Spots on! · 1:37am Nov 30th, 2018
I have a new animation obsession. Not in any way a replacement for My Little Pony, I hasten to add! Not one I expected either, but then neither was MLP. It's Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir. Now, this cartoon has a number of things going against it. A central plot element is a young teenage girl (Marinette) getting a huge crush on a guy of the same age, Adrien, who is a world-class fashion model. The 3D animation is a long way from being best in class. The pace of the 22-minute episodes is often breathless. For much of S1, things are pretty repetitive: domestic opening, someone gets upset, evil villain Hawk Moth corrupts them, Ladybug and Cat Noir turn up and save the day, domestic closing.
I'm not going to give away any more than the bare minimum here, but the central conceit is this: Marinette is Ladybug and Adrien is Cat Noir, but neither of them know about the other's secret identity. As superheroes, they take care never to reveal this. Marinette is smitten with Adrien, and Cat Noir is smitten with Ladybug -- but in both cases it's unrequited. If only they knew... but they not only don't, but can't. Ladybug and Cat Noir get their powers from special jewels they wear -- the Miraculouses [sic] -- and Hawk Moth wants them. So the very act of turning up to save the day puts our superheroes in danger.
I could certainly see many people dropping out by halfway through S1, despite the refreshing difference of having the show set in central Paris rather than London, New York or Tokyo. But that would be a shame. Although for the first 20 episodes or so, there are only a couple of tiny hints that something bigger is going on, this element does eventually become much more significant. Once you get into S2, there's a great deal more of this sort of thing, with some really startling revelations. It's still a kids' show, so don't expect anything ridiculously dark or violent, and there are a few cringy mis-steps, but it's fun and colourful and has a really catchy theme tune.
Oh, and if you want an MLP link, here's one: a rock cover of the (extended) theme tune by none other than EileMonty and PrinceWhateverer. Bug out.
I just found this show again. My initial temptation is to compare it to shows like Totally Spies or Sailor Moon, but that's a disservice to this show; it stands as its own entity.
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I'm one of the five people on Earth who's never actually watched Sailor Moon, though inevitably I've picked up a few things -- and I have seen a few episodes of Totally Spies, so I get the comparison there. I'm actually a bit surprised that Miraculous has hooked me, given I'm not normally a fan of teen romance cartoons, but what can I say? It's fun.
Nice to know I'm not the only person on Fimfiction who has a clue what I was rambling on about in this post!
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No blame there. As you pointed out, we are already an "outsider" demographic for MLP, so the novelty there is somewhat lessened. I'll actually give this Miraculous show another look; my usual approach to a new show is to give it 5 episodes to hook me. It didn't quite accomplish that, so I left it behind. Given your recommendation, this show could use a revisit.
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I believe S1 of Miraculous suffered from having an absurdly tight deadline -- they pretty much had to write all 26 episodes in three months, from what I gather. The result, inevitably, was simplistic and repetitive plots. S2 is much better if you're looking for an overarching storyline, not to mention an actual motivation for Hawk Moth. The animation is better, too, and you get to find out a fair bit more about Miraculouses (though some of that is in late S1).
I don't want to overdo this -- it's still at heart a goofy kids' cartoon, and I don't think it's going to be for everyone even in S2. I would pick FiM over Miraculous without too much of a second thought. If it's going to click, it may well take pretty much the whole of S1 to do so -- but you are then risking a large investment in time which might pay out nothing. The risk paid off for me, but I may just be strange.