LoliRock

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About

LoliRock is a French 2D-animated cartoon series created by Jean-Louis Vandestoc and David Michel and produced by Marathon Media. The show, about Iris and her friends Auriana and Talia as they fight off the evil wizard Gramorr and save their home planet of Ephedia, gained a niche following on some communities like Tumblr after its English release in mid-2016.

Premise

Set in the lakeside town of Sunny Bay, the show focuses on Iris, a teenage girl who, with her new friends Talia and Auriana, perform in an all-girl pop group called LoliRock, while also warding off the forces of the evil wizard Gramorr and his minions, twins Mephisto and Praxina, as the magical princesses of the extra-terrestrial kingdoms of Ephedia, Xeris, and Volta respectively. To defeat Gramorr and save their home planet of Ephedia, they must also collect the Oracle Gems, jewels that belong on the the crown of Ephedia and contain untapped power.

History

The show was created by Jean-Louis Vandestoc, who previously worked on other Marathon Media-produced shows such as Martin Mystery, Rekkit Rabbit, and Monster Buster Club.^[2] Prior to airing, Marathon produced animated music videos for some of the songs featured in the show as promotional material (example shown below, left). The show would would eventually premiere on October 18, 2014 on French TV channel France 3. The show would eventually spread to sister channel France 4 and Disney Channel France along with being aired in other countries such as Spain, Italy, and Portugal. On May 1st, 2016, the show made its official English premiere on streaming service Netflix (trailer shown below, right). In early 2017, the show's second season unexpectedly premiered on Netflix by accident.^[15]

Reception

The show currently has an IMDb rating of 7.9/10 from 61 users as of May 2016^[1] and received a 3 star rating out of 5 from Common Sense Media.^[16] Writing for BSC Kids, Ella Anders wrote that while it "plays it clear as a magical girl series and even nods other iconic shows in the genera (specifically Pretty Cure “PreCure” and Sailor Moon respectively)", the show was "grand in its own right and should be held up as a great magical girl series," praising the "Diverse cast of characters that develop over time, well woven plots, heart and humor" and lore and mythology, the latter of which she hasn't seen since Friendship is Magic.^[17]

Online Relevance

The show's official Facebook page has garnered over 7,600 likes as of May 2016^[3], while the show's Twitter account has only amassed over 400 followers.^[4] A LoliRock subreddit was created by Redditor chowdertheclam on Sept. 15, 2014, garnering only 8 subscribers as of May 2016.^[5] A dedicated wiki also exists with over 200 pages since its creation.^[6] The show's production blog on Tumblr, however has accumulated over 1000 followers since its creation.^[7] Official Youtube channels for the show in English^[8] and in French^[9] also exist, with the French channel having over 32,000 subscribers, while the English channel only having over 5,000 subscribers.

Fandom

Quickly after the English release, the series gained a niche following, mostly on the microblogging network Tumblr.^[12]^[14] As of July 3rd, 2016, the artist community deviantART has over 1,100 results under the keyword "lolirock".^[13] The show has also been considered as a cousin show by fans of Miraculous Ladybug and its creator, Thomas Astruc^[10], who also works on the show as a storyboard artist.^[11]