Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi

Development

According to Register, the target audience of the show is boys and girls from 6 to 11 years old.^[2] However, it also has a cult following of teen and adult fans of the real-life Ami Onuki and Yumi Yoshimura who make up the Japanese pop duo Puffy AmiYumi. Register, who was a fan of the band, wished to spread its fame to other parts of the world and thus created the series.^[3]

The series features the adventures of animated versions of the duo, who have been immensely popular in Japan since making their debut in 1996. The group now has its own U.S. albums, including a 2004 companion album to this program, and was known to viewers of Cartoon Network in the USA for performing the theme to the Teen Titans animated series. During production of the series, DeLisle learned some Japanese from Kawaye and Young, both of whom speak the language fluently.

The cartoon was the only one at the time produced entirely in the United States (thus making their choice of characters quite ironic), with characters designed by famed Canadian artist Lynne Naylor which got the show nominated for the coveted Annie Award.^[4] It used a combination of Macromedia Flash and traditional cel animation.^[5] Each program was 30 minutes long (with commercials) and featured three seven-minute segments that borrow inspiration from Japanese animation (such as Pokémon, the Sunbow Productions animated series based on Hasbro properties, and ThunderCats).^[6]

Sam Register originally pitched the idea of Puffy AmiYumi having their own television series on Cartoon Network and afterwards Renegade Animation developed a test short on April 22, 2003 in hopes of making the channel greenlight the show's production. Renegade Animation originally, at first, created other Cartoon Network pilots before Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi; two of which feature Captain Sturdy; one in 2001, entitled "Back in Action", and the other in 2003, entitled "The Originals", but they were ultimately rejected, and Renegade Animation then started working on Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi starting with its pilot on April 22, 2003. The pilot was not broadcast, but was initially successful, and got the green-light from Cartoon Network. Finally, it was shown in non-full version as a preview on Cartoon Network DVDs and VHS tapes.^[7]

The series was officially announced at Cartoon Network's upfront on February 26, 2004. It was originally planned to premiere in December 2004^[8] but was later pushed back to November 19.^[9]

Cancellation

On October 2, 2006, the show's crew announced on their blog (puffycrew.blogspot.com) that Cartoon Network had cancelled Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi after three seasons and 39 episodes due to Sam Register leaving the channel. Afterwards, the network removed all mention of the show from its website.

Cartoon Network did not acknowledge the show again until 2012, when Ami and Yumi appeared on Cartoon Network's 20th anniversary poster.

Yumi would appear again with a cameo in Cartoon Network's OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes special, Crossover Nexus.

^[10]

Broadcast

Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi premiered in the United States on Cartoon Network on November 19, 2004.^[9] After ending on June 27, 2006, the show continued to rerun until December 22, 2006, where it aired in reruns normally, and occasionally, would be one of the few non-Cartoon Cartoons to air in reruns on The Cartoon Cartoon Show before being removed from the network's schedule.^[11]

Since Cartoon Network is available worldwide, the show has been dubbed into multiple languages and aired on Cartoon Network worldwide. In Canada, the series premiered on YTV on September 5, 2005.^[12] In Japan, the show began airing on Cartoon Network in English with Japanese subtitles in 2005. A dubbed version began airing on TV Tokyo's Oha Suta block on October 6, 2005, and started to air on January 8, 2006, on Cartoon Network Japan.

In Germany, the show aired on Cartoon Network Germany with all episodes. It premiered in 2005 on the Cartoon Network's block of Kabel eins. The show stopped airing there after two seasons in 2006. The reason was that Cartoon Network Germany launched and most of the shows moved there.

In Australia, the show premiered on the 3 April 2005.^[13] It stopped airing on Cartoon Network Australia in November 2008. The third season was never shown there. From August to November 2009, the Australian channel GO! showed the last season instead and was abandoned in January 2010.

Critical response

Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi received mostly positive reviews and became one of Cartoon Network's top rated and most popular series. The series earned a 6.2/10 on IMDb, and a 7.4/10 on TV.com.

Ratings

Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi debuted on Cartoon Network on November 19, 2004 at 7:30 PM ET/PT with two half-hour episodes. During that time, it scored the highest-ever Kids 2-11 rating and delivery and the second highest Kids 6-11 rating (4.4) and delivery (1,068,000) ever for an original series premiere. The show also charted double-digit increases with Girls 6-11 in ratings and delivery for Cartoon Network's Fridays programming block.^[14] During the following week, the show became the network's top-rated hit for kids 6-11. It also increased Cartoon Network's audience among that age group by 49% over the previous year.^[15]

Awards and nominations

The series has been nominated three times for the Annie Award.^[16] Two of them came in 2005 and one came in 2006.

CD

• Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi
• Hi Hi

DVD releases

Video games

There are two video games released by D3Publisher of America (D3PA) based on the show.

• Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi: Kaznapped! (Game Boy Advance) (2005)
• Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi: The Genie and the Amp (Nintendo DS) (2006)

Marketing

• 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 appeared in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2005.^[17] A video of this Macy Parade Float in Chicago can be viewed on SUMO.tv.
• A line of toys intended for girls was produced by Mattel (makers of the popular Barbie doll and Hot Wheels cars) and released for the 2005 Christmas season.
• Two DVDs, Let's Go! and Rock Forever, featuring various episodes of the show, were released on November 29, 2005.
• The American costume company Rubie's produced a line of Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi costumes and accessories for girls for Halloween 2006.^[18][19]