Puffy Ami Yumi: Classic or Dud?

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Better than Shonen Knife...or Worse than the Spice Geishas?
The ILM be the Judge (...Jury...Executioner?)

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Sunday, 1 June 2003 03:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Puffy ...Classic, naturally, for reasons I have spoken of here on numerous occasions. Mainly for going against the grain of fluffy, limp-wristed, blackboard-scraping shrill-voiced J-pop that made up their contemporaries back in 96/7 when they arrived, and making super-duper pop songs with attitude and a zillion tunes in each song.

― darren (darren), Sunday, 1 June 2003 09:15 (twenty-one years ago)

most classic of all - "Yuki ga furu machi", the b-side of "Kore ga watashi no ikiri michi" and also on the first album I think. Bizarre drum programming, soaring strings and odd Wilson-esque melodies. To think they became pop stars in Japan with this !

― darren (darren), Sunday, 1 June 2003 09:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Classic. They should be on a double-bill with Pooh Sticks.

― JesseFox (JesseFox), Sunday, 1 June 2003 20:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Not as classic as Shonen Knife who share my love of Bannana Chips, still disturbingly plasticy and loveable.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Sunday, 1 June 2003 20:47 (twenty-one years ago)

i just think it's awfully irritating that they couldn't keep up being called "Puffy" in the rest of the world due to Mr. Combs' inability to Choose One Name And Stick With It, Already. *growls*

i don't know that i'd call them classic, but i don't know that i'd call them duds, either. a fence-sitter is me. :)

― janni (janni), Monday, 2 June 2003 14:29 (twenty-one years ago)

they wound me with their relentless cuteness if I accidentally leave the CD on for more than a few minutes. but when the first ep came out I was fairly impressed at their absolute lack of style loyalty, each song was an entire band's output reduced to pastiche essentials. I like “Asia no Junshin" better than most ELO actually, the lyrics about the pandas make me happy.

"Yuki-ga furu machi" is a truly lovely song, though...

― jl, Monday, 2 June 2003 15:32 (twenty-one years ago)

JL: are you familiar with the Puffy Remix Project? and the Malcolm McLaren remix of "Ajia no Junshin"?

ah. took me awhile to wrap my head around the concept. XD

― janni (janni), Monday, 2 June 2003 17:55 (twenty-one years ago)

I liked Spike a lot more than the stuff on Illustrated History.

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Monday, 2 June 2003 17:57 (twenty-one years ago)

i just think it's awfully irritating that they couldn't keep up being called "Puffy" in the rest of the world due to Mr. Combs' inability to Choose One Name And Stick With It, Already.
You think thats bad, just think of what happened when Japanese Metal Guitarist P Diddy woke up and read the Lifestyles part of his newspaper.

Well, if they can have a London Suede and a Charlatans UK, why not Toyko Puffy or Puffy JP? (I actually like the name Puffy Ami Yumi, its just so melliflous...)

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Monday, 2 June 2003 18:37 (twenty-one years ago)

...mellifluous, maybe, but not when they jamitalltogetherlikethis, as i'm used to seeing it! :)

Japanese artist Korn is probably safe, unless the US band Korn decides to go into producing visual "art"...

― janni (janni), Monday, 2 June 2003 18:42 (twenty-one years ago)

KORN JP!
(Doesn't count, though, the crummy nu-metal band spells theirs with a backward "R", and the Japanese Korn probably uses a different typeface.)

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Monday, 2 June 2003 18:48 (twenty-one years ago)

all I've heard is the first ep 'amiyumi', and the next 2 cd singles. heard bits of 'jet', and from there on out the mp3 clips scare me off, so I really shouldn'a said nothing. Remixes sound interesting, I will keep an eye out, thanks janni.

Puffy's a great intro to mainstream j-pop: not interested in innovating, make it yours through subtle refinement, then forget the original ever existed. Their early 60's Beatles pastiche "Kore ga watashi no ikiri michi" is terrifying.

My other j-pop lightbulb moment was a b-side by Tamio Okuda (who produced 'amiyumi') -- a cover of "Hey Bulldog". It starts out, slightly slower tempo, otherwise so faithful to the original you begin wondering what the point is, then the guitar solo comes in. And Lennon's fairly loose guitar solo is replicated down to the pitches of the feedback squelch between the notes. It's astonishing, must have taken a pathological amount of time to get down. When something spontaneous is painstakingly recreated, it does become something weirdly new. Okuda/Puffy aren't completely my speed for listening but for pure craft my hat's off.

― jl, Monday, 2 June 2003 18:54 (twenty-one years ago)

jl: if you go visit this discography and scroll down, you can see the cover of this nice compilation CD that's got the remix i mentioned above as well as a bunch of others. PRMX: the Puffy Remix Project, "Licensed to Skill."

no, they're not quite my usual taste either---i do like some j-pop, but i wouldn't say Puffy are my favourite ever.

actually, what i REALLY ought to do is start a Hi-Posi thread. Hi-Posi is a completely different phenomenon, though---implosive pop, maybe. not standard by any means. :) i can vaguely connect them by the fact that they showed up on a compilation with Puffy on as well, and which Fantastic Plastic Machine were also a part of (who remixed one of the Puffy tracks on the comp i mentioned above).

there are remix 12"s too, but that probably goes without saying. :)

― janni (janni), Monday, 2 June 2003 19:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Zoobombs are No. 1 though.

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Monday, 2 June 2003 19:31 (twenty-one years ago)

It's too bad their TV show finished.

― Mary (Mary), Monday, 2 June 2003 19:57 (twenty-one years ago)

when i was in high school and had them in the headphones id tell people i was listening to pa-pa-pa-pa-puffy and emphasized the pa-pa-pa-pa so that they wouldn't get confused w/ mr. combs but they did anyway and probably just thought i was weird.

― Honda (Honda), Tuesday, 3 June 2003 01:40 (twenty-one years ago)

one year passes...

Classic....It shows cool clips of the real "Puffy Ami Yumi" in the intro. It's something that I haven't seen before. I read once in one of the forums for this show, that they don't really look like the real "Puffy Ami Yumi" and that they probably wouldn't be voiced by them either. But who cares! It's hard to draw the real "Puffy Ami Yumi" and the creator had to be a little creative, that's all! Besides, I think the show's funny and I like J-Pop!

― Sena Rainey, Wednesday, 24 November 2004 18:06 (twenty years ago)

i really love their cartoon show!

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Wednesday, 24 November 2004 18:10 (twenty years ago)

Haven't heard 'em, but I swear I dreamt about them last night!

― Sanjay McDougal (jaymc), Wednesday, 24 November 2004 18:16 (twenty years ago)

Fun at times and admittedly cute, but nowhere near the most interesting pop/rock band Japan has to offer.

― J-rock (Julien Sandiford), Thursday, 25 November 2004 03:43 (twenty years ago)

'Ai No Shiranshi' - the most pwninest pwny pwner pver.

― B.A.R.M.S. (Barima), Thursday, 25 November 2004 11:55 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...

Their theme song to Teen Titans is now my favourite song ever!

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 20:40 (twenty years ago)

"Atarashii Hibi (Brand New Days)" is my favorite Puffy song. I put it on almost every mix that I make.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 20:44 (twenty years ago)

The show isnt very good. The in-between live action skits before commercial are mind raping (good thing) though.

― David Allen (David Allen), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 21:37 (twenty years ago)

Nice is incredibly classic. the cartoon can veer between kind boring to really funny.

― ryan (ryan), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 21:41 (twenty years ago)

one year passes...

Okay, Call Me What You Like is the best pop song I've heard this year. Is there loads more in the same vein?

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Thursday, 22 June 2006 10:09 (eighteen years ago)

I'm pretty crazy about "Radio Tokyo."

― Matthew Perpetua! (Matthew Perpetua!), Thursday, 22 June 2006 11:44 (eighteen years ago)

Put me down for "Tokyo, I'm On My Way" and (the remarkably Velvet Crush-sounding) "Security Blanket".

― Haikunym (Haikunym), Thursday, 22 June 2006 13:01 (eighteen years ago)

No other songs of theirs that I've heard are a patch on "Planet Tokyo" offa "Spike". And I've heard those newer tracks - they're alright, nothing fantastic.

― Simon H. (Simon H.), Thursday, 22 June 2006 13:32 (eighteen years ago)

Oh man, my son watches their cartoon a whole bunch, and when he found my copy of Spike the other day, he gave me the eyebrow. Like, "dad, I didn't know Puffy Ami Yumi were REAL" and I'm like "but they're real on their show!" and he's like "but that's a TV SHOW".

― mummy wrapped in bacon (nickalicious), Thursday, 22 June 2006 14:09 (eighteen years ago)

My kids watch the cartoon and have the Teen Titans theme on one of their compilation disks so I'll say classic on their behalf.

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Thursday, 22 June 2006 14:12 (eighteen years ago)

two weeks pass...

Free NYC show at World Financial Center plaza in 2 hours!

http://www.worldfinancialcenter.com/calendar/

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 11 July 2006 19:46 (eighteen years ago)

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