Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir Review

By Dakota Wiegand

                  My, God…

                  Okay, let me compose myself after watching this show. I saw this show, like most, on Netflix and, once again, did my tip-toe dance around the series, much the same way I did when I first watched RWBY. Once I decided that it I’ll watch this or Totally Spies in my most recent break from the Gundam Franchise, the choice became a no brainer. I can safely say that this show was an experience filled with highs and lows. Let’s take a look at Miraculous: Tales of Lady Bug & Cat Noir!

                  Miraculous premiered in France September of 2015 on TF1, with a total of 26 episodes and one Christmas Special episode to make up season 1. Soon after, it went to the UK and Ireland and then the US. Not long after that, Netflix landed the rights to premier Season 2, which will premier in the summer of 2017. The reception was mind staggering, magazine and newspapers raved about the original and fresh take on the superhero genre, especially having the main protagonist being a teenage girl. Though, through my research, Miraculous did not receive any awards, the show has caused many to rethink the genre. As I write this, I have heard a rumor that there is a live action movie in the works, set to be released in 2019.

                  The show is based in modern day Paris, which is super refreshing from no name America and Tokyo. In this world, most people live like us, dependent on the growing technology and unaware of magic. However, when Lady Bug and Cat Noir show up as the city’s super hero duo, they quickly take to the characters, not wishing for any explanation on who they are or where they came from. However, as the audience, we eventually find out that magic exists in this world, which granted our protagonist and main antagonist their super human powers.

                  The show has a variety of characters, but there are only 4 that I want to focus on in this review. We have Ladybug aka Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Cat Noir aka Adrien Agreste, Hawk Moth aka (spoiler!) Gabiel Agreste, and, lastly, Chloé Bourgeois. Let’s take a look at them!

                  One of my favorite parts of the show is the fact that both main protagonists are slightly different in personality when they are suited up as their alter-egos. I think this is due to them being able to express themselves as they truly are in private when they are super hero, but in public they are much different. This is probably best displayed in Marinette.

                  Marinette Dupain-Cheng, voiced by Cristina Vee, is an aspiring fashion designer who is growing up in her parent’s bakery and confectionary. She is a bit awkward in social situations, especially around her crush, Adrien. However, she is a bright girl and is very caring of those around her. Though, she does lack confidence when others are judging her. Overall, Marinette is a very relatable character because we either are Marinette in real life, or we know someone much like Marinette! However, her personality does change to a much more confident and take-charge role when she transforms into Ladybug.

                  As Ladybug, Marinette is quick on her feet and often portrays herself with a lot of confidence and is always quick to come up with a solution to the problem that is set before her. However, her klutzy nature does still come out as Ladybug, though that usually comes out when there needs to be a convenient out for that episode’s villain.

                  Overall, I like Marinette as herself and as Ladybug. I feel that she describes one of my friends to a T and I too share a lot of character traits with her. For instance: Marinette’s lack of ability or confidence to talk to Adrien. She’ll sputter and talk over herself and usually embarrasses herself. I am exactly like this when I like a girl. I can’t find the correct words to say when I want to and always seem to let opportunity pass me by when they are presented to myself. So, I feel for you, Marinette! By far, my favorite character on the show.

                  Next we have the number two character on the show, Adrien Agreste, voiced by Bryce Papenbrook. Adrien is the son of the world famous fashion designer, Gabriel Agreste, who is often too busy for his son, so he has his aides look after him. This leads to Adrien being a little more reserve in public and doesn’t let his hair down too often, mainly only for his close friends at school. He’s an okay character when he is like this, but his true character really shines when he transforms into Cat Noir.

                  Cat Noir is a hot headed, pun dropping, romantic who usually rushes into situations without fully thinking them through. More than not, he relies on Ladybug to get them out of situations. However, he is probably the most powerful of the two characters, strength wise. He has a special move called, “Cat-aclysm “ (mind the pun) that can destroy whatever he touches. Ladybug has a similar move called, “Lucky Charm,” however this will create an item to help defeat whatever enemy she is facing. Back to Adrien though, I feel this character is much more relatable than Adrien in his normal form, though we all know someone who acts in both way to Adrien and Cat Noir. Not a bad character at all, in my opinion.

                  The show’s main antagonist is Hawk Moth, voiced by Keith Silverstein. Okay, this character has some serious issues. You spend most of the season clutching your computer screaming at it, “WHY ARE YOU DOING THI?! WHY?!” and never getting an answer. Well, not getting an answer until episode #25, but I’ll talk about that in a bit. He is, spoiler alert, actually Adrien’s father, Gabriel Agreste. The show hasn’t fully unveiled that yet, but if you cannot figure that out by his voice and chin, then you may not have being paying close enough attention to the show. However, Hawk Moth has the power to corrupt butterflies with the power of evil, which they then possess a person who is angry, embarrassed, or sad. This is called evilising, which I feel is very lazy writing. However, Hawk Moth, once he evilises a new person to a super villain, controls them in order to defeat Ladybug and Cat Noir. And, that’s all he does! He’s actually not that exciting of a villain because he stands in a very dark room with his butterflies and waits for his henchmen to do their job, which, they always seem to get defeated. However, he still comes back and tries again, so A+ for effort, guy!

                  One of my problems with this character may be due to the French to English translations. For starters, his name is Hawk Moth, but he uses butterflies, specifically akumas. After doing some digging, Hawk Moth’s original name is le Papillon, or the Butterfly. I guess the name the Butterfly would have been too girly in America for a male villain, but that just leads to confusion on what he is using to possess people! Also, his akumas, which in Japanese mean great spirit/devil, leaning more towards evil entities, are treated rather well when Ladybug de-evilises them. So, are they pure spirits before they are evilise? We don’t know, nor will we ever.

                  The last character I want to talk about, in my honest opinion, is the true villain of the show! Chloé Bourgeois, voiced by Selah Victor, is by far the evilest creature ever put into animation. I don’t care if you think its Cruella DeVille! Or the Wicked Step Mother from Cinderella! Or even Satan! Chloé Bourgeois just a fucking, black hearted, bitch that needs to be purged from this Earth! She is pretty much only in the show as a plot device to allow people to become upset and be evilised and as to serve as a character foil to Marinette. However, the things that she does in the show are just straight up despicable. Because she is the main reasons why people get evilised, Chloé ends up getting captured and targeted a lot. You almost are cheering against Ladybug and Cat Noir to fail in their attempts to rescue the monstrosity of a character. That or a convenient accident occurs when they are bringing her back to safety. She deserves to be dropped from the top of the Eifel Tower straight onto concrete head first or tied up, lit on fire, and then people of Paris take turns to beat the corpse with shovels! She is that bad! There are characteristics that you see in her that you see in some of the people that you end up hating in real life, but I don’t think anyone I know has ever reached the cruelty as her. Well, maybe Hitler. Though I think Hitler would pale in comparison of Chloé Bourgeois!

                  The romance in the show, apart from some side characters, is mainly focused as followed: Marinette to Adrien, Marinette to Cat Noir, Ladybug to Adrien, and Ladybug to Cat Noir. Believe it or not, each version is slightly different when it comes to relationships. Let’s start with the least compelling: Marinette and Cat Noir. When these two are together, Marinette doesn’t let on the fact that she is Ladybug to him and pushes off all his advances towards her. Cat Noir is a big flirt and does like Marinette as both herself and Ladybug, but prefers Ladybug of the two. The next is Ladybug and Cat Noir. Much like the example before, Cat Noir is a big flirt to Ladybug, often calling her pet names like Bugaboo and My Lady. Ladybug plays along more with Cat Noir’s advances, often using them to help better fighting off the enemy. However, the two do develop real feelings towards each other and often wonder who each other is under the masks, but think it’s best for neither of them to know. The next dynamic is Marinette and Adrien. This is the most realistic of the relationships since we all can’t be superheroes. Marinette wants to be able to tell Adrien how she feels about him but cannot talk whenever she’s around him. Adrien, seeing that she is struggling, is usually very patient with her, giving her time to articulate her thoughts, but is usually whisked away before she can convey them. You can tell Adrien likes her, but he is much more infatuated by Ladybug. Which, the relationship between Ladybug and Adrien is probably the most ideal. Ladybug, without giving away her true identity, can confidently talk to Adrien with little struggle, conveying her true personality to him with the security of the mask that she is wearing. Adrien can also feel relaxed around her and enjoy the company of Ladybug, without giving away that he is Cat Noir. Complicated? It is, but it actually makes for a much more interesting love story and you end up wanting them to somehow connect the dots on who is who.

                  The animation in this show is exceptional. True the character designs can be a bit off, but the 3d animation moves very well and serves the show well. In fact, the animation on this show can rival some 3d animated movies! Not bad from the people at Toei Animation. Does that sound familiar? It should, because they have produced some of the best animated TV shows on the planet, like Dragon Ball, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Sailor Moon, Cyborg 009, and much more. So, it doesn’t surprise me that the show looks very good.

                  The character design is pretty simple and serves the show. I like Ladybug’s outfit, but I’m not in love with it. It’s a red unitard with black dots all over to make the Ladybug look. However, I feel like if they used solid black accents on her arms and legs, which would help breakup the look and add some more character to her design. Black Cat’s all leather outfit and leather belts work well with the character, so I cannot complain about that. Don’t get me started on Hawk Moth, though. He looks like a gimp who decided to wear an old 1970’s tuxedo to work the day of filming. Like, what the fuck am I looking at with him? Moving on to the other villains, they are all very creative in design. Some are more childish than others, but I can’t help but like 90% of the villain designs. My favorite has to be Lady WiFi, The Evillustrator, and the Mime.

                  Now, let’s talk about plot. Both Marinette and Adrien are met with Kwami, magical creatures that infuse with their host to give them super human powers for good (mainly). Each episode we have a situation where a person of Paris, who is emotionally unstable for a period, is evilised by Hawk Moth. Which, in turn, makes Ladybug and Cat Noir fight against the villain and save Paris from harm. Sound familiar? This is the exact same plot to the first season of Sailor Moon. However, I feel that this show, not being nearly as abused by English Censorship, conveys the life of a teenage super hero way better. In fact, this show screams that it’s a tribute to Sailor Moon in more ways than one. Marinette and Sabrina are very similar in clumsiness and take more confident positions when they transform. Both Marinette and Sabrina have a crush on a masked hero, Cat Noir and Tuxedo Mask respectively. Hell, they even have similar transformation sequences! The show is also very heavily anime influence, especially with the cut scenes of Marinette freaking out. However, I feel like this is a nod to Spider-Man as well. We have a bug theme main character, Ladybug and Spider-Man, and a cat theme hero, Cat Noir and Black Cat. Just flip flop the genders and Boom! Lastly, they throw in that the Kwami first granted their powers to the ancient Egyptians, which is so similar to Yu-Gi-Oh! that its not even funny. But then again, the show takes all these themes and blends them into one unique and refreshing story. True, a lot of episodes are lather, rinse, repeat, but the character interaction makes you come back for more since they are so relatable.

                  I hate to say it, but I am in love with this show. It’s not perfect by any stretch, but my goodness is it enjoyable. It also doesn’t help that all the fan art and fan comics make you love the show even more. It’s a bit girly and not a show I would say in public that I enjoy, but its really good and I strongly suggest anyone to check it out.

Show Rating: A-

                  That being said… I have to address the elephant in the room. If you notice on Netflix, the Miraculous Christmas Special is separate from the rest of season 1. I thought that this was weird at first until I watched it. I am not going to lie, this was horrible. If I started out watching the Christmas Special, I don’t think I would pick up on any of the inside jokes, let alone stick through the entire episode with the horrible singing. The dubbing is the worst due to the singing and the words very rarely match up to the lip movements. But they had the voice actors sing out the dialogue in really bad Christmas songs and I just tuned out at that point. The lyrics are bad. The singing is bad. The entire episode is just plain bad. I understand that they wanted to do a Christmas episode, but if you’re going to add songs, hire a song writer and singers that can pass off like the voice actors.

Special Episode Rating: D

                  Thank you guys for reading my fan girl rant. I will continue to flail about and giggle likes a 13-year-old girl as I browse through fan art on Pintrest. Keep an eye out for my next Gundam review coming shortly!

Watch what I was talking about!

Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir kisscartoon.io/Cartoon/Miracul…

Miraculous: Christmas Special www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWDj6d…