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 that wore 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 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 without interruption 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 keept 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 who 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 (cut 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 leet speak 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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