I’ve noticed a trend in the types of superhero series I enjoy: it’s always in an anime style. Marvel and DC never have caught my interest enough for me to throw myself all in towards whatever heroes spawn from either company.
However, media like “My Hero Academia” caught my attention faster than I expected, though I can possibly chalk that down as having a relatable protagonist along with more praise than hard criticism.
One of the other superhero series that got past my barrier is “Miraculous Ladybug,” a series made through a collaboration of studios in France, Italy, Japan and South Korea. The story follows two superheroes known as Ladybug and Chat Noir and their lives in their civilian identities of Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Adrien Agreste respectively.
This series is all done in CGI and it’s absolutely beautiful. Everything flows nicely and the animation quality is top-notch, making the environments and characters pop incredibly well. There’s a lot I can speak on for how well done “Miraculous Ladybug” is, but I think I’ll leave that up to everyone else to see with their own eyes.
One of my personal favorite aspects of the series is, while somewhat frustrating, is the love square going on when there are (technically) only two parties involved. To preface this, neither Marinette nor Adrien know about the other’s secret identity.
Marinette / Ladybug has a crush on Adrien while Adrien / Chat Noir has a crush on Ladybug. For all intents and purposes, they do have a mutual crush on each other, but that fact being entirely unknown to both protagonists is an adventure to witness.
Several close encounters where they nearly see each other under the mask happen, each foiled for the story purpose of it not being the right time (which is understandable).
Aside from that, all the villains (possessed by the main antagonist Hawk Moth’s Akuma) are incredibly creative in concept. Whenever a person falls under Hawk Moth’s control, their abilities always relate to something directly about them: for example, when one of the protagonists’ classmates is consistently blocked from class photos, she turns into a villain that can make anyone look like her. The designs for these characters also go above and beyond and even with little knowledge of the show could likely point out the origin if they saw an image.
To add onto all this, Season two is ongoing! It’s only halfway through its 26 episode run and, after forgetting to watch it for a while and recently catching up on 12 missed episodes, I’m very excited for every new release.
There’s a spark to this show that has kept me coming back after all this time and, despite specifically bringing up the animation and how nice it looks, that isn’t what brought me back, I think.
It’s how much I have come to adore the wide variety of a cast. No two characters can be mixed up due to the diversity shown in all of them and I think that is extremely impressive to give each background character a decent amount of spotlight in several episodes.
To me, it’s absolutely miraculous.
Erika Brandenburg
Staff Writer