LLNY

My project is an exploration of the 2D animation and live action hybrid, which allows for cartoon characters to exist in a realistic world. I found this approach to be fascinating as it bridges a gap between two worlds that would usually never meet. In my project, I specifically focused on an anime movie, Love Live, because of the setting that it takes place in. The first 30 minutes of this animated movie takes place in New York City. When I say that the movie takes place in NYC, I don’t mean it takes place in a parody of the city. The animations and background artists came over and conducted extensive research on the NYC environment and replicated it almost perfectly in the hand-drawn version. My project stands to reverse that process and bring the drawn backgrounds to life by recreating the scenes with live action recordings.

Another reason I specifically chose this movie is because of the cultural boundaries between the eastern and western world. In the movie, the characters fly over to NYC from Japan and are exploring this new world for the first time. The scene I focused on takes place in the NYC subway, which although for me as a resident of the city might be easy to navigate, for a foreigner might be very perplexing. This scene illustrates that example of confusion as the main character rushes to catch up to her friends but ends up getting lost instead. The combination of this plot along with the dimensional hybrids is a metaphor about existing in new or different worlds.