Kuu Kuu Harajuku

Kuu Kuu Harajuku is a Japanese-influenced animated children's television series created by singer-songwriter Gwen Stefani. It is based on her "Harajuku Lovers" merchandise brand, and the show doubles as a brand itself, with a line of tie-in products by Mattel. The show follows a teenage girl group called HJ5 and their manager Rudie as they live in a fantasy version of Tokyo called Harajuku City. HJ5 is a quintet: the four Harajuku Girls (Love, Angel, Music and Baby) with their leader G. Episodes follow the band members and Rudie overcoming obstacles preventing them from performing.
Network Ten in Australia first commissioned an animated series based on the "Harajuku Lovers" franchise in 2013, but Gwen Stefani first had the idea to turn it into a TV series as early as 2004, when she introduced the brand. The cartoon is animated using Flash by the Malaysian studio Vision Animation, and it was produced with investment funding from the Victorian government agency Film Victoria. The show's music style was based on Stefani's first two studio albums, "Love. Angel. Music. Baby." and "The Sweet Escape". The American toy manufacturer Mattel launched the "Kuu Kuu Harajuku" merchandise line in spring 2017.
The series is distributed by the Canadian media company DHX Media (now known as WildBrain). It had its Australian debut on 10 Peach (formerly known as Eleven) on November 1, 2015. A second season premiered on July 1, 2017, and a third premiered on August 11, 2018. DHX Media's Family Channel airs the show in Canada. It has received mixed reception, as some critics disliked the concept's apparent cultural appropriation, which has also been a criticism of Stefani's Harajuku Girls and the "Harajuku Lovers" brand as a whole.
Premise.
The show follows a teenage girl based on Gwen Stefani, nicknamed G, and her friends Love, Angel, Music and Baby, as they form the up-and-coming band HJ5. HJ5's clumsy manager Rudie works hard to book performances for the band, but their gigs are always interrupted. The band always manages to overcome challenges using their combined strengths: G's leadership, Love's intelligence, Angel's creativity, Music's bravery, Baby's enthusiasm and Rudie's determination.
A villain named General NoFun and his assistant, Commander Bo-Ring, often cause problems for HJ5 as they pursue a world without any entertainment. Other supporting characters include Twisty T, a famous music producer whom Rudie is desperate to impress; Say-Wah, an obsessed HJ5 fan who wants to join the band; Colonel Spyke, a stern soldier who dislikes pop music; and Mauve Madison, a talk show host who reports on HJ5.
Production.
"Kuu Kuu Harajuku" is co-produced by Vision Animation in Malaysia, Moody Street Productions in Australia, and Red Flags Fly in the United States. It was produced in association with Film Victoria for the first season and Network Ten for the second. A third season of the series was broadcast in 2018.
Gwen Stefani initially proposed a Harajuku Girls television show or movie after the release of her 2004 studio album "Love. Angel. Music. Baby." In Stefani's words, she "wanted to do an animated or live-action Harajuku TV show or movie since the conception of my [first] dance record." Almost a decade later, Stefani pitched an animated series based on the Harajuku Lovers brand at Kidscreen's 2013 Asian Animation Summit. In an interview with "USA Today", Stefani explained that the show was not meant to represent the real-life Harajuku district: "the show's DNA, its visual ideas, was taken from Harajuku land, or whatever, but the show is definitely not that. It's a make-believe world where anything can happen." During a January 2014 interview with "Women's Wear Daily", Gwen Stefani first revealed that the show had been greenlit by Network Ten and that fifty-two episodes were in development. In December 2014, the show was given the working title "KooKoo Harajuku".
Speaking to "Broadcasting & Cable" about the inspirations for her series, Stefani stated that she had a history with animation as her older brother and No Doubt founder Eric Stefani worked on "The Simpsons" and "The Ren & Stimpy Show". She said, "I grew up with tons of animation in my own life because my brother is an animator." When asked about her feelings on the renewal of "Harajuku" for a second season, she said "I still haven't digested that I'm even on Nickelodeon. It was a dream that I had a long time ago that came true later in life. I never thought it could happen."
The art style for the show was inspired by the Harajuku district in Tokyo. Four of the series' main characters (Love, Angel, Music and Baby) were modelled after Stefani's Harajuku Girl backup dancers, with body adjustments in order to give them "a modern update for a younger audience." Also unlike the Harajuku Girls, the "Kuu Kuu Harajuku" characters were designed as "ethnically ambiguous." Gwen Stefani herself served as the template for the series' lead character, G. The series' theme music was performed by Gwen Stefani and was written to incorporate lyrics from some of her past songs. Other music for the show was produced in a style Stefani describes as "similar to the music on my first two records ... a cross between an '80s video game and pop music."
Gwen Stefani officially announced a second season of "Kuu Kuu Harajuku" in March 2017. The season had been in development since October 2016. Compared to the first season, the second season was written to include more musical numbers and animated performances. A third season premiered in August 2018 in Australia.
Release.
Broadcast.
"Kuu Kuu Harajuku" first premiered on 10 Peach (formerly known as Eleven) in Australia on November 1, 2015, and later premiered on ABC Me on December 6, 2016, and on Nick in the US on October 3. Later, it was moved to Nick Jr. on February 3, 2017. The series also premiered on Family Channel in Canada on November 1, 2016. On May 4, 2017, the series aired on Sony Television's Pop with the channel's first release in Italy. The series returned to U.S. streaming on the free live TV application Pluto TV.
Home media.
In February 2017, Shout! Factory signed a deal with DHX Media to secure the North American DVD and Blu-ray rights to "Kuu Kuu Harajuku".
Reception.
Critical response.
Emily Ashby of Common Sense Media gave "Kuu Kuu Harajuku" a mixed review upon its U.S. debut. She praised Love and G as positive role models, stating, "Love stands out for her can-do attitude and her bevy of ideas to solve all kinds of problems, and G is known for her coolness under pressure." In summary, however, Ashby called the cartoon "pretty mindless, and there are better choices for role models for this age group, but it's entertaining nonetheless."
Erica Russell of PopCrush argued that "Kuu Kuu Harajuku"s setting "is not Japan, but a culturally-empty, messily regurgitated Westernization of it. It's a whitewashed 'kawaii' fairy tale." Rae Alexandra of KQED criticized the decision to portray the Harajuku Girls as racially ambiguous, suggesting that "it seems Stefani (or network executives) thought the best way to deal with the overt cultural appropriation was simply 'let's not have them be Asian anymore.'" Likewise, Teresa Jusino of Dan Abrams' "The Mary Sue" called negative attention to the characters' races, writing, "I notice that the Harajuku Girls are all different colors. Points for diversity, I guess, except that it seems that they appropriated Japanese culture only to just about erase it from this series."