Puffy Amiyumi: From Cartoon Super Heroes to J-Pop Pop/Rock Stars!

From Cartoon Super Heroes to Rockin' Super hero J-Pop Pop/Rock Stars! O.K. say that five times fast.

Out of the East comes a dynamic musical duo who have managed to succeed both as their Cartoon Alter-egos and as real-life, flesh & blood Pop/Rock stars. Although probably best known to U.S. audiences for their 'Hi Fi Puffy Amiyumi' cartoon shows on the 'Cartoon Network' they have managed (improbably as it may seem), to carve out a pretty successful niche for themselves in the Pop/Rock world as well. Puffy-ing the world since 1995 they share common ground with groups like the "The Monkees" in as much as they were initially bought together as an artificial pop group through a talent search. 'Ami Onuki' ("Jane") (33) & 'Yumi Yoshimura' ("Sue") (32) both unknown to each other at the time were bought together and given the name "Puffy" by their producer 'Andy Strumer'. The Chemistry was apparent from the start and led to a successful and highly productive teaming. Funnily enough it turned out they had to change their name soon after because of 'Sean "Puffy" Combs' obvious similarities and thus "Puffy Amiyumi" was born.

Their music is at once joyful, exuberant, catchy, imaginative, witty and intoxicating. A little dose of perky Japanese crack you might say but without the consequences. You will almost certainly be left cheerfully entertained by the uber-catchy songs and even though ½ their U.S. Album output is sung in Japanese you probably won't even care as you find yourself humming incomprehensible Japenese'isms whilst doing the laundry, washing the dishes or surfing the net. Their latest album "Splurge" (like all their albums) shows a deep-rooted enthusiasm for American Pop/Rock music with perkier than perky ditties like 'Tokyo I'm on my way' to 50's & 60's style romantic slush ballads, which are given that extra cutesy edge with their cheerfully clumsy but delightful Japanese Americanisms.

No Label-produced numbskulls these two though. They write and compose a great many of their own songs and it's evident that they are not just a studio-made band, although the production is stellar. Strings, guitars, Vocal manipulation and a cornucopia of sounds that would make 'Phil Spector' proud along with a tighter than tight back-up band with a truly wonderful drummer (Whoever he is I pay homage to his excellent drumming technique) all support the band perfectly. They run a wide range of styles from Pop to Rock to Rockabilly to Soul and back again, sometimes within one song. For influences take "The Beatles", " The Ramones", "The Beachboys", "Abba", "Cheap Trick", "The Bangles" put them in a blender with some 'Phil Spector' Production and (If you can ignore the screams) you'll have some idea what the band sounds like. They are certainly no 'Celine Dion's' vocally but their voices are absolutely perfect for the job in hand. Certainly if an American duo were to sing these same songs it just wouldn't work. It takes a certain Japanese sensibility to sing a song like 'Boogie Woogie No.5' for instance, taken from their previous "Hi-Fi Puffy Amiyumi" album.

With a new album 'Honeycreeper' slated for September 26, 2007 release in Japan (& hopefully later in the U.S.) this dynamic duo marches forward. If you want to cheer yourself up you could do worse than inject yourself with a dose of 'Puffy-Amiyumi' a joyful exuberant positive punch to the heart.