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.
Synopsis
In spite of the narrowing in, the cast has steadily grown. The character Chloé Bourgeois, originally introduced as the stereotypical stuck-up rich girl and Marinette’s nemesis, has been shoved to the background. Taking her place is the conniving Lila, whom we first met at the end of season 1. Lila is a compulsive liar and expert manipulator who continually gets her way by making up plausible falsehoods. So good is she at this that she’s caught the eye of perennial villain Hawk Moth (“Papillon” in the original French, presumably changed because “Butterfly” doesn’t sound villainous), who wants to bring her in on his schemes.
Meanwhile, the rival love interests introduced last season make their reappearances: Kagami, the fiery fencer with an eye for Adrien, and the easygoing hippy guitarist Luka who pines for Marinette.
Both these characters got friendzoned hardcore in the season previous, but season 3 has (wisely, I think) more or less retconned that out. Even though we all know Marinette and Adrien are almost certainly going to be an official couple by the time this show finally reaches its conclusion—whenever that will be—it is wise of the writers to give them some serious competition in the meanwhile. I repeat my previous assessment of these characters without modification: The headstrong Kagami is a lot of fun, but Luka, alas, is probably the weakest member of the cast, having little personality to speak of.
Discussion
While I like Luka and Kagami, the romantic entanglements are, by this season, starting to get ridiculous. Most of the characters, for good or ill, got paired off by the end of season 2, but now in this season, we find that Adrien has no less than four girls chasing after him, and for no discernible reason. That would be fine if this were a slapstick harem with him as its center—but it isn’t, so it’s beginning to look like the writers are starting to run out of ideas: If they want to cause Marinette more problems, their first instinct is to toss in another girl to chase Adrien and make Marinette jealous.
A lot of comedy comes out of this, but it’s beginning to be dangerous too because Marinette is consistently at her worst when she’s jealous. That’s as it should be, but when brought up too often it threatens to strip her of the charm that made her such a popular character in the first place.
Most of the episodes in the first half of this season have a feel similar to the episodes of the first season: They feel self-contained, almost independent of one another, without the sense of an ongoing story arc that the second season gave us, though there is some narrative advancement.
I am also concerned about the editing and “cinematography” (or whatever it’s called in cartoons). The quality of the action appears to me to have dipped this season. The first season, of course, had a problem with consistent animation quality, but the second season appeared to have resolved that. Both seasons had carefully arranged action sequences, but this season appears to show more shortcuts, particularly in the form of choppy editing that sometimes makes it hard to discern how different shots relate to one another.
Nonetheless, in spite of a lack of movement in the plot and some concerns about action, some of the episodes are standouts.
Notable Episodes
Oblivio
Two in particular deserve discussion. The first, one of the finest in the whole series, is “Oblivio.” This episode cleverly starts in medias res, with Marinette and Adrien having both lost their superpowers and their memories. Not knowing who they are or what they’re doing, they find themselves trapped in a skyscraper, being hunted by some invisible but menacing monster that can crash through walls. Aside from having some of the most creative writing the series has presented, it also showcases its ability to move smoothly from one genre to another—and in this case, the genre is survival horror (albeit of a very mild variety), reminiscent of the zombie apocalypse from season 2, which is also one of the best episodes.
The lost memories also give the writers a chance to deepen the relationship between Marinette and Adrien, though the episode’s ending does, of course, retcon that out and reset everything to normal. While expected, this produces some “fridge logic” problems; these superheroes have throughout the series emphasized the importance of keeping their identities secret, yet “Oblivio” indicates that resetting people’s memories so they can’t remember secret identities is a simple process.
Weredad
The second episode of note is “Weredad.” This one again centers around romantic entanglements. In this case, Marinette, in order to avoid having her secret identity revealed, pretends to be infatuated with Cat Noir. Her father, over-excited by the prospect of his daughter having a super-powered boyfriend, invites Cat Noir over for lunch and awkwardness ensues. When things don’t work out, Hawk Moth changes Marinette’s dad into “Weredad,” who tries to trap her in a tower where only a perfect prince can rescue her.
This episode unfortunately flubs the ending, and having briefly talked with Thomas Astruc, I suspect I know why, as in spite of his love of bubblegum romance, he has feminist pretensions. Obviously, the best way to end the episode would be for Cat Noir to lose his powers somehow and, as Adrien, rescue Marinette, perhaps without her knowing he did so. Instead, she rescues herself, which screws up the episode’s themes.
It’s a fun episode anyway, and it’s especially fun because it caused a lot of shippers to shriek and gnash their teeth because they wanted a Marinette/Cat Noir relationship (called “Marichat,” FYI). And anything that upsets shippers is intrinsically good.
Animaestro
One episode in here is downright cringeworthy, and that would be the one entitled “Animaestro.” There’s nothing exactly wrong with it—except for the self-insert.
The episode centers around a film director who has made an animated movie about Ladybug and Cat Noir, and that film director … is Thomas Astruc. Yes, really. A lot of the kids for whom the show is intended probably won’t notice or care that this is a self-insert, but to an adult, it’s seriously wince-inducing.
On the plus side, Astruc has the good sense to mock himself, representing himself as an overweight buffoon who’s basically useless on his own film project. Although my brief interaction with him was decidedly unpleasant, and though I still think a blatant self-insert was unwise, this raised my opinion of him considerably: He at least isn’t self-serious. Nothing is more insufferable than self-seriousness.
Conclusion
What can I say that I have not said before? This show continues to be fun, and though I have some concerns, they are fairly minor and are the sorts of things we should expect to crop up from time to time in a series that is likely to continue as long as the studio can make money from it.
My biggest concern is that this show is going to drag on too long. Its central love triangle suggests a story that ought to get wrapped up in short order, yet the international franchise it’s turned into will no doubt prompt its creators to keep it going as long as they can. As mentioned already, this season so far feels episodic, and I get the impression that the writers are actively avoiding plot advancement. That’s fine for now, but the time will come when it gets frustrating.
