This was on old university project that I particularly enjoyed. We were pretty much given the freedom to delve into any subject we wished for eight weeks, and I chose this! 

This project explored the connection between the characteristics of the superheroes in the children's TV show Miraculous Ladybug and traditional folklore and mythology surrounding animals. 

For context, each superhero in Miraculous Ladybug relates to an animal; 'Cat Noir' a black cat, 'Rena Rouge' a fox, 'Ladybug' a ladybug, of course. I wanted to use this time to see if I could find parallels between the traits of these character's and traits associated with the same animals in folklore. 

My research spanned fairytales and folktales from around the world, with a particular focus on Japanese, Chinese, and French tales, due to where the show is produced and known influences. 

In the case of the fox, Rena Rouge, I found that many folklores see the fox as being a sly creature, a trickster, sometimes even a shapeshifter (for instance, many-tailed foxes or 'kitsune' in Japanese mythology). But in French fairytales, I did find some evidence of them being considered analytical and fair enough to pass judgement on other creatures. This was an interesting juxtaposition to navigate. 

As can be seen in the final outcomes at the top of this page, I decided to take the trickster approach to this character. This was because the fox superhero in the show, Rena Rouge, has the power of 'illusion'; a rather perfect match for the sly, mischievous nature the animal is associated with in folktales. 

Researching black cats was fascinating; hearing about the zigzagging through time and boarders of them being seen as either a blessing or a curse - these days we are probably all familiar with the idea that it is unlucky for a black cat to cross our path.

But black cats haven't always been seen as bad luck, and still aren't considered as such in many countries. Their bad name here in the West is largely due to the association to witchcraft that they gained around the 17th century, but in Japan all colours of cat are said to ward off evil. 

One influence that really impacted my outcome for this character was Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Black Cat', in which a black cat tries to stop a husband from abusing a wife, and eventually leads police to finding the wife's corpse after she's been murdered. This story paints the black cat as being fiercely loyal and protective to the woman, but somewhat of a curse to the man; haunting and taunting him throughout the story. 

It was for this reason that I chose to focus on this parallel between folklore and the character of Cat Noir, who is shown to be caring and protective of those he cares about. Alternatively, I could have gone along the bad luck route; with Cat Noir's power being 'destruction', but it felt a little shallow to go for such an obvious interpretation. Hence, he became 'The Guard'. 

Until this project, I had never known anything of why ladybugs were considered lucky! So for research on the character of Ladybug, I did some research into folktales revolving around this little bug. I found a French folktale in which a ladybug stops an innocent man of executed for a crime he didn't commit; a ladybug landing on the executioner's neck and distracting him enough that the execution was called off. 

It turned out there was a lot of French folklore surrounding the creature. One such piece of folklore suggested that if you were sick and a ladybug landed on you, when it flew away it would take your illness with it. And another claimed that if you wish on one, the direction in which it flies away is the direction your luck will come from. 

Within Miraculous Ladybug, Ladybug's power is the power of creation; she can magic-up objects when she needs them, and also has the power to undo any harm done by villains. Because of this, I felt that labelling her as a 'healer' married the character to the folklore perfectly. 

As for how the tarot-esque format came about for my outcome, it happened naturally. When I started to work on possible illustrations (like image on left), I was having an issue working out the best way to incorporate text; I knew these illustrations needed titles to give them context, but didn't know how to add this in a way that flowed with the images. 

So, I had the idea of shrinking the illustrations slightly so I would have space to add a title or brief description underneath - like an old-fashioned book illustration or some type of tarot card. I really liked the way this looked, especially with how tarot could also tie into the idea of mythology and folklore, so decided to run with it.