Miraculous Ladybug (MLB) is a show watched by millions around the world whose audience is Gen Z and Gen Alpha. MLB has been going on since 2015, nearly ten years, and is still going strong.

The show revolves around two teenagers, Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Adrien Agreste who are superheroes who work with each other to fight bad guys, but they don’t know each other’s secret identity. Marinette is Ladybug and Adrien is Cat Noir, Ladybug/Marinette has a crush on Adrien, but Adrien/Cat Noir has a crush on Ladybug. See the dilemma? This goes on and on for 4 to 5 seasons.

However, the show's bad writing is not the main topic of this article, well sort of. You see, MLB is promoted and marketed as a girl-power, feminist show. MLB has the elements of your typical girl-power show like Sailor Moon, Winx, Lolirock, and Glitter Force.

Girls fighting bad guys, leading a team, dressing up in sparkly outfits; the usual. However, MLB differs from these shows in a very creepy way.

Image Credit: Josep Maria Roca Peña from Wikimedia Commons

The Show Promotes Stalking

For starters, Marinette is, in simple words, a stalker. There is no other way around it. Marinette is constantly seen spying on Adrien, drooling over his posted advertisements (he’s a model), following him around, and having pictures of him all over her bedroom.

Image Credit: Andrej Lišakov from Unsplash+

The majority of the plot is centered around the fact that she is too scared to tell him her feelings and spends the majority of the time figuring out how to tell him her feelings. This is in no way feminist and, quite frankly, is disturbing behavior being romanticized.

Marinette, despite being shown to have career goals, friends, and other responsibilities, is mainly seen stalking Adrien while exhibiting awkward behaviors. This teaches girls that it's ok to break boundaries and not have any self-respect just because they’re in “love”. What’s worse is that this isn’t just a one-time thing or even something that happens a few times a season, no, Marinette’s creepy behavior and obsession with Adrien are shown in EVERY SINGLE EPISODE, and I mean every single one.

One example of this is when, in the episode Copy Cat, Marinette accidentally sends Adrien an embarrassing voicemail that reveals her feelings for him. In order to prevent Adrien from seeing it, she steals his phone and deletes it. Another example is when, in the episode Gigantitan, it was stated that Marinette knows Adrien’s schedule by heart for the next three years! Which is scary yet casually mentioned more than once.

Sadly, this isn’t even the creepiest thing she’s done, and there are many more instances where she does similar things. This is problematic as numerous young girls watch this show and look up to its characters such as the protagonist Marinette.

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Girls Are Constantly Fighting Over Boys

The show, as it claims to be feminist, created a variety of smart, cool, and savvy female characters. Yay, right? Actually, no, as these “girl bosses” are often depicted fighting each other over Adrien, who is practically a prize.

One example is when, in the episode Volpina Lila, a newly introduced character, starts showing interest in Adrien, Marinette is then jealous and immediately becomes suspicious of her and even transforms into Ladybug to embarrass Lila in front of Adrien.

This is gross behavior, as tearing down another girl for a guy is incredibly sexist. Girls should be seen lifting each other up and supporting one another. Another example is when Kagami, a girl who has lots of good qualities such as being brave, honest, skilled in combat, and trying to make new friends, is hated on by Marinette and the fandom for liking Adrien and Adrien liking her.

Marinette is rude to Kagami (in Ikari Gozen) and even tries to sabotage Kagami’s chances with Adrien (Animaeistro). Also, there is another episode called Oni-Chan where Lila and Kagami are arguing over Adrien like he’s some prize. These examples display unhealthy behavior such as jealousy and obsession.

These are just some of the misogynistic themes within the show. These issues are more concerning for MLB because it is among the most popular shows for both Gen Z and Gen Alpha, and it is important that we at least acknowledge the problematic stances the show has and warn younger audiences so that they know that they do not normalize these unhealthy and toxic behaviors.

Image Credit: Stock Planets from Pixabay

The Issue

The trope of a teen girl stalking her crush is nothing new (Yanderes) and has been done countless times in anime. However, this trope is done with comical intentions, and the audience is either teenagers or adults; thus, they are old enough and mature enough to understand that this is not normal behavior. Also, the creepy behavior isn’t constantly shown in every episode.

With MLB, however, the intended audience is for little kids and is rated TV-Y7. Promoting this behavior on a little kids’ show is disturbing, even if it is done for a comedic purpose.

Another frustrating factor in the show is that nobody acknowledges this behavior as creepy or toxic, nor do they chastise Marinette at all for her behavior. In fact, they encourage it!

As mentioned earlier, when Yanderes do their creepy behavior, it is portrayed as scary and dark (as it should be). This allows the viewers to be told indirectly that what is going on is not normal. However, for MLB, Marinette is not portrayed as creepy when she does this, but rather as cute.

Another issue with this is that MLB isn’t an anime; it's a cartoon for little girls. Things like Yanderes shouldn’t be on there at all. Much less celebrated for their behavior.

Other Girl-Power Shows

The shows that I've mentioned earlier, such as Sailor Moon, Winx, Glitter Force, and Lolirock, all heavily contain themes of love. For example, in Lolirock Iris, the main character is shown to like a boy and while it pops in quite a few episodes, it isn't the main part of the episode, and two, it isn't constantly shoved down our throats every single episode. In fact, most of the show is about the girls spending time together, fighting bad guys, and living normal lives. By normal, I mean going to cafes, volunteering, and having fun, not stalking unsuspecting boys.

In Sailor Moon, the relationship between Tuxedo Mask and Sailor Moon does take up a lot of screen time. It, however, is not creepy as Sailor Moon isn't seen stalking him, covering her room with pictures of him, or even thinking about him 80% of the time. Also, the side characters Sailor Mars, Sailor Saturn, etc., are heavily a part of the plot, and their interactions make up a good chunk of the show.

Image Credit: Kodansha from Wiki Media Commons

MLB, on the other hand, rarely shows Marinette interacting with her female friends. As a result, they hardly ever play a relevant role in the plot with the exception of Alya Césaire. For these reasons, MLB fails as a girl-power and feminist show, as it does not show the importance of girls working together and supporting one another.

This is a key aspect that should be shown in girl power/feminist shows. By the way, when the girls do hang out, it's usually Marinette ranting about Adrien to them. I'm not kidding, the show's obsession with romance and crushes is bad.

Redemption...?

Despite Marinette's previous unhealthy actions, she eventually learns to let go of her obsession with Adrien and move on. For example, in the episode Mr. Pigeon 72, yeah, the name is weird, Marinette tries to get Kagami and Adrien back together again.

This shows that she's willing to let go of Adrien. However, this is for a short while, as she does end up with him.

There are other moments where Marinette displays maturity and sanity, and that is great character development, but that doesn't excuse her earlier behavior, as it is never addressed as problematic. Nor is Marinette criticized for her actions, as she barely gets a light slap on the wrist.

Season 6 is coming out this year, so there may be hope yet for the show to change its stalkerish ways. Marinette may get some character development, which could change the show's direction and perhaps finally acknowledge her inexcusable behavior.

Final Thoughts

I hope that this article was informative and warned both older and younger viewers of MLB of the unhealthy behaviors normalized in the show. I also want this article to encourage us to question and criticize other sexist tropes normalized in shows, such as male characters being physically abused or insulted by female characters and it being laughed off or dads in shows being “stupid” and “silly” while the mom is “smart” and “strict".

Miraculous, while fairly entertaining, has toxic and disturbing themes that are never addressed as such. This can cause younger audiences to learn that this kind of behavior is ok, which would be disastrous. That said, be careful of what your younger cousins, siblings, or even the kids you are babysitting watch.

Image Credit: Vika_Glitter from Pixabay