Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir is a manga adaptation of the cartoon of the same name, published by Kodansha. The story is written by Koma Warita and illustrated by Riku Tsuchida, and began serialisation in Monthly Shonen Sirius in January 2021, adapting several episodes of Season 1.
An English release has been announced
, with the first volume being published August 1st 2023.
Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir provides examples of:
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade: The 2021 manga adaptation expands upon Adrien's loss of his mother. At the start of Chapter 4, Adrien wakes up from a dream about her and bursts into tears, being distracted by it for the rest of the day. This contrasts with the show, where Adrien's specific grief about Emilie is rarely touched upon.
- Adaptational Early Appearance: In the show, Luka is only introduced to Marinette in Season 2, where they first meet through Juleka and her mother. In the manga, during the events of the Season 1 episode Dark Cupid, Ladybug instead meets him while searching for the brainwashed Cat Noir. He explains that the fragrance Ladybug has been smelling on both Cat Noir and Adrien is actually a very popular scent, which helps convince her that the two are not the same person.
- Alternate Continuity: The manga adapts the events of Season 1 of the cartoon, but has its own plotline that is not a part of the show's continuity.
- Choke Holds: When Cat Noir is shot by Dark Cupid and his love for Ladybug becomes hate, he tells her he hates her and strangles her, something that doesn't happen in the original animated canon. Ladybug frees herself by stomping on his foot.
- Cultural Translation: Adrien's poem to Ladybug in Dark Cupid is actually written as a Japanese haiku, fitting the manga adaptation.
- Hidden Depths: Evillustrator confronts Gabriel, assuming that it must be he who taught Adrien that comics are worthless. The normally reserved, stoic, and no-nonsense Gabriel then goes into a delighted and emphatic spiel about the influence of comics on the other artistic fields and that he considers them to be the "ninth art"note , which is enough to validate Evillustrator and leave him alone.
- Innocently Insensitive: In Chapter 4, Chloé asks what Adrien thinks about Nathaniel's comic, but Adrien is distracted and simply tells her he doesn't care, causing Nathaniel to run out in shame and making Adrien one of Evillustrator's targets. Adrien eventually manages to smooth things over with him, explaining he wasn't paying attention to what was being discussed, and assuring Evillustrator that he's actually quite a fan of comics.
- Pragmatic Adaptation: Although the 2021 manga faithfully adapts Stormy Weather and is mostly faithful to The Bubbler, the first Evillustrator chapter onwards integrates important plot details that were only revealed in Season 2. The manga also adds original content that wasn't in the TV episodes such as Adrien grieving over his mother and Marinette, in addition to Gabriel, having suspicions about his identity in order to move the plot along at a faster pace than the show. The Dark Cupid adaptation even includes an Adaptational Early Appearance from Luka.
- Shout-Out: When Evillustrator puts a hole into Chloé's bedroom door, he peers through the empty space in a manner reminiscent of the "Here's Johnny!" scene from The Shining.
- Wham Line: At the end of Chapter 4, Nathaniel remarks that Adrien's ring is very similar to Cat Noir's, kickstarting the manga-exclusive plotline where both Marinette/Ladybug and Gabriel/Hawk Moth are questioning Cat Noir's true identity.
