HJ5 is a quintet: the four Harajuku Girls (Love, Angel, Music and Baby) with their leader G. Episodes follow the band members and Rudie overcoming obstacles preventing them from performing.

The show follows a teenage girl based on Gwen Stefani,[5] nicknamed G, and her friends Love, Angel, Music and Baby, as they form the up-and-coming band HJ5.

The band always manages to overcome challenges using their combined strengths: G's leadership, Love's intelligence, Angel's creativity, Music's bravery, Baby's enthusiasm and Rudie's determination.

A villain named General NoFun and his assistant, Commander Bo-Ring, often cause problems for HJ5 as they pursue a world without any entertainment.

Other supporting characters include Twisty T, a famous music producer whom Rudie is desperate to impress; Say-Wah, an obsessed HJ5 fan who wants to join the band; Colonel Spyke, a stern soldier who dislikes pop music; and Mauve Madison, a talk show host who reports on HJ5.

[6] Gwen Stefani initially proposed a Harajuku Girls television show or movie after the release of her 2004 studio album Love.

[7] In Stefani's words, she "wanted to do an animated or live-action Harajuku TV show or movie since the conception of my [first] dance record.

"[9] During a January 2014 interview with Women's Wear Daily, Gwen Stefani first revealed that the show had been greenlit by Network Ten and that fifty-two episodes were in development.

Four of the series' main characters (Love, Angel, Music and Baby) were modelled after Stefani's Harajuku Girl backup dancers, with body adjustments in order to give them "a modern update for a younger audience.

In summary, however, Ashby called the cartoon "pretty mindless, and there are better choices for role models for this age group, but it's entertaining nonetheless.

"[26] Rae Alexandra of KQED criticized the decision to portray the Harajuku Girls as racially ambiguous, suggesting that "it seems Stefani (or network executives) thought the best way to deal with the overt cultural appropriation was simply 'let's not have them be Asian anymore.

'"[27] Likewise, Teresa Jusino of Dan Abrams' The Mary Sue called negative attention to the characters' races, writing, "I notice that the Harajuku Girls are all different colors.