Season 6 of the timeless show Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir first premiered on January 25, 2025 in the U.S. on Disney Channel for the first time, quickly igniting controversy across the fandom. Ever since the release of season 6, the show has faced backlash regarding the new animation, character personality, and even plotline inconsistencies— as Chloe Bourgeois would say “It’s utterly ridiculous!”
Miraculous focuses on Ladybug and her ‘sidekick’ Cat Noir who run around with a yoyo and a stick, beating up akumatized villains while simultaneously playing cringey high school teenagers. The main characters are in a very complicated love square– or that is at least that is how they portray it in the show. This show can either come off as sweet or give you major second-hand embarrassment but for the first 5 seasons, this creepy and complicated storyline remained a fan-favorite. However, this tradition changed after the release of season 6.
In the first 5 amazing seasons, Ladybug is played by overdramatic baker’s girl, Marinette Dupain-Cheng who is in love with the famous fashion model Adrien Agreste. Cat Noir, who is, SURPRISE- SURPRISE, Adrien Émile Gabriel Donatien Athanase Agreste is crazy in love with Ladybug hence the INSANELY strange love square. Apart from this very strange plotline, the main part of the show was Ladybug and Cat Noir working together to defeat Hawk Moth,who is actually Adrien’s father.
All of this might suggest that the show is extremely weird and cringe but it actually comes together to create a compelling and thrilling storyline that has kept fans hooked for five consecutive and unsurprisingly embarrassing seasons.
This may lead one to believe that season 6 was going to be even better and AMAZING especially because stalking Marinette and obsessive Adrien finally became a couple after Adrien’s father died while trying to defeat Adrien’s girlfriend while Adrien was sleeping in London. I swear, that episode is not as ridiculous as it seems. GO WATCH ONLY THE FIRST 5 SEASONS!
Anyway, with the main antagonist of the previous seasons finally defeated, the show introduced a New Hawk Moth who calls herself Chrysalis. She is in fact Lila Rossi, Marinette’s classmate and mortal enemy. After the dramatic and poignant ending of season 5, season 6 was a HUGE letdown, especially because the show simply reverted back to its old storyline with absolutely no character development and NEW HORRIBLE ANIMATION! Yes, the previous adorable and loved animation was fully scrapped and the characters now all seem like they aged 50 years and got their hair done by Patrick Star. And to top it all off, the episodes are “utterly ridiculous”!
Marienette’s animation, once glowing and beautiful, now looks like something that was created by ChatGPT and then changed and distorted a million times. Adrien, Marinette’s clueless rich boyfriend, looks like he’s having his midlife crisis too early. Ladybug, the adored main character of the show, actually doesn’t look too bad but her iconic Ladybug bodysuit was completely transformed. Cat Noir, who was once amazing in his bodysuit, bell, and tail looks completely irrecognizable with his face completely bloated and hair that looks like a mop. Adding on to all of this, the show now continues with its previous plotline which is worse than ever as Chrysalis, who is a pretty good villain, has been unable to bring the same drama and anticipation that Gabriel Agreste had stirred because she has no motive or clearly established backstory. Furthermore, the show introduces random new characters to try and create a plotline that ends up being deeply flawed and ultimately flops.
Looking at all of these missteps and controversies, I think it’s super clear that if you are a miraculous fan, DO NOT watch season 6! Stay away from it for your own good. Even though the director of the show has tried to defend his choices, it’s still clear that fans are not content with the new version of the nostalgic show Miraculous and the future of it remains inconclusive. While there have been talks of up to 10 or 12 seasons of Miraculous, it seems unlikely that it will ever be as iconic as the first 5 seasons. So if you’re looking for a funny and exciting show to watch, go watch Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir and see which side of the controversy you want to be on.