My Life Me (Teen anime)

[MrTerrorist]

Has anyone ever heard of this new Animesque series?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DAehvy1PJc

Synopsis from TV-Loonland:

Riding the wave of the worldwide success story of Manga comic books but with a completely new graphic look and off-beat effects, this animated sitcom is truly original. Driven by its characters and a healthy dose of comedy, My Life Me provides a privileged insight into tween life. The show follows budding comic book artist 13-year-old Birch Small, as she tries to strike a balance between her dreamy life in pictures and living in reality. Our main protagonists, Birch, Sandra, Raffi and Liam, didn't choose to be friends with each other, but were thrown together in their High School's 'Pod program' instead. As a result they all have to navigate new social terrain.' Through the use of black and white animated comic book panels representing the points of view of the characters, both the kids' reactions and the comedy are blown way out of proportion ! All sorts of original visual effects inspired by Manga comic books also allow expressing in a very visual and comedic way the extreme feelings tweens go through as indeed, an image is worth a thousand words ! Far from being picture-perfect, the lives of Birch and her three "Podmates", are still rough sketches. When they paint themselves into a corner they soon realize that, unlike in the comic-book world, you can't simply erase and start over in life, but you sure can add lots of color.

- Animation technique: Digital Hybrid 2D/3D
- Audience: 7-11 year olds
- Created by JC Little, Cindy Filipenko & Svetlana Chmakova
- Design by Svetlana Chmakova
- Directed by JC Little, co-directed by Nicolas Blard

After seeing the TV ads and some snippets about this show, I kinda like it. I also love the anime art style since it's being done by Dramacon's Svetlana Chmakova. I hope it airs at where i'm at.


My Life Me TV Looland website
My Life Me Official website
Animation Insider articles:
'My Life Me' Animation from TV-Loonland
'My Life Me' Animation Now in New Hands

[Kaze]

I don't know...
American-ish anime?
I always cringe at the sight of it.
Nickelodeon is chalk full of this stuff.

Brrrr


*Edit*

Watched the trailer a couple of times.
For one, it almost looks like they stole Ikari Shinji (Neon Genesis Evangelion)'s character design for that guy in the blue shirt and they changed Asuka Langley's hairstyle for the blonde / redhead in the show.
The backgrounds look like they are made out of cardbord and seem lifeless (Most of the American "anime's" have this feature though)

[Mute]

Ew terrible artwork/animation. Kill it..

[darkchibi07]

Did I hear Laura Bailey in this one?

[synaesthetic]

Originally Posted by darkchibi07

Did I hear Laura Bailey in this one?

If it's not her, it sure as hell sounded like her.

[darkchibi07]

Originally Posted by synaesthetic

If it's not her, it sure as hell sounded like her.

Hell, for some reason voices sound really familiar. Obviously it's dubbed in LA, but they sound like the usual stalwarts you hear from other dubbed anime series.

[sa547]

It's up in my country, but I haven't seen it yet in full.

Originally Posted by Kaze

Watched the trailer a couple of times.
For one, it almost looks like they stole Ikari Shinji (Neon Genesis Evangelion)'s character design for that guy in the blue shirt and they changed Asuka Langley's hairstyle for the blonde / redhead in the show.
The backgrounds look like they are made out of cardbord and seem lifeless (Most of the American "anime's" have this feature though)

Seems that it's a trend for some studios to use Sadamoto's character design style, as I think it's more familiar.

[Tsuyoshi]

Hmm, it doesn't really interest me. US cartoon makers never really could capture the core of what makes a good anime. They're only good at editing and/or censoring it. T_T

[Repelsteeltju]

Please kill it with fire. Set it ablaze!

JUST KEEP IT AWAY FROM MEEE!

[Kaijo]

Jumping on the "bad animation" and "kill it with fire" bandwagon. Not seeing anything new, so if it wants my attention with bad animation, it has to do more than follow anime tropes.

[diabolistic]

The only cartoon that pulled off the "flash animation" style was samurai jack... he was such a badass.

This just looks like lazy art direction..

[Hooves]

I really don't like to say bad things.... But... Please.... (Kill it with fire!)

I feel bad saying that..

[Master_Yoma]

Looks like it can be interesting if I can remember to watch it

[Kudryavka]

Originally Posted by Kaze

I don't know...
American-ish anime?
I always cringe at the sight of it.
Nickelodeon is chalk full of this stuff.

Brrrr


*Edit*

Watched the trailer a couple of times.
For one, it almost looks like they stole Ikari Shinji (Neon Genesis Evangelion)'s character design for that guy in the blue shirt and they changed Asuka Langley's hairstyle for the blonde / redhead in the show.
The backgrounds look like they are made out of cardbord and seem lifeless (Most of the American "anime's" have this feature though)

Canadian =/= American-ish.

Plotline looks bland, not to mention I'm not a fan of tweens' awkwardness and faux life dramas, but the art is interesting. I'd like to see some animation, I'm intrigued by the advertised mix of 2D and 3D, not to mention Svetlana's char designs don't look easy to animate.

The official website is stuck on one page and blares annoyingly loud music, anyone else getting that?

::edit::

Spoiler for trailer:

Ugh, not more unoriginal Flash animation... Def won't watch now...

[Marcus H.]

This one is also shown in Disney Channel Southeast Asia.

Actually, I don't have any qualms when it comes to the character design (I only complain about it when the series should be demonstrating a certain level of realism). It even coincides with the "sketchy" character profiles and "equally sketchy" plot.

Yes, French animation (like Marathon) is highly superior to this one, but I don't think it's trying to be at par with anything at this point.

Hmm, it doesn't really interest me. US cartoon makers never really could capture the core of what makes a good anime. They're only good at editing and/or censoring it. T_T

Unfortunately, sometimes they are even bad at both editing and censorship. You know what happened to Yu-gi-oh! 5Ds when it was released in NorthAm, do you?

[Kudryavka]

Now that I think about it, what US animesque shows were bad? I think of Teen Titans and Avatar, but even though the former was a bit too "anime influenced", they were both awesome in their own right. Even Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi was halfway decent. Only animesque shows I know that suck are Kappa Mikey, that one show with the Chinatown teenage kung fu people, and this new show looks like, which were all made in Canada. I'm probably just forgetting, but what US animesque shows were actually bad (and actually American)?

[Fome]

Japanese animation isn't just a style--it's a production paradigm. The way Japanese anime is drawn and animated, stemming from a historically lower budget, is fundamentally different from the methods of most western studios. That is why you can't just make character designs with spikey hair, big wet eyes, small mouths, and pointy chins, and hope that it will resemble anime. It's the very animation tech that is different, more so than the character proportions. Even if there is a strong semblance in still shots, any person acquainted with anime will feel an uncomfortable disconnect as soon as the images start moving. To me, it's a kind of "uncanny valley" almost.

[Kudryavka]

Originally Posted by Fome

Japanese animation isn't just a style--it's a production paradigm. The way Japanese anime is drawn and animated, stemming from a historically lower budget, is fundamentally different from the methods of most western studios. That is why you can't just make character designs with spikey hair, big wet eyes, small mouths, and pointy chins, and hope that it will resemble anime. It's the very animation tech that is different, more so than the character proportions. Even if there is a strong semblance in still shots, any person acquainted with anime will feel an uncomfortable disconnect as soon as the images start moving. To me, it's a kind of "uncanny valley" almost.

Yeah, animesque shows end up having much more actual animation than anime from Japan, probably why it looks different. Not just still faces and Clutch Cargo mouths (motionless chin).

I would honestly like to see a western show that accurately emulates Japanese animation, if that's what they're going for. Put more work into the art itself, and kinda let the animation slide past (something that My Life Me has failed at, especially the former).

[Marcus H.]

Maybe check out either Martin Mystery or Totally Spies! by Marathon. In my honest opinion, they join ATLA and Teen Titans among the top-notch animesque shows I've watched. There's also Shaolin Wuzang, but I dunno from which animation company that came from, but it's also up there in the animation quality scale.

I dunno about the WITCH TV Show, though. (But "This show is also notable for totally avoiding many tropes found in the action genre," according to TVTropes.)

[JMvS]

Ugh... my eyes! my ears! my mind!!!!

Animesque western animation is making my hearth bleed... okay I admit Teen Titan and Totally Spies were kinda tolerable.

But give me back the 80's and 90's series production qualities! With its distinct western animation, and all those awesomely great franco-japanese collaborations.