Yumi Yoshimura MC's Girl Pop Factory 08

I'd never have predicted it based on Puffy's first TV appearance on Hey! Hey! Hey! way back in 1996, and even through their early "Papapapa Puffy" episodes, but Yumi's actually become a pretty good host and interviewer. She's doing it solo more often these days - maybe setting herself up for a new career?

This was GIRL POP FACTORY 08, which aired on Fuji TV September 5. Some of you might like to watch the Perfume performance, but if you want to skip to the good stuff, Yumi's interview segment starts at about the 2:28 mark:


The thing about both Ami and Yumi is that neither one of them really does that whole cutesy thing that most Japanese female singers do (including Perfume a little bit, so you can see the contrast right here. No, most Japanese girls don't really sound like that! I guess it's supposed to appeal to males and young girls). It's somewhat ironic, given Puffy's reputation in the United States. But they just reject that whole artifice; they seem incapable of acting any way other than naturally. And that's what makes them such good hosts, and so interesting to watch.

There seem to be five parts to this if you want to find the rest on YouTube - I haven't watched them all, so I don't know yet how much Yumi there is in the remaining parts.