even with its insanely inconsistent writing, less than stellar animation, and the fact that im not the target audience…

its true. i do love this show like a lot

im not a huge media watcher type of guy so my opinion of shows is a bit skewed towards western cartoons and anime that only my friends mega vouch and recommend. as a hopeless romantic, im just such a sucker for shipping type shows and the “will they wont they” dynamic is something ill never get tired of. the two anime i enjoyed (and the only ones i probably watched)1 the most last year were kaguya sama love is war, and monogatari (up to owari). love is war is way more similar to the dynamic that ladybug has, while monogatari is a show that has me on the edge of my seat while two (or more) characters just talk about some nonsensical shit for the whole runtime. two completely different shows with both unbelivable premises and character abilities, and yet i just adore how real the characters themselves feel. of course there are MANY exceptions (ESPECIALLY FOR MONOGATARI…) but i think my favorite moments are always when its just two characters talking about anything for an extended period of time. a shame that the second half of kaguya hasnt been adapted but many such cases post-ova in the manga really warm my heart when i reread those chapters. in monogatari’s case, i will bring up the timeless classic of araragi lowkey sexually harassing senjougahara while they talk about fucking nothing at a playground set.

i really love when two likeable* (marinette is not great s4/s6) characters just absolutely fail to navigate around their feelings and thoughts regarding the other person. its made so much worse from the superhero mask and it just strikes something in me that i didnt know i had. from frame 1 i knew this show would piss me off in a good way but having a whole love hexagon WITH SOME OF THE CHARACTERS LOOKING VERY SIMILAR is just so funny. i mean for gods sake marinette and adrien start losing to EACH OTHER!!! AS LADYBUG AND CAT NOIR!!! like adrien can we fucking lock in and stop being a debby downer she likes you bro oh my god bro. i got caught up in my emotions and stopped typing formally my apologies. anyways, yeah we were talking about natural conversation and how the show is at its best2 when they just let adrien and marinette do their thing and talk. thats when it becomes awesome. no marinette stuttering through a sentence or adrien not despawning out of the scene; just pure talking.

its not just about how ladybug has this “will they wont they” dynamic, but also about some of the surprisingly modern lessons that it tries to teach its audience. im still not over a certain season 5 episode that covers the relationship dynamic between a fan and an influencer (adrien is my goat for that). also cant forget about season 5’s schtick where gabriel starts a technological revolution. we’ve even had deadbeat dads and a small window into the relationship between estranged parents. one final shoutout to marinette absolutely tanking a gigantic lie and bearing the consequences onwards in my favorite special, miraculous world london. reframing season 5’s finale into something that marinette has to shoulder for the rest of the show (i hope) was probably the best thing they couldve done. well, other than yet another retcon…3 haha… absolutely crazy that this even gets addressed on a childrens show! on the other hand maybe i should watch more than 2 shows a year… we’ll work on that part later i think.

i have a million more thoughts on this stupid amazing bad great show but ill leave them for a later time. i just wanted to get this post out since ive had these character relationship thoughts racked up in my head the whole time watching season 6. i might even start blogging my thoughts on the weekly episodes if we get anymore in the near future, which might not happen. i never knew how dysfunctional this show’s airing dates4 were but that just means im truly part of this ride now. and i like it!

writing for myself is quite refreshing, cant lie

great commit from yours truly

shoutouts john and quan

  1. my anime list ↩

  2. the show is also at its best when it drops the villian of the week thing but thats just children show mandated and unlucky that it cant happen more often ↩

  3. they mightve had like 4 fully retconned episodes by this point its fucking crazy they tried to recapture the cat blanc magic and failed every time afterwards ↩

  4. airing e2/3/4/5 and not e1 and almost airing e11??????? WTF GLOOB (its from animation not being done in time) ↩