Show Review: HHPAY Pilot

 So this was a unaired pilot for the franchise, HHPAY. Someone shared it online and now I am here to review it~ :3

I wrote about puffy before in my blog from 2020, but it's since disappeared. I feel like I kind of grew up a bit more ever since I wrote that.. so it might be hard to convey everything all at once.

I'll still try my best, however..!

Ami is playing on what looks to be like a Nintendo DS. How nostalgic and relatable, considering how I have a DS in that same exact color. Yumi seems to be reading a book on otaku which confuses me a bit, because aren't otakus frowned upon in Japan?

Analyzing the character designs here.. for some reason Yumi is wearing fishtights over stockings (isn't it cold there?) and Ami is wearing pants with hearts over them. 

I guess to redirect the focus on the show.. the girls are going to America for their first debut. It's basically a fan animation of how it would go. Let's see how this goes.

I really love Ami's voice with her adorable accent in this pilot, it's so charming and cute! It matches well with the experimental art style here. The expressions and the overall demeanor of the characters are expressed well through the eyes as well, honestly much more efficient than the official polishing. (No offense!)

Yumi's nearly monotone voice matches the demeanor that I feel like the show writers were going for more. I feel like they kind of turned it up a bit to an extreme volume in the official release of the show. You can hear Yumi's accent pretty well here too, but maybe a bit more enthusiasm could've done wonders as well.

So Ami is the happy-go-lucky, "gung ho" one, while Yumi is more of a depressed realist.

It looks like the girls are.. going on a tour, actually of America? Since Ami says, "the first stop -- big apple~!"

Surprisingly.. Ami's hyper enthusiasm of all the places where they'll go made me feel a bit.. annoyed? Even though I prefer her out of the duo? I feel like her lines could've been rewritten. Yumi doesn't encapsulate how I feel about this pilot, ("Agh, I'm so bored already!") at all though. It's more like the complete opposite :)

What on earth? The cab driver is crashing through all sorts of things while taking them to their destination. Geez.. that should've been more emphasized with more sound effects, or something..

I do appreciate the floral theme overall of the show.. the thing HHPAY can do that PPG cannot is embrace femininity, because the creator of the Powerpuff Girls had a problem with how "girly" a lot of the merchandise for the show was, so he went to the extremes with violence in the PPG movie..

The girls see king kong, or a ripoff of him at least, be on top of a building. SHOULDN'T THAT BE ON THE NEWS? THEY HAVE TELEVISIONS ON A AIRPLANE! I GET THAT THIS IS THE 2000'S BUT STILL! 

... 

oh well..

It would be interesting if there was a reverse of this pilot somehow.. two westerners visiting Japan and seeing Godzilla destroy everything. 0.0

Now I start to understand why they gave Ami and Yumi colored hair.. not only to appeal to the youth, but due to the common occurrence of anime characters having colored hair.

OH NO...

the girls are about to be snatched up by the giant gorilla... is this the end?! why couldn't this be the nice gorilla we saw in the boomerang bumpers all those years ago?? AHHHH-

WAIT A MINUTE.

He just wanted an autograph? Aww.. how saccharine.

He's also part of the HHPAY fanclub. That's sweet, considering how that once was a real thing.

More of the floral theme.

Just keep in mind, animators that there are other ways to express happiness than flowers.. you guys could've tried smiley faces or something? Not that I'm complaining..

Sometimes I wonder if Yumi just exists to undermine Ami's happiness.. is she even happy to be in a duo with her? That could be a interesting episode idea or something..

Something that confuses me with Ami and Yumi's designs, more so Ami's is that.. the clothing is surprisingly really.. generalized Western fashion. As if she grew up in the 60's in America. I wish that they were wearing clothing that seemed more Eastern or something. Something more accurate to the girls' true history. Even though Yumi's freckles are really adorable, she doesn't have them in real life.. I could be entirely wrong, though.

Ah.. my favorite part of the pilot is here.

WHEN AMI GETS TO BE A CHEERLEADER LMAO! (not laughing at her, i'm just in love with it lol)

Ah.. cultural naivety. Gotta love it.

WHY DID YUMI CALL HER CHEERLEADING OUTFIT STUPID?! GEEZ YUMI IS REALLY, TOTALLY, ABSOLUTELY, A PARTY POOPER :T 

Oh. Yumi was saying that she's more than a cheerleader. They "Rock the house", not read cheers. Why does Yumi want her gal pal to be almost totally one dimensional, though? She can explore other parts of her identity, too, you know.

From what I gathered from this episode, instead of being really moody, gloomy or something.. like misery from ruby gloom.. Yumi is just like, the mean one. Ami has more personality here, and more optimism, Yumi isn't really pessimistic.. she's just apathetic.

Was she trying to do kung fu? To beat up all of the american football players? Well that was... kinda useless to the plot, not going to lie. 

Is this a reference to insecure people doing useless things that just happens to progress the plot?

Don't worry HHPAY, I only criticize you because I love you and I want to see you become better at everything you do. :3

I can't get over Ami's design. It reads more like, white american rather than a japanese girl.. that's just my opinion.  There could've been more careful focus on the character designs before making this pilot. People need to be careful when creating things that are supposed to represent other people, animation doesn't need to be just work, it can be fun too, but please don't make it so self-indulgent.

Anyways. The girls seem to go to an old American southern dinner, maybe Denny's or something.. (I've never been to one..). 

Why are the girls eating burritos instead of sushi..? Have they ever eaten burritos before? In Japan?

This show really sees the fact that Ami and Yumi are Japanese as like.. a gimmick or something.. there is hardly any Japanese representation in this show at all besides saying some Japanese lines here and there, that's what stumps me about it.

I'm assuming they're at a 7/11, which makes sense because that store is really popular in Japan..

Not to be a meanie, but Ami kind of styles her hair like a elementary schooler..

Something unrealistic about this show is really.. uh.. people really recognizing the girls at first glance. Maybe if they saw the teen titans music video, yeah? They look absolutely nothing like the girls in that video, though...

Maybe only people in the local area can recognize them..

I know the girls had some color in their hair for advertising purposes.. but still. Not their entire heads

 @. @

Feels kind of weird that the 7/11-ripoff employee is inviting them to prom. Aren't they adults? lol

I hate how self absorbed Yumi sounds.  She could reject a invitation to prom more kindly, they didn't make their way through life as sick rock stars being rude... 

I feel like the show writers had completely misunderstood Yumi as a person, whatever she was going through when they met her. It's a shame.. way too many missed opportunities..

Maybe me.. one girl out there.. can fix this somehow?

...

Maybe..

The girls' music is featured as it's revealed that they can perform their music for the prom. That was the most disorienating animation I've ever seen.. how is this understandable?! At least the music matches..

Anyway, I would be really grateful if PUFFY's music played at my prom. Also.. during that segment, it revealed how they kind of saw the girls as a tool to appeal to people of all cultures except their own.. I guess it's because of a lack of information or something, but there's nothing a interview couldn't have fixed?

Yumi wins prom queen.. thats out of character. Ami deserved it.. 

Plus, Yumi doesn't even know what a prom queen is, at least for 5 seconds before she rejects her victory. Ugh.. doesn't make sense why Yumi is happy in the moment just to be incredibly peeved moments later.

I heard that Yumi was going through a rough divorce around the time the show was being produced, so I guess they were trying to reflect that in the character's writing, but like.. there could've been much more better, mature ways to write about this, and like, just because it's for children and "it's a cartoon" doesn't mean it should fall short.

Also for some reason Yumi has a more orange tinted skin tone than Ami? Why? Another one of these.. like.. color coded vendettas, where the more aggressive or negative character has a more darker skin tone than the one that can be described as more lighthearted. God it's annoying.

Ok so there's a year placed during the prom celebration.. 2003. Was this when it was created? If so, I kind of do get 2003 vibes from it..

THIS ISN'T REALISTIC.. eh i know it's a cartoon but.. my parents really liked puffy.. and some cranky old lady sends concerned parents to attack puffy?! they're harmless! geez... 

Yumi is so rude to Ami.. I'm glad Ami is a strong girl, lol.

Planet Tokyo doesn't match the tone of the scene at all.. it's nervewacking to imagine them choosing these songs, listening to it in its entirety and choose this peaceful nostalgic song for a chaotic chase scene.. think people think..

. _ .

THEY SENT AMI AND YUMI TO A NUDE BEACH?! NO!

Oh god.. 

Well that scene where they're driving around in a car is pretty funny, I'll give it that much..

Oh no. The girls caused their first fatality by letting that car that was chasing them literally sink in water.. are you sure this was for Cartoon Network and NOT Adult swim? o.O

Yumi chews on tinfoil? She has pica or something?

Near the end of the episode, Ami through her persistent smile describes to Yumi about all the fun they had in America for the first time. Some people kind of started to headcanon them as lesbians.. but I don't. I mean, I see them as close friends and that's honestly for the best. .w.

How the heck are Yumi and Ami picking up these slang words? They've only been in America for 7 minutes at this point..

Well, this was a adorable ending scene..

--

My critique

This pilot, although adorable and charming at times left so much to be desired. If it wasn't for Sam Register suggesting this show to the higher ups of animation companies and cartoon network.. I possibly wouldn't have never gotten into J-pop and be converted into a fan of PUFFY when I was within the target demographic of this silly TV show.

What could've hooked me in even more was more genuine and transparency. A more careful hand with the writing, and more of an audience testing with the show's concept overall. It felt like a show that appealed to high school freshman or something..

PUFFY deserved a way better cartoon than this...

Ugh fine..

*dusts off drawing tablet and stuff*

I'll make something. Anything. Just nothing Johnny Test-esque.. 

after.. me.. re-watching.. every episode of this show. Even the ones I probably purposefully skipped over.

Oki? Ok..

Rating: 3/5

Bye Bye Boo