YUMI YOSHIMURA TALKS TEEN TITANS

SAN DIEGO -- Japanese pop duo Puffy AmiYumi have contributed the bouncy theme song to Cartoon Network's Teen Titans animated series and are including the track on their new album, Nice, which reaches stores on Aug. 12.

"I was a big fan of Andy's work with Jellyfish," Teen Titans producer Glen Murakami said of Puffy AmiYumi's producer Andy Sturmer. "When I talked to him about doing the theme song, I mentioned that TV shows don't have theme songs any more. So we talked about the Monkees or the old Adam West Batman or even the old Spider-Man song.

"A lot of that 60s, surf-guitar style is part of the feel we wanted for the show."

One half of the group, Yumi Yoshimura, attended the recent Comic-Con International's Cartoon Network panel and fielded some question regarding the group's involvement.

QUESTION: How does it feel to have done the theme song?

YUMI: I have loved animation all my life. So being asked to do this was an awesome, awesome thing.

QUESTION: Is it interesting to see how much anime has influenced American culture?

YUMI: I am very shocked about how much people know about anime. Shock and awe.

QUESTON: Have you been accosted by fanboys?

YUMI: Yes, I've been taking photograph with all the people around. It's been a lot of fun.

QUESTION: How did you go about making the music for Teen Titans, knowing you had to make it for Americans?

YUMI: Andy Sturmer from Jellyfish is our producer and he came up with the melody part of it. We were very conscious that it had to be cool and charming and cute. And all of those parts of the song had to be there. We felt we came up with a good song that fit the whole concept of Teen Titans. We were thinking about it the whole process.