use JSON;
use Data::Dump "dump";

dump( other_way() ); # This will show the anonymous structure.

print "JSON: ", to_json( other_way() ), $/;

sub other_way {
    my %user1 = ( username => "paco",
                  fish => "Sunfish" );
    my %user2 = ( username => "YourUncle",
                  fish => "Coelacanth" );
    my %user3 = ( username => "hiragana",
                  fish => "Monkfish" );
    my %user4 = ( username => "MosaicNL",
                  fish => "Sixgill Shark" );
    my @users = ( \%user1, \%user2, \%user3, \%user4 );

    return \@users;
}