Hello Kitty

The ZAG Animation co-production

Plagg originated in Thomas Astruc's Miraculous franchise, which Paris-based ZAG Animation developed in co-production with Method Animation, SAMG Animation (South Korea), Toei Animation (Japan) and TF1 Production. The series was originally pitched in 2012 as a 2D anime-style project before being reworked into CGI for a 22-minute episode format. Astruc had previously worked at the French studio Marathon Media on W.I.T.C.H. and Totally Spies!.

Premiere and broadcast rollout

The series premiered as Miraculous, les aventures de Ladybug et Chat Noir on TF1 in France on 19 October 2015. International rollout followed on Nickelodeon (United States, 6 December 2015), KiKA (Germany, January 2016), Disney Channel (replacing Nickelodeon in the US from 2017), and Netflix worldwide from 2018. The show has aired five seasons of 26 episodes each through to season five's finale on 30 September 2023; season six is in production for 2024-25 broadcast.

Voice cast

Max Mittelman, also the English voice of Ritsu Kageyama in Mob Psycho 100 and Saitama in One-Punch Man, has voiced Plagg in the English dub continuously since 2015. Antoine Tomé voices Plagg in the original French version. In the Korean co-production dub, the character is voiced by Park Sung-tae.

Function within Miraculous mythology

Plagg is one of the named kwamis — small godlike spirits attached to a Miraculous jewel — representing the concept of Destruction (Cataclysm). He is paired in narrative with the ladybug kwami Tikki, who represents Creation. The Cat Miraculous he inhabits is a black silver ring worn by lycée student Adrien Agreste, transforming him into the superhero Cat Noir. The character's defining trait is an addiction to Camembert cheese, a running gag that the production's licensing arm extended into a real-world Camembert-shaped plush line sold through Bandai France from 2018.

Theatrical film and franchise scale

Mediawan-owned ZAG Animation released Ladybug & Cat Noir: The Movie theatrically in France on 5 July 2023, with Netflix acquiring international streaming rights for a 28 July 2023 global release. ZAG reports the underlying franchise has generated over $1 billion in retail merchandise sales between 2015 and 2023, ranking it among the highest-grossing French animation properties of the 2010s.