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Information About

Hi Hi Puffy Amiyumi




  Caption The show's title logo
  Format Animated Television Series
  Runtime 22 minutes approx
  Creator Sam Register
  Starring Janice Kawaye <br/> Grey DeLisle <br/> Keone Young
  Country United States
  Network Cartoon Network
  First Aired November 19 , 2004
  Last Aired Present
  Num Episodes 39<br> (31 aired so far)
  Website http://wwwcartoonnetworkcom/tv_shows/puffyamiyumi
  Imdb Id 0407398
  Tv Com Id 30597



TV Information

  Show Name Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi
  Usa Tv TV-Y or TV-Y7
  Can Tv C or C8


''Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi'' is an American Animated Television Series produced by Renegade Animation for the Cartoon Network , which was created by Sam Register , who also serves as the series' executive producer.

According to Register, the show's target audience is boys and girls from 6 to 16 years old, although older people also watch the show, many of who are fans of the real-life Puffy AmiYumi .

The series features the adventures of animated versions of the J-Pop musical duo (known as Puffy outside North America due to avoiding legal issues with Sean Combs , who has been called by the nickname "Puffy" at times), made up of Ami Onuki and Yumi Yoshimura . The duo have been immensely popular in Japan since making their debut there in 1996, and now have several U.S. albums to their credit (including a 2004 companion album to this program) and were already known to viewers of Cartoon Network in the USA for performing the theme to the animated series of ''Teen Titans'' comics.


CHARACTERS AND PLOTS


The cartoon is produced using a combination of Macromedia Flash and traditional Cel Animation , with each program thirty minutes in length (with commercials) and features three seven-minute segments. The animation borrows inspiration from both American cartoons and anime.

During the first season, the show included short clips of the real Ami and Yumi making childish commentary (in both English and unsubtitled Japanese) at the beginning and end of each episode. They only perform short clips at the beginning of the show during the second and third seasons. Starting with the second season, the duo was sometimes shown holding title cards introducing the cartoon segments.

The real Puffy AmiYumi performs the show's theme song (most of the time in English, although the theme was once sung in their native Japanese, and also in Spanish), and many episodes feature one (or more) of the duo's songs playing in the background, along with music by their American muse, Andy Sturmer .

, this version is greedy and well-intentioned.]]
''Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi'' depicts characters with the same name and profession as the actual Puffy AmiYumi, but with different appearances and exaggerated personalities:
  • Ami (pronounced ) is peppy, optimistic, and a cute girl with pink hair and eyes who favors Bubblegum Pop , and wears a 1960's styled go-go dress and white knee-high boots. She and Yumi have a tendancy to break the fourth wall. Janice Kawaye provides Ami's upbeat voice.

  • Yumi (pronounced ) is depicted as a cynical, sarcastic Punk Rock er with purple-bluish hair and eyes, and is dressed in a Heavy Metal / Grunge / Goth style with studded necklanes and bracelets, a grey (or purple) T-shirt with a skull that make the same expresions as she does, a black mini-skirt over purple bike shorts or capri pants and black army boots. She has more of a tendancy to break the fourth wall than Ami does. Yumi is voiced by Grey DeLisle .

  • Kaz is their well-intentioned yet money grubbing manager, whose successes are usually evenly balanced out by his foolish decisions. According to Register, his look and name are based on Puffy AmiYumi's real-life manager, Kaz Harada , and veteran character actor Keone Young provides his voice.

  • Jang Keng and '''Tekirai''' are Yumi and Ami's pet cats (repsectively). The girls adore their cats and enjoy taking care of them, but Kaz is a constant victim of their mischeviousness. Ms. DeLisle voices Jang Keng, while Ms. Kawaye does Tekirai — similarly, the cats sound exactly likely their owners.


Other recurring characters include:
  • Harmony, the self-proclaimed "Number One Fan" of the girls and Kaz. She's very obessive to the point that she follows them around the world, annoying them to no end. The six-year-old is voiced by Sandy Fox .

  • Eldwin Blare, a sinister land developer who is constantly trying to tear down various places for his own selfish needs.

  • King Chad, "a bad boy superhunk," as the girls once described him. He is obsessed with a card game called "Stu-Pi-Doh" (a pun off of '' Yu-Gi-Oh! '') and only thinks of that and himself. True to his character name, he wears a fur-lined cape and gold crown, and sits on a beautifully-adorned Throne (though in later appearances he switched to casual clothing).

  • Wall, a hulking yet somewhat slow-witted fellow whom Kaz hired as the girls' Bodyguard . He apparently does his job too well. Kaz later hired him as a bouncer for a party he was throwing, and more recently, Ami had him try his hand at being a Roadie .

  • Domo, Kaz's mentally-challenged dog who looks just like him. Like Kaz, he is constantly in conflict with the cats, especially since he keeps eating their food.

  • Talent Suckers, a rock group from Transylvania who appeared in the self-titled episode "sucking" Ami and Yumi's talent from them. They later returned in two other episodes.

  • Atchan, a character who both Ami and Yumi met at Camp Youwannasushi, who thinks he's a superhero. He is based on the lead singer of the J-Rock band New Rote---ka, of which he is one of Yumi's real-life friends. The star over his right eye is in tribute to KISS guitarist Paul Stanley , and his face resembles Mac from '' Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends ''.


The animated Puffy AmiYumi travel all over the world in their tour bus. This bus seems similar to the TARDIS of '' Doctor Who '' fame; while appearing the same size as a regular bus on the outside, it appears to have enough internal space to house the girls' rooms (including full-sized beds), Kaz' room, their equpment, and several televisions and computers, among other things. In the episode ''Domo'', Kaz makes reference to an "upstairs" area. It also seems capable of autopilot, as many episodes have Kaz, Ami, and Yumi sitting in the rear cabin of the bus while travelling. Several times, the rear door was opened to receive packages, and Ami and Yumi have fallen through the roof of the travelling bus, almost into Kaz' lap.

Though the characters do speak English, it is peppered with Japanese speech from time to time, especially when the characters react to adverse situations. While Kawaye and Young do speak fluent Japanese, DeLisle has learned how to speak some of the language in the series thanks to both her castmates. (This is also evident, rather quickly, in an episode of '' The Grim Adventures Of Billy And Mandy ''.)

''Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi'' was criticized as Cliché -ridden by internet board posters during its first season; a new writing staff was brought in for the second season and some improvement was seen.


EPISODE LIST

(Episodes are in order of airing, with seasonal number, and all premiere dates are in the USA .)


BROADCAST DETAILS

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"Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi" premiered in the USA on November 19 , 2004 . Since Cartoon Network is availlable in worldwide, the show dubbed into several languages and aired worldwide including Japan as well as on YTV in Canada , making it one of the few Cartoon Network shows not to air on Teletoon 's English or French services.
In Japan, the show began airing on Cartoon Network in English with Japanese Subtitle s in 2005 . A dubbed version began airing on TV Tokyo 's Oha Star block on October 6 of that year, and started to air on January 8 , 2006 on Cartoon Network.


MARKETING TIE-INS


  • A "falloon" (a float with balloon elements) of Puffy AmiYumi's cartoon tour bus, complete with the supporting characters in puppet form, the cartoon version of Puffy AmiYumi as a balloon and the real Puffy AmiYumi appeared in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2005.

  • A line of toys that are largely aimed at girls are being produced by Mattel (the makers of the popular Barbie doll and Hot Wheels cars) and released for the 2005 Christmas season.

  • In addition, episodes have been released as of November 29 , 2005 on two DVDs, ''"Let's Go!"'' and ''"Rock Forever"''.

  • In , 2006 . A Nintendo DS game titled ''"The Genie and the Amp"'' has been announced to be released on October 17 , 2006, a PlayStation 2 game is scheduled to be released on September 16 , 2006, along with a Nintendo Game Cube game on the same day. Kaznapped! has also been released in Japan. For more info, check out the Japanese D3P site.




TRIVIA

  • "Surf's Up" was originally titled " Tsunami Yumi", but was changed after the South Pacific Tsunami Struck on December 26 , 2004 .''

  • "In The Cards" has a card game called ''Stu-Pid-Oh'', a parody of the '' Yu-Gi-Oh! '' anime, magna and card game franchise.

  • In the episode "Camp Capers", Ami is captured by Bigfoot. Yumi pretends it is a video game, and she runs through a 16-bit forest area, jumps on a crab (thus killing it) then goes at sound-barrier-breaking speeds and runs over a checkered loop, obviously a reference to Sonic The Hedgehog 's Green Hill Zone.

  • At the end of "Sitcomi Yumi", Ami and Yumi watch TV, and see the animated Kaz with the real Ami and Yumi. Cartoon Ami asks who they are, and Cartoon Yumi comments that the show won't last.

  • In the episode "Janice Jealous", the character that King Chad goes out with is supposed to be based off of Janice Kawaye, Ami's voice actress. She also went ahead and voiced 'Janice', although, according to the creators of the show, "The real life Janice Kawaye is a thousand times nicer than the animated one".



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