My Little Pony Friendship is Magic part 18: We Don't Need No Stinkin Hiatus

[Dontrike]

Actually finished Make Your Mark part 2 after skipping around, and after giving it another shot I'm warming up to it. Some parts were "eyeroll at the really predictable kids show tropes", but some parts were believable character dynamic moments that made me go "now that's what I'm talking about! More of this please!" Like I did enjoy Zip and Pip's portrait day episode.

I feel like if they continue to smooth out the animation, which is definitely looking a lot better in part 2 than 1, and lean into their strengths in the writing without relying too heavily on G4's history, it'll be in a good place. The movie showed what they were capable of and it will continue to mark my hopeful expectations for the future.

That was definitely my biggest complaint about Part 1. How the movie was so good and the first episode was so disappointing was rather jarring. At least Part 2 showed improvement, but I will agree the writing could be better. I liked the Sunny episode where people only did a thing because she was an alicorn.

[Powerogue]

I finally got some of the IDW Season 10 series, and "Something There that Wasn't Before" and "The Two Kingdoms of Caninia" are actually so good I'd put them in my top 5 MLP comics. It really surprised me given I had heard more negative than positive about the season 10 arc and didn't recognize the writers Thom Zahler and Jeremy Whitley or artists Toni Kuusisto and Briana Garcia from prior arcs.

Definitely getting the rest of these!

[Dontrike]

Watched Japan Sinks 2020, and it's an awkward experience that keeps you guessing on what will happen. It's quite the wild ride to say the least.

[Powerogue]

Watched Japan Sinks 2020, and it's an awkward experience that keeps you guessing on what will happen. It's quite the wild ride to say the least.

I hadn't heard of it but I'll give it a look!

As for me while I work on getting more of the comics, S3 episode 1 of The Owl House just dropped and it is a doozy. S3 got cut down into 3 long episodes but as a result they're packing as much goodness as they can into each. In retrospect taking off work just to watch it day 1 to avoid spoilers didn't wind up being necessary as the official channel posted it on Youtube as well, but I regret nothing.

[Dontrike]

I hadn't heard of it but I'll give it a look!

As for me while I work on getting more of the comics, S3 episode 1 of The Owl House just dropped and it is a doozy. S3 got cut down into 3 long episodes but as a result they're packing as much goodness as they can into each. In retrospect taking off work just to watch it day 1 to avoid spoilers didn't wind up being necessary as the official channel posted it on Youtube as well, but I regret nothing.

[video=youtube;dRfTRN1F5Ys]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRfTRN1F5Ys[/vido]

Owl House I haven't seen a thing of and I'll have to pirate it eventually, definitely not going to get D+ to do so.

[Pendulous]

Owl House is good, but agreed. I'm way deep into seasonal anime this season, just so many to watch. Have yet to watch Owl House season 2 part two, since it was split up.

[Dontrike]

Just finished Little Witch Academia and after watching BNA earlier this year and Cyperpunk: Edgerunners last month I'd have to say that LWA is definitely the most disappointing Trigger anime. While it's not terrible it's not very captivating, the main character is a tad annoying, and the plot takes forever to start and get going and once it does it feels almost forced on the show, it's just not done well.

It definitely doesn't come close to memorable like Gurren Lagann for how bombastic it was, and it has the same general moral as LWA of believing in yourself, or even something like Panty and Stocking, which had the wackiness going for it.

[Pendulous]

Little Witch is the least Trigger anime made by Trigger, so if you go into it expecting something, you're gonna be disappointed.

[Raptor Baptist]

Yeah that's me Fat Algalon

[Dontrike]

Little Witch is the least Trigger anime made by Trigger, so if you go into it expecting something, you're gonna be disappointed.

I just figured I'd get the usual Trigger stuff, but nope, just a slightly annoying protagonist, a bunch of side characters that don't do much, and a plot that waits a bit too long to get going.

[Dontrike]

Watched Wendell & Wild for my Halloween movie, a new stop motion movie based on a book. Sort of like Coraline or ParaNorman it's one of those darker themed kids movies, though this one doesn't have the edge either of those two do.

The movie looks fantastic, the animation was incredibly smooth to the point that I'm sure they used some computer magic to either add to it or even on some occasions used it completely in the scene. If they did the later though I couldn't tell, it was that well integrated.

Characters are enjoyable though I doubt they'll leave much of an impression after you watch, and something tells me the book this is based on might explain a few things better, or pace things better. Speaking of, the pacing could use some work in the movie, while things happen it seems like you get through a chunk of the movie without it feeling like much went on, even though it kinda did and other times it didn't.

All in all it's an enjoyable experience, glad I watched it. It had a few things you don't normally see, like a demon with an amusement park on its stomach that it uses to torture its victims to a few of the character designs, but in the end this won't leave a lasting impression like Coraline or ParaNorman did.



With that said Hasbro/MLP showed some images for the holiday special, and either someone accidentally grabbed this screen by pure chance or on purpose to get back at someone, but boy oh boy did they get quite the image. Can you see what's wrong with this image? This is another reason I'm amazed they went with 3D, mishaps like this are so much harder to lean into, like how they did with G4 and Derpy/Ditzy.

[Dontrike]

Watched the holiday special, somehow it's chapter 3, and it's fine. Not the worst nor the best holiday episode of anything. Two evolutions happen in this, the animation definitely got better once again and unicorns are using magic that isn't making stuff float. Oh, and I guess the lantern turns stuff into new toys you will likely be able to buy as it turns a crappy, damaged tram car into a flying RV that you sort of expect Barbie to sell you.

The "Marestream", as they call it, has six seats in it, which of course goes to likely Misty joining the group, but that was obvious from Chapter 2.

Overall the special sort of feels like it's 15 minutes too short, with about 7 minutes left their floating RV is covered in snow and Sunny just sort of bursts out with a "oh no, we won't be able to get to the thing now" and it felt out of nowhere. It's kind of weird that many episodes have something like that where she just says the issue and moments later it's fixed.

[CastletonSnob]

After a movie, a YouTube series, a special, 8 episodes of a Netflix series, a podcast, a video game, and a holiday special, I think we have MORE than enough content to have a strong opinion on G5. How do you feel about G5 so far?

Personally, I like it, but not as much as G4.

[Dontrike]

After a movie, a YouTube series, a special, 8 episodes of a Netflix series, a podcast, a video game, and a holiday special, I think we have MORE than enough content to have a strong opinion on G5. How do you feel about G5 so far?

Personally, I like it, but not as much as G4.

I think it's definitely weaker than G4, but this is still somewhat enjoyable.

I think the main issues with G5 has been them sprinting to act like 4 without it needing to. I've said it before, but making Sunny an alicorn was too soon, and honestly unnecessary. We barely get to know her or the other characters and they've already been defined.

This also shows up with forcing a dragon onto them near instantly, it's like they feel the need to copy 4.

It also doesn't help the merchandising seems to be plaguing this gen as well with a few vehicles, like the Marestream.

To me it would have been nice if they took it slower, from the characters to the stories and even the animation it's clear it needed more time.

Which is a shame as the movie was really good, definitely better than G4s movie by miles, and we just haven't seen that see quality again.

It seems like the main few things keeping this interesting is the mystery of how the world got the way it is, and how Misty is a nice take on an MLP character. The idea of a pony that hasn't gotten their cutie mark after so long is genuinely interesting, but it's a shame you can already tell what her story will be from miles away.

Again, 5 is okay, not great, though at least the movie definitely is.

[Dontrike]

Been a while since this many ghost pages showed up, gotta wonder what happened.

[Powerogue]

May be only one thing for it. Would it be part 19 or just part 1 for G5?

On that note I can't believe someone leaked the G5 finale. I called it.


https://twitter.com/LuckySafeBird/st...32631815282688

[Dontrike]

May be only one thing for it. Would it be part 19 or just part 1 for G5?

On that note I can't believe someone leaked the G5 finale. I called it.

[IMG]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fq3CAzHacAEiryh?format=jpg&name=small[/IG]
https://twitter.com/LuckySafeBird/st...32631815282688

Either or sounds good to me, and that finale sounds about right. Those quiet ones are the craziest.

[Dontrike]

Tell you what, I definitely like this G5 concept art a bit more than what we got in G5. Feels like it has more character than the sort of modern small city that we got.

[Powerogue]

If I had a nickel for every show with Kimiko Glenn voicing the lead that involved her talking to her own tail I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice.



I have no idea what to expect of this show besides that it showed up in the recommended while I was watching Disney XD but I am liking the energy and this nod to Horse in Centaurworld. It's also got her singing which I had highlighted as Izzy in the MLP movie and Horse in Centaurworld was top tier.

[Dontrike]

If I had a nickel for every show with Kimiko Glenn voicing the lead that involved her talking to her own tail I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice.

[video=youtube;Gx5XjAT9a_o]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gx5XjAT9a_o[/vido]

I have no idea what to expect of this show besides that it showed up in the recommended while I was watching Disney XD but I am liking the energy and this nod to Horse in Centaurworld. It's also got her singing which I had highlighted as Izzy in the MLP movie and Horse in Centaurworld was top tier.

Which makes you wonder why Hasbro didn't get her to voice Izzy in the show.