Woah, they do that? Seriously Japan, just use the original opening.
Crazy stuff. What contributes to the cut time are these:
-Each episode starts with a short monologue from Twilight Sparkle
-Bubblegum/sometimes addictive jpop song plays for the intro segment. It's decently longer than the American version. Perhaps there are legal reasons for not subbing the original?
-Each episode ends with an elaborate closing segment, including a song for closing and a preview for the next episode. There's also apparently a short talk with Pinkie Pie's VA and Twilight Sparkle's animation before closing too.
I haven't watched all of the episodes, but I worry that some gags and wordplay things are going to be lost in translation, or harder to pull off. I wonder how Japan is culturally parsing Applejack. The cowgirl is obviously a foreign aesthetic, but I hope there's still appeal in her character. Applejack isn't generally the most popular of ponies (the most popular ponies are Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie) and I at least didn't care much about AJ after S1, but I'd hate for AJ to struggle to catch on due to a cultural barrier, though of course I wouldn't ask for her to be changed from whom she is.
Anyway, Winter Wrap Up is definitely going to be a big moment for Tomodachi wa Mahou. It's one of the show's defining musical numbers, and it'll show what sort of musical muscle the people working on the show are willing to bring and will be going to bring for its future.
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Anyway, I checked out more pony.
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - Season 4 Episode 11: Just for Sidekicks
Up and down for me. How this episode was going to play out is more or less obvious so it's important to make the most of the ride. The upside for me was that there were quite a few great gags here. I loved the look of Spike walking five pets at once, and seeing him doing it repeatedly was awesome. The pets rolled up into a ball of yarn was great too, and so was the utterly wrecked CMC base after the CMC get the pets. I loved the beginning when Spike is singing and is cut off by Fluttershy knocking, who receives a "Who..." response from Owliscious and is followed up by Spike finishing with "...is it?"
It was nice to see Tank again, and the moment that Tank and Rainbow Dash shared was great. =3. The Pinkie Pie and Gummy relationship is amazing too; it reminded me that we were woefully short on Gummy this season, and I couldn't even remember when Gummy appeared in Season 2. Probably the Tank debut episode, anyway Gummy is the perfect pet for Pinkie. Angel is obnoxious but not in a way that elicits hate, he just causes trouble. As for Spike, it's the normal stuff, he gets short-sighted and greedy, he realizes it's wrong. Him feeling sorry and Angel bringing the gem (I thought it wasn't on the train, but for the purposes of the episode that's not so important I guess) to him is so crazy I can't hate it, even though I kind of do. I like how he got away with everything at the end. He's on a prestigious short list of characters who get away with stuff. Sometimes I feel like Spike is an easy target for being the central focus of an episode and screwing things up. The ponies? The CMC do normal wacky CMC stuff, but the other Mane6...
(props on the idea of giving these two episodes continuity! it was a very fun idea, even if it's not super significant or anything.)
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - Season 3 Episode 12: Games Ponies Play
More or less the same as the other episode. Rainbow Dash is a lot of fun recently. Did I forget about her or something? Her overly dramatic response of Fillydelphia being chosen for the Games and her perpetual wartime strategist approach to being on the welcome committee was great. That segment with the terrorizing of the kid was awesome too. I didn't expect her to bring herself to apologize at the end, I don't think she had to but it was a nice gesture. For the first time in perhaps ever...I felt awkward watching Pinkie Pie do crazy stuff. Usually it's endearing, but watching her do dumb stuff to pass the time for the not-inspector pony was refreshingly weird. Rarity didn't exist this episode, same for Applejack and Fluttershy. But at least they had a moment or two each, I sppose. Twilight Sparkle was being her usual perfectionist self. Her "Hello there!" to the real inspector pony was strangely funny. She is so formal and upright.
I really don't care about her
big bro and Princess Cadence at all. Snooooooresville. I don't care if I don't see them again =P. They're too boring to watch, and every time I hear "Twily!" I just...get sad. The resolution of this episode was pretty obvious too, this time it's just way too absurd unlike the previous episode and I kind of hate it. It's not like the Inspector's explanation wasn't plausible at all, but the logic exists in such a strained way; no real inspector would act like that. It's too contrived, even for Friendship is Magic, and it's part of why I didn't like the second Discord episode.
The takeaway from this episode is the little moments. There's no real moral here, the conflict was brought about by accident and the ponies tried to make the best of what they had. So, for this episode I salute Pinkie, Rainbow, and even give a nod to Twilight.