Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir (seasons 1 & 2)
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Ces saisons sont pleines de miracles après tout ! (These seasons are full of miracles after all!)
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Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir (French: Miraculous, les aventures de Ladybug et Chat Noir; commonly abbreviated as Miraculous Ladybug or simply Miraculous) is a French-South Korean-Japanese superhero/magical girl CGI series produced by Zagtoon and Method Animation in collaboration with Toei Animation in Japan, SAMG Animation in South Korea, and De Agostini Editore in Italy.
Synopsis
Set in modern-day Paris, the series focuses on teenagers Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Adrien Agreste. When evil arises, Marinette transforms into her secret superhero persona Ladybug, while Adrien transforms into his superhero persona Cat Noir, using powerful objects known as the Miraculous. Oblivious to each other's true identities, the two work together to protect Paris from the mysterious villain Hawk Moth, who covets and attempts to steal their powers by using his akuma, butterflies infused with black energy, to transform everyday citizens into supervillains.
Why It Used To Be Miraculous
- The show has a very unique premise and a unique twist on the superhero genre (which would explain why Miraculous exploded in popularity while Marvel and DC films have been tanking at the box office for the past year). However, it’s more of a hybrid of the superhero and magical girl genres. As the show involves characters (mainly, teenagers) transforming into superheroes with the help of magical entities (miraculouses) and fighting transformed villains. As expected with the superhero transformations, the heroes get superpowers.
- Speaking of unique, the mix of a Magical Girl and superhero-themed series for a Western show is great (and unique, as mentioned previously) as no one has ever done this before.
- The SAMG-animated episodes have great CGI animation, especially the first season. The animation for the series' spin-offs Tales from Paris and Miraculous Chibi is also pretty good, (with the latter of which also being very cute, and hilarious).
- Good and likable characters with unique personalities. Including (but not limited to):
- Marinette Dupain-Cheng is a clumsy, cheerful, friendly girl with a huge crush on Adrien, as well as an aspiring fashion designer who lives with her parents in a successful Parisian bakery. She has a knack for taking the leadership role in situations that call for it and is well-liked by her peers at her school. While she can be somewhat insecure and nervous as Marinette (particularly around Adrien), she's much more confident and assured as Ladybug.
- Adrien Agreste is a kind, loyal boy from a rich family but with a poor relationship with his father due to the latter's distant nature towards his son. While compassionate, he can be a bit aloof at times and works part-time as a model. As Cat Noir, he has a huge amount of self-confidence and is quick to throw insults as well as puns. And while he makes it no secret that he's got a huge crush on Ladybug, he still never manages to notice Marinette's humongous crush on him.
- Alya Cesaire, Marinette's best friend, is a supportive ambitious girl who aspires to be a journalist. She's confident, cool, and a little bit sassy, and never afraid to speak her mind. She always makes sure to be keeping an eye on Parisian trends and news. She dreams of being a professional news reporter, but until that day, she's practicing by running the Ladyblog, tracking Ladybug and Cat Noir's every accomplishment.
- Luka Couffaine, is a laid-back rock guitarist who has feelings for Marinette (which she has been mainly shown not to reciprocate). He's Juleka's older twin brother and serves as the cool and confident parallel to the former's shy and insecure personality
- Nino Lahiffe, Adrien's best friend, is an occasionally immature but overall outgoing and fun-loving boy. He's one of the few people Adrien willingly opens up to and aspires to be a DJ and a movie director. He often serves as the quick-witted, energetic, upbeat foil to his gloomier and more secretive and distant best friend Adrien. He's extremely loyal and wants the best for his pal.
- Max Kante, is an extremely intelligent who's good friends with Kim. Easily one of the smartest kids in Marinette's class, he's a tech wizard (to the point where he's been shown to be capable of creating his own AI) and has also been shown to be an incredible gamer.
- Kagami Tsurugi, is a stoic, skilled fencing student who's new at Collège Françoise Dupont. The heir of a high-profile Japanese family, as well as a skilled fencing student, she becomes a rival of Adrien, and later a friend to Marinette.
- Alix Kubdel is a competitive and tomboyish girl who's rivals with Kim. Spirited and athletic, she has a strong sense of right and wrong and both father and brother are historians.
- Le Chien Kim, is a confident and competitive student who's good friends with Max and rivals with Alix. A hotheaded jock, he can be rude but does have a softer side. He was originally part of Chloé's circle, but the later episodes have him leave the said group.
- Extremely catchy and memorable theme song.
- Great story about two teenagers with the ability to transform into superheroes and fight crime, all the while trying to balance that out with their normal lives in the process. And while it's far from the first show to have done this formula, it still has its fair share of plot points and events that make it stand out in comparison to other shows like this.
- The English dub is straight on point.
- Speaking of which, the voice acting is very good, especially the French dub. The English dub is nothing to scoff at either, featuring a who's who of anime voice actors such as Cristina Valenzuela (who also voiced Homura Akemi from Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Mio Akiyama from K-On!, Nanoha Takamichi from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, Robyn Hill from RWBY, Sakura Matou from Fate/Zero, Compa from Hyperdimension Neptunia, Yuriko Nishinotouin from Kakegurui: Compulsive Gambler, Miki Makimura from Devilman: Crybaby, Kotori Minami from Love Live! School Idol Project, Morgiana from Magi: The Labyrinth/Kingdom of Magic, Ishiguro from Mob Psycho 100, Nagisa Saito from Squid Girl, Hawk from Nanatsu no Taizai (The Seven Deadly Sins) Mao from One Piece, Killua Zoldyck Hunter X Hunter (2011), from Alicia-Lu from Sword Art Online, Rei Hoomaru from Kill La Kill, and Sailor Mars/Rei Hino from Sailor Moon Crystal and Bryce Papenbrook (who also voiced Caesar Antonio Zeppeli from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders, Basile Hardy from Inazuma Eleven: Ares, Nagito Komaeda/Makoto Naegi from Danganronpa, Rin Okumura from Blue Exorcist, Meliodas from Nanatsu no Taizai (The Seven Deadly Sins), Clay Sizemore from Soul Eater NOT!, Jack from MÄR: Märchen Awakens Romance, Inosuke Hashibira from Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Shirou Emiya from Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works, Kagura Karatachi from Boruto: Naruto the Next Generation, Eren Yeager from Attack on Titan, and Kirito/Kazuto Kirigaya from Sword Art Online) as the leads.
- The supporting cast also has a great amount of well-known anime dub actors. Like Alya who's voiced by Carrie Keranen (who's known for dubbing Satsuki Kiryuin from Kill La Kill, Rom from Hyperdimension Neptunia: The Animation, Hiroko Seto from Your Lie in April, Sailor Galaxia from Sailor Moon, Guila from Nanatsu no Taizai (The Seven Deadly Sins), and Mami Tomoe from Puella Magi Madoka Magica as Benjamin Diskin as Nino (who dubs Gurio Umino/Melvin from Sailor Moon/Sailor Moon Crystal, Misaki Yata from K, Satoru Fujinuma from Erased, Kinzo Shima from Blue Exorcist, Char Aznable from Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin, Joseph Joestar from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Miyagawa from Mob Psycho 100, and Ban from Nanatsu no Taizai (The Seven Deadly Sins)), Hawk Moth who's voiced by Selah Victor (who's also plays Hisoka from the Hunter X Hunter shows, Matsuzo Matsuno from Mr. Osomatsu, the Mermaid Sisters from Carole & Tuesday, Megumu Koyama from Mob Psycho 100, and Deep Sea King from One Punch Man. And the list goes on. Hawk Moth is one of the darkest villains in modern Western cartoons. He manipulates the emotions of even some of the youngest Parisians, which is a very interesting and bleak concept for a supervillain. He also has quite a sympathetic motive for his actions (the reason he spends the series hunting Ladybug and Cat Noir to gain their miraculouses so that he can use them to resurrect his deceased wife, Emilie).
- Interesting superhero and supervillain names that are sometimes references to pop culture, like "Guitar Villain", and the supervillains themselves are entertaining and threatening.
- The moments between Marinette and Adrien can be romantic, heartwarming, and funny.
- Great chemistry between Ladybug and Cat Noir (despite the two not being aware of each other's true identities). They've been shown to care for each other often, which is demonstrated when they fight crime together in their superhero forms. They always make sure to look out for each other when cooperating to stop the villains. Season 2 only improved the series, because Ladybug and Cat Noir get some new powers, their relationship starts getting explored further, Nino, Alya, and Chloe become superheroes in some episodes, and we finally discover who Hawk Moth is and his purpose of trying to take Ladybug and Cat Noir's miraculouses.
- The show's spin-off shorts (previously mentioned before in WTSAM# 3.1) Miraculous Secrets, Tales from Paris, and Miraculous Chibi are all pretty good side content for the show itself. The last one also manages to be one of the few spin-offs of a story-driven, action-packed show that is done well. Instead of relying on gross-out humor or unfunny comedy all the while having lazy and cheap-looking animation like most examples of this, it's instead just some fun slice-of-life adventures with cute chibi versions of the characters. In a similar manner to that of RWBY Chibi.
- Unlike most action shows, the heroes find very intelligent, crafty, and strategic ways to defeat the villain other than just fighting, and these strategies may include illusions of something that would tempt the villain, or playing along with the villain's games until the villain is trapped.
- Several amazing and memorable episodes such as:
- "Stormy Weather" (a good way to start the series)
- ”The Bubbler"
- "The Evillustrator"
- "Dark Cupid"
- "Darkblade" "The Mime"
- "Gamer"
- "Animan"
- "Antibug"
- "The Puppeteer"
- "Reflekta"
- "Princess Fragance"
- "Simon Says"
- "Volpina" (a good cliffhanger to conclude Season 1)
- "Origins" and "Santa Claws" (excellent interludes between Seasons 1 and 2, Origins not only did this season end on a high, it was also a fantastic start in the chronological order of the series)
- "The Collector" (resumes from the end of the Volpina episode and it's a fantastic way to start Season 2)
- "Prime Queen"
- "Glaciator"
- "Despair Bear"
- "Riposte"
- "Gorizilla"
- "Robostus"
- "Syren"
- "Zombizou"
- "Frozer"
- “Reverser"
- "Malediktator"
- "Sandboy"
- "Heroes' Day" (an excellent way to end season two and would have ended the show on a high note if it didn't continue past that)
- The Japanese dub is pretty well done and might even be better than the original show!
Qualities That Should Stay Akumatized
- Some of the characters can be mean-spirited and unlikable, including
- Lila Rossi. The new student of the Marinette school is so obsessed with the attention of others that she invents stories about her past. She is quite good at manipulating others, such as Marinette and Adrien's class, into calling them silly people.
- Chloé Bourgeois. The classic spoiled girl enemy of the protagonist. Bossy, arrogant, and superficial. She continues to abuse the power of her family to be popular, She believes she is the most respected person just to impress her mother.
- Audrey Bourgeois. Mother of Chloé Bourgeois and (and later Zoé Lee). She is an unpleasant woman who is liked only if she is exceptional, it is no coincidence that she is called the "toughest fashion critic in the world". She fires his associates in case he gets mad about somewhat minor things.
- Sabrina Raincoprix, Chloé's best friend and assistant, is a girl who always tries to make Chloé happy. Despite being innocent to others, she has repeatedly proven herself to be evil, such as the time she stole Marinette's hat model for the Hat Contest or locking Juleka in the bathroom so as not to intrude on the class photo. Her relationship with Chloe is also akin to a domestic abuse victim and none of the characters, except for Marinette once, intervene and try to convince her not to be friends with Chloe. It's treated like a positive thing when it's not.
- Bob Roth. The father of the singer XY (Xavier-Yves Roth), is very stingy and obnoxious, who tries in every way to hinder others to sell more albums than his son.
- André Bourgeois. The Father of Chloé Bourgeois (and later stepfather of Zoé Lee) treats his daughter like a perfect child even though she's a jerk to the people around her and blatantly abuses his mayor powers to order people around, showing that he cares more about his power and family than the people of Paris which is probably the reason why Chloé acts like a spoiled brat.
- While the CGI animation looks great, the 2D Animation that was supposed to be used looks much better than the CGI Animation the final version of the series uses, although some parts of the 2D Animation did appear in one episode, it’s still not enough.
- Season 2 animation, while still good, is not as good as Season 1 which had more budget and work, however the animation is still better than in seasons 3 onwards.
- Whilst the show has an overarching myth arc, the episodes' action and romantic side is fairly formulaic (barring the season finales) and always follow this formula:
- For the action side, a random Parisian feels misery due to something occurring to him/her (and it's even created by either Marinette's clumsiness or Chole's rudeness in some episodes), that Parisian becomes a victim who turns into a supervillain thanks to an akumas Hawk/Shadow Moth sent, Ladybug and Cat Noir defeat the villain somehow, the victim gets little to no memory of the event, its purified akuma flies away, problem solved. However, this can be justified as other Magical Girl series rely on this trope as well, as well if not worse.
- While the romantic side usually Marinette having either emotional (and later turns into psychological) crush on Adrian, the same romantic misstep situation ensues (foiled by her clumsiness to try something with him).
- A lot of episodes tend to air out of order, especially episodes with plot points that were established in previous episodes that didn't air first.
- While the voice acting is very good for most of the dubs, the Korean dub was not well received.
- Hawk Moth's motivation since season 2 comes off as very similar to that of Mr. Freeze from Batman: The Animated Series, as both are villains who sacrifice their love to resurrect their coma wives.
- This show has an awkward case of a Status Quo God trope being used while there is actual continuity at the same time, especially very exaggeratedly prevalent in season 1 due to the show genre's formula (see Reason #2), but it was slowly toned down this trope starting with season 2, with the revealed that Hawk Moth being Adrien's father, Gabriel Agreste.
- The series declined since season 3 because of the flanderization of certain characters, slight downgrade in animation, unnecessary new characters, multiple bad episodes and plot holes.
- Even before season 3, it does have a fair share of bad or mediocre episodes like:
- "Lady Wifi" (forced writing for plot convenience and Chloe was more hateful than usual)
- Despite its excellent, the theme song doesn't have an original melody because it's too similar to an Italian song published in 1997 named "Laura non c'è". You can listen here!
- Jeremy Zag, the producer of the show, pays the VA of some secondary characters (like Rose, Juleka, Sabrina, Sabine, Gina, and the Mayor) in the English dub, with an insufficient salary and they decided to quit the job, but the fandom tried to convince Zag to raise the salary with the hashtag #ZagPayUp, Zag used the excuse that he didn't know the problem, but lucky he solved soon the problem anyway and the VA decided to back thanking the fandom.
- Some slight use of flash hits during fighting scenes.
Reception
Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir was well received by critics and audiences, who praised the show's animation style, voice acting, characters, humor, and premise. It was reported that the show has inspired teens and adults to create and propagate Miraculous remixes, and many people liked that the show featured multiracial characters as with the film Big Hero 6. The series currently has a 7.7/10 rating on IMDb.
Trivia
- The series was originally going to be an animesque made by Toei Animation along with Thomas Astruc, but it was later scrapped in favor of CGI animation due to complications when animating it in 2D. Through, the promotional video of the original 2D version of the show did end up being used as part of a fictional 2D animated film based on the duo in the season 3 episode "Animaestro", in which the titular akumatized villain is no other than a fictionalized Thomas Astruc.
- A live-action feature film based on the series and the franchise was in development, with Thomas Astruc and Jeremy Zag involved as writer and producer, respectively. It is set to be released in 2020, with EuropaCorp, Skydance Media, Lionsgate, and Columbia Pictures also involved. However, it was canceled and replaced by a musical animated film titled Ladybug & Cat Noir which is set to be released in 2021.
- Adrian's surname "Agreste" means "Rural" in French. it is also the French word for "the grazing butterfly".
- This show has a miniseries (webisodes), which tell are the hints for the story arcs of season 2.
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