Tag Archives: miraculous ladybug

Miraculous(ly) Awakening

(Alternative title: melatonin gone missing meets her match)

As any and all fans of Miraculous Ladybug know, the feature-length film Ladybug & Cat Noir Awakening is on the horizon. If you’re unfamiliar with the Miraculous franchise, check out my post The Love Square: Explained for an in-depth crash course before reading on.

This movie, which has been in production since roughly 2018-2019, showcases Marinette and Adrien’s emergence as Ladybug and Cat Noir, respectively. Long-time fans are excited to see their favourite superheroes on the silver screen, in an animation style that is a major step up from the television series. Every glimpse of this movie- whether it be a tiny pixelated screenshot of a frame that was noticed from a photo in the production studio, or a full Instagram story video of a massive orchestra recording the score- has been posted, shared, and freaked-out-about over the past few years. However, these exciting tidbits are beginning take a more substantial form, and Ladybug & Cat Noir Awakening is finally starting to feel real.

Earlier today, the official English trailer released (after multiple teasers in various languages) and fans got their first spoonful of this new Miraculous world, featuring beloved Bryce Papenbrook (English voice actor for Cat Noir/Adrien) and Cristina Vee (English voice actor for Ladybug/Marinette). Watch the trailer below.

Hopefully, fans don’t have to be in anticipation for much longer, given the trailer’s very specific release date: “This Summer”. I simply can’t wait to be in a theatre full of children who are most certainly not as emotionally involved as me, a nineteen year old girl who is halfway through her undergraduate degree.

Until that day arrives, bug out!

Photo:

https://twitter.com/SNDfilms/status/1642874602576662528/photo/1

Boys Matter Too — Portrayals in Cartoons

Female portrayals are improving immensely within the arena of modern-day cartoons. Alongside the increase of women showrunners, writers, and storyboard artists within the animation industry, many female characters are being placed in the roles of leaders, fighters, and influential advocates. A few examples include: Star Butterfly of Star Vs. the Forces of Evil, Marinette Dupain-Cheng of Miraculous Ladybug, many of the Crystal Gems in Steven Universe, and essentially all of the central female characters in the Avatar franchise.

 

Previous articles including:

discuss both the issues of, and improvements being made in, female portrayals within animated works; however, many of these articles fail to acknowledge the other half of the population. Rather than solely criticizing and assessing the way in which female personalities are written, it is vital to correspondingly address the way in which male characters are portrayed within these same works.

 

 

Characters who are beloved by many, myself included, do not escape negatively stereotypical traits. Some examples include: Robin of Teen Titans,  Mike Chilton of Motorcity, Danny Fenton of Danny Phantom, Ron Stoppable of Kim Possible, and Peter Parker of Spectacular Spiderman.

Within these characters live prominent examples of problematic tropes. The first being the promotion of masculinity as defined by strength and dexterity above all else.

 

Robin and Mike Chilton have this feature in common. Traits including fearlessness, ambition, independence despite being part of a team, physical strength and endurance, and natural leadership, are very admirable qualities that many people strive to achieve in reality; however, when these qualities are relatively over-emphasized to the point where they block these characters from openly displaying emotion and compassion, they are shown to have very one-sided personalities. The issue with this specific portrayal is that young viewers, boys specifically, are socialized to admire these characters and what they represent—in other words, variations of the same macho-esque archetype are not only showcased constantly, but they are typically promoted as positive role models.

 

This isn’t to say that characters who fall under this category don’t have any redeeming qualities, since this would be far from the case; more so, the issue is that they lack the ability to show emotion and vulnerability in the face of adversary. Rather than encouraging the healthy display of emotion, male characters throughout many animated titles are inexplicitly chastised for wearing their heart on their sleeve, and correspondingly praised for tackling every issue they face head on.

 

Another problematic trope commonly portrayed through male cartoon characters can be identified through an opposing set of traits: clueless, frightful, clumsy, and emotional are some adjectives that define this stereotype. Characters like Ron Stoppable and Danny Fenton (in civilian form) embody this personality. And despite often being well-loved by the audience, they are typically completely disrespected within the context of their respective series. These characters are seen to hold a low social ranking and are often bullied as a result. They typically carry relatable human insecurities that are openly seen as unfavourable, with other characters treating them as the punching bag of the series or viewing them as a form of comedic relief.

 

Image result for danny phantom denny

They way in which these archetypes are treated in-universe inadvertently reveals that male characters are constantly being gauged on their physical prowess, rather than their emotion and intellect—not to say that the former character type is presented as unintelligent, rather, within context of many of these series, intelligence is not held in high regard relative to physical strength, endurance, and agility.

 

Characters like Danny Fenton along with Peter Parker make up a combination of the two personalities, yet solidify these archetypes as problematic. Their soft-spoken and empathetic personas are targets for harassment, whereas their physically-agile forms are praised by the masses. Other factors are of course in play, including the difference in confidence that Danny and Peter’s alter egos emit, and how this reflects in their likability surrounding characters; but for the most part, being a male character who is kind-hearted and sympathetic is less likely to be presented as widely-admired.

 

 

These portrayals are slowly improving. For example, Adrien Agreste of Miraculous Ladybug is written in a way which both his superhero and civilian personas are well-liked by many, and he doesn’t have to choose between being confident, kind, and brave as these traits are seen throughout all aspects of his personality regardless of if he is wearing his mask.

 

A previous article, pointed out some examples of how the abundance of male creatives tend to write female characters stereotypically; however, it is important to note that this same group of creatives also develop male characters in a way that reinforces stereotypes. Many child-targeted animated series, and programs in general, reinforce societal beliefs of social roles tied to gender because the creative people behind these series were socialized into believing in these characterizations. In other words, this cycle represents a self-fulfilling prophecy.

 

 

When I published an article about how anime promotes the sexualization of, and dominance over women, I failed to mention that, within the same context, male characters are also portrayed in a negative light in being shown to treat women poorly by taking advantage of their submissiveness (though there is no excuse for “fan service” in anime that mainly focuses on sexualizing female characters to their audience, but this is a topic for another day).

 

 

The good news is that, similar to female portrayals in animated works, the presentation of male characters is also improving. Some examples of characters that embody more forward-thinking personalities include: Marco Diaz of Star Vs. the Forces of Evil, Steven Universe of the series under the same name, Hung of Voltron: Legendary Defender, Aang and Sokka of Avatar: The Last Airbender, K.O. of OK K.O., and Craig of Craig of the Creek to name a few. Taking a closer look at these characters reveals many similar traits: honest, earnest, vulnerable, feminist, knowledge-seeking, understanding, mindful, and comedic in which they are written to be laughed with rather than at.

 

 

The TED Talk titled How movies teach manhood presented by Colin Stokes summarizes the issues with male versus female portrayals in all forms of media.  The lecture compares The Wizard of Oz to films of the Star Wars franchise, in how the former movie promotes friendship and leadership, whereas the latter promotes male dominance alongside gallant battles. Stokes also brings up a very powerful statistic: the fact that 1/5 of American women have admitted to being sexually assaulted within their lifetime—which leads the question, “What are [these boys] failing to learn? Are they absorbing the story that a male hero’s job is to defeat the villain with violence and collect their reward which is a woman, who has no friends and doesn’t speak?. . .We have tools at our disposal like girl power and we hope that that will help. But I got to wonder, is girl power going to protect them if at the same time actively or passively we are training our sons to maintain their boy power?”

 

Stokes summarizes that the media text that young boys and girls are exposed to need to present male characters as working alongside their female counterparts—they need to learn to work in unison with others regardless of gender rather than constantly being fed the idea that men are built to fight alone; because in reality, no one should face adversity on their own, head on. 

 

 

Overall, the fight for positive female portrayals in children’s media should also be met with creating multi-facet male characters that kids can look up to. Recent unproblematic series are proving that television animation doesn’t need to fall into unrealistic tropes just because they are familiar. Viewers of all ages are ready for change and, for the most part, have been responding well to characters that represent intelligence, empathy, confidence, insecurity, resilience, vulnerability, and so on—as varied combinations of these traits offer fleshed-out portrayals that many people can relate to on a fundamental level.

 


A/N: Feel free to start a discussion in the comments below. These thoughts were drawn out by Colin Stoke’s TED Talk (linked above and highly recommended). He leads a very thought-provoking speech that has made me realize that rather than focusing so much on the lack of female characters in media, it’s important to assess the quality of male portrayals as well—despite them being much more abundant. There are issues in the way that many creators are presenting characters to young girls and boys, and despite improvement throughout recent years, problematic tropes are still more than prominent.

Additionally, please note that I am a 20-something woman of colour who was raised in a Western country. This is the perspective that I am writing from. Please share your own thoughts as I do not have the fundamental knowledge of what it was like to grow up admiring male characters as role models. I can only try to relate to this topic by attaching my experience growing up with a lack of positive female representation to look up to, and in turn, internalizing many of the problematic thoughts and behaviours that both male and female characters presented.

Miraculous Ladybug — What Season 2 is Doing Right

Miraculous Ladybug is one of the most popular Americanized cartoon series that is presently being broadcasted on an international scale. It features the kindhearted and clumsy Marinette Dupain-Cheng as she transforms into her crime-fighting superhero alter ego, Ladybug. She works alongside her partner Cat Noir—who, unbeknownst to her, is also her classmate and crush Adrien Agreste—to track down and defeat the dark magic that is plaguing Paris.

 

A/N: The use of the term “Americanized” refers to how the series targets and complies with U.S. styles of storytelling and marketing, not a description of where the series originated, as Miraculous Ladybug was created via a collaboration between French and Korean production companies. 

 

The premise of Miraculous Ladybug follows the format of a typical Japanese “magical girl” anime, being a known genre to anyone even remotely familiar with series along the same spectrum as Sailor Moon. However, it’s fairly common synopsis is not a feature that has initially attracted viewers to the series; rather, its stunning high-quality computer-generated animation is what has captivated the majority of current fans which, until the point of the series’ premier, had been lackluster at best within the context of television animation.

 

Viewers may have grown intrigued by Miraculous Ladybug‘s fluid and cinematic animation along with its well-thought-out character designs, but an educated guess behind why viewers of Miraculous Ladybug chose to stick around for its 26-episode ride, is more likely than not a result of the “love-square” presented from its very first episode onward. While Marinette is in love with her classmate in civilian form, Cat Noir holds romantic feelings towards Ladybug while immersed in his superhero persona. The catch is, they have no clue of each other’s real identities, contradicting the whole idea of a love square because they are actually in love with each other.

The first season played with this love-square dynamic, teasing its audience that a budding romance would soon break the formation; but despite hinting at breaking the status quo, our beloved duo didn’t get far at all.

 

This signifies the core difference between the first and second season; not the fact that season 2 more boldly plays with the romance configuration between Marinette/Ladybug and Adrien/Cat Noir, but rather the fact that the creative team behind Miraculous Ladybug is so willing to break this pattern that has been integral to season one’s 26 episodes (24 excluding the origin episodes that show how our protagonists initially receive their miraculouses). The series’ writers and storyboard artists have clearly worked tirelessly to create something intriguing, and this seemingly newfound passion has greatly influenced the quality of the second season for the better.

 

 

While season one of Miraculous Ladybug tends to take itself seriously, its second season isn’t afraid to make fun of itself. Season 2 has a layer of self-awareness that admits to its audience that the premise of the series has some narrative gaps, rather than thinly extending viewers’ suspension of belief. Ironically, the addition of self-aware comments in Miraculous Ladybug‘s second season is used as a tool to strengthen its questionable plot points by revealing that even some of the characters are unsure of what is happening. It also paints the series as more playful, making it clear that the writing staff enjoys what they are doing. It is clear that more time was taken to write and translate the characters’ dialogue, which is most likely the reason behind the creative staff exuding charm and enjoyment into the batch of episodes.

In a more recent episode of Miraculous Ladybug‘s second season, Gigantitan, the series tackles how ridiculous Marinette’s stalker-like crush is on Adrien. It makes fun of itself though Marinette and Alya coercing their friends into helping Marinette live out one of her Adrien-involved fantasies. This is a great diversion from her season one portrayal, as rather than presenting her boy-obsessed tendencies as sweet and romantic, the creators are adding a bit of self-aware charm in emphasizing how absolutely ridiculous and unrealistic her attitude towards him can be at times.

 

Image result for miraculous ladybug gigantitanSpeaking of self awareness, season 2 of Miraculous Ladybug makes a larger effort to target slightly older demographics. Rather than aiming solely at children, the executives behind the series have seemingly come to realize that Miraculous Ladybug attracts many teenagers and young adults, alongside children; thus, the creative team has diverted from creating simple episodic plots and instead moved into relatively complex (yet still episodic) narratives. Plot points, including how our heroes will defeat the villain of the week have become much less predictable compared to season one. Additionally, stakes including threat levels of villains, near identity reveals, and those causing alterations to the standard formula of the series, have become much more intense.

Right from the start of season 2, the huge, game-changing, shocking secret (sense my sarcasm) of Gabriel Agreste being one in the same as Hawkmoth is revealed. This is a big deal as it sets the tone for he remainder of the season—Miraculous Ladybug is no longer planning to beat around the bush and is ready to hit the ground running. Keeping Hawk Moth’s painfully-obvious identity a secret was a shaky move from the start, but his identity revelation shows that it has grown passed treating its audience as oblivious. This is the series’ way of inexplicitly informing its audience that it is planning to take the series in a different, more thought provoking, direction.

 

Season two of Miraculous Ladybug also gives our characters more time to shine. Marinette, Adrien, and other background characters are treated as three-dimensional and are increasingly showcased in settings outside of their school, sharing different facets of their lives with the audience. Additionally, characters are given more dynamic personalities; for example, season one’s Cat Noir is presented as mildly problematic through ignoring Ladybug’s annoyance and seemingly forcing his romantic flirtation onto her. Despite Adrien’s whole-hearted intentions, this can make him appear somewhat insensitive. However, less than halfway into season 2 showcases Cat Noir being much more receptive to Ladybug’s outwardly platonic view of him. Although it definitely should not have taken this long to get to this result, season two has been showcasing much more empathetic and relatable characters, while giving the audience more time to follow their personal lives in each episode.

Chloe’s character has slowly been improving. In the first season, she had caused almost half of the akumitizations that have occured, a process that turns everyday people into evil villains through harnessing their negative emotions. After agreeing to try to become a better person in the episode Despair Bear, she has not caused anymore deep negative emotions enough to attract one of Hawkmoth’s akumas. This shows he audience that Chloe is not all talk and is genuinely trying to be kinder; however, it’s difficult to tell for certain given her relative lack of screen time.

Marinette is also shown to explore her feelings towards Cat Noir and we as the audience are slowly beginning to see how her emotions can be quite complicated; rather than being blindly in love with one version of Adrien and not the other, she is now beginning to develop feelings for his Cat Noir alter ego (Glaciator). This reveals that Marinette is not as one-note as she may have been presented in the first season. She is able to see that Cat Noir has some of the same qualities she loves about Adrien, rather than blindly crushing on one over the other. This presents her romantic feelings as much more genuine, rather than being just a typical school-girl crush.

 

 

Finally, season two presents the promise of an expanding scope. Within the first few season 2 episodes, antagonist Hawkmoth akumatizes both a robot (Robustus) and a baby (Gigantitan), actions that were unheard of in season 1. This alone implies that the process of akumatization is directly linked to controlling emotions, without being limited to age or even humans for that matter. This may seem like a small revelation, given that negative emotions have always been the catalyst for akumatization, but it gives the audience something concrete within the context of the series’ lore, helping to ground the setting in some form of pseudoscience, which is plenty more than Miraculous Ladybug has done previously. By reintroducing the Great Guardian at the start of season 2 and increasing his screen time, the series is given an outlet to explain more of the series’ mythology.

 

Image result for alya volpinaA near reveal in the season 2 episode The Dark Owl carries some lasting stakes as well, in that Tikki is now aware of Adrien’s identity. In season 1, the only significant occurrence that is carried over to more than one episode is the fact that Adrien had taken a book of miraculous holders from his father’s office. Season two has much more plot lines that can be carried over. Alya temporarily given the fox miraculous to fight alongside Ladybug and Cat Noir being another one. Although she is sworn to secrecy and will likely not bring the experience up to Marinette, I highly doubt that it won’t be referred to in an upcoming episode. Although her superheroine experience was only temporary, the implications are long-lasting, and it will most likely come to play in the near future.

 

All in all, the second season of Miraculous Ladybug has proved itself to be much more ambitious than its predecessor, keeping audiences more engaged in its narrative and invested in the growth of the series’ characters. Additionally, although we haven’t been given a linear plot yet, the series has been strongly hinting at further progression and character development—two features that are barely graced in season one. Not only is this a much more appealing route to take, but it also shows that the series writers genuinely care for the direction of the show, rather than taking only three months to write 26 episodes with the mentality of quantity over quality—an approach taken during the conception and production of the first season.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Season 2 has been a huge step up from season one, and I can guarantee that by the end of the second season, its main selling points will dive a lot deeper than love square and pretty animation. Rather, it will be highly praised for its amazing characters, settings, and narrative as a whole—alongside its former points of interest.