Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi

Did You Know?

• A clip from the episode "AmiYumi 3000" appears in the film Nancy Drew.
• Yumi made a cameo in the OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes special Crossover Nexus.
• Parodies of Ami and Yumi, named Ori and Yori, appear in the Nickelodeon series Kappa Mikey.

Premise

Two best friends star in this series: Ami Onuki, a peppy and cheerful girly girl voiced by Janice Kawaye, and Yumi Yoshimura, a cynical and grumpy tomboy voiced by Grey DeLisle. They are based on the real Japanese pop duo Puffy AmiYumi but have different looks and bigger personalities. With their well-meaning but greedy manager Kaz Harada (voiced by Keone Young), they travel the world in a customized tour bus. Whether performing concerts or hanging out in Tokyo, the duo use their music, style, and humor to spread J-pop justice and define what's cool. Their pet cats, Jang-Keng (DeLisle) and Tekirai (Kawaye), love to torment Kaz. Other characters include Harmony (Sandy Fox), a six-year-old who calls herself their "Number One Fan" and stalks them; Eldwin Blair (Nathan Carlson), a villainous land developer; the Talent Suckers (Carlson and Corey Burton), a vampire rock trio from Transylvania; and Atchan (Rob Paulsen), a caricature of singer Atsushi who speaks in third person and believes he is a superhero. The tour bus looks like a normal bus outside but has enough interior space for the girls' and Kaz's rooms, equipment, TVs, and computers. It can run on autopilot, and sometimes packages are delivered through the rear door by a boy on a scooter.

Production

According to Register, the target audience is children from 6 to 11 years old, though the show also has a cult following of teen and adult fans of the real-life duo. Register, a fan of the band, wished to spread its fame worldwide. The series is the second television show based on the band after Pa-Pa-Pa-Pa-Puffy, which aired in Japan from 1997 to 2002. The group had a 2004 companion album to this program and performed the theme to Teen Titans. During production, DeLisle learned some Japanese from Kawaye and Young, both fluent speakers. Produced entirely in the United States, the cartoon featured character designs by Canadian artist Lynne Naylor, known for Samurai Jack and The Powerpuff Girls. The pilot used a combination of Macromedia Flash and traditional cel animation. Each 30-minute program featured three seven-minute segments. The visual style is anime-influenced, taking inspiration from works such as Pokémon, Digimon, Studio Ghibli productions, and old MGM and Warner Bros. cartoons. Crew members included writers from Nickelodeon's CatDog.

Broadcast

Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi premiered in the United States on Cartoon Network on November 19, 2004. After ending on June 27, 2006, the show continued to rerun until September 3, 2006, occasionally airing on The Cartoon Cartoon Show before being removed from the network's schedule. In Canada, the series premiered on YTV on September 5, 2005. In Japan, it began airing on Cartoon Network in English with Japanese subtitles in 2005; a dubbed version aired on TV Tokyo's Oha Suta block from October 6, 2005, and on Cartoon Network Japan from January 8, 2006. In Germany, it aired on Cartoon Network Germany with all episodes, premiering in 2005 on Kabel eins and stopping after two seasons in 2006. In Poland, it aired on Cartoon Network Poland from 2005 to 2006. In Australia, it premiered on April 3, 2005, stopped on Cartoon Network Australia in November 2008, and the third season aired on 9Go! from August to November 2009 before being abandoned in January 2010. As of December 2023, the show airs on Tooncast.

Merchandise

Two video games were released by D3Publisher of America: Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi: Kaznapped! (Game Boy Advance, 2005), developed by Altron, and Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi: The Genie and the Amp (Nintendo DS, 2006), developed by Sensory Sweep Studios. A "falloon" of the cartoon tour bus, the cartoon version of Puffy AmiYumi as a balloon, and the real PUFFY appeared in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2005. Mattel produced a line of toys intended for girls for the 2005 Christmas season. Two DVDs, Let's Go! and Rock Forever, featuring various episodes, were released on November 29, 2005. Rubie's produced a line of costumes and accessories for Halloween 2006. In March 2022, the entire series was made available on HBO Max in Latin America, including Spanish and original English tracks. An additional web page was made available in North America but is currently inaccessible.