PaRappa the Rapper (TV series)

PaRappa the Rapper (パラッパラッパー, PaRappa Rappā) is a 2001 Japanese anime television series based on NanaOn-Sha's PaRappa the Rapper video game series created by Masaya Matsuura and Rodney Greenblat. The series was produced by J.C.Staff and aired in Japan on Fuji TV between April 2001 and January 2002, running for thirty episodes. Episodes 29 and 30 aired together as a 1-hour special.

Summary
The series focuses on PaRappa, a dog who enjoys music and dancing and often spends time with his friends PJ Berri, Katy Kat, and the girl of his dreams, Sunny Funny. Along with various characters who make returning appearances from the video games, the anime introduces several new characters who are exclusive to the TV series. These include Matt Major, PJ's friend from Club Fun, Paula Fox, Sunny's friend who is rivals with Katy, Pinto, PaRappa's little sister, and Gaster and Groober, a villainous duo who cause all sorts of mischief.

Production
During the production of PaRappa the Rapper 2, Sony wanted to develop a PaRappa anime aimed at children in order to boost merchandise sales. The series was a joint production effort between Fuji TV, SME Visual Works, and J.C.Staff. Rodney Greenblat, the art director for the PaRappa games, was asked to design new characters who would appear in the anime. He was against the idea of the show being aimed towards children and instead wanted it to be aimed towards teenagers, but this did not end up happening. He was not allowed to work on the anime at all aside from the character design, as the anime team did not want anyone pulled away from the production of the second game. In an interview with Gamasutra, Greenblat voiced his frustration about the production of the anime.

Music
The series' soundtrack was composed by series designer Masaya Matsuura, along with Yoshihisa Suzuki and Yasushi Kurobane. The series uses four pieces of theme music; two opening themes and two ending themes. For the first fifteen episodes, the opening theme is "Love Together: PaRappa the Rapper MIX" (LOVE TOGETHER〜パラッパラッパーMIX〜) by Nona Reeves while the ending theme is "School Girl" by Bennie K. For episodes sixteen onwards, the opening theme is "Attitude" by Crystal Kay while the ending theme is "Yellow Balloon" (イエローバルーン, Ierō Barūn) by Chara. The original soundtrack was released in two volumes by Sony Music Entertainment on August 22, 2001 and December 19, 2001, respectively.