What is Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir about?

Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir was created by animator Thomas Astruc, who was inspired to create the title characters by a ladybug on a woman’s t-shirt.  Astruc said in an interview with France Five that the development of Ladybug came from the concept of Spider-Man. Ladybugs being a symbol of good luck, it was only natural that her partner was the symbol of bad luck—a black cat, Cat Noir!

While Astruc originally meant his project to be a comic series, producer Jeremy Zag of Zag Productions loved the concept so much that he decided to make it as a cartoon.

What is Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir about?

The show is set in Paris, and revolves around the two primary characters. and their classmates. Both of them are secretly superheroes: Ladybug is wielder of Good Luck and Creation, and Cat Noir is wielder of Bad Luck and Destruction. They derive their powers from magical jewelery—earrings and a ring respectively—called the Miraculouses, which come with cute little sprites called kwamis.

Ladybug and Cat Noir fight the supervillain Hawkmoth, who is after their Miraculouses because both of them combined grants the user ultimate power.

While this might seem like a typical superhero show, what makes this series truly interesting is the romance arc between the protagonists. Marinette, aka Ladybug, is in love with Adrien. Adrien, aka Cat Noir, is in love with Ladybug. Ladybug rejects Cat Noir because she’s in love with Adrien, who can’t look at anyone besides Ladybug romantically.

This makes for a humorous, occasionally cringy—let’s not forget the program is targeted at children—but endearingly infuriating series of shenanigans while these teenagers cope with their love lives, rejection and the burden of responsibility that comes with being a superhero.