My Life Me review

I don't know about you, but I really hate anime-inspired shows. To me, unless they're supposed to go with the plot of a series, it just tells me that they wasted money on the visuals and gave fuck all to the rest. But I do have some personal exceptions. The Boondocks' art style mostly resembles what was in the original comic strips, and it obviously has its own endearing charm. Kappa Mikey actually did something really original with it, done to differentiate American characters from Japanese ones, but where does today's show stand?

My Life Me is a Canadian-French animated series that aired between 2010 and 2011. It was created by Svetlana Chmakova, a Russian-born Canadian comic artist. Given her roots in the comic genre, it makes perfect sense why she'd go for such a detail-oriented style. Per familiar actors or companies, this show has little to none, unless you count that Justin Bradley, one of the voices of Arthur (from the eponymous show) and a prominent actor in Canada, lent his voice to one of the main characters.

The show aired on Teletoon (its French network included), which makes sense since Teletoon is used as a dumping ground for various types of cartoons. They throw anything at the wall to see if it sticks, and very few have stuck on the wall. While the show started in 2010 in France, in Canada, the show lasted throughout September for around 25 days. It has no DVD release, at least one that I know of, and English-language prints are rare on television.

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You hyped?

In its prime, what did people think of it? Well, during the time it aired it got a lot of unfavorable attention from 4Chan due to its anime aesthetic, it currently has a 3.1 on IMDb (but to show how useless that site is, the only genuine review is a 7/10 review. The others are by someone who hates anime, and Tommypezmaster. If you don't know who the latter is, just keep it that way. But in the end, the show was just unremarkable, and the only thing people saw for it was an easily exploitable manga making program. It was popular in Malaysia, Mexico and France, they didn't have the same kind of people who ejaculate to morals surely.

The show actually became lost for some time when it stopped airing cold turkey in 2015, okay not lost lost, but not every episode was available, at least in English. Until recently. All of the episodes have been found and are available for your viewing pleasure. I have seen a few and overall... it wasn't that bad.

Plot

The series centers on a quartet of teenagers who're paired together per a social construct (a "pod" as the series likes to put it.) Par the course for many tween/teen shows, these teens are radically different socially. First up is Birch Small, a manga and art enthusiast who may or may not be a stand in for the show's creator. She's not noteworthy, but she has enough flaws to keep her from being a slice of plain bread, okay at the very least she has something going toward her character.

Next is Sandra Le Blanc, a skateboarding enthusiast who resents the more geeky counterparts of her pod, and tends to be super sarcastic. Okay, I'm down with that, we all need sarcasm in our lives, and she doesn't hold back. Third is Liam, the token awkward geeky guy who tends to be headstrong when things seemingly play in his favor. Fair enough. Finally, there's Raffi, the token love interest of Birch, and one without much of a personality. He's the pretty boy of the series, do I really need to further summarize his character?

The framework of each episode is pretty basic, it's generally set in school and the issue of the day tends to affect one of the four. I wouldn't call this a super-original idea for a teen oriented cartoon but to each their own. At the very least, I could make it through an episode in a straight shot. Doesn't matter how by the numbers your framework is, just as long as you could watch it.

Animation

Now, given how anime-inspired this show is, you'd think they'd work in tropes related to anime, and you'd be right. Characters would sprout cat ears and tails to represent their inner evil, there're sweat drops and of course, chibi galore. This also happened in shows like Teen Titans and Avatar, but this show honestly does it better.

Think about it, both Avatar and Teen Titans are uber-serious shows and those anime tropes sorta kill the mood, making each show look tone-deaf. In My Life Me, it's a comedy that's rooted in manga and anime, the animators would be fools not to exploit it. It seems like a form of epic trolling to show just how repetitive anime could be with their worst aspects, which would explain why people would shit on this show.

Given that this show was made in the early-2010s, obviously it would use flash animation. The show manages to kinda stand out from the others by using a more sophisticated art style, and by sophisticated. While the animation is obviously subpar as a result, the art direction is better, hell, they went all out and copied the basic anime eye design (unlike Teen Titans and Avatar where most people look like they're on the verge of going into cardiac arrest.)

Acting

As said early on, this series has little familiar actors. One of the only familiar actors I could trace is Justin Bradley, who has appeared in episodes of Are You Afraid of the Dark and previously voiced Buster. Birch is voiced by Sarah Camacho, who hasn't been active in Canada since this show and has pursued more acting jobs in Mexico. Only other notable thing she's tied to is Winx Club.

Stefanie Buxton voiced Sandra and her latest role in anything was in 2017. She appeared in an obscure TV adaptation of The Never-ending Story and an episode of Big Wolf on Campus, as well as an obscure MTV show (which was her debut). Finally, Mark Hauser seems to be the only one who's still active, with a credited 2018 role. Like Sarah Camacho, Mark lent his talents to a Winx Club related property.

Now, you're probably wondering why I'm focusing on the actors rather than the acting. Well it's simple, I really have nothing to say about it. The acting is serviceable, the voices fit the characters, what more could be said?

Overall

I think some anime purist got butt-hurt over a show that indirectly mocked the worst aspects of anime, now people hate it for some reason. In the end, per a non-Japan anime fix, I'd gladly take this over Teen Titans and Avatar, at least this doesn't abuse art design just to look more presentable than it has any right to be.