My Little Pony in Japan

[Chocoswirl]

It's been a while since I've been on here! I might be stopping by a bit more often now that I'm getting less busy!

Anyways, MLP has recently been released in Japan last month on April 2nd as マイリトルポニー～トモダチは魔法～ (Mai Ritoru Ponī ~Tomodachi wa Mahō~) ("Friends are Magic")

As a fan of Japanese culture, anime, and MLP of course, this is some pretty cool news! I watched the first two episodes in their Japanese dub version, and I must say.

I really love it.

They recreated a more poppy, shoujo anime/ j-pop opening for the show, and I love it! Now, the English one is still way up there on my list, but in my opinion, the Japanese opening surpasses my expectations. It reminds me of a lot of shoujo anime I've seen. The ending is also really nice too,

(The opening "Mirai Start".)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOJJkuoS3V4

The Seiyuus/Voice actresses introducing the characters they play

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0vyMHOkOXM

Episode 1 RAW can be seen here, side-by-side with the original on mute:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6u37ev9ktI

(Some parts of the Japanese version have been cut to make the show flow more freely. For example, Spike's mention of a party in the beginning is cut out. You can find just the Japanese version itself on Youtube too if you search it up on there.

So far, Japan's only up to episode 3, or 4, if I'm mistaken. Also, since it came out in Japan, it seems they're actually coming out with a manga adaption of the show. Now, I don't have any official resources to prove this, but so far, it's been mentioned on quite a few websites like wikipedia and AnimeNewsNetwork, which is widely trusted.

http://www.animenews...ga-in-the-works

Whoo! *deep breath* That was a lot. Now, what do you think of it? I personally really like it, but that may just be the inner Japan-lover inside of me speaking. If this was mentioned on another topic, please let me know!

Fun Facts!

-Apple Bloom is voiced by the same voice as Pikachu! Appika pika!

-If you watch a ton of anime, some of the voice actresses' (if you keep track of the seiyuus' names) will be familiar to you!

-At the end of each episode, before the closing song, Twilight and Pinkie Pie's seiyuu talk for a little bit about the episode or something related to the show. They also hold a "Lucky Pony Slots" event, where each episode, a random pony is selected.

[weesh]

Looks like they took the effort to provide a high quality regional version.

From the twilight VA, in the second video "the others [beyond Twilight] all have very different personalities. I think everyone can definitely identify with one of them."

Well said.

The episode feels a bit different than our version, but not in a bad way.

when Twilight tries to get out of brunch for instance, "FINE" sounds like frustration, while the Japanese version sounded like resignation.

Good VAs: Twilight, Spike, Applebloom, Fluttershy, Pinkie, Nightmare Moon

Unexciting VAs: Applejack, Rainbow, Rarity

[Voiaman]

Pika pika!

[LemonyPony]

This really surpassed my expectations too. I would read the manga, if it came out.