short live-action segments taped in Japan. The show also featured some of Puffy's music. Cartoon Network's Japan service started airing episodes of the series (in English with Japanese subtitles) in 2005. In October of that year, TV Tokyo began airing a Japanese-dubbed version of the series, which eventually also went to CN Japan on January 8, 2006. Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi also debuted in other countries such as Mexico, dubbed in Spanish, and Brazil, dubbed in Brazilian Portuguese, both transmitted on Cartoon Network. Yumi said in an interview with LiveDaily: Puffy AmiYumi made an appearance and performed in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2005 where they were also represented by their own Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi float and balloon. On January 16, 2006 Ami and Yumi were appointed goodwill ambassadors to the United States as part of the Japanese government's campaign to encourage tourism in Japan. They kicked off their 10th anniversary tour in Japan on April 14, 2006, then toured the East Coast of the United States with the PuffyAmiYumi Tour '06 Splurge! Splurge! Splurge! from July 8 to July 19, 2006, coinciding with the premiere of their new television show, Hi Hi PUFFY Bu. Ami and Yumi also performed cameo voice overs in an episode of the 2011 anime series, Usagi Drop, which aired on July 8, 2011. They also performed the opening theme to the anime. Musical style Their music has been largely a collaboration between producer Tamio Okuda, American singer-songwriter Andy Sturmer, and Ami and Yumi themselves. Ami and Yumi's vocals have been likened to U.S. vocal sister group The Roches. They often sing whole songs together with harmonies and their sound borrows heavily from The Beatles and other artists such as ABBA, The Who, and The Carpenters. Both Ami and Yumi themselves have openly admitted that their music is hard to put into just one genre because of the many different influences. Influences They have mentioned Okuda, The Blue Hearts, Boom Boom Satellites, and Blankey Jet City as their main influences, and named their album Jet CD after Blankey Jet City. Backing band members Fumio Yanagisawa - lead guitar, backing vocals Takeshi Tsuji - keyboards, backing vocals Hiroharu Kinoshita - bass, backing vocals Takashi Furuta - drums, percussion Junichi Fujimoto - rhythm guitar Discography AmiYumi (1996) SoloSolo (1997) Jet CD (1998) Fever Fever (1999) Spike (2000) The Hit Parade (2002) Nice. (2003) 59 (2004)