My Life Me
Encyclopedia
My Life Me is a Canadian-French animated television series created by JC Little, Cindy Filipenko and Svetlana Chmakova
. The teen slice-of-life comedy follows Birch Small, a manga
and anime
fan with aspirations of being a comic artist, as she tries to survive high school. The show features manga symbols such as sweatdrops, speech bubbles, and super-deformed chibi
characters.
. The series was a co-production between Canada and France. The episodes were animated using ToonBoom Harmony, and the animation was split episodically between Toutenkartoon in Montreal, Canada,
and Caribara in Angoulême, France. Backgrounds were created in Maya, then toonshaded, rendered and
imported into Harmony. The animators did a hybrid of digital and hand drawn to help the fluidity in the animation.
Animated digitally, manga aesthetics were given homage "using various comic book manga codes and language such as stylish black and white comic book panels dropping behind the characters to express their suppressed feelings on screen." Even before production began My Life Me was planned to be "developed as a lifestyle brand, there will be a licensing and merchandising program to support the brand with a strong emphasis on publishing, accessories, gifts, stationery, apparel as well as a strong online component with a fully interactive website currently in production." The planned delivery of the series, shorts, and website was fall 2009.
My Life Me was "at the top of [German co-production group TV-Loonland's] offering in the 2009 autumn TV markets". In early 2010, TV-Loonland filed for bankruptcy/insolvency and its assets were sold off. My Life Me, at the time still in production, was one of such properties. The series was acquired by Classic Media in February. Classic Media embraced the show with enthusiasm and took control of all media iterations of the property including the planned "heavily interactive" website. "Other than the television series, fifty-two eleven-minute episodes, the property is reported to include music video clips and more for mobile, online, and video on-demand distribution."
A young talented artist and manga fan. Birch is 13 years old making her younger than everyone else in her "pod". Birch has a crush on Raffi as hinted in a number of episodes, and is shown to be very familiar with almost anything involving art, including various historical artist names. Her interest in Raffi and trying to impress him has her often doing absurd things such as becoming vegetarian simply because Raffi was which conflicted with her love of fast foods, and meaty foods. She is also heavily interested with Japanese Manga and is usually seen drawing these comics in said style.
14 year old cousin of Birch. Very little is known about Liam other than he's very close to Birch as he's often seen in Birch's house for one reason or another, usually looking for a good time, his goofy personality often causes problems, even getting himself into a "duel" with another kid in school unintentionally, however his personal skills and specialties have their uses and can come out to help and often come out to help his "pod" in tight situations. He loves music, is easily jealous of Raffi over his popularity. Liam also expresses a rather continuous problem of being unable to "find himself" as that he can't find one thing he wants to be or one thing to fully define himself as he will often express a different hobby or interest in different episode. It's expressed that he's been doing this since grade 6. Like Birch, Liam is heavily into Manga, and contributes the plot and writing to Birch's illustrations.
A skateboarding fan, and highly athletic girl who likes to take things to the extreme, such as getting volunteer's to do a skateboard jump over. She's has a rather devious and somewhat sadistic personality, as she often will do things to earn the discomfort and embarrassment of others for her own entertain, and often would go so far as to try and get others including members of her "pod" to get angry at each other again for her own entertainment. She constantly denies of her "geek phase" that she had before, instead constantly bashing her own pod's geeky moments.
Love interest of Birch. Often considered the coolest guy in school he often gets chosen for events and fund raisers much to the jealousy of other males such as Liam. He is often concerned about his looks and often expresses that as his only concern at times. He's shown to care for Birch considerably, whether or not he reciprocates Birch's feelings has yet to be shown. One of the ways the official website has described him as, "would drive anyone crazy if he wasn't so darn nice".
, French broadcasters France 2
and Canal J
, KI.KA
("Der Kinderkanal" = "The Children's Channel") in Germany, Disney Channel Asia
(English Version) and Disney Channel Italy (dubbed in Italian).
Svetlana Chmakova
Svetlana Chmakova is a comic creator. She is best known for Dramacon, an original English-language manga spanning three volumes and published in North America by Tokyopop. Her other work includes the 2-page The Adventures of CG for CosmoGIRL! magazine and the webcomic Chasing Rainbows for...
. The teen slice-of-life comedy follows Birch Small, a manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
and anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
fan with aspirations of being a comic artist, as she tries to survive high school. The show features manga symbols such as sweatdrops, speech bubbles, and super-deformed chibi
Chibi
is a Japanese slang word meaning "short person" or "small child". The word has gained currency amongst fans of manga and anime. Its meaning is of someone or some animal that is small. It can be translated as "little", but is not used the same way as chiisana [小さな] but rather cute...
characters.
Production
My Life Me received a development deal in 2006 from TeletoonTélétoon (Canadian TV channel)
Télétoon is a Canadian French language Category A specialty channel that specializes in animation programming. Télétoon is owned by Teletoon Canada Inc; a 50/50 partnership between Astral Media and Corus Entertainment...
. The series was a co-production between Canada and France. The episodes were animated using ToonBoom Harmony, and the animation was split episodically between Toutenkartoon in Montreal, Canada,
and Caribara in Angoulême, France. Backgrounds were created in Maya, then toonshaded, rendered and
imported into Harmony. The animators did a hybrid of digital and hand drawn to help the fluidity in the animation.
Animated digitally, manga aesthetics were given homage "using various comic book manga codes and language such as stylish black and white comic book panels dropping behind the characters to express their suppressed feelings on screen." Even before production began My Life Me was planned to be "developed as a lifestyle brand, there will be a licensing and merchandising program to support the brand with a strong emphasis on publishing, accessories, gifts, stationery, apparel as well as a strong online component with a fully interactive website currently in production." The planned delivery of the series, shorts, and website was fall 2009.
My Life Me was "at the top of [German co-production group TV-Loonland's] offering in the 2009 autumn TV markets". In early 2010, TV-Loonland filed for bankruptcy/insolvency and its assets were sold off. My Life Me, at the time still in production, was one of such properties. The series was acquired by Classic Media in February. Classic Media embraced the show with enthusiasm and took control of all media iterations of the property including the planned "heavily interactive" website. "Other than the television series, fifty-two eleven-minute episodes, the property is reported to include music video clips and more for mobile, online, and video on-demand distribution."
Premise
Birch Small's school system requires her and her classmates, Liam, Sandra, and Raffi to work together in a group known around the school as a "Pod." The students don't get to choose who they are partnered up with; they must work together, despite their differences and shortcomings.Characters
- Birch Small
A young talented artist and manga fan. Birch is 13 years old making her younger than everyone else in her "pod". Birch has a crush on Raffi as hinted in a number of episodes, and is shown to be very familiar with almost anything involving art, including various historical artist names. Her interest in Raffi and trying to impress him has her often doing absurd things such as becoming vegetarian simply because Raffi was which conflicted with her love of fast foods, and meaty foods. She is also heavily interested with Japanese Manga and is usually seen drawing these comics in said style.
- Liam Coll
14 year old cousin of Birch. Very little is known about Liam other than he's very close to Birch as he's often seen in Birch's house for one reason or another, usually looking for a good time, his goofy personality often causes problems, even getting himself into a "duel" with another kid in school unintentionally, however his personal skills and specialties have their uses and can come out to help and often come out to help his "pod" in tight situations. He loves music, is easily jealous of Raffi over his popularity. Liam also expresses a rather continuous problem of being unable to "find himself" as that he can't find one thing he wants to be or one thing to fully define himself as he will often express a different hobby or interest in different episode. It's expressed that he's been doing this since grade 6. Like Birch, Liam is heavily into Manga, and contributes the plot and writing to Birch's illustrations.
- Sandra le Blanc (Stephanie Buxton)
A skateboarding fan, and highly athletic girl who likes to take things to the extreme, such as getting volunteer's to do a skateboard jump over. She's has a rather devious and somewhat sadistic personality, as she often will do things to earn the discomfort and embarrassment of others for her own entertain, and often would go so far as to try and get others including members of her "pod" to get angry at each other again for her own entertainment. She constantly denies of her "geek phase" that she had before, instead constantly bashing her own pod's geeky moments.
- Raffi Rodriguez
Love interest of Birch. Often considered the coolest guy in school he often gets chosen for events and fund raisers much to the jealousy of other males such as Liam. He is often concerned about his looks and often expresses that as his only concern at times. He's shown to care for Birch considerably, whether or not he reciprocates Birch's feelings has yet to be shown. One of the ways the official website has described him as, "would drive anyone crazy if he wasn't so darn nice".
Broadcast
It currently airs on Teletoon CanadaTélétoon (Canadian TV channel)
Télétoon is a Canadian French language Category A specialty channel that specializes in animation programming. Télétoon is owned by Teletoon Canada Inc; a 50/50 partnership between Astral Media and Corus Entertainment...
, French broadcasters France 2
France 2
France 2 is a French public national television channel. It is part of the state-owned France Télévisions group, along with France 3, France 4, France 5 and France Ô...
and Canal J
Canal J
Canal J is a French television network dedicated to children's programming. It is available through digital terrestrial television service 'TNT' and is aimed at children aged between 4 and 16 years old.-History:...
, KI.KA
KI.KA
KI.KA is a public non-commercial free television channel based in Erfurt, Germany. It is a joint venture of national public television channels ARD, and ARD's constituent broadcasting institutions – BR, HR, MDR, NDR, Radio Bremen, RBB, Saarländischer Rundfunk, SWR, WDR and ZDF, and is targeted at...
("Der Kinderkanal" = "The Children's Channel") in Germany, Disney Channel Asia
Disney Channel Asia
Disney Channel Asia, a franchise of Disney Channel, airs in most parts of Southeast Asia.- Programming :Disney Channel Asia airs a variety of shows, aimed particularly at children and teenagers. Most of the programming is similar to the American counterpart with some shows exclusive to the Asian...
(English Version) and Disney Channel Italy (dubbed in Italian).