Remember that one day when you could wake up without an alarm? When you would get your favorite bowl of cereal and sit between the hours of 8 and 12? This is a blog dedicated to the greatest time of our childhood: Saturday mornings. The television programs you watched, the memories attached to them, and maybe introducing you to something you didn't realize existed. Updated every weekend.
Gwen Stefani with her Harajuku Girls: (from left) Maya Chino, Jennifer Kita, Rino Nakasone & Mayuko Kitayama.
Harajuku
Girls was also the name she gave the group of backup dancers she hired for the
tour, wearing make-up and clothing meant to be evocative of the Japanese
aesthetic. The Harajuku Girls were comprised of Maya Chino,
Jennifer
Kita,
Rino Nakasone
and Mayuko
Kitayama, who performed under the stage names “Love”, “Angel”,
“Music” and “Baby”, respectively, after the album. Along with the tour, the
Harajuku Girls served as Stefani’s entourage in public (it was alleged that
they were contractually
obligated to speak only Japanese in that instance), appeared with her
on interviews (where part of her gimmick was that she considered them imaginary
friends), and starred in 8 of her music videos (three of them would also appear
in No Doubt’s “Settle
Down”
video, sans Harajuku styling). Stefani would go on to use the name “Harajuku Lovers”
for a line of fragrances,
which came in caricature bottles fashioned after her and the Girls, and fashion
for Target
also adorned with those caricatures. During this period, many critics would
come to regard Stefani’s Harajuku Girls as not so much cultural appreciation,
but more along the lines of cultural
appropriation as well as reinforcing negative
ethnic stereotypes.
An example of the kawaii design applied to the scenery.
Fast forwarding to 2014, Stefani announced the next Harajuku-inspired
product: an animated series. A desire to turn the Harajuku Girls into some kind
of media project existed since the initial album’s release, but it wouldn’t be
until 2013 that she pitched it at Kidscreen’s Asian
Animation Summit. Australia’s Network
Ten liked the idea and greenlit the production. Although this would be
Stefani’s first involvement with an animated series, she had a familiarity with
their inner workings through her brother, No Doubt co-founder and former member
Eric
Stefani, who worked as an animator on cartoons like A
Pup Named Scooby-Dooand The Simpsons.
HJ5: Love, Angel, G, Music and Baby, along with their manager, Rudie.
Initially titled Koo Koo Harajuku, the show was developed by Steve
Aranguren, Gillian Carr and Madellaine
Paxson and co-produced by Vision Animation, Red Flags Fly and Moody
Street Kids, with DHX Media (now WildBrain) handling
distribution. Animated in Flash, the series followed
the adventures of teenaged band HJ5 as they often met with challenges that
prevented them from playing their gigs peacefully; such as unruly fans,
fun-hating despots, or inventions gone amok. HJ5 was comprised of leader G
(modeled after Stefani, voiced by Maggie Cheretien), the glue of the band who kept
them together through tough times and represented bows; Love (Daisy Masterman),
the group genius whose inventions often caused more problems than they solved and
represented hearts; Angel (Emma Taylor-Isherwood), a bubbly and cheerful
fashionista that could be a bit of an airhead at times and represented stars; Music
(Sally Taylor-Isherwood), the sarcastic and strong-willed second-in-command of
the band who was both an amazing fighter and dancer and represented musical
notes; and Baby (Charlotte Nicdao), sweet and carefree to a fault who loved
adorable things and giving hugs (and was constantly hungry) and represented
cuteness. Their manager was Rudie Rhodes (Danny Smith), who was enthusiastic
but hard-lucked and clumsy, and tended to get the band into trouble through his
antics and forgetfulness. Additionally, the band had a sassy robotic personal
assistant and chauffer named R.O.D. (Robotic Obedient
Driver), as well as several monster pets (cute little creatures that could be
domesticated or wild) and a Pomeranian named Chewie (based on Stefani’s
own pet). The characters, designed by Kyla May, were heavily
influenced by the Harajuku Girls while remaining ethnically ambiguous.
General Nofun holds HJ5 captive.
The series featured a number of antagonists bent on ruining HJ5’s
careers any way they could. Chief amongst them was General Ira S.
Nofun (Paul Heng, Ian Bliss in Australia), the
leader of Nofunland who hated anything fun. His top man was Commander
Bo-ring (Bliss), who led a double life as pop star Baron Von Melody. Nofun also
had a cat, Moods
Meow, who had designs on world domination. Other antagonists included Madame
Shhh, who hated noise and wanted to soundproof everything through magic
spells and bubbles; Sammy
Starr, Rudie’s arrogant rival who used leetspeak and tried everything to sign
HJ5 to him; Say-Wah (Nicdao), a technological whiz who wanted revenge on the
band for not accepting her into their ranks; The Kimberlys, a rival band
comprised of similar-looking girls all named Kimberly who wanted to be famous
without doing any of the actual work; Tizzie
Lizzie (Natalie Bond), the band’s biggest
(and obsessive) fan and daughter of an incredibly wealthy man who attempted to
subjugate HJ5; Angelica (Amanda
Harrison), a young inventor and Love’s chief rial; Cici, the leader of a
mermaid singing group who felt they had sole performing rights in oceanic
territories; Panda Pete, a panda-obsessed businessman who wanted to make the
whole world kawaii (the Japanese
culture of cuteness); Mimi
Di Pollo, an extreme fashion designer who wanted revenge on HJ5 for firing her
because of her impractical outfits for them; and Bertrand, a smartphone
modified by Love to never become obsolete that evolved into a sentient despot,
among others.
Baby and the monster pets.
Other characters included Colonel Spyke (Jaqueline
Brennan), captain of the Harajuku Defense Squad who disliked HJ5’s music but
didn’t hesitate to employ their services on missions when needed; Twisty-T (Smith), a prominent
music producer Rudie always strove to impress; Jo
Jo Jolie, a fashion designer and Twisty T’s wife; Mauve Madison (Brennan in
Australia, Chrehtien in the US), a popular talk show host; Trixie
La Trill (Bond), a hair stylist and Rudie’s aunt with a desire to be famous; Sparski, a sentient computer
virus; and Krispin
Krouton, a tabloid journalist, among others.
Much like Stefani’s Harajuku Girls, reception to the series was mixed
and labeled as cultural appropriation. Reviewers pointed out the whitewashing
and Westernization of Japanese culture while simultaneously eliminating
anything remotely Japanese from the show. Despite that, the series was able to
churn out 3 seasons and was nominated for an Asian
Television Award in 2016. For the third season, HJ5 embarked on
a world tour that took them out of Harajuku City to new and exotic locations
with their own crazy themes--such as bubblegum, musical instruments or yo-yos--via
a teleporting tour bus concocted by Love. The last five episodes of the series
aired initially on Disney
Channel Australia before airing on 10 Peach.
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