Due to the kindness and generosity of my Okazu Heroes, I have very much been enjoying capping off a day’s hard anime watching with the whipped cream and cherries of this ridiculously pleasant series. If you’re the Hero who made this possible, please let me know so I can thank you properly!

My Little Pony ~ Friendship is Magic, Season 1 takes what is a well-known and well-worn toy franchise and has imbued it with new life. Several of my friends suggested I watch it, culminating in a passionate plea from one friend, and so, I acquiesced. Not surprisingly, I fell for the charm of Twilight Sparkle and her friends…and the sugar-sweet morality plays about friendship and love. I’m a sucker, I admit it. ^_^ But there’s plenty to like.

MLP ~ FiM has easter eggs for fans of all sorts of pop culture media. The first arc climaxes with something that feels awfully Sailor Moon-like, but it was the Pinky and Brain reference that hooked me. Seeded in the episodes are  many and varied references and part of the fun of watching and rewatching the series is catching them all.

Ultimately what MLP ~ FiM is about is the very same thing Hayate x Blade is “about” – deep, abiding friendship with the kinds of friends you call on in the worst of times. This is probably lost on the under-12 audience, but those of us who know who our shinyuu are, who we want at our back, know that friends are friends, whether online or off.

Decent animation, excellent writing and morals of the story that don’t make one gag. Totally worth watching.

Ratings:

Art – Clever and silly
Story – Variable, but mostly smile-making
Characters – I can’t decide who my favorite is, (much like the Senshi, in fact). I consider that a good sign.

Overall – 9

So, thank you, my friends in Yuri. And thank you my friend who  bought me this entertaining Season 1 set! And all my friends who made me watch this in the first place. ^_^ In return I give you this awesome piece of fan art.

Update: While in Japan, I was able to see an episode of this. It was fun, as expected. I’ve now seen this cartoon in three languages. But most interestingly, I note that they did not attempt to Localize Applejack’s country twang to some kind of regional accent. ]