If you've been following this blog for a long time, you'd know that I love Miraculous Ladybug. Last night, the new special Miraculous World: Shanghai- The Legend of Ladydragon premiered on Disney Channel in the US for the first time since it originally aired on TF1 in France back in April. I watched it both in French when it originally released and last night in English, and today, just like I reviewed the last Miraculous World special, I'm reviewing the special!
The special takes place in between seasons 2 and 3 and is about Marinette’s trip to Shanghai, China, where she tells her parents that it's to celebrate her uncle's birthday and to explore her heritage. But in reality, she's visiting because Adrien's in town to celebrate the opening of a new Gabriel brand store. When Marinette tries to see Adrien, her earrings (which she uses to transform into Ladybug) and belongings are stolen. She teams up with a Chinese girl, Fei, to get her belongings back. But little does she know that Fei stole them in the first place- and that she is the keeper of a cave with the Prodigious, a prototype Miraculous, inside, that Hawkmoth wants.
I really enjoyed this special! The one thing that I liked the most was the new lore in the Miraculous universe. Learning about the Prodigious and the cave that it is inside was very interesting. It also hinted that there is more to Hawkmoth’s plan than it seemed. I also liked the introduction of Fei/Ladydragon, the new character. She has a very cool backstory and developed a lot throughout the special. There also was a lot of attention to detail, as characters spoke Mandarin with and without subtitles and Chinese characters were on signs. The one thing I think the special was lacking was Chat Noir. He only appeared for 10 minutes out of a 52 minute special. The action scenes could have been improved as well, but they were still entertaining. While there was barely any romantic moments (sorry, love square fans!), I feel like we got a lot of them in the New York special from last year, and this one was more lore-based. Overall, I had a great time watching this and would rate it a 7.5/10.
Miraculous fans, did you watch the special last night too? What did you think of it?