There is something about CatWalkers design that kept me busy all day and now I believe I figured out what it is!
Back when we got his design leaked I immediately thought it was Adrien and my opinion on that definitely hasn't changed til now. Not only because the design is way too well though out and beautiful to waste it on a Chat Noir imposter or Félix (honestly no offense), it's especially because when you compare Chat Noirs design to CatWalkers they may seem very different on the surface, but when you actually take a closer look at them you notice CatWalker doesn't fell WRONG per se as a second design for Adrien as the black Cat; even when he's deliberately trying to distance himself as much as possible from Chat Noir. And that's because CatWalkers design STILL incorporates most of Chat Noirs key character design aspects; they merely put a twist on them.
So this is still Chat Noir: but the inverted Chat Noir!
This little analysis post is made off 3 points and will most likely be edited after "Kuro Neko" airs because of obvious reasons.
Enjoy!
1. Head, eyes and mask
Let's starts right away with the most important element: Chat Noirs eyes are still there but that's it.
The cat eyes are the only element between these two black Cat transformations of Adrien that stays the same. Eyes are said to be the gates to the soul and I definitely agree with other fans who said that they recognized Adrien in CatWalker simply because of his eyes and gaze, that's the element that has now 100% convinced me too. In terms of the design symbolic his eyes being the only things that remain unchanged also has them function as a constant reminder that in relation to his eyes everything else about his get up feels wrong and out of place.
Our minds subconsciously know what overall character design it is supposed to expect with those eyes, but suddenly those expectations are met with confusing new impressions that feel familiar and yet totally different. Our brain is confused and immediately registeres that something about CatWalker isn't "right" and it's every little detail coming together that create this subconscious reaction:
Chat Noir has a simple big black mask of which the upper border is most of the time covered by his hair. These cover his human forehead (and ears) and helps upholding the Cat illusion in a way that shows his human skin enough to never undermine his humanity.
CatWalker design on the on the other hand doesn't care about upholding a playful cat illusion while maintaining his humanity. The same upper border of the big black mask is now decorated with elegant silver. This silver rivals the green cat eyes for attention which devalues their specialness even more than they already were through the matching darker green hair. And the fact that CatWalkers hair is also styled in a way that leaves the forehead wide open, to not accidentally cover up the elegant silver, AND to show his normal human ears freely literally kills the entire warm and friendly normal black cat aesthetic that made Chat Noir such an approachable and trustworthy person and hero.
2. Suit and overall aesthetic
CNs hair is open and wild and CWs hair is tied back and tamed with only a couple of streaks flying free. That hair now matches the green cat eyes whereas CNs open and wild blond hair matches his bell. This causes CWs eyes to loose their specialness in his design and him being a "Cat" is less highlighted and seriously tones down to not overshadow the rest of his design that makes him look so charmingly prince-y.
CNs cat eyes on the other hand are highlighted because they are his only green main feature but they absolutely beautifully compliment with his shining blond hair and matching golden bell. Those aspects of Chat Noirs design were alway unspeakably important, because Adrien may wield the miraculous of the Black Cat with the deadliest power of them all, the power of destruction, but it's characerizes Chat Noir immediately in a bright and friendly way.
His blond hair and golden bell strike a stark contrast to Chat Noirs otherwise completely black suit, which conveys right away that this Black Cat is a SUNSHINE and a friendly housecat on his daily routine to protect his district. Also noticed how Chat Noirs gold greatly overpowers his Cats green which is important because it draws attention to his hair that is instinctively a reminder that this is still a normal person underneath the transformation and in connection to his golden bell it tells us that it is the bright BOY UNDERNEATH what makes this Black Cat of destruction so playful and friendly.
Chat Noirs green cat eyes are eye-catching and iconic BECAUSE this color is used so rarely in his design. Still it also helps the inhumane eyes to not overshadow his overall humanity which also applies to Chats big black Cat ears being brightly overshadowed by Adriens blond human hair, which then though are used to hide his normal human ears as a playful wink to maintain the "Cat illusion". Seriously Chat Noirs design is GREAT! And so is CatWalkers, exactly for the opposite reasons.
Where Chat Noirs wild blond hair covered up his human ears to maintain the "Cat illusion" while at the same time directly drawing attention to that part of his head so we never end up forgetting that Chat Noir is a human and absolutely has normal ears there, he's just hiding them for the aesthetic, CatWalkers darker green hair is tied back showing off his human ears. The illusion is broken and looking at THIS black Cat it is very clear that the "Black Cat" aspect is not the prioritized aspect of his hero persona, hence why his suit is not even entirely BLACK but a combination of Grey for the entire main body part and only COMBINED with additional Black for the parts that explicitly are made to look like outfit pieces he is only putting on! Like his black Shoes, gloves, ears, "shoulder pats", belt and mask.
Chat Noirs character design always brilliantly conveyed that Adrien is actually personifying the role of the Black Cat, but CatWalker only wears the aesthetic of the Black Cat as secondary decorations he has to put on because that's the nature of his Miraculous. He's not actually letting the black reach his CORE, that remains GREY (btw, wasn't the english name for the real life butterfly type named Agreste "Grayling"?)
3. Little details I noticed but I didn't know how to include
- the silver button's on CWs torso are in similar places as CNs suits inner zipper ends and the "corner" of the black lines on Chats upper arms. The black shoulders of CW also vaguely remind of the form and the lines of Chats suit in the same shoulder area and lead the viewers eyes right to a gaping grey "hole" in the now completely upclosed throat area where we formerly knew Chats opened collar and golden bell.
-those little silver chains/lines on CatWalkers suit are the inverted equivalent of Chats zippers and black lines. Instead of opening up their are symbolically chaining him tighter.
-CatWalkers "Gloves" fill up about the area of Chats arms under the black lines
-CatWalkers personal priority is it to look like a handsome, charming prince whose color scheme is not meant to rival Ladybugs design for the spotlight. And since his hair and eye color are now matching he shears this character design element with Ladybug, who has blue eyes and blue hair. Also Ladybug has two pigtails and CatWalker has a ponytail.
So what is there left to say as closing words that bring all of this together? I guess the little post where I already brought this up nailed it pretty damn well, because in this analysis post here I didn't comment on what those design changes MEAN for Adrien himself:
Look at him. Look at what our wonderful cat son did to himself! Bending and breaking every element and detail of his Chat Noir persona to force a completely new one onto himself. He feels so unloved and lonely that he would completely disregard everything about the secret identitiy he held so dear to twist himself into one of which he feels like he would be wanted again...
This is so unbelievably sad... our boy massacred himself...
