Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir (Darth Multiverse's Version)

Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir (French: Miraculous, les aventures de Ladybug et Chat Noir) is a computer-animated magical girl superhero television series produced by French companies Zagtoon and Method Animation, and co-produced with Japanese studio Toei Animation's European division, and several international companies.

The series focuses on two Parisian teenagers, Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Adrien Agreste, who transform into the superheroes Ladybug and Cat Noir, respectively, to protect the city from supervillains. Prior to its debut in France on 19 October 2015 on TF1's TFOU block, the series was first shown in South Korea on 1 September 2015 on EBS1.

In the United States, the series originally debuted on Nickelodeon on 6 December 2015 before the show was removed from the network's schedule in 2016. In 2019, the series was officially picked up by Disney Channel in the United States and began airing since then. Internationally, it is mainly broadcast on Disney-owned channels or on Disney+, with exceptions in some countries.

The series spawned a media franchise with several products tied to it, including various comic books, novels and video games. A film adaptation, Ladybug & Cat Noir: The Movie, will be released theatrically in 2023 in France.

Conception and creation
The series is based on an original concept created by French writer and storyboarder, Thomas Astruc. He was inspired by a meeting with a certain lady and "decades of comics binge reading". In an interview with Nolife, Astruc said he was working as an animator on the show W.I.T.C.H. when he met a woman wearing a T-shirt with a ladybug on it. They began to share drawings, some of which were ladybug-themed. Astruc also noted that Marinette's signature pigtail hairstyle was fashioned after the woman. They also worked on the cartoon A.T.O.M. around 2004–05. Astruc first drew Ladybug on sticky notes and remarked about how strong the Ladybug character was. He had no memories of seeing ladybug-themed superheroes in comics.

Astruc had intended to make Ladybug a comic book series until he met Jeremy Zag, who loved the project and wanted to produce it as a cartoon; Zag was 25 at the time and not originally from the cartoon industry.

In developing Cat Noir, Astruc said that ladybugs represented good luck, so it was natural to partner her with a black cat character with bad luck powers. Cat Noir was a tribute to comic characters, like Catwoman. So it was like having Catwoman and Spider-Man in the same show but reversed genders and roles.

A character named Félix was originally going to have the role of Cat Noir, but he was later scrapped in favor of Adrien Agreste because the creative team felt that Félix was a cliché of a male anime protagonist and that Adrien would allow them to tell more interesting stories. In September 2015, Astruc indicated that he was open to revisiting the character of Félix, but he abandoned it by February 2016, writing that the character was a poor idea. In 2019, Félix was remade as Adrien's cousin and was renamed Félix Fathom.[needs update]

Hiring companies
In 2010, the show was announced at Cannes' MIPCOM with French production groups Univergroup Pictures and Onyx Films heading the project and working with Method Animation and Zagtoon. Aton Soumache of Onyx and Method said that they want "to create a glamorous superhero character with a real European flair with Paris as [the] backdrop." The producers had also planned to animate it in stereoscopic 3D (currently, the show is produced using CGI animation).

In the summer of June 2012, Toei Animation Co., Ltd. (known for Sailor Moon, Digimon, PreCure, One Piece & DragonBall) the famous Japanese animation studio branch owned & operated by Toei Company, Ltd. in Tokyo, Japan, was announced as a co-producer. Two years before 2012, Toei Animation had released a PreCure film that was set in Paris, France, and was very interested in expanding their international audience. Even after the production moved to CGI animation, Toei still remained co-producer, with the executive producers from the company being credited.

On 21 November 2012, a memorandum of understanding between Zagtoon, Method Animation, SAMG Animation and SK Broadband was announced: together, the companies would invest US$50 million through 2017 into five projects. The first of these projects was developed into Miraculous, which received an investment of $10 million. As a part of the deal, SK Broadband would have exclusive rights in South Korea for video on demand release, available to the subscribers of the company's IPTV platform B TV.

In 2019, Zag and Gloob signed an agreement where the Brazilian company will start to co-produce the next seasons of Miraculous, in addition to having exclusivity of exhibition in Brazil and the addition of a Brazilian character.

Animation
When Toei Animation joined as a co-producer in the summer of June 2012, it was also announced that the show would be drawn in a colorful manga-like style. Later in September, Zagtoon, Method, & Toei released a traditionally-animated promotional video for Miraculous Ladybug. The video featured Marinette (in different clothes similar to the clothes in the current series) as Ladybug, and a (now-scrapped, later Adrien's cousin) different character named Félix as Cat Noir, Marinette and Félix's Kwamis, Tikki and Plagg, Hawk Moth / Gabriel (without the mask and with a different outfit, look, and lair compared to the current series), and also two akumatized villains from season 1 in the current show – The Mime and Mr. Pigeon. Their Miraculouses and their transformation sequences had different designs compared to the Miraculouses and the transformations in the current series. The demo song from the promotional music video was performed & composed by Noam, who would later compose music and perform songs for the current series.

The whole anime concept was a complete success; but there were concerns about the marketability of traditional 2D animation and the difficulty in animating Ladybug's costume of red with black spots, as it caused some strobing effects. Executive producer Jared Wolfson said that Zag wanted the animation to be cinematic and epic, unique and different, and said that they are continuing to partner with Toei as it brings in the Asian inspiration and that a 2D version of the show might be a potential product for future purposes.

The aforementioned problem with 2D animation was resolved by moving to CGI animation; the switch also allowed for easier implementation of mobile camera angles. SAMG Animation (later SAMG Entertainment), a CGI animation studio located in South Korea which officially joined in the production in the fall of November 2012, produced modeling and animation. Zag later recalled that SAMG was chosen for quality reasons in a video message he sent to a South Korean press conference held in 2015 by the Seoul-based company. Astruc and assistant director, Wilfried Pain, instructed the animators not to improvise scenes so that they could keep things consistent and understandable. Pain estimated about 350–400 shots are used in a typical 20-minute episode; with 10 panels per shot, that makes up to 4000 panels an episode. Wolfson said that the show's animation brings dynamic camera angles and texturing. A trailer with the new CGI-animated style was released in October 2013, a year later.

On 22 January 2018, Zag posted on Instagram that the crew was working on season 4 and season 5.[better source needed]

On 18 April 2021, It was confirmed that in addition to season 4 and 5 the show will have two more seasons (season 6 and 7).

Themes, writing, and process
While the show is marketed as a Western superhero narrative, its thematic base is the Japanese mahō shōjo (magical girl) genre, with its focus on transformation sequences, a school cast, the gathering of a team of heroes, animal friends, and end-of-episode collages. In particular, Ladybug is strongly influenced by the genre's landmark entry Sailor Moon: Not only does the name of Marinette ("little sailor girl") recall Sailor Moon's title, but the main characters' magical companions reflect Sailor Moon 's Luna and Artemis, the main villain's power resembles that of Queen Beryl, and the show's entire plot parallels the story of Sailor Saturn. Ladybug features numerous other direct and indirect references to its inspiration.

The concept for the show originally dealt with political themes, geared towards teens and young adults. However, after failing to gain traction with networks, it was retooled for a younger target audience. Astruc said that he is delighted that the show is able to reach younger and older people.

Each episode takes around 3 months to write, from scratch to final validation of broadcasters. Assistant director, Wilfried Pain, said that each episode is composed of two parts: a sitcom aspect where the characters have to speak for themselves, and an action element where the camera is always moving.

Noam Kaniel (Noam) writes the music and songs. Kaniel has also worked on action superhero shows such as X-Men, Code Lyoko, W.I.T.C.H., Fantastic Four, Power Rangers, Digimon Fusion and Glitter Force. Kaniel and Zag wrote the theme song. Alain Garcia wrote the English lyrics, which are sung by Wendy Child and Cash Callaway. The French version was performed by Marily and Noam Kaniel.

Spin-off
A spin-off series, Miraculous Chibi, premiered on 31 August 2018 on YouTube and on major broadcast channels, and since late 2019 on Disney Channel Latin America.

Stage musical
In 2021, a stage musical adaptation titled Miraculous Ladybug : Le spectacle musical ( transl. Miraculous Ladybug: The Musical Show) was announced. The musical was originally set to premiere on 21 December 2021, at the Dôme de Paris. However, it was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It premiered on 20 December 2022, at the Dôme de Paris, where it was played until 1 January 2023. After that, the show went on tour in France, and in French-speaking areas of Belgium and Switzerland.

Manga adaptation
On 6 December 2020, Zag announced that a manga adaptation will begin serialization in Kodansha Monthly Shōnen Sirius magazine beginning in the March issue in January 2021. On 20 November 2022, during their panel at Anime NYC 2022, Kodansha USA announced that they have licensed the manga in English.

Game adaptations
An endless runner video game was developed by TabTale and released in April 2018 as a mobile app. In April 2019 Miraculous Ladybug & Cat Noir was announced as new mobile game and in May 2019 the game was presented by Jeremy Zag.

It was revealed by Venturebeat and Mars Rose that a Roblox game was being produced. Titled Miraculous RP: Quests of Ladybug and Cat Noir, created by Toya Games, it was released in beta on 4 May 2021, and fully released on 2 June the same year. This roleplay game is the first official Roblox game for a TV series franchise and has reached 200 million plays as of September 2021.

On 1 September 2022, a main profile game based on the show was announced, titled Miraculous: Rise of the Sphinx, developed by Magic Pockets and published by GameMill Entertainment for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows and Nintendo Switch, and was released on 25 October 2022. The announcement stated that the game would feature both single-player and co-op game modes.