How Did This Site Come To Be? (And Do You Really Care?)

In mid-to-late 2006 -- not too long after seeing Puffy in concert for the first time -- I decided to make a fan site dedicated to them. To me, there was definitely a dearth of Puffy fan sites out there, especially English-language ones (and even the few Japanese ones I found seemed to have stopped updating years ago). In making the site, I decided to focus on stuff that was interesting to me, and hope that others would find those same things interesting as well.

So far, the Puffy fans I've had contact with seem pleased with what I cooked up (although honestly, much of what's here is merely translated/regurgitated from Puffy's official site), though I did get one or two emails asking about why I don't have a dedicated gallery of images. The answer is somewhat silly, but I generally like to use images that I personally scanned (or captured, in the case of video) -- I'm a little uneasy taking scores of images that others worked to scan (or whatever) and present them as my own. Though there are a few places on this site where I use images I got from somewhere else (usually the odd album cover or the like that I don't own), I mostly try to keep everything done by my hand. There are a few sites out there that have a wealth of images (because I like downloading pictures of Puffy, too), so I just link to them.

I've since forgotten exactly when this site went live -- I spent so much time tweaking the design and creating all the sub-sections and pages that it all blurs together. My best guess is that it (coincidentally) went live around the same time as Puffy AmiYumi World (if not a little earlier); at least, I seem to recall the two went online nearly simultaneously. In the end, it doesn't really matter, does it?

And if you ever wondered where I got the name of the site from -- check the fold-out booklet for the Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi album. Inside there's a graphic that says "Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi: Peace. Love. Pop." Which, when slightly modified, became the name for this site. My creativity knows no bounds, no?

Though the design and most of the content was provided by me, a handful of great Puffy fans have assisted me over the time my site has been online -- whether it be by sending me links to new Puffy videos, alerting me to news items I may have missed, or helpfully translating things that I forget. I'm not one for overly-lavish bios, but here's some credits (if you're interested):

The Bozo Who Runs This Site

That would be me, Pooch. "Pooch" isn't my actual name (Somebody online using an alias? SHOCK!); rather, it's a nickname that has stuck with me since high school (it's a rather extreme mutation of my last name, if you must know). I first became aware of Puffy in early 2002, right around the time An Illustrated History was released. I was a clerk in a record store at the time, and I remember seeing the cover to that CD and being intrigued, because seeing any Japanese popular music in my store was an extremely rare sight indeed (and I was already into anime and Japanese culture a bit, so seeing a CD by a Japanese artist was a big deal for me).

I actually didn't buy the CD until a couple of months later, though; I'd forgotten about it not too long after initially seeing it. However, I suddenly remembered it while I was buying CDs one day and hunted around for the album. Luckily, I found the disc and quickly purchased it. Upon getting into my car I loaded my new CD into the player, wondering what exactly was going to be coming out of the speakers. The first track on the CD, "Love So Pure," began to play, and I was immediately hooked.

From there I slowly began to build my collection -- at first courtesy of my friends, who'd get me Puffy CDs for my birthday or for holidays (my first Japanese issue Puffy CD was PRMX, given to me by one of my buddies as a Christmas gift); eventually I had some money saved up and began to puchase their CDs and DVDs for myself.

I've had varying success making web sites since 1999 (mostly dedicated to my drawings and artwork, though for the past few years I've been doing some work professionally), and -- as noted above -- there was a lack of English-language Puffy sites on the INTARWEB, so I decided to throw my hat into the ring.

If you have any comments, suggestions, whatever, just email me at:

Yes, there's a story behind that stupid email address, but it's not related to Puffy or terribly interesting (nor is it really important). Anyway, I do my best to respond to any email I get about this site (which isn't a whole lot, but still), and I'm always open to your comments and criticisms. But at the end of the day, remember that this is a site I run in my spare time, so there are bound to be errors from time to time. I apologize for any inaccuracies in advance.

If you really want to be bored out of your skull, you can check out Lists of Puffy Stuff I Own.

He's Making a Fan Site With His Friends

Though I do most of the work on this page (as it should be), there are a few dedicated (and extremely helpful) Puffy fans out there who have assisted me with various things in the past, and who continue to help out in any way they can. Though these people already know who they are, I thought a little recognition here for them might be a nice gesture.

I first met Anna P. on the old Tofu Records message board (before it became inundated with spam and finally shut down), where she went by the name "DoAsPuffy." Since Tofu went belly-up, Anna has kept in fairly regular contact with me, sending me links to Puffy videos, translating news items I've missed, and generally keeping me up-to-speed on things that I may not have known about otherwise -- all of which I pass on to whatever visitors I may have. She's really been an invaluable asset in keeping a lot of my news items updated.

Secondly, there's puffy715, another former regular from the Tofu boards. He, like Anna, has been very helpful in supplying me with information that I've overlooked -- whether it be current Puffy news, video links, and the like. He has his own web page dedicated to Puffy as well. He, too, has been very helpful in keeping things up-to-speed around here.

Next is Kelvin P., who was gracious enough to scan in a few of Puffy's single covers for use in my discography (as I don't own any of Puffy's early singles) completely out of the blue one day.

Lastly, for now, I also must mention Tim B., Vu and An Anonymous Japanese PUFFY Fan (that's how they signed their email, anyway ^__^), who have also helped out with various bits and pieces of this page at one time or another.

To all the people listed above, you have my sincere and deepest thanks. If anyone I've thanked would like me to add something (or delete something), just email me and let me know.