Anyone else going to catch the premiere of Puffy Amiyumi?

Cafe Society
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[Details at www.cartoonnetwork.com; it’s the third face after “TV Schedule”.]

First off, although I’ve followed animated entertainment in all its forms for almost my entire life, and was once an avid watcher of Cartoon Network, I’ve never been terribly impressed by its lineup. I find Ed Edd & Eddy repulsive, Courage the Cowardly Dog annoying, and Kids Next Door just plain bland. Grim & Evil has its moments and I Am Weasel was funny most of the time, but they’re pretty much played out. Dexter’s Laboratory, eh, very funny in the past, now been-there done-that. Samurai Jack lost me with Episode #17. And I’m completely against the direction The Powerpuff Girls has gone, especially Shut The Pup Up (if ever this show had a JTS moment, that was it). In short, I haven’t had a reason to watch in a while.

And then, all of a sudden, I hear about Puffy Amiyumi. Little background…they’re a real-life rock duo from Japan attempting to make inroads stateside. Did the theme for Teen Titans. The cartoon versions of them are (of course) much younger and very colorful, and they…have adventures. The consensus from PPGWorld is that it’s “weird”, and from the clips I’ve seen, I’m inclined to agree.

Not sure why, but I’m incredibly pumped about seeing this. Maybe I’m just looking for a replacement for PPG. Maybe I’ve just been going through some pretty drastic changes in my life recently, and I need something wild 'n funny to take a load off. Whatever. No idea how this got off the ground, what the episodes are going to be like, or if this has any legs at all…but I’m going to be watching this religiously.

Anyone else have any thoughts?

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Interesting. Have you heard any of their music before (They just go by the name “Puffy” in Japan, but I suppose they changed it to avoid confusion with P-dookie or whatever his name is)?

They (Ami Onuki and Yumi Yoshimura) started about eight years ago, with a bunch of hits that were very heavily musically influenced (almost to the point of plagiarism) by the Beatles and other 60’s bands (Watashi no Ikiru Michi (The Street Where I Live), for example, starts with the opening riff from Pinball Wizard, then copies the guitar and harmonica parts note for note from Please Please Me). Still, they (or the people who write their songs, at least) were pretty different from the ordinary J-pop, and have since branched out into many other music genres, but still sticking close to 50’s and 60’s sounds. They also appeared regularly on TV, hosting music/talk/variety shows for a few years. They’re not in the spotlight as much anymore, but still around doing ads for Nintendo and appearing in discussion panels on various variety shows.