In October of 1999 while Morning Musume made it to the highest ranks of the Oricon charts with their single LOVE MACHINE and the new recruit Gotoh Maki gaining incredible popularity, producer Tsunku and TV show "Asayan" (which had followed the girl band's adventures since its making) announced a new sub-band from Morning Musume, a year after Tanpopo. Although the new band did not yet have a name, its line-up was already known: Yasuda Kei and Ichii Sayaka would accompany Gotoh Maki. The day after the announcement, a weekly radio show on TOKYO FM began, but it took some "Asayan" shows before a name was chosen for the trio. After suggestions such as Kon-Moni or Yan-Moni, the band officially became Pucchimoni, or Petit Moni, the transcription varying according to official products. From the end of the month, a track was chosen for the first single, Chokotto LOVE, and the three girls began working on their new project, which became concrete at the end of November 1999 with the effective release of the maxi-single.
Tsunku's team intended to lean as much as possible on Morning Musume's LOVE MACHINE; even though Ichii Sayaka was established as the leader when we thought it would be Gotoh Maki, the song Chokotto LOVE was musically subjected to Morning Musume's hit, resulting in a highly colorful, delirious and nutty track. The music video is thought of as a continuation of LOVE MACHINE, where the Pucchimoni's little yellow plane chases the main girl band's pink UFO.
Its success was immediate, and Japanese fans enjoyed performing the track when singing karaoke, reproducing the special choreography associated with the song. The maxi-single hit number one on the charts and became a million copy seller in February 2000.
However, at the same time the band got this initial huge success, it was confronted with some significant changes: Ichii Sayaka left Hello! Project in May, but the following month, Tsunku chose a fresh new Morning Musume. member to stand in for her, Yoshizawa Hitomi. He made Yasuda Kei the new leader and brought a new single to this second Pucchimoni generation, Seishun Jidai 1.2.3 !. Surprisingly, in this release they left the festive sound of that era of Hello! Project's productions, venturing into the dangerous territory of Tsunku-like R&B, including its so called rap lines. It proved to be another great success though, and Seishun Jidai 1.2.3 ! ranked number one as well, even though sales only reached half of Chokotto LOVE's, with near 480,000 copies sold.
2001 continued with two new singles. Closer to the original spirit of Chokotto LOVE, BABY! Koi ni KNOCK OUT came out in February, offering a track with a dance sound, and they also released Pittari Shitai X'mas, a classic pop song meant for the Christmas holiday. Once again, these releases enjoyed a fair amount of success, selling 430,000 and 300,000 copies respectively.
At the same time they went on their weekly radio show on TOKYO FM, the band also performed live frequently. The three girls were completely at ease on stage, which fostered a good impression among fans who followed Hello! Project's activities.
However, 2002 signaled the beginning of Pucchimoni's decline. Tsunku suddenly decided to make a major reorganization of his bands' line-ups and announced that Gotoh Maki and Yasuda Kei would leave Morning Musume. and Pucchimoni for solo careers. A compilation album of already released singles and B-sides became available in August, achieving only moderate success, selling 109,000 copies. Makenai Maketakunai, the only new track on this album (excluding two unconventional medleys from a 2001 aerobic video) was designated as this second generation's final single. Its was scheduled to go on sale in October, but ultimately it was never released.
To accompany the only remaining member Yoshizawa Hitomi in Pucchimoni's third generation, Tsunku chose Morning Musume.'s fifth generation member Ogawa Makoto, and also Ayaka, a girl from a more confidential band, Coconuts Musume.. Although the new trio performed a fresh new track, WOW WOW WOW, on stage in January 2003, it would never be released as a single, remaining available only on one of Hello! Project's yearly compilation albums. This gave fans the image of a band totally abandoned by its producer.
These fans aren't wrong. Excluding a DVD compilation of the band's old music videos, no new material would be released, as evidently Tsunku completely forgot about Pucchimoni. It became a ghost band which lived only through isolated covers of its songs at Hello! Projects concerts, as in January 2006, when all the members of Pucchimoni's three generations (with the exception of Ichii Sayaka, who had completely left Hello! Project) revived BABY! Koi ni KNOCK-OUT at the Hello! Project ~Zen'in shuu GO!~ concert.
Ogawa Makoto left H!P in August of 2006, Ayaka in April 2008 and Yoshizawa Hitomi, having graduated from Morning Musume., is now looking towards a solo carrier. Puccchimoni has no members anymore and will obviously never come back to life, even though there has been no official announcement of a dissolution from the producer.
