A
Magical Girl/
superhero joint effort by France's Zagtoon and Method Animation studios with
Toei Animation, set to premiere in France and Belgium around August 2013. Was initially under the working title
Miraculous.The story is about Marinette Cheng, a high-schooler living in Paris. After inheriting a pair of magic ladybug earrings, she gains the power to become the superheroine... well, Ladybug. Her superpower is the power of Luck, if she uses it for
altruistic purposes only. Joining in her adventures is a black-clothed
catboy named Chat Noir (whose secret identity happens to be Felix, Marinette's crush), a mime villain, another villain who fights with an army of pigeons, and a mysterious elderly man with a butterfly motif.
Check out Zagtoon's page for the show
here
. Check out the three-and-a-half minute trailer which sparked a
voracious premature fandom overnight
here.
The anime has gained attention even before release for its beautiful animation and music. Little is known at the moment, other than that 26 episodes are planned, and it has a whopping budget of
US$11.2 million.
note This is an average of $460,000 per episode, which is four to five times the budget of an average anime episode and 1.5 times the budget of an average Western Animation episode.
Tropes include:
- Action Girl: Ladybug, of course.
- The Adjectival Superhero
- All Love Is Unrequited: Felix barely seems to acknowledge Marinette, and in an ironic twist, Ladybug doesn't seem to reciprocate Chat Noir's advances.
- Animal Themed Superbeing: Ladybug, house cat, pigeon, butterfly, and a mime.
- Animesque: Yes, despite being animated by Toei with some heavy stylistic influence from Pretty Cure, it is still a French-co-produced series and will air in France and Belgium before Japan.
- Badass Adorable: Ladybug.
- The Beastmaster: For pigeons.
- Blessed with Suck: Felix's ring allows him to become Chat Noir, but gives him bad luck in his everyday life because he can't take it off.
- But Not Too Foreign: Marinette is confirmed half-Chinese half-French.
- Butterfly of Death and Rebirth: A butterfly emblem features prominently, in a context that implies it is part of the Big Bad's scheme.
- Catboy: Chat Noir, duh.
- Casting a Shadow: The Mime villain mimics things like a bomb detonator and a mallet; his shadow reveals him holding the shadows of these things, and their very real effects.
- The City Of Light: Takes place in Paris.
- Clark Kenting: Played straight with Marinette/Ladybug. Felix does a much better job at averting this as Chat Noir.
- Clingy MacGuffin: Chat Noir's ring cannot be taken off, which lets him transform but gives him bad luck as his civilian self.
- Cool Airship: The apparent Big Bad goes around Paris in a giant blimp (with the butterfly motif, of course).
- Conditional Powers: Marinette has to use her powers as Ladybug for good, or something very bad will happen.
- Conspicuous CG: The pigeons.
- Curtains Match the Window: Marinette has blue hair and matching eyes.
- Cute Little Fangs: Chat Noir, though not in civvie mode.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Chat Noir wears dark clothing in civvie and alter ego forms, but seems to be on Ladybug's side.
- Dojikko: Marinette.
- Domino Mask: Marinette's costume sports one.
- Enemy Mime: One of the mooks is shown to have mime powers, such as conjuring up an invisible plunger for detonation and an invisible mallet for attacking.
- Expressive Ears: Chat Noir's.
- Fan Nickname: "Felix" is the fandom's name for Chat Noir's civilian identity.
- Turns out though, according to the French description on the website, his name actually IS Felix.
- The question is: was it always this way and not many people realized his name WAS actually Felix, or did Zagtoon listen to the Fandom?
- Genki Girl: The trailer portrays Cheng/Ladybug as having the typical characteristics and mannerisms of one.
- Girlish Pigtails: Marinette, which carries over to her Ladybug form.
- Gonk: The Pigeon Man, with his two bulbous, protruding eyes and teeth, when compared to the other characters, looks especially cartoonish.
- Green Eyes: Chat Noir's sclera turn green when he transforms, his iris are still blue.
- Hell-Bent for Leather: Chat Noir.
- Idiot Hair: Marinette.
- Expressive Hair: It can curve into a heart and droops when Marinette feels upset.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Part of why Chat Noir wants Ladybug to kiss him is because it will remove his ring which gives him his Bad Luck Superpowers.
- Innocent Blue Eyes: Marinette.
- Kick Chick: How Ladybug seems to fight.
- Loves My Alter Ego: Twisted all over the place. Marinette is in love with Felix, but he just ignores her. Chat Noir, however, is smitten with Ladybug, but she snubs him in cat form.
- Luck Tropes: Most likely all of them, as Ladybug is Good Luck-themed, and Chat Noir is Bad Luck-themed.
- Magical Girl Warrior: Ladybug.
- Meaningful Name: Ladybug, who has good luck based powers. Actual ladybugs are a symbol of good luck in France. Similarly, Chat Noir, which is French for black cat, has bad luck based powers.
- Monumental Damage: The Louvre gets blown up and the Arc De Triomphe is cut in half by a Pillar of Light.
- Oh Crap: Ladybug when fighting the Mime and happening to notice that his shadow is holding a very large mallet that he's about to bring down on her head.
- Pillar of Light: Something to do with Butterfly motif villain's Evil Plan.
- Red Is Heroic: Ladybug's costume.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: Both Ladybug's and Chat Noir's companions, and both are needed for the two to transform.
0 reviews