A Review of Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir

Introduction

I know reviews are supposed to usually supposed to be written after you finish the show, but whatever. Another note, I'll be referring to how Netflix orders the seasons and episodes, so if you use Disney or any other platform it might seem a little off. This is just a review of everything up till S5 Part 1.

I think I have to start off by saying that this show is genuinely the second best show I've watched, other than Suits (I WILL write a review on this later). I originally started watching it with my sister out of boredom but I did NOT expect it to hook me in that much. At the beginning of the entire series, it kinda felt extremely repetitive. Hawk Moth would akumatize someone, Ladybug and Cat Noir would show up, defeat them and save the day.

Now, I don't remember when exactly this happened, but I think I can estimate the series became REALLY interesting to me around the end of S3. Side note, the Cat Blanc episode(s) were amazing, like truly they're one of, if not the most fun episodes to watch throughout the series.

What Hooked Me

Continuing on, Ladybug becoming the Guardian of the Miraculous really pivoted the show and made things more tense overall. We know Marinette is a super klutz when it comes to her personal life, so I thought it was nice that her other personality, Ladybug, who everyone depended on, was entrusted to be the Guardian. I thoroughly enjoyed the show as Ladybug brought on more and more heroes. It seemed like they were one big squad and that came at the expense of Cat Noir being left out, and him and his romantic gestures felt like a "nuisance" to Ladybug. It was kinda sad seeing Cat Noir slowly come to the realization that Ladybug didn't really trust him with everything, and I had a feeling that the distrust stems from incidents like the Cat Blanc episode where he got akumatized.

I think probably contrary to popular belief, I really liked that this happened because it pushed the show forward instead of the dull stuff we'd be seeing if it was just brushed over. On top of saving Paris every other day, Ladybug was the Guardian, AND she had to deal with whatever Cat Noir was feeling toward her on a regular basis and it was really evident that it was slowly getting to her and she was beginning to crack under all the stress and the fear of messing up. Season 4 did a really good job of encapsulating all that, and the ending was so insane. Because she did mess up.

I honestly think I would've dropped the show if the season didn't end the way it did. Seeing Ladybug let her love for Adrien cause her to lose every Miraculous was pretty sad, but I have to say Felix did a good job manipulating everyone to get into that position. It was refreshing to see Hawk Moth win for once, and to see Ladybug and Cat Noir be in a position where they can't just fix it immediately was definitely interesting, as they were set to be stuck between a rock and a hard place for the rest of the series until they found a way to get the Miraculous back. Another thing that was pretty great was how it all kinda came full circle, as in the beginning it was just Ladybug and Cat Noir, and somewhere in the middle they had a big squad, and now it was back to just them two having to defeat Monarch now (previously known as Hawk Moth). Also, I'm not sure why he called himself Monarch now, the only explanations I could come up with was a Monarch Butterfly, or Monarch because he rules Paris now? I'm not sure anymore tbh. The ending scene was really sweet too, where Ladybug was sulking over losing "everything" and Cat Noir came to her side and said something like "Not everything, you still have me", giving her just a little bit of assurance that things could return to normal soon.

Season 5

So Season 5 starts! Monarch has access to EVERY single Miraculous now. The fights that Ladybug and Cat Noir had to fight this season were lot more engaging because Monarch had control of the Miraculous powers, and could distribute the powers to the akumatized villains through the new Alliance Rings that Gabriel Agreste (who's secretly Monarch) sold to pretty much every Parisian. The villains could harness up to 5 of the Miraculous powers at a time, and the fight scenes were infinitely better as Ladybug and Cat Noir had to fight much harder to win. Cool stuff.

Anyway, the romance throughout the season was intense. Everything gets kinda messed up, as we know Marinette spends the first 4 seasons obsessing over Adrien Agreste, but the SECOND Adrien starts to reciprocate those feelings, Marinette starts moping about how her love for Adrien was the root cause of her losing all the Miraculous to Monarch (which it was, she wasn't wrong). But instead of moving on and just not focusing on love and putting all her time and energy into locating the Miraculous, she falls in love with Cat Noir??? Right when Cat Noir moves on from Ladybug too. The show keeps you on your toes about this the entire time. Not to mention, Ladybug loses the chance to retrieve all the Miraculous again simply because of her love for Cat Noir, who was a wax statue and she couldn't bear to hurt it. Adrien and Marinette do make a really good couple, and its complemented by the fact that Adrien starts liking Marinette without knowing she's Ladybug. Marinette is always in this act that Ladybug is this confident, perfect version of herself that she shows to the world while regular Marinette is awkward and constantly embarrassing herself, so it was nice seeing Adrien fall for that version of her. The writers clearly have something in for them because it is genuinely the most irritating part of the show, not in a bad way just in an annoying, wanting to pull your hair out from your head way. The writers clearly had it in for Luka too, a super chill musician who happens to also fall in love with Marinette way earlier in the show, but gets rejected because she believes its too dangerous, and at that point she was still in love with Adrien. I'm still irked by the fact that they didn't work out because I think he brutally lovemogs Adrien to the moon and its not close, he also knows the real identity of Cat Noir and Ladybug which is pretty twisted, so he's the most relatable to the watcher as we both have to watch Marinette and Adrien mess up over and over again with their love life.

Adrien's life itself is pretty depressing when you look at it. His mom is gone, his dad treats him like a stranger in his house (and that changes for whatever reason later in S5?), and being Cat Noir is the only time he's able to actually do what he wants. I think my biggest grudge with this show overall is that there's very little focus on him throughout. His family is connected to the entire plot of the series, and it seems like Adrien is honestly just a side character which sucks. The show in general just has SO many interesting ideas but doesn't do enough with them. You can see this with the Cat Blanc arc, he introduced so much stuff that could've completely changed Ladybug and Cat Noir's relationship, but no Ladybug saves the day again and everyone moves on and acts normal. Same thing happens with Adrien's relationship with his dad and Ladybug dealing with the pressure of being Guardian, when the show focuses on either one of those things, the next episode will literally be slop filler where some random gets akumatized because of some absurd silly reason.

Closing Thoughts

While all of these critiques exist, it also plays a big role in why I like the show to the extent that I've described throughout this blog. It can go from filler to an episode that is mind-blowingly awesome. It is a really good show, and I would rate it a solid 10/10 because it continues being entertaining through and through, and I would definitely recommend that people watch it and decide for themselves!

I'll maybe write a follow up once I finish watching the entire thing, but I have a Suits review to write next!