Why Puffy AmiYumi, H!P and J-Pop are so beautiful

Puffy AmiYumi and their Cartoon Network counterparts.

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A few valuable hours spent watching Puffy AmiYumi in action reveal exactly why Japanese pop music, J-pop for short, is taking the world by storm. It is a mixture of contrasts – kindness vs. toughness, gentility vs. assertiveness, cute vs. crazy, talent vs. modesty, love vs. self-discipline, tacky vs. urbane. And, trust me, it’s all good.

Yes, Sony Music Group does own Puffy AmiYumi lock, stock and barrel, but the company does let the group out of the closet once in a while, and when it does, fabulous things happen. It doesn’t matter that the Puffies are relegated to small venues while on tour in the United States, and still some indignities exist. On Thursday [Nov. 15], the group was stiffed by the Fillmore, a really cool rock venue right in the middle of San Francisco’s Japantown.

“Slow ticket sales” was the excuse, but who knows? The gig was unceremoniously moved to Slim’s, a tight club in San Francisco, and the show went on, inconveniencing fans and the group alike, but it went on anyway and kicked tail as it always does.

Puffy AmiYumi arrived in Hollywood on Friday [Nov. 16] in shifts. Manager Kimikazu Harada and the band got there on the tour bus and started their setup routine at the Key Club on Sunset Boulevard. Ami and Yumi would arrive later, flying in from San Francisco after the Jim’s show.

The Key Club, while having some of the top acoustics of any club in L.A. and possibly in the country, was still rude to the headliner. Puffy followers, including a heavily decorated passel of outstandingly cute Akihabara-style Japanese girls, entered starting around 7:30 p.m., and the opening group began its set. But that group was a “pre-opener” not on the bill, rattled off 10 dull songs and cleared out, fans expecting Puffy. Instead, the opener set up, and the clumsy female lede singer, though talented, dumped a glass of Lipton instant tea on the stage during the band’s set and generally made a mess of things.

After that disastrous set, which left people in the crowd with their hands in their pockets, Puffy’s setup guys kicked butt – cleaning up the prior band’s mess and laying out the band’s equipment, without a word, just efficiently getting the job done in about 10 minutes. Then it was Puffy heaven for Puffy devotees despite the fact they stood patiently for three solid hours before their group finally hit the stage.

Puffy has the best club act on the planet. Ami and Yumi are at the top of their game. Even crass Americans fail to faze them. All they did, in the end, is compliment the club and the two prior bands – showing the ultimate in class amid all the disrespect. Ami and Yumi read off their comments off their little spiral notebooks, their tiny voices capturing the hearts of even the toughest of onlookers.

After those tender little breaks, they would proceed to take the paint off the walls with fantastic ear-blasting, head-banging heavy metal. Wow. The musicians were flawless, perfectly dressed, in good humor throughout, a blessing to all – in stark contrast to the bland, Gothic, boorish and dull groups beforehand.

“They’re adorable,” said 45-year-old truck driver Mike Clements of Salt Lake City, a mountain of a man who surfed into a “Hi! Hi! Puffy AmiYumi” cartoon on cable a few short months ago – and now arranges his trucking schedule to hit every Puffy date when they tour the U.S. “Chicago, Detroit, San Francisco, L.A.,” he said, “and I’m going to the Anaheim show Sunday [Nov. 18].”

Like many new American fans, Clements is so hooked on Puffy’s disarming charm, contrasting with their bombastic and sensational tunes, that he can’t get enough. Just the small courtesies the band extends to its fans are enough; most U.S. pop groups treat fans terribly and walk around with an arrogance that defies reality in these economically tight times.

But Sony will make sure that Puffy and other J-pop “properties” in their corporate stable will be rationed out, little by little, because a wider exposure of one of the world’s top musical emsembles would encroach upon Sony’s U.S. artists. Sony is on the protectionist bandwagon, to the detriment of guys like Clements.

Likewise, Hello Project is also walled off from Americans, either by Sony or its satellite music companies. Morning Musume, Berryz Kobo, C-ute and the Eggs all tolerate this indignity, churning out fantastic arena and theater DVDs that are Region 2 so as to keep them from prying American ears.

There’s more to this tale. In the meantime, may God bless J-pop, Puffy AmiYumi and Hello Project.