Let's Watch This... Again: An Episode of "Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi"

NOTE: Please do not take any of the little nitpicks in this review (or any of my other reviews, for that matter) seriously. I write these reviews in the hopes of making people laugh. Those nitpicks are really just dumb little observations that I'm attempting to make jokes out of, not complaints that add to whether or not I like something.

NOTE #2: No disrespect is meant towards anyone who worked on the show I am reviewing today. I'm sure they are all very nice and talented people.

NOTE #3: If you like this show, that is great. Go ahead and like it. I'm not judging you.

My first review of Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi was my first experience with somebody getting really, really mad that I gave a show they liked a negative review. This show does have a lot of fans, so I knew I'd be ticking off SOMEBODY with my review of it (I dubbed it mediocre, which is hardly the worst thing I've said about a cartoon). After I posted it, I was suddenly attacked by hateful comments from somebody who was really, really mad that I criticized it, many of which I could not repeat here because I'd like to keep the blog PG. I guess this troll just really, really liked Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi and couldn't stand criticism of it. They also apparently really liked Donkey Kong Country and Sidekick because they posted multiple negative comments on my reviews of those shows too (or maybe they didn't actually care about those shows and just wanted a reason to attack me for some other reason. I have no idea).

This is actually part of the reason I decided to do these "re-reviews" - because if I'm going to decide I don't like a show, I should at least review more than one episode. So far, all these re-reviews have done is make it clear that I didn't just happen to watch one of the weaker episodes the first time - the show really IS as bad as I thought. But I'm gonna keep doing re-reviews anyway, and now it's Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi's turn.

So what IS Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi? Well, for those of you who haven't read my first review, there exists a Japanese punk rock band called Puffy AmiYumi, consisting of Ami Onuki and Yumi Yoshimura. Sam Register, who in the 2000s was the vice president of Cartoon Network, thought it'd be a good idea to make a cartoon about them. That cartoon premiered in November 2004 and hoooooooooo boy did they promote the heck out of it. It seemed as though they had a new Powerpuff Girls... until Sam Register left Cartoon Network and they cancelled it without bothering to air the remainder of the show's third season. Even if I don't like the show, I don't think any cartoon deserves THAT. At least air all the dang episodes!

Here are the actual Ami and Yumi. They don't look much like the cartoon versions.

The cartoon Ami and Yumi weren't voiced by Ami Onuki and Yumi Yoshimura themselves, but rather by Janice Kawaye and Grey DeLisle-Griffin. They rode around the world in their tour bus with their manager Kaz (voiced by Keone Young) getting into strange adventures. Talent-sucking vampires, robot clones, aliens... nothing was too out-there for Ami and Yumi to encounter. Originally, I was going to review the fifth episode of the show, but the first segment wasn't giving much material to work with, and the seventh one sounded a bit more... for lack of a better phrase, review-worthy. So we're gonna watch THAT.

Our first segment is called "Surf's Up" (not to be confused with that movie about the penguins).

The episode begins with Ami and Yumi at the beach... or rather, a strip of sand and some blue chunks meant to be water sitting in a white void. I know the intent here was for the art style to be an emulation of the one in UPA's cartoons, but I'm not sure if it quite works. Maybe it's just me...

Anyway, Yumi's sunbathing is interrupted by Ami deciding to channel Crush from Finding Nemo and going, "Duuuuuuuuuuude, we can't be surgin' on a sand when there's righteous swells out there! Let's line up with the other foamers and hang ten!" Half of that didn't even sound like actual surfer lingo to me. But what do I know? I'm not a surfer. I've boogie-boarded, but I've never surfed.

"Whoa, Yumi, I'm really jonesing to go into the soup and ride some gnarly waves! Let's
not be L-7! Woolly bully! Other things that surfers say!"

To translate, Ami wants Yumi to take part in a surfing competition with her. Yumi refuses, claiming that it's hard to look cool standing on "a giant tongue depressor". But Ami whines that if they don't enter the surfing competition, her chances of hooking up with a cute surfer guy are very small... because of course Ami's only reason for wanting to do it is because of a cute boy. She's a teenage girl in a cartoon, after all.

So Yumi agrees, on one condition - that Ami stop with the surfer dude talk. Good on you, Yumi.

The beach's lifeguard is a stick figure? Don't think they're quite qualified for the job...

While waiting in line to sign up, Ami and Yumi encounter a parrot (Nathan Carlson). The peg leg on his foot suggests that he's a pirate (because pirates always have pet parrots), but he talks like a surfer dude. Are there a lot of surfer pirates? Or does he need the peg-leg because one day, while he was out surfing, a shark chomped off his foot? Maybe I'm just thinking too much about a one-off character...

Anyway, he tells Ami and Yumi about the "mondoo swell wetty" - many have searched for it, but few have found it. If they ride it home, they'll win the competition. "I think that bird's been sniffin' surfboard wax," Yumi tells Ami.

"Are you Puffy AmiYumI? BRAWK! Polly wants an autograph!"

As it turns out, Ami and Yumi are lousy surfers, and suck so much at it that they create a water spout that spits them out far, far out in the middle of the ocean. They have no idea how to get back to the shore. Ami tries to signal for help with her bandana, but then a shark eats it. But wait - is that an ISLAND up ahead? Judging from the fact that it's GREY as opposed to sand-colored, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say "No".

Ee-yup - as soon as they get to the island, they discover that it's actually the head of a whale.

It's been a whale of a day for Ami and Yumi, hasn't it?




Get it? A WHALE of a day? Please laugh. I'm trying so hard...

The whale tosses Ami and Yumi back into the ocean. As if things weren't bad enough for Ami and Yumi, the hot sun causes Ami to go crazy and start hallucinating. She sees the water as creamy milk, she sees pink unicorns drinking from the milk... and, most amusing of all, she sees Yumi as a giant sushi roll. Uh oh, is Ami about to descend into cannibalism?

Reminder: Ami and Yumi are in this mess just because Ami, who has no idea how to surf,
was horny.

Before Ami can devour Yumi alive, they spot a gigantic tidal wave heading their way. It's the "mondo swell wetty" - they found it, and Yumi dubs it their ticket out of here!

And since a tidal wave has shown up, I suppose it's a good time to bring up a fun fact about the episode - apparently, it was originally called "TsunAmiYumi" and was supposed to air on New Year's Eve 2004. But then a few days earlier, the infamous Indian Ocean tsunami occured, and the higher-ups at Cartoon Network thought airing the episode would be in bad taste. I don't know if the episode ever aired in the United States, but according to Wikipedia it did air on foreign networks. Honestly, I think pulling the episode was a wise move (and not just because it's mediocre). Airing it after an actual tsunami likely would've been in extremely poor taste.

Wow, for two people who don't know how to surf, Ami and Yumi sure are good
at surfing.

Also, the wave is sentient. It suddenly gains a face and says "Surf's up, dudes! Right on!" in a stereotypical valley girl voice. First we have talking animals, and now we have sentient waves? What sort of strange world do Ami and Yumi live in?

What is this, Pee-Wee's Universe?

Long story short, they make it back to the island and win the surfing competition. Ami vows to never go in the water again... until she sees those hunky guys from before water-skiing. "Don't even think about it," Yumi tells her. Next segment...

It's a beautiful day in the park. Ami and Yumi are having a blast playing together until they spot Kaz, sitting on a bench, all alone, looking ever-so-pathetic. Ami suggests that maybe he needs a boyfriend, but Yumi brings up the main problem with that idea: who would want to date him? After all, Kaz is cowardly, greedy, sleazy, obnoxious, not particularly attractive... but hey, if somebody like Bluto can find a girlfriend, how hard could it be to find a girl for Kaz?

Yumi declares that there's only one way they can get Kaz a date: giving him a makeover.

Might not hurt to get him some stilts, too, while they're at the mall...

Kaz agrees to the makeover after Yumi tells him that they're paying for it. We get a montage of him trying on different outfits, wigs, shoes, what have you. Eventually, he decides on an outfit that Ami and Yumi both think makes him look like "awesome boyfriend material". This is that outfit:

...I'm sorry, but WHAT? THIS is the look that's gonna get Kaz a significant other? I'm not exactly a fashion expert, but all this does is make Kaz look like a tool. A massive tool. The kind of guy who thinks they're the coolest thing since sliced bread and is wrong. Not to mention he still has that obnoxious personality of his that will likely repel any woman he tries to hook up with. No way any girl is gonna want to...

I stand corrected. This woman, Courtney (Diane Michelle), immediately falls head over heels in love with Kaz for some inexplicable reason, and they go on a date, where Kaz demonstrates why he is NOT boyfriend material. Ami and Yumi, fortunately, are at the restaurant as well to give him romantic advice... and in Yumi's case, threaten him if he doesn't clean up his act. But it doesn't do any good - Kaz might have a new look, but he's still the same sleazy little troll he's always been.

Somehow, even after leaving Courtney with the bill, she STILL doesn't dump is tiny rear end and he drags her to a ballroom where he - you guessed it - continues to make an idiot out of himself. Then it's off to a drive-in movie, where Kaz falls asleep, resulting in Courtney finally and I mean FINALLY ditching Kaz, dubbing him the biggest zero she's ever dated. So what do Ami and Yumi tell Kaz? That he shouldn't have a girlfriend because he's... well, Kaz? Nope. Instead, Ami claims that Courtney is a secret agent who had to ditch Kaz because she's been called away to Siberia. Dang it, Ami, you had ONE JOB!

Out of context, this looks like Kaz has fallen madly in love with Ami and Yumi. Now THAT'S
a terrifying mental image...

The segment ends with Kaz getting beaten up by pigeons. Well, at least he's getting some sort of comeuppance...

Segment Number Three, "Brat Attack", sees Ami and Yumi at a rich child's birthday party. Yumi agrees with me and dubs Kaz the worst manager ever for sticking them with such lousy gigs, not helped by the fact that the rich child, Timmy (Grey DeLisle-Griffin), is one of THOSE incredibly wealthy kids. Y'know, those crafted using the Veruca Salt mold. Because remember, kids - if you're rich, you must be a horrible little brat no one will ever want to be friends with!

"Who do you blame when your kid is a brat?
Pampered and spoiled like a Siamese cat?
Blaming the kids is a lie and a shame
You know exactly who's to blame..."

Seemingly nothing pleases Timmy - not the cake, not any of his presents, nothing - except for Ami and Yumi. "I want THEM!" he claims. "I want my very own rock band to play with!" Kaz tells the kid's father (Rob Paulsen) that Ami and Yumi are not for sale, but then the kid's father offers him a ton of money and he, of course, hands them over. And apparently Ami and Yumi have no say in this? Kaz doesn't actually OWN them, does he? You can't OWN people.

It's very tempting to take this screencap and superimpose David Zaslav's head onto Kaz's.

"Kaz, are you NUTS?! You can't just SELL US!" Yumi protests, but Kaz reveals that he can - he shows them part of their contract that says (in Russian) that he can sell them off as though they were his car or something. Why Ami and Yumi don't just tear up the contract and make a run for it, I don't know.

Always read the fine print.

So now Ami and Yumi are for all intents and purposes Timmy's PETS. He destroys their instruments, then starts pelting them with tennis balls. In an attempt to calm the kid down, Ami and Yumi try some art therapy. Alas, that doesn't quite work out...

Reminder: that yellow stuff in the following screencap is PAINT. I know it looks a lot like something else, but it's PAINT.

So no toilet humor, please.

When Timmy starts using his paintball gun on them, they decide to fight fire with fire... or in this case, paint with paint. The end result has the house looking like Jackson Pollock took got his hands on it - but Timmy's dad loves it and gives Ami and Yumi the job of painting the front yard to match. So, art therapy was a bust.

Ami and Yumi try to sneak out that night, but Timmy catches them in the act and turns on the waterworks. He says that they're his only friends, the other kids at his birthday party were just actors his father paid to be there, he's really just lonely and wants REAL friends. So Ami and Yumi agree to show him how REAL friends play together. After another montage, Timmy thanks Ami and Yumi for teaching him the error of his ways and says that they can go home... right after his father gets his money back from Kaz, much to Kaz's dismay. Ah, Kaz getting his comeuppance. How sweet it is.

Maybe you should just stay with Timmy, girls. If your choices are between him and Kaz,
you're a lot better off with Timmy.

What's the Verdict?

I'm sorry, but I'm still gonna have to put Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi in the mediocre category. I went in with an open mind but I still couldn't find much to enjoy about the show.

Ami and Yumi aren't very interesting characters. Ami is good-natured and a bit dimwitted, Yumi is tough and sarcastic... and that's it. Maybe if the writing were better they'd be more endearing, but as is they're just kind of dull. Being voiced by Janice Kawaye and Grey DeLisle-Griffin is basically all they have going for them. Kaz is just obnoxious. On top of that, most of the jokes fall flat. The only one I kind of found funny was Ami hallucinating that Yumi was a giant sushi roll. "Brat Attack" relied waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much on the kid shouting to get a laugh out of the audience, which gets very grating after a while. And the animation, even for 2000s Adobe Flash, is bad. Everything from the movements to the character designs just looks so stiff. I think the show would've looked better if it had been animated by hand.

I know I'm basically just repeating the same points I brought up in my first review of this show, but Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi just doesn't work for me. But like I said at the beginning of the review, if you like it, that's perfectly fine. Go ahead and like it. My opinion is not law.

I don't want to end this review on a negative note, so I'll bring up that next week is the beginning of the holiday season at Animation and All Things Related. That means we can start the Christmas reviews! What will I be looking at this year? Well, I've got some things in mind, but I won't give away what they are just yet. So until then, Happy Thanksgiving! Say, did you know that in Japan, they celebrate Thanksgiving (or as it's called there, Kinrōkansha no Hi) on November 23rd? That means the Japanese have already celebrated Thanksgiving, which means that the holiday season has already begun for them. Merīkurisumasu!