#and they are the Akira Motorbike Slide and Sailor Moon Transforms

[airyairyaucontraire]

as a thing to say in order to transform, which do you most favour, "Shazam!" "Moon prism power, make up!" or "Blathering blatherskite"?

[algernoninwonderland]

So, Queen Banana. It was… Okay, I think.

Every “fun” scene worked really well, and everything else… Not so much. I wanted to like it but ended up not feeling strongly about it in any way.

The Good:

They remembered that Marinette was a fashion designer, for once.

It builds on Sole Crusher! André’s love for moviemaking means he will use taxpayers’ money to make his dream come true… But he still can’t say no to his daughter. Consistent characterisation? In my episode of Miraculous? It’s more likely than you think!

The way Chloé’s ridiculous demands keep escalating. That great stupid car. Adrien in a cage lifted by a helicopter. It was neat!

More Nino looking done with everything. I love him.

They made the Akira motorbike slide reference and it was well-executed. They didn’t half-ass it and I appreciate that.

The bit in front of the Sorbonne actually feels like Paris, it’s not the same three buildings copy-pasted over and over again! And it’s nice.

Vesperia’s transformation sequence rings true to Zoé’s character. Also she probably watched Sailor Moon when she was little because she’s got, err, familiar poses!

The fight in general, Queen Banana’s design and all. It was a fun one! Everything moved nicely and was decently choreographed. The lucky charm was pretty nice!

Adrien’s attempt at confronting Chloé. It’s nice that he’s trying to stay true to his words.

The Bad:

That weird white guy with the grey hair and a face that seems completely divorced from the show’s art style. Who is that guy? Who knows. Are we supposed to know? Why is he here? It’s probably for a good reason but I feel like I’m missing some important info here.

A fluctuating rendering and animation quality throughout the episode.

If you so badly want to put yourself in your own show, be either somewhat discreet about it like Dana Terrace, or fun about it like Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer. Anyone else could have taken That Guy’s place and it would have worked just as well.

The student film doesn’t look any different from a regular episode outside of the props used, it’s shot the same way, with the same video resolution and colour grading. The conceit is interesting but in practice, it doesn’t really work. Sure all the extras are kids from the school, but it’s already the case in most episodes, sooo…

Chloé is back to being portrayed as a one-dimensional character. Which is fun, mostly, but also a downgrade. This time, her reasons for behaving the way she does aren’t nearly as interesting as in the episode just before. The show could have focused on her wanting to be Queen Bee again but they already did back in season 3, so she’s just motivated by spite and jealousy, and yet the show has nothing interesting to say about that.

Real life locations tend to look okay and feel like “real” places. The rooftops and regular streets… Still don’t. It’s the same assets copy-pasted over and over again and my pattern-finding monkey brain hates that.

Zoé’s character arc came to an end in this one, she hasn’t much to do, and while she’s still a pretty okay character, she’s not as interesting as she was in Sole Crusher. Or rather she isn’t made to be as interesting. The episode should have focused on her a bit more for that final scene to work. They really want us to like her but aren't putting in the work to make her more than “nice” and that's a bit disappointing.

Chat Noir tries to be smooth and it comes off as bizarre and awkward but not intentionally, episode number I’ve lost count.

They paid writers animators and voice actors to have a scene in which Chat Noir and Plagg say, “wow, this character sure is better than this other character”. And, like, dude, if your directing is strong enough, which it should be, the audience can come to that conclusion without being told that explicitly.

The heavy-handedness of the parallel between the student film and the sisters' relationship. Liken I get that it's a show aimed at small kids but come on.

The Ugly:

In Sole Crusher, I was relieved to see that they didn’t go down the “see how much better than Chloé Zoé is” route, or rather, there was some nuance to that. Yeah. Well Queen Banana has no nuance whatsoever.

“Perhaps it will help Chloé become a better person”. This entire final scene feels insincere and hollow. To the viewer, it’s obvious that Chloé won’t change because nothing in the episode suggests that she will. It’s empty. A scene should never be empty.

I don’t know… This one had some good moments in it but outside of Queen Banana herself, nothing stood out for me. It wasn’t awful, merely okay. But hey, okay is better than aggravatingly bad!