Parappa the Rapper

The PaRappa the Rapper franchise started with the release of the rhythm game PaRappa The Rapper on December 6, 1996. With the millennium switch of 1999-2000, second game Um Jammer Lammy came out. A year later, in 2001, the PaRappa The Rapper animation started airing. In the same year, the third game, Parappa the Rapper 2 was released.

Characters

• PaRappa the Rapper - PaRappa is a dog who loves to rap and is the protagonist of the series. He often finds himself in a pickle, but he just picks himself up with his catchphrase, "I gotta believe!" and figures out a solution. He has a crush on his friend, Sunny Funny, and will often go to great lengths in order to win her love, even if it just ends up making matters worse. He appears as a playable character in the fighting game, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale.
• Sunny Funny - Sunny is a flower and is PaRappa's main love interest. She is also the daughter of General Potter, an army general. She generally keeps an innocent demeanor and a positive outlook on things. She too has feelings for Parappa and generally likes him the way he is. She is however most impressed when Parappa appears to shown signs of manliness, although this is attributed to PaRappa needing the bathroom.
• Katy Kat - Katy is a cat who is good friends with Parappa, Sunny and PJ. She is generally kind-hearted and will generally encourage her friends. She generally has a love for disco and dancing. In Um Jammer Lammy she forms a rock band called Milkcan alongside Lammy and Ma-san, of which she is the band's vocalist and bassist. Her style of singing is very much country-style.
• PJ Berri, PJ is a teddy bear and PaRappa's best friend. His general demeanor is that of a very dopey bear with a big appetite, usually thinking of food in the most inappropriate moments. He also has a very poor idea of what counts as 'rock n roll'. However, he has a secret identity as PJ the DJ, in which he puts on a pair of shades and acts as one of the best DJs at Club Fun.
• Chop Chop Master Onion, Chop Chop is a karate instructor with a large smelly green onion for ahead. Running the Fruites Dojo, he teaches a group of tamanegi, as well as Parappa, the ways of karate and how 'It's all in the mind.' In Um Jammer Lammy, he appears in Lammy's dream, in which he tells her that his dojo went out of business. However, the dojo remained in his mind, complete with its own casino, which serves as Lammy's inspiration for the game. In PaRappa the Rapper 2, he hosts a show called 'Romantic Karate' in which he teaches viewers karate as a method of expressing love. He is the only teacher to appear in all three games, as well as the only character whose voice actor appears in both the games and anime.
• Instructor Mooselini, Mooselini is a moose and a driving school instructor, who teaches Parappa how to drive in order to get his license. While generally serious about her work, she sometimes forgets to close the car door and gets her antlers stuck on the roof.
• Prince Fleaswallow, Fleaswallow is a metaphorical frog who runs a flea market. When Parappa needs money to fix his Dad's car, he becomes his tutor and teaches him how to make money through his easy-going reggae beats. Fleaswallow manages to build himself up and now runs a music store, which appears briefly in Um Jammer Lammy.
• Cheap Cheap the Cooking Chicken, Cheap Cheap is, as the name suggests, a chicken who specializes in cooking. Her cooking show is aimed at people who need to make delicious food on a small budget. She is somehow able to come out of the TV to congratulate Parappa on his successful cake.
• MC King Kong Mushi, MC King Kong Music is a bug who is the Master of Ceremonies at Club Fun. Not a lot is known about him, but he appears at the end of PaRappa and PaRappa 2 in order to celebrate Parappa's victory, even giving him a chance to rap solo.
• Joe Chin, Joe Chin is a well-built dog and Parappa's rival for Sunny Funny's love. He is arguably the game's antagonist, and makes several attempts to woo Sunny with his heroic nature and expensive things, but Sunny is turned off by his pompous attitude and overlong speeches. Nonetheless, Parappa is generally intimidated by him and strives to impress Sunny. In UmJammer Lammy, he opens up a variety of businesses ranging from forestation projects to chainsaw chains and giant laptops, advertising with the phrase "Buy it now, and I mean NOW!. He also makes brief appearances in many stages of PaRappa the Rapper 2.
• Papa Parappa, Papa Parappa is Parappa's father, generally depicted as a working man complete with tie and hat. He first appears in PaRappa the Rapper when his car is borrowed. and subsequently destroyed, by Parappa ten minutes after he had gotten his driving license. In PaRappa the Rapper 2, it is revealed that he is an inventor, who works with General Potter to figure out a solution for the noodle outbreak, accidentally building a shrink ray in the process. He eventually discovers that the weakness of noodles is sweets, which eventually restores PaRappa Town to its worth.
• Lammy, Lammy is a lamb who is the lead guitarist of Milkcan and the main protagonist of UmJammer Lammy. She is normally a very shy and timid girl who has trouble with various things and lacks a lot of faith in herself. The only time she isn't like this is when she has a guitar in her hands, where she becomes completely confident with a bold playing style. On the night before Milkcan's big concert, she has a dream in which she performs alongside Chop Chop Master Onion until she realizes she's been playing a vacuum cleaner all this time. Chop Chop mentions that he had lost his dojo, but it remained in his mind along with its own casino. Following this dream, Lammy is thrown into a series of events getting in the way of reaching her concert in time. Whenever she sees or hears mention of a casino, she is reminded of Chop Chop's words and envisions whatever she's holding as a guitar, allowing her to have the confidence she has when playing. She reappears in PaRappa the Rapper 2, although she isn't playable, and doesn't appear in the anime.
• Ma-san, Ma-san is Milkcan's drummer and is depicted as a rodent with a stick of dynamite lodged in her head. Whenever she is frustrated, the dynamite's fuse lights and she goes into a frenzy of drumming, usually leading to something being destroyed. She is generally pessimistic and speaks in gibberish which can only be deciphered if the game's subtitles are turned on, but is incredibly strong. She is supposedly a bookworm, whose favorite subjects are mysticism and economics, and her father owns the local pharmacy.
• Chief Puddle, Chief Puddle is a dalmatian firefighter. His job is to put out fires while holding off the public, though he also enjoys the rewards that come with the job, especially if they're edible.
• Cathy Piller, Cathy Pillar is a caterpillar midwife whose multiple arms come in handy when it comes to looking after babies, but has the rather disgusting habit of spewing pink goo everywhere. When Lammy binges on pizza, Cathy mistakes her for a pregnant woman and drags her into her nursery. When she realizes the truth, she forces Lammy to help keep the babies quiet. The baby Cathy carries is voiced by Kemba Francis.

Captain Fussenpepper, Fussenpepper is a schizophrenic airplane pilot whose personality changes whenever he is hit on the head by a loose control panel. At some times, he is a strict man with all the ferocity of a drill sergeant. At others, he is a dopey idiot who can't tell his right hand from his left. He has a cameo appearance on the options screen in Parappa 2.

Paul Chuck, Paul Chuck is a beaver who runs a guitar store. However, when Lammy comes to his store having left her own guitar back on the plane, the store is empty, and Lammy and Paul have to make a new guitar from scratch. While Paul Chuck appears like a fearsome person, he can be seen as having a jolly personality when it comes to chopping down trees. However, he has a hatred for Joe Chin's brand of chains.

Teriyaki Yoko, Teriyaki Yoko is a bug diva who toured Hell (or an island in the U.S. version) in the game's storyline. When Lammy slips on a banana peel and lands in Hell (or snags her clothes on a doorknob and launched onto the island), she is recruited by her manager to fill in for her regular guitarist. Yoko allowed Lammy to return to the MilkCan concert on the condition that she plays well in the song. Although usually nice, Yoko can be ill-tempered, going as far as jolting Lammy with lightning if she screws up, until she threatens to ban her from every video game (even this one).

Rammy, Rammy is Lammy's evil twin. Her appearance is similar to Lammy's except for being completely black and white, playing guitar right-handed (Lammy is left-handed), and having a much bossier attitude. After a series of mishaps cause her to be late for Yoko's concert, only to find Lammy had stolen her job, Rammy demands to see who the better guitarist is, (leading to the game's versus modes), but Lammy flees in Yoko's teleportation machine. In Japanese, her name is a pun on the word ura, which means "reversed", since she is the polar opposite of Lammy. An additional pun could be urami, meaning "grudge" or "jealousy".

Beard Burger Master, Beard Burger Master is the deceased owner of Beard Burgers, a restaurant in PaRappa Town. When everything in the store starts turning into noodles, he returns from his eternal rest in order to teach Parappa how to make a traditional beard burger. In a promotional demo of the game made for McDonald's, his restaurant is depicted as a McDonald's restaurant.

Guru Ant, Guru Ant is a smooth-talking ant that PaRappa and company encounters when they are all shrunken by Papa PaRappa's shrink ray. He is generally cool, composed and wise. However, when the shrink ray makes him and Parappa extremely huge, he becomes all panicky and makes desperate pleas to return to his regular size.

Instructor Moosesha, Moosesha is a drill sergeant and Mooselini's sister. When Parappa and PJ decide to join the army to fight off the Noodle Empire, she decides to train them into becoming true soldiers, by training them in several areas such as roller-skating, rope jumping and rock climbing. Hairdresser Octopus, Hairdresser Octopus is just like his name suggests, an octopus who cuts hair. He is normally blue and is a skilled hairdresser. However, when he is hypnotized by a musical device, he turns red and becomes crazed by the music, given everyone afros that even increase in size. He is returned to normal when the hypnotic device is destroyed.

Colonel Noodle, Colonel Noodle is the son of Beard Burger Master, the leader of the Noodle Syndicate, and the antagonist of PaRappa the Rapper 2. Living in a burger family, all Noodle ever got to eat was burgers, which made him hated by all the other kids. Upon discovering noodles, he becomes obsessed with them (hence his nickname) and decides to have them take over the world. Using an army of remote controlled robot, he uses various devices to turn everything in town into noodles. Parappa eventually managed to convince him that there are other foods out there. General Potter, General Potter is the head of PaRappa Town's military forces, as well as Sunny Funny's father. He has a small appearance in PaRappa the Rapper where he allows Sunny to go on a date with Parappa. In PaRappa 2, he works with Papa Parappa to figure out a solution for the noodle dilemma, though is none too happy to be shrunken. Potter later recruits Parappa and PJ into the army, and then using the noodle's opposing element, sweets, leads an attack against the Noodle empire.

Boxy Boy, Boxy Boy is a talking stereo player. While seen periodically during the course of PaRappa the Rapper, he has a much more prominent role in PaRappa 2 where he acts as the player's guide during practice segments and versus modes. In the anime, he is generally called on Parappa to give his friends advice, but his words seem to be a bit dubious most of the time. He appears in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale as one of PaRappa's attacks.

Paula Fox, Paula is a fox and one of Sunny's friends, although she generally acts as something of a rival to Katy. She has a crush on PJ the DJ at one point.

Matt Major, Matt is one of PJ's friends from Club Fun. He has a love for sports, particularly basketball.

Gaster, Gaster is a mischievous rabbit who always stirs up trouble for Parappa and his friends. He dreams of becoming rich, although these thoughts tend to grow so huge that they literally fall on top of him.

Groober, Groober is a dopey cat who generally accompanies Gaster on his schemes.

Pinto Rappa, Pinto is Parappa's little sister. She is generally seen carrying along a lunch box containing a strange creature named Uee.

Rain Shyman, Rain is a minor character in the PaRappa The Rapper (anime). He makes numerous appearances in the show when Parappa and co. are working in class. Rain is a man who is about to be married the day after he teaches Parappa and friends however, his wife is never seen in the show nor is mentioned afterwards. Rain is a blue dog who wears a formal work shirt, blue jeans and brown work shoes. He is very scared of children and doesn't like to be seen around in public.

Mrs. Hippo, Mrs. Hippo is a minor hippo character from the PaRappa The Rapper anime series. She’s usually short tempered, and within the group of main teachers, usually acts as a leader. She makes numerous appearances in the show when Parappa and co. are working in class.

Bob G., Bob G. is a reptilian minor character in the PaRappa The Rapper (anime). He’s very loud, short tempered and gets annoyed throughout the shows as his students often compare him to a dinosaur. He makes numerous appearances in the show when Parappa and co. are working in class.

Sweety Bancha, Sweety is an obscure character, having had only a still-image cameo in game and one episode dedicated to her in the animation, never to be seen nor mentioned again.