What’s LOVEWEB?
LOVEWEB is an independently made show on the web, focusing on the internet as a whole. The show focuses on the nonbinary team of the internet “lolcat” Manon and their friend and cameraoperator Cybermare who both exist in their webpage in cyberspace. Manon is a huge nerd when it comes to the internet and has an endless optimism for the net, even if it sometimes is misplaced. Cybermare serves as the straight man to Manons antics and is all around more of a pessimistic doomer who has been hurt one to many times to really get excited over anything online. Together they try to host their show: LOVEWEB
LOVEWEB is first and foremost an informative show. The purpose seems to mostly be in educating and gushing about the web and online culture as a whole in everything between online websites and memes, to online games.
Manon is an amalgamation of many different depictions of anonymous users that can be found on the net. The name is a portmanteau of Anon (a normal name to call anonymous people online) and Mona which is an ascii cat that comes from the Japanese forum 2channel.
/\__/\
（ ´∀｀）
（ ）
｜ ｜ |
（＿_)＿）(Mona ascii)
Like the name, the design is a bunch of references to different Anons. The shades are taken from tumblr, the suit is taken from 4chan, and Manon is a “lolcat” like Mona. Manons face is as far as I can tell always an ascii/emoticon face that can be constructed with letters and symbols.
Manon contains some of the best and some of the worst qualities on the web. They are overly enthusiastic and loves everything they talk about, this is mostly a good thing but it also results in Manon having some flaws. The flaws in Manon are never intentional from Manons perspective and is always a result of their love for the web that might be somewhat misguided.
They get somewhat gatekeepy about the stuff they like. They only want people to enjoy Homestar runner in the way they think is right, they have proper definitions of what they would and wouldn’t consider a meme and get upset if others don’t adhere to their definitions, and they are overly apologetic to bad practices on the web like early misogyny that could be found on 4chan. At one point they try to doxx someone who has clearly stated that they want to be left alone in an attempt to solve a net mystery, and is often toxically positive.
Cybermare is a little bit more defined. They are an edgy, vaporwave pony that looks like it would come straight out of an MLP fanfiction. Cybermare is also a lot more particular in their tastes then Manon who is positive to pretty much everything. To me this reads a little like Manon is a standing for the anonymous while Cybermare is more of a person that engages in fandom and wants to express themselves.
I can assure you that the show, up to this point, has nothing to do with MLP so it really shouldn’t be an issue if you for some reason have a burning hatred for cartoon ponies.
LOVEWEB is created by Shadok. Shadok is a French animator who has animated online for 10 years now. Outside of LOVEWEB they have made plenty of shorts that can be found on their NewGrounds and YouTube pages. They’ve also been working on Open Fortress, a Team fortress 2 mod/reimagining, as an art director and animator as well as having contributed to Yume 2kki, the fan made follow up to the enigmatic Yume Nikki that anyone can ad rooms too. They also have the odd achievement of making a Mewgenics fan made animated music video, 7 years before the games release.
Loveweb is so very charming
I really love how LOVEWEB depicts the internet. It really knows what it wants to be and delivers on that. Like the name LOVEWEB implies, it’s a love letter to the web. More specifically the more personal web that still existed in the mid 2000s, before the internet as a whole got centralized around the core web.
The internet in LOVEWEB is depicted as a vaporwave space with soaring computer windows connected via lines. They travel between the different websites by grinding across the lines mouse pointers, you could say they are surfing on the internet. As someone who is pretty updated on the net I really like this depiction. Generally people show the internet as a cloud while its a lot more true that its many different computers connected together as they show in LOVEWEB.
Also there is a little small thing I like that mainly caters to people like me but when they grind on in between the different websites the sonic adventure 2 grind sound effect is used which makes me really happy as a long time hedgehog fan.
We don’t enter a lot of different rooms in the show but Manon and Cybermare’s room is depicted as somewhat of a personal room from something like Habbo hotel or something similar. On the website they mention the rooms from U.B. Funkeys as an inspiration which is a computer game from the mid 2000s where you would, like Skylanders, use different figures to play as different characters. Everything just oozes charm, from all the minor details in character design to the space around them. The intro theme is so incredibly catchy and fitting as it borrows lyrics from an old educational video about the internet. It all has me floored.
Every episode is about a different topic. The introduction is just about LOVEWEB itself and the first real episode is about the discord mmorpg RFCK or Rowdy fuckers cop killers which is made by Ben Saint, also known for his online lectures, and Munchy, who currently isn’t active online. Both of them make voices within the episode as their respective characters.
Some other episode topics are about Wikipedia, the iceberg meme, Gondola, and the first meme. There is not much overlap between episodes and you can practically start wherever you like, even if Manon would disagree.
The only real reoccurring storyline is Manon and Cybermare’s problem with keeping the show running. Manon rarely want to follow trends and instead want to talk about what actually interest them. Cybermare is a lot more aware of what is needed to get views online but it is never anything to get enthusiastic about.
Cybermare know that they should take sponsors but Manon can’t endorse stuff like square space cause it don’t align with their believes. Cyber tries to nudge Manon into more trendy topics that will get views for LOVEWEB but it is never something that interest Manon. Manon has no interest in doing an iceberg video, but the iceberg video format and meme in itself is something Manon is interested in. At the same time Cybermare is actively against the systems they have to work within and has a full on monologue on why capitalism is bad.
It all reads to me as some of the creators real issues that they are facing while making the show as it is a hard sell. Although the show to me is pure candy, it’s sadly very niche. The subjects the show covers are sadly very niche and there is no real way around that.
I don’t want to undersell the shows achievements and I think Shadok should be proud of their work no matter what, however I think it’s pretty sad that it don’t have a larger following then it does. The latest episode that released 3 months ago as of now only has a view count of 20k. That is far from zero and I wish the show continues no matter what but I understand that it can be rather disheartening.
The web
As the show is much about the web as a whole it only makes sense that it has its own website. In many respects, the show that is LOVEWEB is somewhat of a multimedia project. The site plays into the story. although it is definitely made by Shadok, it is written like if manon and Cybermare were to have made it. Manon has there own twitter and tumblr account where they write in character. There is also a Yume Nikki fangame made by Manon that can be found on itch.io.
Loveweb is first and foremost a show but I feel like its really cute and fun that there is more things out there. The website is really cute and fun and strays from the typical fashion that websites are made today. This website, for example, is made in WordPress. There are many good things with this site but outside of the texts I’ve written there is not much room for artistic expression while on a typical html site you have that room which is something Shadok has taken advantage of to the fullest.
The website contains short character bios, a bunch of interesting behind the scenes information that can be accessed for free, wallpapers and other art, and more. Its a real treat.
The one caveat
Almost everything in LOVEWEB is absolutely perfect to me with only one real issue. The first couple episodes of the show uses AI voices from 15.ai. Personally I am vehemently against AI in creative works. Unlicensed generative AI is always theft from other creatives no matter what part of the creative process they take from and even when there is consent with the person who’s voice the AI is trained on it is still a weird thing to sell to me.
In this specific scenario I think it is pretty forgivable though. The show started in 2020 where AI voice synthesizing was new and there were a lot more experimentation surrounding it. It wasn’t clear in public opinion where AI was heading. This issue was also something that has been fixed in all ways that Shadok can, as far as I am concerned. Since the episode The internet has lost its soul all characters have been voiced by actors and all previous episodes has as of recently been uploaded without the voices to encourage fandubs.
I generally don’t have an issue with digital voices. I think vocaloids like Hatsune Miku (who has an episode in the show) are cool and text to speech has a lot of uses although they don’t give a particularly good sonic experience. You can never get me to like to listen to tts but it got some uses. It’s specifically gen AI that I have issues with. I can sort of look past it given when LOVEWEB was released and the fact that they moved away from it later.
LOVEWEB holds a special place in my heart and the only thing I want from this show is more of it. The only real issue I had is as far as I am concerned solved. I am sure the upcoming episodes are as good as the ones who have been released. I hugely reccomend it to anyone interested in LOVEWEB.
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