It provides livestreams of lo-fi hip hop music 24/7, accompanied by a Japanese-style animation of a girl studying or relaxing in her bedroom with a cat on the window.

[7][8][9] According to Emma Winston of the University of London, the success of the channel comes from the music that “seems familiar to the listener, like a past time gone and fantasized that did not really exist”.

[10] Fareid El Gafy writes in the Washington Square News : "Thanks to this playlist, I’ve cranked out a multitude of essays, study sessions, scripts and rough cuts to the tune of pop culture samples, muted snares and artificial record scratches.

"[11] Lee Taber, Leya Breanna Baltaxe-Admony and Kevin Weatherwax of the University of California, Santa Cruz showed in a study that parasocial interactions can be applied to characters such as the Lofi Girl.

[16] Creator Dimitri Somoguy originally used the character Shizuku Tsukishima from the Studio Ghibli film Whisper of the Heart (1995) as the face of the channel, with footage of her studying or writing used in the streams.

When the popularity of the streams ultimately led to the channel being taken down for copyright violations, Somoguy decided to maintain the Ghibli-esque aesthetic but with an original character and put out a call for artists.

[16] The background was originally plain black in order to save animation time, but Machado eventually decided to place La Croix-Rousse (Lyon, France) in the window instead.

When the snowflake finished forming, a new animated music video premiered featuring both Lofi Girl and a Synthwave Boy.

[24][25] The live stream was taken down by YouTube between July and August 2017 for using footage of the character Shizuku Tsukishima studying from the animated film Whisper of the Heart (1995).

[34][35] On 11 April 2023, the channel launched a third live stream, "synthwave radio - beats to chill/game to", featuring a boy with his pet dog next to him sitting in front of a desktop computer.

The extensive teaser campaign accompanied the stream's launch: On 10 April 2023, the animation of the Lofi Girl and her cat disappeared.

On 11 April at 5:00 pm UTC, the blue room could be clearly seen, and a new character entered with a small dog and began typing at a computer.

After the flashback ends, the clip returns to Lofi Girl in the present shedding tears as she quickly walks through the city of Lyon.

[43] On 22 February 2024, the Lofi Girl and Synthwave Boy disappeared from their respective streams, with a video posted onto the channel showing the two characters putting on their shoes and taking items from their apartments.

The characters would walk to the Parc de la Tête d'Or, located in Lyon, France, where Synthwave Boy placed a note on a bench for Lofi Girl to discover, presumably on the next day.

[51] In March 2024, the channel of the French automobile manufacturer Renault broadcast a video with a character who looks like the Lofi Girl.

[53][54][55][56] In July 2024, the e-sports structure, Gentle Mates announced on their various social networks the arrival of Lofi Girl as main sponsor, who will accompany them during their competitions.

Club claimed that lo-fi beats to relax and study "turns the average person into a superhuman academic whose powers of concentration are rivaled only by headphone-wearing cartoon girls sitting at their desks during rainy days",[72] while Rolling Stone said that "Lo-fi's slow, smooth beats aren't just for studying and working.

", it initially depicted her studying before suddenly having a stress-induced mental breakdown, and considers committing suicide with a knife before ultimately deciding against it.

McCann chief creative officer said they went with the partnership because "If students are using these lo-fi channels as chat forums to talk about suicide and stress – then this seemed like the perfect place to offer support".

[81][82] Italian rapper Tha Supreme released in the summer of 2022 an animated music video for the single Siri [it], featuring a scene of the singer's anime-styled depiction drawn in the same setting and pose of Lofi Girl.

[86][87] In 2023, Taiwan presidential frontrunner Lai Ching-te launched a 24-hour lofi beats channel featuring an anime-styled boy studying with his dog.

[91] The initiative was covered by regional media and received submissions from television stars, high school students, as well as one Taiwan mayor.