One criticism about Miraculous Ladybug that I find really interesting is the criticism that the show is still like that. It’s phrased in different ways, like “there’s no development” or similar, but it often includes an exasperated “it’s season five and Marinette still hasn’t told Adrien she loves him” somewhere in the text. This criticism isn’t fascinating because it’s correct (it’s not) or because it raises complex questions (it doesn’t); it’s interesting because on some level, I totally get it.
Imagine you’re six, or eight, or ten years old when Miraculous Ladybug launches in 2015, or maybe even fourteen like Marinette, and you love it: It’s funny, it has good action, a beautiful romance, and Marinette is just an awesome character: She wants to do good, she loves her friends, she’s clumsy, she’s anxious, and she’s still awesome, all in one package. You can’t help but love her.
But now it’s 2022. If you were the show’s target audience of six years old, you have now spent half your life with that show existing. If you were as old as Marinette, you’re now an adult. You’ve certainly changed schools once or twice; made new friends, lost old ones. You gained new hobbies, new interests, your first interest in romance if you’re into that, your first global pandemic and so on. And the show, on a really high level, is still like that. Marinette’s foibles, which used to be funny, are now cringy, because they remind you of how you used to be. Marinette’s anxiety around her crush may have become a painful reality, or a painful memory long in the past. The threat they’re facing is still the most cartoonish in the history of cartoonish threats, and they’re not even one step closer to doing anything about it; i.e. their biggest problems are still exactly the same, while yours have changed completely.
Other shows and book series and so on often try to grow up with their audience, dealing with darker topics and/or more explicit kissing as they go on and their audience presumably gets older. Miraculous Ladybug cheerfully does not. It’s still fundamentally the same show it is now as it was in 2015.
That means you grew up, and Marinette is still fourteen. And isn’t that just the worst? A reminder of who you used to be, back when you were a young, stupid child. A reminder of all the things you’ve outgrown. I totally get being frustrated with that.
Of course, that isn’t a flaw with the show as such. It wants to be a show where Marinette remains fourteen forever, or at least for a couple of seasons more, and it’s doing that well. Getting better, even. It just means that you and the show have split ways at some point, and you’re no longer the person who fell in love with it. There’s no shame in that, it happens.
(To be clear, it’s not required. There are people who fell in love with the show as a child and still enjoy it. Whatever makes you happy.)
Move on. Or fail to recognise it and make angry Tumblr posts about it; your choice, really.
That’s why I personally recommend watching the show once you’re in your thirties and have stopped giving a shit. Then you’ll have the best long-term experience with it. 😁
