Cartoons Archives - deus ex magical girl

Television Review: ‘Miraculous Ladybug,’ Season 3, Part 2

Miraculous Ladybug, Season 3, Part 1, directed by Thomas Astruc. Written by Nicky Baker et al. Zagtoon, 2019. Rated TV-Y7. 13 episodes.

It had seemed, after the second season of Miraculous Ladybug made it from France to the United States, that the distributor had worked out the problem with the jumbled episode order. The third season of the show, however, tells us this is not the case: The episodes are crazily out of order here, which is a problem since this third season continues to develop a linear plot. Despite that, this is another strong season overall with only a few flubs. A viewer just needs to be willing to go with the flow, to assume that previously unmentioned plot points or characters will get their introduction at some point.

I earlier wrote about the first half of the third season and think this previous post only needs a slight update now that the third season is available in its entirety.

The beginning of this season’s second half is not encouraging: It’s a recap episode, and like all recap episodes, it’s pretty bad. However, after that and a few other weak episodes, things ramp up.

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Television Review: ‘Miraculous Ladybug,’ Season 3, Part 1

Miraculous Ladybug, Season 3, Part 1, directed by Thomas Astruc. Written by Nicky Baker et al. Zagtoon, 2019. Rated TV-Y7. 13 episodes.

I have previously reviewed the first and second seasons of Miraculous Ladybug, the surprisingly entertaining magical girl show out of France. At the time of writing, the first half of the third season is available on Netflix, with the second half presumably coming soon.

At least so far in this season, the show appears to be trying to revert to the formula that made it popular in the first place: While the second season introduced a slew of new animal-themed superheroes, the first half of season 3 puts the focus back on the two main characters, Marinette and Adrien, who are also the heroes Ladybug and Cat Noir, and their increasingly complicated love triangle.

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Additional Notes on ‘Miraculous Ladybug’

I have previously reviewed both the first and the second seasons of Miraculous Ladybug, the popular magical girl show out of France. A few brief additional comments worth making:

First, I mentioned before that plans for a live-action film were in the works, to be released through Lionsgate. That would arguably have been the first, or maybe just the most prominent, live-action magical girl title from outside Japan. However, the movie has, in spite of the cartoon’s popularity, died in pre-production hell. That is perhaps no great surprise: crowd-pleasing though the cartoon is, the film would probably have struggled to find a sufficiently large audience outside of France.

Second, for whatever reason, Netflix only has the second season available in English, but the first is available in multiple language, so I find myself rewatching the first season in French—which I assume is the original French and not a Netflix re-dub. I have mentioned before that the English voice cast of this show is excellent, and now I am astounded to find that it in fact closely matches the original. The characters for the most part sound largely the same in both languages, though I admit I prefer both Adrien and his kwami Plagg in the English: The French Adrien sounds whiny, and Plagg has a voice that’s surprisingly deep for such a tiny character.

My only real complaint about the French version is with the subtitles, which are a transcription of the English dub rather than a direct translation of the French. My French is admittedly rusty, but even I can tell that the subtitles deviate considerably at times from what the characters are actually saying. I don’t know if this problem is unique to Netflix, or if one would find it on the DVDs as well.

Getting Frenched: ‘Miraculous Ladybug,’ Season 2

Miraculous Ladybug (a.k.a. Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir). Season 2. Directed by Thomas Astruc. Written by Thomas Astruc, Fred Lenoir, et al. Zagtoon, Method Animation, and Toei Animation, 2017-2018. 26 episodes of 22 minutes (approx. 9.5 hours). Rated TV-Y7.

Available on Netflix.

See my review of the first season.

Although this is a blog about magical girls, I have always made an effort to write it for people who are not magical girl fans. To that end, I have often pondered what would make a good entry-level magical girl title—something funny, fast-paced, action-oriented, and without the saccharine quality that audiences in the West might find off-putting. I have decided that the best entry-level title I know is Miraculous Ladybug, the family-friendly CGI magical girl show out of France, made by Zagtoon in association with Toei Animation, the Japanese company that has historically dominated the magical girl genre.

Also, the show’s director once insulted me on social media, so I have a certain personal affection for his work. I took it in stride, of course: He’s French, so I expected him to be rude.

(Rimshot.)

Anyway, Miraculous Ladybug is lightning in a bottle. I can’t really describe for you how good it is, because it’s one of those shows that seems to be made on a secret formula. It gathers together various shopworn motifs from children’s cartoons, YA fiction, superheroes, and magical girls, puts them together in a blender, and renders the result into mediocre CGI. Yet somehow, it is pure magic. It works on the Casablanca principle: It is good not because it avoids clichés, but because it uses all of them.

And Rose is still best girl.

The first season was so remarkable, I wondered if the show’s creators would be able to pull it off a second time. Not only have they pulled it off, but they’ve stepped up their game. This second season is better than the first and has eliminated some of the first’s biggest problems, both technical and story-related.

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Dammit, Disney

‘Fancy Nancy,’ Episode 1: A Discussion

I’m not sure what kind of review this is going to be because I haven’t decided yet what I think of this show. I hated it at first, and then it grew on me.

Under discussion here is Fancy Nancy, a show on Disney Junior. I need to give a little background in case you’re wondering why I’m talking about a CGI Disney Junior show on a blog largely dedicated to magical girls and other weebery.

To put this in terms that my fellow weeaboos can appreciate, it goes like this: Have you read Yotsuba&!? And did you like it? Well, there are a whole bunch of books just like it in the kid lit section at your public library.

In fact, I would recommend that serious anime fans explore some of the chapter books and junior novels at the library, mostly just to find out what they’re missing. American writers of children’s literature give the impression of being people who’ve actually observed children closely before attempting to impersonate them on paper, whereas Japanese creators of manga and anime give the impression of being people who’ve heard rumors of children but have never actually seen any. The next time somebody asks me to justify why I think Cardcaptor Sakura or Lyrical Nanoha is poorly written, I think I’ll just wave a Judy Moody under his nose and say, “Here! Read this! Then you’ll understand!”

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‘Miraculous Ladybug’ Season 2 Official Trailer

The official trailer for the long-awaited second season of the French CGI magical girl series Miraculous has made its appearance just today. It’s a silent montage with accompanying music. Based on what we see here, season 2 will likely follow the pattern of season 1—which would be a good thing, as season 1 was enormously entertaining, if formulaic.

Rumors have been going around for a long while that additional superheroes will appear in the second season: particularly, Internet legend has it that Marinette’s bestie Alya will acquire the fox miraculous and that her enemy Chloé will acquire the bee miraculous. There’s no evidence of such a thing in the trailer; it may be rumor, an early idea that got nixed, or something they’re still planning but decided to leave out of the preview. But the symbols on that little box, suggest, at any rate, that more superheroes should be making an appearance.

Drawn Like My French Girls: ‘LoliRock’

They should have called it “Loli Auto-Tuned.”

LoliRock. Written by Madellaine Paxon et al. Directed by Jean-Louis Vandestoc. Marathon Media and Zodiak Kids, 2014-2016. Starring Kazumi Evans, Kelly Sheridan, and Vincent Tong. 52 episodes of 26 minutes (approx. 22.5 hours). Rated TV-Y.

Available on Netflix.

We now turn our attention to that other French magical girl cartoon, LoliRock. According to an earlier version of its Wikipedia entry, LoliRock has the honor of being the first magical girl title from France, though this assertion was followed by the wisest and truest words to be found on Wikipedia, “citation needed.” One way or the other, we can can probably safely say that LoliRock is the first French magical girl show to get international attention. It made its appearance in France in October of 2014 and ran for two seasons. Its English dub now has a home on Netflix.

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Drawn Like My French Girls: ‘Miraculous Ladybug’

Les filles magiques de la France sont les meilleures filles magiques, non?

Miraculous Ladybug (a.k.a. Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir). Directed by Thomas Astruc. Written by Fred Lenoir, Matthieu Choquet, et al. Zagtoon and Method Animation, France. Toei Animation, Japan. 2015-2016. French (English dub). 26 episodes of 22 minutes (approx. 9.5 hours). Rated TV-Y7.

Available on Netflix.

For over a decade, probably the most successful magical girl title from outside Japan has been the Italian cartoon Winx Club, a dungeon-punkish hot mess that’s like a cross between Harry Potter, Tinkerbell, and Sailor Moon. But within the last few years, France has gotten into the act with at least two strong contenders, LoliRock and Miraculous Ladybug. We’ll discuss the former some other time, but we’ll discuss the latter right now. A French magical girl cartoon rendered in CGI, Miraculous Ladybug is known in some countries (including the U.S.) under the more cumbersome title of Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir.