Summary

• Lofi Girl was originally a .gif of Shizuku Tsukishima from Studio Ghibli's Whisper of the Heart.
• Due to copyright issues, a new character, Lofi Girl, was born through Juan Pablo Machado's illustrations, and new characters like Lofi Boy have been created to join her.
• Lofi Girl has influenced many videos in the lofi genre, both for regular YouTube channels and official videos for fandoms, and Lofi Girl has also expanded with collaborations with various sites as well.

ChilledCow's study girl is the face of lofi music on YouTube for more than half a decade. Residing on lofi hip-hop radio -- a livestream of beats to relax or study to -- Lofi Girl has built a fan base, become a meme, and kept millions of people company while they chill, study, or just hang out to the rhythm of lofi beats.

The iconic YouTube figure has its origin in Whisper of the Heart's Shizuku Tsukishima, a similar-looking character who is the inspiration for the girl now known and loved by listeners around the world. In fact, Shizuku was the first incarnation of Lofi Girl. However, the original GIF caused copyright concerns with Studio Ghibli. These copyright concerns led to a new design of Lofi Girl that has expanded her influence as a cultural icon on YouTube and throughout multiple fandoms.

Updated on April 6, 2024 by Jennifer Roy: Lofi Girl still remains an important part of many peoples' study and relaxation habits. This article has been expanded to discuss how Lofi Girl's world is expanding and how some mainstream fandoms have created their own lofi videos inspired in part by Studio Ghibli's Shizuku Tsukishima and ChilledCow's Lofi Girl.

Studio Ghibli's Shizuku Was the Original Lofi Girl

Released in 1995, Whisper of the Heart follows Shizuku, a Japanese schoolgirl with a love for literature. She lives with her parents and sister in a cozy Tokyo apartment, and spends her free time scribbling away in a cluttered bedroom. While she did pose as the study girl, Shizuku actually doesn't study much herself. She opts instead to write poetry and work on a novel, "Whisper of the Heart."

ChilledCow was created in February 2017 by Dimitri, who made Shizuku the face of his livestream by selecting a GIF of the character writing with headphones on. The lofi radio channel started off doing what it does to this day: providing a platform for "chill beats" (wavy, jazzy, hip-hop lo-fi music) and their artists. When it grew in popularity, copyright issues emerged, leading to the livestream temporarily shutting down just months after it launched.

In 2018, the Chillpop Records lofi livestream also came under attack for its own lofi girl, who was actually Wolf Children's Yuki. Studio Chizu, the anime studio behind Wolf Children, filed a copyright claim and pushed the stream off-air. These kinds of situations are relatively common on YouTube. As a result, the YouTube lofi community is plagued by copyright issues wherever anime loops feature. However, Lofi Girl also represents how the lofi community can move on with original work while still paying homage to the fandoms that the creators know and love.

Lofi Girl's New Design Pays Tribute Without Violating Copyright

In any case, ChilledCow's new Lofi Girl, illustrated and animated by Juan Pablo Machado, is a definite upgrade. The new study girl has a different hairstyle, different clothes and a different room. During the day, the view from her window suggests she's moved out of Tokyo; at night, Macado treats listeners to some rain visuals that add to the lofi experience.

Lofi Girl still pays tribute to her Ghibli beginnings, assuming Shizuku's posture and working in a similar room. There's also the cat on the windowsill (cats are important in Whisper of the Heart). With her new look, Lofi Girl has become the true mascot for lofi music across the internet. It isn't uncommon to find the character in fan art, merchandise or memes.

Still, Lofi Girl's life has been far from an uninterrupted live stream: listeners will recall the mass horror (and memes) that emerged in early 2020, when the ChilledCow channel was "accidentally" terminated by YouTube. Luckily, it returned promptly, but the event made people realize how much everyone depends on their beloved study companion. If all is good in the world, nothing so traumatic will ever happen again, and this Ghibli-inspired girl and her growing cast of friends will be allowed to scribble away, uninterrupted, for years to come.

In the years since, the channel has been renamed "Lofi Girl," signifying the true impact she has had on the lofi and chill pop sphere. The Lofi Girl channel has also expanded to cover more genres of music, from classical piano to more electronic beats. The channel also has added a Lofi Boy character, also known as Synthwave boy amongst fans. Unlike Lofi girl, Lofi Boy works on a computer with a dog instead of a cat sleeping in the background in his flagship video, and he is often used for videos and music genres with moodier, synthwave vibes.

For example, in "Peaceful Day ☀️ [relaxing piano/study music]," Lofi Girl relaxes in a bright and cheerful park with her cat. "Lonely Night 🌑 [dark ambient/music to escape to]," Lofi Boy's companion video, features Lofi Boy looking contemplative in that same park at night, but the park has become far moodier with fog rolling in. Overall, the addition of Lofi Boy and new music genres signifies a new chapter in Lofi Girl's story, expanding her world to include more people even as she relaxes and works through all hours of the day.

Series Like Star Wars and Critical Role Have Their Own Lofi Videos

Lofi Girl has influenced many other channels on YouTube that feature their own Lofi Girls and Lofi Boys across many art styles and fandoms. The Lofi Girl channel also has participated in collaborations with major franchises. For example, with the release of The Marvels, the Lofi Girl channel released a video allowing fans to relax and study alongside Ms. Marvel. Other collaborations with Lego, Chess.com, and Wattpad also feature their own unique artwork for fans to build legos, play chess, and write to as well. These collaborations reflect Lofi Girl's continuous popularity the longer she remains on air.

Lofi Girl's influence also has spread to other franchises as well. For example, the table-top roleplaying franchise Critical Role includes Lofi videos on their YouTube Channel on a Mighty Vibes playlist. These videos feature Critical Role's player characters from various campaigns relaxing or studying as lofi music plays. The video with the most obvious Lofi Girl influence is "Mighty Vibes Vol 6: Lofi Beats to Study with Your Twin to," which features Vex and Vax studying in a 90s inspired room, complete with dial-up internet.

"Mighty Vibes Vol 2: Chill Tunes to Study/Transcribe Magic To" is in a fantasy setting rather than a modern setting, but Caleb and Beau's study session still harkens back to Lofi Girl, complete with Caleb's cat familiar, Frumpkin, resting in Beau's lap. Critical Role's lofi videos the colors and illustrations still seem inspired by Studio Ghibli and Lofi Girl's world. For example, in "Mighty Vibes Vol 3: Chill Tunes to Drink Tea/Meditate To," Cadeucus Clay meditates in a picturesque natural setting, complete with whimsical mushrooms growing throughout the video.

Star Wars also has lofi videos on their official YouTube page in a "Star Wars Lofi" playlist. While Guy Shield's illustrations for these videos are less anime-inspired, the inspiration from the Lofi Girl videos remains. For example, many of the videos feature a single Star Wars character looking contemplative, such as Mon Mothma or Obi-Wan Kenobi. Other videos feature a larger cast of characters, but the videos themselves are more wholesome, such as a Life Day video or a video of vacationers, including Cassian Andor, relaxing on Niamos Beach. The most wholesome of these videos is "Sabine's Loth-Cat," which features Murley the loth-cat sleeping peacefully as viewers are asked to cat-sit him for Sabine.

Thus, Studio Ghibli's Whisper of the Heart and Shizuku's influence has spread far beyond the original film through the now iconic Lofi Girl. Lofi Girl's popularity has led to her becoming an icon and influencer in her own right. Similar to Lofi Girl's original inspiration from Shizuku, Lofi Girl herself has influenced an entire genre of YouTube videos, both from regular YouTubers and major fandoms like Critical Role and Star Wars. Lofi Girl is also gaining a fandom and lore of her own that still pays tribute to her Studio Ghibli roots while continuing to expand and develop her own lofi world.