retrieved September 17, 2010.
17. Oricon Style Staff (2008). "Oricon Singles Chart – Annual 2008 Chart". Oricon Style; published through Yahoo! GeoCities (in Japanese). Archived from the original on November 10, 2012. Retrieved May 30, 2016.
18. "宇多田ヒカル、デビュー以来全アルバムがミリオン達成". BARKS. May 13, 2008. Retrieved May 21, 2015.
19. Yahoo!Japan Archived August 4, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
20. "2008年、「iTunes Store」で最もダウンロードされた楽曲が発表". Yahoo!Japan. Archived from the original on December 6, 2008.
21. "一般社団法人 日本レコード協会｜各種統計". riaj.or.jp. Archived from the original on August 31, 2008. Retrieved May 21, 2015.
22. "Oricon Sales: 'Heart Station' / 'Pol': 1M Chaku-Uta Full". Archived from the original on September 13, 2008. Retrieved September 3, 2008.
23. レコード協会調べ 6月度有料音楽配信認定 ＜略称：6月度認定＞. RIAJ (in Japanese). July 20, 2008. Archived from the original on October 24, 2008. Retrieved September 17, 2010.
24. "News (JP) - Hikki's WEBSITE". Hikki's WEBSITE. Archived from the original on November 11, 2010. Retrieved May 21, 2015.
25. "宇多田ヒカル一時休止前ラスト公演で感涙＆Ust新記録樹立" (in Japanese). Natalie. December 13, 2010. Retrieved December 17, 2010.
26. "宇多田ヒカル Prisoner Of Love". Space Shower. Archived from the original on October 22, 2009.
27. "宇多田ヒカル - Prisoner Of Love". YouTube (in Japanese). February 16, 2015. Retrieved November 12, 2024.
28. "宇多田ヒカル、最新シングルのビデオクリップでプライベート・スタジオを公開". PIA Corporation. Retrieved May 21, 2015.
29. "Japan Billboard Hot 100". Billboard (in Japanese). May 28, 2008. Retrieved August 28, 2014.
30. "レコード協会調べ 5月度有料音楽配信チャート（「着うた（R）」）＜略称：5月度レコ協チャート（「着うた（R）」）＞" (in Japanese). RIAJ. June 20, 2008. Archived from the original on June 29, 2008. Retrieved September 17, 2010.
31. "レコード協会調べ 2010年06月09日～2010年06月15日 ＜略称：レコ協チャート（「着うたフル(R)」）＞" (in Japanese). RIAJ. June 18, 2010. Archived from the original on March 11, 2012. Retrieved September 17, 2010.
32. "Japan Billboard Hot 100 Year-end chart 2008". Billboard Japan. Retrieved September 21, 2022.
33. オリコンランキング情報サービス「you大樹」. Oricon. Retrieved September 18, 2010.
34. "Japanese single certifications – Hikaru Utada – Prisoner of Love" (in Japanese). Recording Industry Association of Japan. Retrieved September 18, 2010. Select 2008年5月 on the drop-down menu
35. "Japanese ringtone certifications – Hikaru Utada – Prisoner of Love" (in Japanese). Recording Industry Association of Japan. Retrieved September 18, 2010. Select 2008年6月 on the drop-down menu
36. "Japanese digital certifications – Hikaru Utada – Prisoner of Love" (in Japanese). Recording Industry Association of Japan. Retrieved September 18, 2010. Select 2008年7月 on the drop-down menu
37. "Japanese certifications – Hikaru Utada – Prisoner of Love" (in Japanese). Recording Industry Association of Japan. Retrieved September 18, 2010. Select 2008年5月 on the drop-down menu
38. "Japanese single streaming certifications – Hikaru Utada – Prisoner of Love" (in Japanese). Recording Industry Association of Japan. Retrieved February 28, 2024. Select 2024年7月 on the drop-down menu