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Puffy Amiyumi: Cartoon Network
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Despite being huge stars in their native Japan and releasing three brilliant albums in the U.S., Puffy AmiYumi have never made much of a splash with record buyers. The band may finally change that with the release of Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi Music From the Series After performing the theme for the Cartoon Network show Teen Titans Puffy and the network decided to create their own animated series revolving around the band. The boisterously delicious theme ("Hi Hi" kicks off this disc of singles, album tracks and rarities that is a necessity for already devoted Puffy fans and may just win them some widespread acclaim. The tracks are taken from the group's two American releases with four songs ("Boogie Woogie No. 5," "Love So Pure," "December" and "Into the Beach" coming from 2001's Spike and one ("Planet Tokyo" from 2003's Nice their first single (1996's "True Asia" , the Scooby Doo 2 soundtrack ("Friends Forever" , their 1997 album SoloSolo ("V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N" , singles ("That's the Way It Is" and rare tracks ("Forever," "Sunrise" and a rollicking cover of Jellyfish s "Joining a Fan Club" . Every song collected here is first-rate sunburst pop that manages to pull off the rare trick of being cute without being cutesy. The duo has so much good cheer, energy and spunk that any charges of preciousness leveled at them can just be laughed away. It ... helps that the two men responsible for crafting their sound, Tamio Okuda from the legendary Japanese pop band Unicorn and Andy Sturmer of the legendary American pop band Jellyfish fully understand Puffy s appeal and craft perfect pop songs for them, delving into punk new wave girl group sounds, and even rockabilly and giving it a bubbly J-pop twist.
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On November 19, 2004, an animated series featuring cartoon versions of Ami and Yumi, Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi, premiered on the United States' Cartoon Network. Although they are voiced by American actresses, the real Ami and Yumi star in short live-action segments taped in Japan. The show ... features some of Puffy's music. Cartoon Network's Japan service started airing episodes of the series (in English with Japanese subtitles) in 2005. In October of that year, TV Tokyo began airing a Japanese-dubbed version of the series, which eventually also went to CN Japan on January 8, 2006.
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The Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi show made its worldwide debut on November 19, 2004 -- in the U.S. only. It set the Cartoon Network's record for their highest-rated original-series premiere. About 1.5 million American kids, ages 2 to 11, gathered around the tube to watch the cartoon Ami and Yumi -- who bear almost no physical resemblance to their real-life rock counterparts -- get into the requisite sorts of animated mischief. (The series ... stars Kaz, their earnest, tragicomic and deeply cool manager; in the show he's scruffily bearded and painfully short. Kaz's cartoon incarnation looks exactly like him.) Interspliced with live-action footage of the girls horsing around and set to a score by the band, Hi Hi rapidly picked up American fans, went into a second season and has just been green-lit for season number three. Hoping to capitalize on the show's success in the U.S., Puffy licensed it for international broadcast in Latin America, the U.K. and, of course, Japan.
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On tour and heading to Broadway, Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi is bringing rock and roll attitude to the Great White Way. Cartoon Network takes Japanese pop-stars Ami and Yumi and turns them into ultra-glam super-cuties from their hit animated comedy series. The duo is featured on this rocking tour bus as larger-than-life puppets and on the driver's seat is the girls' manager, Kaz. Oversized instruments and travel stickers from the stars' favorite performance stops adorn the super-cool bus. Performing one of their hit songs, the real life Ami and Yumi will ... appear on the float.
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Recently debuting on Cartoon Network's programming block Fridays this past weekend, the new animated television series Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi looks to have a well paced and productive future on the basic cable network. The network rarely manages to develop and produce a program so exquisitely crafted that it would appear everyone is flocking to see it, this after finding the numbers posted by the Cartoon Network. The program about two Japanese rock musicians in a flash-animated series debut as the highest ratings and delivery for a certain demographic, as well as posting the second best ratings overall for an original animated series for another demographic in particular. Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi has a bright future.
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Like Josie and the Pussycats, Puffy AmiYumi is probably best known in North America as cartoon characters. Unlike Josie and the Pussycats, the Japanese duo actually exists, and has the stage show to prove it-a rocking and joyous affair that combines the adorable vocals of Ami Onuki and Yumi Yoshimura with a crack band able to effortlessly recombine elements of pop music from the Who to Queen to ABBA. One of the few things in this world that can be called a pure delight, Puffy AmiYumi-as seen in the Cartoon Network program Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi and as heard on the theme for Teen Titans-returns to the Vogue for a concert on Sunday (April 24).
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