Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi (fanon version)

Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi is an American animated television series created by Sam Register for Fox Kids and PBS Kids Go!. Produced by Nelvana Ltd. and 4Kids Productions, the series stars fictionalized and animated versions of the Japanese pop rock group Puffy AmiYumi. The series premiered on November 19, 1998 and ended its run on April 4, 2010, with a total of three seasons and 39 episodes, leaving a total of 34 episodes aired and five episodes unaired in North America.

During its run, the series was nominated for an Kids Choice Award three times. Merchandise based on the series has also been produced, such as video games, home media releases, toys, and clothing.

Premise
Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi follows the adventures of two pop stars and best friends: Yumi Yoshimura (voiced by Grey DeLisle), a cynical, sarcastic, rough and tough, tomboyish punk rocker; and Ami Onuki (voiced by Tara Strong), a peppy, optimistic and cute schoolgirl. Both are based on the real Japanese pop duo Puffy AmiYumi, but with different appearances and exaggerated personalities. They travel around the world on their customized tour bus along with their well-intentioned yet greedy manager Kaz Harada (voiced by Keone Young). From rocking out at a concert to hanging out in their hometown of Tokyo, the duo take the world by storm with their musical talent, trend-setting style, and humor, dishing out lessons in J-pop justice and establishing the international language of "cool" along the way.

Secondary characters include: Jang-Keng (voiced by Grey DeLisle) and Tekirai (voiced by Janice Kawaye), the duo's pet cats who enjoy tormenting Kaz; Harmony (voiced by Tress MacNeille), a six-year-old girl who is the self-proclaimed "Number One Fan" of Puffy AmiYumi and (later) Kaz and constantly stalks them; Eldwin Blair (voiced by Nathan Carlson), a sinister land developer who tries to tear down beloved places for his own selfish needs; King Chad (voiced by Kate Micucci), a selfish "bad boy" who is a master of the card game Stu-Pi-Doh! (a parody of Yu-Gi-Oh!: Monsters Unleashed (Live Action Movie Series)); the evil Talent Suckers (voiced by Nathan Carlson and Corey Burton), a vampire rock trio from Transylvania and Atchan (voiced by Rob Paulsen), a caricature of Vo Atsushi (lead singer of the pop band New Rote'ka) who speaks in third-person and thinks he is a superhero.

The animated Puffy AmiYumi travel all over the world in their tour bus. While appearing the same size as a regular bus on the outside, it appears to have enough internal space to house the girls' rooms (including full-sized beds), Kaz's room, their equipment, televisions, and computers, among other things. In the episode "Domo", Kaz refers to an upstairs area. It also seems capable of running on autopilot, as Kaz, Ami, and Yumi are sometimes sitting in the rear cabin of the bus while traveling. Occasionally, the rear door has been opened to receive packages delivered by a boy on a scooter.

During the first season, the show included live-action clips of the real Ami and Yumi making childish commentary (in English and non-subtitled Japanese) at the beginning and end of each episode. They only performed short clips at the beginning of the show during the second and third seasons. Starting with the second season, the duo was sometimes shown holding title cards introducing the cartoon segments. At the end of the episode "Sitcomi Yumi", Ami and Yumi watched television and saw the animated Kaz with the real Ami and Yumi. All of the live-action clips were produced by Freegate, Ltd.

The real PUFFY performs the cartoon's theme song (which is also in Japanese, German, Spanish, and Portuguese in the respective countries), and many episodes feature one or more of the duo's songs playing in the background, along with music by Guy Moon

Though the characters speak English, the script intersperses their vernacular with Japanese speech, especially when the characters react to events that they find to be surprising. Calling out "Tasukete!" instead of "Help!" is commonly used.

Cancellation
On April 4, 2010, the show's crew announced on their blog (puffycrew.blogspot.com) that PBS Kids Go! had cancelled Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi after three seasons and 39 episodes due to management shakeup, leading Sam Register to leave the PBS Kids until 2014.

Appearances in other media
Fox Kids didn't acknowledge the series again until 2019, when Ami and Yumi appeared on its 20th anniversary poster.

Ami later made a cameo appearance in the Bobby's World special Crossover Nexus.

Ami and Yumi made a background appearance in their poster in a TV pilot for Sonic the Hedgehog: The Series .

Ami's haircut appeared as a wardrobe in the 2019 mobile game Kleptocats: Fox Kids.

Episodes
Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi premiered in the United States on Fox Kids on November 19, 1998. and moved to PBS Kids Go! in  October 11, 2004, After ending on April 4, 2010, the show continued to rerun on PBS Kids Go! until October 7, 2013 due to the channel closure where it aired in reruns normally, and occasionally, would be one of the few non-Nicktoon to air in reruns on Friday Night Nicktoons before being removed from the network's schedule.

Since Fox Kids is available worldwide, the show has been dubbed into multiple languages and aired on Fox Kids worldwide. In Canada, the series premiered on Teletoon on September 5, 2005.In Japan, the show began airing on Toon Disney in English with Japanese subtitles in 2005. A dubbed version began airing on Nickelodeon Japan on October 6, 1999, and started to air on January 8, 2007 on Teletoon Japan.

In Germany, the show aired on Fox Kids Germany with all episodes. It premiered in 2003 on the Fox Kids block on RTL. The show stopped airing there after two seasons in 2004. The reason was that Jetix Germany launched and most of the shows moved there.

In Poland, the show aired on Jetix Poland from 2005 to 2006.

In Australia, the show premiered on the April 3, 2005. It stopped airing on Jetix Australia in November 2004. The third season was never shown there. From August to November 2006, the Australian version of Nickelodeon showed the last season instead and was abandoned in January 2007.