Puffy Amiyumi

Puffy (パフィー) or Puffy AmiYumi (パフィー・アミユミ) as they are known in the United States (due to legal naming conflicts with Sean Combs, a/k/a "Sean 'Puffy' Combs" or "Puff Daddy"), is a Japanese J-Pop duo.

Ami Onuki, whose nickname is "Sue", and Yumi Yoshimura, nicknamed "Jane", were scouted by two different talent agencies and put together in 1995, and soon Puffy-Mania would begin. Their first release "Asia no junshin" sold a million records and their success continued with several more full-length releases (totalling 14 million sales in Japan). They hosted their own weekly TV show, "Pa-Pa-Pa-Pa-Puffy", with guests such as Lenny Kravitz, Sylvester Stallone, Harrison Ford, and rock band Garbage.

Their music has been largely a collaboration between producer Tamio Okuda, American singer-songwriter Andy Sturmer of the band Jellyfish, regular session musicians, and lastly Ami and Yumi themselves. Ami and Yumi's vocals are likened to US vocal sister group The Roches. They often sing whole songs together with harmonies. The songs borrow heavily from the Beatles and other artists such as ABBA, The Who and Carpenters. Their genre is usually defined as J-Pop, more specifically it can be described as Shibuya-kei.

After 2000 they have been less in the limelight in native Japan with their TV show winding up in 2002. Instead they have set the compass for the USA with promotional tours, releasing previous Japanese releases and now a song from the latest album (2003) features on the animated TV program "". (See also Teen Titans.) This might be the reason for the increase in English language songs in their repertoire.

The duo have their own animated show in the U.S. on Cartoon Network called Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi which premiered on November 19, 2004.