Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir

The series takes place in modern-day Paris and revolves around the adventures of two teenagers, Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Adrien Agreste. When evil arises, they transform into their superhero personas, respectively Ladybug and Cat Noir, using magical jewels known as the "Miraculouses": the miraculous of the Ladybug, with the power of creation, and of the Cat, which grants the power of destruction. Marinette and Adrien struggle with their feelings for each other, not knowing each other's secret identities: Marinette is in love with Adrien, but not Cat Noir, while Adrien is in love with Ladybug, but not Marinette. Their main enemy is the supervillain Hawk Moth, whose real identity, unknown to the heroes, is Adrien's father, Gabriel Agreste. Using the Butterfly Miraculous, he creates akumas, butterflies infused with negative energy, to "akumatize" ordinary Parisians when they experience negative emotions. This grants him control over them and turns them into supervillains. His goal is to steal Ladybug's and Cat Noir's Miraculous, intending to use their combined power to wish his wife, Emilie, back to life, who fell into a coma by using the damaged Peacock Miraculous before the events of the series. He is sometimes aided by his assistant Nathalie Sancoeur, who uses the Peacock Miraculous to create sentimonsters, magical lifeforms with a seemingly endless variety of forms and abilities. As Hawk Moth's villains grow stronger, Master Fu, the Guardian of the Miraculous, permits Marinette to borrow additional Miraculous and enlist her classmates and friends as superheroes. Hawk Moth eventually exposes Master Fu, forcing him to make Marinette the new Guardian. Nathalie falls ill from using the damaged Peacock Miraculous, but Hawk Moth repairs it and uses it together with the Butterfly Miraculous to become "Shadow Moth", able to create both akumas and sentimonsters. At the end of the fourth season, Gabriel, adopting the new supervillain name "Monarch", gains control of almost all of the Miraculous, leaving Ladybug and Cat Noir once again as the only two heroes. A battle with the heroes leaves Gabriel with magical damage that slowly spreads through his body. Adrien eventually lets go of his crush on Ladybug and instead falls in love with Marinette, leading to them starting a romantic relationship (still ignorant of each other's secret identities). After a final battle with Marinette at the end of season 5, Gabriel seizes the Ladybug and Cat Miraculous and makes his wish; having had a change of heart, he wishes to revive Nathalie at the cost of his own life. Marinette recovers most of the Miraculous and gives them into the custody of her friends, unaware that Lila Rossi, a former classmate who became her nemesis, has claimed the Butterfly Miraculous for herself. In the sixth season, Marinette struggles with the morality of hiding the truth of Gabriel's villainy from Adrien and the world. Lila, aiming to discover Ladybug's true identity, begins to direct akuma-powered villains of her own against Ladybug, Cat Noir, and their team of superheroes (now called "the Miraculers"). == Episodes ==

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. but he was later scrapped in favour 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, and became holder of the Peacock Miraculous. 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). 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 would 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 and its European division joined as co-producers in the summer of June 2012, it was also announced that the show would be drawn in a colourful manga-like style. 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, The demo song from the promotional music video was performed & composed by Noam, who would later compose, produce 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. The aforementioned problem with 2D animation was resolved by moving to CGI animation; the switch also allowed for easier implementation of mobile camera angles. 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. On 22 January 2018, Zag posted on Instagram that the crew was working on season 4 and season 5. In September 2019, it was confirmed by Zag that the air date for season 4 was slated for late 2020, but this was pushed to 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On 18 April 2021, it was confirmed that in addition to seasons 4 and 5, the show will have two more seasons (season 6 and 7). Season 6, which was confirmed to switch the series from Autodesk Maya to Unreal Engine 5, was initially expected to launch sometime between fall or winter 2024. 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. Astruc said that he is delighted that the show can reach younger and older people. 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. Kaniel and Zag wrote the theme song. Alain Garcia wrote the English lyrics, which are sung by Wendy Child and Cash Calloway. The French version was performed by Marily and Noam Kaniel. Starting from season 4, Lou performed the theme song in both French and English. == Release ==

Astruc's representatives have said that the show has reached over 120 countries. In countries where the series is not broadcast on Disney-owned channels or services, it airs on local networks or cable TV channels. Europe • In France, the series is broadcast on TF1 during the TFOU programming block. Since 2024, TFOU is split into two parts from Monday to Friday, with the first part airing on TF1, and the second on TFX. On Saturday and Sunday, the full block airs only on TF1. Episodes premiere either on TF1 or on TFX, depending on the day of broadcast. Reruns airs on Disney Channel, while Netflix, Disney+ and MyTF1max/TF1+ share the streaming rights. It premiered on 19 October 2015 on TF1. with further new episodes on TFOU on 26 October 2017 and other channels throughout Europe. Netflix began streaming the series, starting with the Christmas special, on 20 December 2016. Season 3 premiered on 14 April 2019. In France, the fourth season premiered in April 2021, The sixth season premiered on 23 March 2025 in France. • In the United Kingdom, the show premiered on 30 January 2016 on Disney Channel (and aired until its closure on 1 October 2020); and premiered in February 2017 on Pop (and aired until its departure from linear television on 1 January 2026). Beginning with the fifth season, the series has aired on CBBC and BBC iPlayer. A Welsh language version is also broadcast on S4C. • The world premiere of season 3 was in Spain on Disney Channel on 1 December 2018. The show aired on the children's television programming block KidsClick from 3 July 2017 to 29 March 2019. This would make the show available on terrestrial television stations, but the block was ended on 31 March 2019 due to low ratings. On 8 April 2019, Disney Channel acquired the rights to broadcast the first two seasons with the third season being aired starting 1 June 2020 and ending 5 December with the episode "Christmaster". Disney Branded Television later acquired the exclusive rights to stream the series & TV specials on their sister service, Disney+ worldwide (excluding Brazil & China). Canada later got the series on the service. Disney Channel would premiere all of these seasons and specials first. In December 2016, Zag announced that Netflix had acquired USA video-on-demand streaming rights to Miraculous for seasons 1–3. The first three seasons were available on Netflix until 1 February 2023, when they (and the Miraculous Webi-sodes) were added to Disney+. The "Miraculous World" specials (New York, Shanghai, Paris, London, Tokyo), along with the fourth and fifth seasons, aired on Disney Channel from 2020 to 2025 respectively and added to Disney+. Netflix, however, didn't have them added until 2024, when Season 4 (including the episode "Action") was added to their service, along with "Miraculous World: New York and Shanghai". On 6 January 2025, it was announced that the sixth season would premiere with a simulcast between Disney Channel & Disney XD US on 25 January 2025. • In Canada, the show premiered in French on 9 January 2016 on Télé-Québec, a provincial public service television network in Quebec. The series was broadcast in English on Family Channel starting on 1 November 2016. The fourth season premiere, "Furious Fu", was aired in Brazil on Gloob in March 2021. Asia-Pacific • Prior to its debut in France in October 2015 on TF1, and ran for 13 episodes until November 2015, with repeats through February 2016, and the second half of the season began airing on 1 March 2016. SK Broadband, having participated in the production, provided the episodes on video on demand exclusively to subscribers of their IPTV platform B TV, about a half-hour following the South Korean broadcast of each one on EBS1. Disney Channel also aired the series from 7 December 2015 to 30 September 2021. • In New Zealand, the show premiered on 27 April 2016 on TVNZ's TV2. • In Australia, the show premiered on 22 March 2016 on ABC Me. • In Japan, Disney Channel streamed the episode "Stormy Weather" through its mobile application on 1 July 2018 before the official premiere on 23 July of the same year. • It premiered in Southeast Asia on Disney Channel on 6 November 2018. It aired until 30 September 2021, when the channel closed on 1 October 2021 and moved to Disney+. • In Pakistan, the show was telecast by Kids Zone Pakistan with the Urdu dub in April 2019; the second season first aired on 22 October 2021, the third on 3 May 2022, and the fourth on 31 December 2022. • In India, the first five seasons aired on 29 April 2019, 14 December 2020, 12 April 2021, 9 May 2022 and 12 June 2023 respectively on Disney Channel. The "Miraculous World" TV specials also aired on the same channel, with the New York special airing on 9 May 2021 and the Shanghai special airing on 14 November 2021. • In Indonesia, the first season was aired by Trans7 from 2019 until July 2021 on a graveyard slot. Home media Region 1 In the United States and Canada, the first DVD, featuring seven episodes from season one, with both English and French audio tracks, was released on 3 May 2016 by Shout! Factory. A second DVD, subtitled Spots On!, which contains six episodes, was released on 30 August 2016. A third DVD, Be Miraculous, which contains seven episodes (including the two-part prequel), was released on 10 January 2017. A fourth DVD, ''It's Ladybug'', was released on 11 April 2017. A fifth DVD, Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir: Season One, was released on 6 February 2018. Main series Region 2 In the UK, the first DVD, featuring 4 DVD episodes from season 1 called Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir: Lady Wifi & Other Stories Vol 1 in English was released on 17 July 2017 by Spirit Entertainment. A second DVD, Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir – Kung Food & Other Stories Vol 2, was released on 6 November 2017. A third DVD, Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir – Princess Fragrance & Other Stories Vol 3, was released on 12 February 2018. A fourth DVD, Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir – Volpina & Other Stories Vol 4, which contains seven episodes (including the two-part prequel), was released on 21 May 2018. A fifth DVD, Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir: Season One, was released on 17 September 2018. In the UK, the second batch of DVD episodes, featuring 5 episodes from season 2, dubbed Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir – Gigantian & Other Stories, was released on 7 October 2019. A DVD called Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir – A Christmas Special, featuring episodes from Season 2, was released on 11 November 2019. A DVD called Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir – Gorizilla & Other Stories, featuring episodes from Season 2, was released on 17 February 2020. A DVD called Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir – Sandboy & Other Stories, featuring episodes from Season 2, was released on 4 May 2020. A DVD called Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir – Queen Wasp & Other Stories, featuring episodes from Season 2, was released on 13 July 2020. A fifth DVD, Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir: Season Two, was released on 14 September 2020. In 2023, Dazzler Media launched a new sublabel, is the home to Dazzler's dedicated coming from children's new physical media and digital label Dazzler Kids signed a deal with Zag Inc. to secure the United Kingdom DVD and digital download rights to Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir, Power Players and Ghostforce. Main series == Cultural impact and reception ==

Critical reception Kimberly Cooper, a blog writer who has contributed to news media such as The Huffington Post, wrote that the show has inspired teens and adults to create and propagate Miraculous remixes and liked that the show featured multiracial characters as with the film Big Hero 6, which had won an Oscar. She "quickly realized there was a far cooler and broader Miraculous movement underway". Caitlin Donovan of the entertainment website, Epicstream, listed it as one of her top 10 animated series of 2015. She wrote that "the characters are so charming that the tropey aspects of the show are merely a lot of fun, rather than irritating" and commended the fight sequences and CGI animation. She wrote that "Marinette is an adorable lead who is genuinely awkward as a civilian, but confident as a superhero, which makes for an interesting contrast." Ella Anders of BSCKids wrote that the show stands out because of "how it meshes both the magical girl and superhero genre together". Robert Lloyd of the Los Angeles Times described the show as "clever, romantic, fun, the way some of us prefer our superhero stories." He found the characters to "have the look of extruded plastic common to CGI cartoons", but "within these limits the design is lovely and the animation elegant, and a lot of work has gone into the staging and execution of the action scenes." The North American Precis Syndicate called the show "authentic and aspirational – a story of today's modern everygirl superhero who comes to life. The series, about a young girl who taps into her superhero powers and innocent optimism to save Paris from the evil Hawk Moth, will no doubt inspire today's youth to try to save the day, every day in their own way." Andrea Reiher of Zap2It wrote that the "storylines are rich with family, friends, adventure, intrigue, villains, creativity and more, delivering themes that are relatable and relevant to kids and preteens" and anticipated it would be a huge hit on Nickelodeon. The show has also received negative criticism from both critics and fans of the show. Ryan Lewis of CBR.com portrays a negative view of the show's primary conflict between the two main protagonists: Several media reviewers anticipated "Miraculous toys to be among the hot superheroine properties for 2016". Zag has partnered with Bandai to release Miraculous-based toys as well as deals to make Miraculous-brand clothing and other merchandise. Awards and nominations == Other media ==

Spin-offs 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. Another spin-off titled Miraculous Stellar Force was announced to be released in 2027. Film In September 2018, Jeremy Zag announced an animated film adaptation of Miraculous. Production started after the production of the fourth and fifth seasons of the television series. With a budget of €80 million, it is one of the most expensive French films ever made, with the first being Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. Titled Ladybug & Cat Noir: The Movie, the film explores the origins of the franchise. It was released on July 5, 2023, by SND. Miraculous: Ladybug & Cat Noir, The Movie 2 is an animated sequel to the 2023 film that is expected to be released in 2027. Zag is set to return as director, and the original voice cast is expected to return. Stage musical In 2021, a stage musical adaptation titled Miraculous Ladybug: Le spectacle musical ( 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's 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 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. A sequel, Miraculous: Paris Under Siege, was released on 25 October 2024. The theme song was released to Just Dance 2023 Edition via the Just Dance+ subscription service on August 10, 2023. In 2025, the Miraculous franchise partnered with the video gaming series Talking Tom & Friends. == Notes ==