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type_wildIf you asked me about the one show I did not expect to be sitting down to watch at 3 PM, it'd be some TV-quality CGI monster-of-the-week about a couple of sixteen year olds in some goddamn love triangle with themselves, but here we are.
As a rule of thumb, I don't like CG animation. As a rule of thumb, I don't like shows with running subplots about teenagers with dumb love problems. As a rule of thumb, monster-of-the-week has got to serve up something a a bit more than "good guys always win with the same three transformation sequences", but here we are, apparently.
I don't watch enough cartoons to really speak of whether or not Miraculous: Ladybug and Chat Noir is unique except for its setting (Paris). Where it's super formulaic in episode structure, it's at least fairly creative in its once-an-episode brainwashed supervillains and their superpowers which Ladybug and Chat Noir have to battle inevitably defeat. It's so dumb, and yet I love it enough to be watching the goddamn re-runs.
I mean, I've watched maybe five or six episodes in total, but believe you me, I'm enjoying this dumb CG cartoon about two sixteen year old superheroes in a love triangle with themselves way more than I've enjoyed any of the proper adult series I've tried watching in the few weeks since getting HBO on cable.
As a rule of thumb, I don't like CG animation. As a rule of thumb, I don't like shows with running subplots about teenagers with dumb love problems. As a rule of thumb, monster-of-the-week has got to serve up something a a bit more than "good guys always win with the same three transformation sequences", but here we are, apparently.
I don't watch enough cartoons to really speak of whether or not Miraculous: Ladybug and Chat Noir is unique except for its setting (Paris). Where it's super formulaic in episode structure, it's at least fairly creative in its once-an-episode brainwashed supervillains and their superpowers which Ladybug and Chat Noir have to battle inevitably defeat. It's so dumb, and yet I love it enough to be watching the goddamn re-runs.
I mean, I've watched maybe five or six episodes in total, but believe you me, I'm enjoying this dumb CG cartoon about two sixteen year old superheroes in a love triangle with themselves way more than I've enjoyed any of the proper adult series I've tried watching in the few weeks since getting HBO on cable.
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Date: 2019-12-02 11:50 pm (UTC)1. It can't be the story. The episodes are formulaic to the extreme, and the "overarching plot", as far as I've seen it, appears to be extremely standard for the genre (hero must balance saving the town incognito with everyday life as just a normal girl, villain wants to turn the world evil for nebulous purposes that involves de-powering the hero, there are cute boys one cannot confess to). It actually appeals to me in a lot of the same ways that Sailor Moon did, and with a lot of the same elements that should be a huge "ugh, stop wasting my time" but I somehow love it?
2. From this, I can only reason that adolescent TV appeals to me on a very strange level, or some of these shows are just so well written that it makes up for the things that should be annoying me. I've honestly no idea which one it is, but I think my utter love of the CCS anime stems from the same source. I absolutely adore Princess Tutu, but with that one, I can name things like the A+ funny and the not-terrible-at-least plays on classical music and literature, and the meta-discussion on the power of art. But Ladybug, CCS, and SM? They've got none of those elements, yet I'm still loving every minute of it.
3. With Ladybug in particular, though, there's the added appeal that unlike SM and CCS, I really like the main romance. Possibly setting myself up for disappointment becaues it allegedly bombs in S3, but for what is is in the first two seasons, it's just this sincerely adorable, sincerely funny, sincerely just-bittersweet-enough mess of unrequited love that isn't actually unrequited depending on how you look at it. I think a lot of the appeal to me is in fact the that impossible aspect off it - no matter how close they get, they'll never touch, but damn if the writers don't know how to feed me anyway.
4. Thinking about one criticism I've seen of Marinette's replacement love interest (I'm very qualified to proclaim him a tool based on how he was on in the one half episode I accidentally caught on TV that led me to this place), I think a lot of the appeal might be the characters? By which I mean Marinette and Adrien, and Chloé. Not that Chloé is more nuanced than most of their other classmates, but I like rich bitches. I don't know if you're familiar with W.I.T.C.H., but Marinette's Replacement LI absolutely smacks of all the boyfriends from that one, in that they existed pretty much singlehandedly as the Perfect Boy for each of the girls (IIRC, The Babysitter's Club had some of the same). I think part of what appeals to me of any variation of the Marinette/Adrien ship is that the double-identity mishaps means that any romantic relationship between them would demand them dealing with themselves and each other's "secret sides" in a manner I just find irressistible. The two of them has got enough story just in that to be... really fascinating to watch. Even if what I've seen of the recurring cast is... pretty goddamn one-note.
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Date: 2020-01-03 03:21 pm (UTC)just. wow, reading this made me smile a bit. i sincerely hope you continue enjoying it! the love square/romance - identity porn thing that was /strong/ in the first season is what drew people in i think. and i dunno, for me there's something bizarrely refreshing about adolescent shows in their not-but-kinda simplicity?
i haven't watched s2 and s3, i've seen very mixed feelings about the most recent developments and i can only hope astruc and his team doesn't...i dunno, disappoint? he's got a weird (from my perspective which may be misinformed) relationship or view of his fanbase which i doubt lets him affect where he takes the story but still. i know you won't be able to please everyone but i hope we get a Good story for everyone