Lo-Fi Girl

The Lo-Fi Girl (also called the Lo-Fi Study Girl[1] or the "24/7 lofi hip hop beats" girl[2]) is an animated character created by Colombian student Juan Pablo Machado for the ChilledCow channel on YouTube. Having become a Internet meme, the Lo-Fi Girl has been viewed over 218 million times.[3]

The Lo-Fi Girl, studying in winter.

History

The ChilledCow YouTube Channel was created by a user named Dimitri, who started it as a way to stream lo-fi hip hop songs to which people could study. Dimitri chose the character of Shizuku Tsukishima from the Studio Ghibli film Whisper of the Heart as the face of the channel, with footage of her studying or writing used in the streams. When the popularity of the streams ultimately led to some getting taken down for copyright violations, Dimitri decided to maintain the Ghibli-esque aesthetic but with an original character and put out a call for artists.[4]

One of the artists who responded was Juan Pablo Machado. Originally from Colombia, Machado moved to Lyon in 2013, to study at the Émile-Cohl design school, after a stint at the art school of Bogota. In September 2018, during his last year of his Master's degree, he decided to respond to a call for tenders received by his school.[5] The tender from ChilledCow called for a "student busy revising for her classes, with Miyazaki-esque visuals." Machado, who was not previously familiar with lo-fi aesthetic, decided to send in his sketches.[5][6] Several positions were tested for the Lo-Fi Girl, including a lying position, at the end of which she would return to her initial position; this did not carry over into the final product, because it took too long to animate.[5] The background was also originally just plain black, in order to save animation time. But Machado eventually decided to make La Croix-Rousse appear in the window instead.

ChilledCow began using the Lo-Fi Girl for their streams on 19 March 2018. She quickly went viral, and was established as an Internet meme.[5]

The Lo-Fi Girl, localised to Scotland as an example of the September 2020 trend.

Lo-Fi Girl has been widely referenced in popular culture. An example is contained within Steven Universe, where the character Connie is depicted studying in the same pose and environment as the Girl.[7] In September 2020, a trend started on Reddit whereby the Lo-Fi Girl would be redrawn to match the context of a certain country or place.[1]

During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, Daxed Digital writer Sophia Atkinson referred to Lo-Fi Girl as a "social distancing role model", it seemingly being "crystal clear that the anime girl was always operating in a post-coronavirus reality".[2]

See also

References
  1. "People Edit The "Lo-Fi Study Girl" Into Versions From Different Countries Full Of Original Details (30 Pics)". Bored Panda. Retrieved 2020-09-17.
  2. Dazed (2020-03-23). "The '24/7 lo-fi hip hop beats' girl is our social distancing role model". Dazed. Retrieved 2020-10-15.
  3. Alexander, Julia (2020-02-24). "YouTube briefly terminated a popular live stream channel, creating one of the longest videos ever". The Verge. Retrieved 2020-10-15.
  4. Freedman, Maxwell. "You Can Thank Studio Ghibli for YouTube's Lofi Anime Study Girl". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
  5. https://actu.fr/auvergne-rhone-alpes/lyon_69123/pop-culture-lofi-girl-live-youtube-lofi-hip-hop-radio-habite-lyon_32988561.html%5B%5D
  6. "L'actu des alumni // They customise the major platforms of lo-fi hip hop". École Émile COHL. 2020-05-08. Retrieved 2020-09-07.
  7. "8 Nerdy Lofi Beats, Ambient Sounds, And Meditations To Chill The Heck Out". Gizmodo Australia. 2020-04-19. Retrieved 2020-09-17.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.