writing entries i make on the different types of media i watch/enjoy! it might be general thoughts, or character focused entries
like probably a lot of people, i was reaaally obsessed with mlp when i was younger. i didn't really ask my parents to buy things at all besides for lps and mlp figurines, so i had a couple of them overall! i also remember rlly wanting to make one of those lps or mlp story videos that would be up on youtube?? i constantly watched them, and can still remember some stories a little too clearly lol.
for a long time, my favorite was definitely rainbow dash! i think most ppl probably wanted to be a unicorn or alicorn, but my favorite type was always a pegasus cause i thought flying was really cool, the cloud city(?) thing was super pretty, and cause i loved rainbow! i think i got back into it sometime around when the show started ending, when i rewatched some of clips i started liking pinkie pie more. her typical gimmicks with party canon and etc. were fun, and i also liked her cause of association with maud! aaand currently my favorite is rarity :D
i used to actually not like her very much tbh?? i know she gets a lot of hate from fans cause she can seem selfish(?) or is a bit too girly for some, but the reason why i disliked her was bc of strange youtube videos where they had storylines of her killing the other members,, mlp youtube was a tad bit concerning sometimes. but anyway, here's my defense of rarity ig! i saw a few comments before saying that they didn't think rarity really represented her element well. she's generosity, which is the willingness of a person to give away something of theirs at no cost, without expectations of anything in return. to me, rarity's main acts of generosity throughout the show are shown through her art talent- dressmaking! in the episode where she's made to mass produce clothes and becomes dejected by it, the lyrics from her song tell us that she is happiest when she is able to create a dress, and a pony sees it and thinks is perfect for them. her generosity is that she wants to give others something that they're in loe with which she was able to create herself, and that makes her most content. when making gowns for the gala in another episode for everyone and they didn't like it, she also made sure to meet their demands first because she wanted her friends to like the outfits they'd be wearing, while also making sure they looked aesthetically pleasing (which led her to forgetting to work on her own dress ;w;). i think she gets misunderstood a lot tbh,, she enjoys fashion and beauty a lot, so she wants to share the happiness she gets with clothes to others! i think that's the idea with her character and being an artist in general. so anyway, just wanna say that i love rarity and think she's underrated from the mane cast :D
the precure series is probably going to be mentioned here a couple of times, considering how many seasons there are. i've only seen a few of them (and mostly only watch seasons up to the halfway point since they're so long), but so far futari wa, smile, mahoutsukai, and hirogaru sky are my favorites! i have a ton of hirosky stuff, plus a bit of startwi merch, so i compiled them to make a shrine!
you can probably see, but i really like sora, and milky is my favorite from startwi! i guess i just really like cool colored alien magical girls who can be shipped with their pink best friend. i thought sora was a really cute protagonist, and just a little unique from the regular formula (which is typically a clumsy/airheaded cutesy type). she's a bit more tomboyish(?) and headstrong, plus self-sacrificing to a fault. her dynamic with mashiro is also really sweet!
(spoilery area for the show here!)
the early episodes that focused on soramashi were really interesting to me from precure! at the beginning, sora dedicated herself to the role of a precure/mashiro's protector fully. when mashiro also transformed, sora actively tried to stop her fighting with her, fearing that her new friend in the world she was dropped in would get harmed. this showed sora's main character flaw- she would endure all the pain herself instead of relying on others because she wanted to become the impossible ideal of a hero she had. since childhood she trained to take the path of a hero, which she believed to be a lonely one. with mashiro showing her that she was also capable of fighting alongside her, and happier to do so, sora had learned that a hero could rely on her friends, and that she didn't need to handle everything by herself in order to protect everyone ;w; so that's essentially why i love them and hirosky as a whole! (dw startwi + the rest of the hirosky team, i'll mention you guys in a future entry at some point lol)
i didn't even know that sanrio had any like, official(?)/full length anime series until maybe a few years ago? i love pretty much all of the ones i've seen so far though, like mewkledreamy, rilu rilu fairilu, and onegai my melody of course. the latter is probably my favorite out of all of them though! i don't really know why, but each episode seems really charming in a way. most of it i think is because both the human and mascot characters were really likeable! both my melody and uta's own lives in their own worlds are super cute :>
i really like it when girly shows like this have a tomboyish girl character, so mana is one of my favorites! it's nice that she doesn't really like cutesy things and stuff like that, but also doesn't need to change that about herself. in the end she still prefers playing sports and liking her pet gecko, but is still respectful of her friends and my melody (even if she gets icked by cute things like her). it's kind of a pet peeve of mine when character's have set interests/likes, whether or not they fit in with norms or not, but other characters/factors always end up changing their preferences. it's definitely not an impossible thing to happen (when i was younger i was actually afraid(?) of most cute things? so... that happened), but sometimes i just want the characters to like what they like, and nothing can change that. so, i appreciate mana for this!
also, i just think her moments with my melody are the funniest of the series. like that time she had my melody go under weight training for her... ears so that she would be stronger. i'm not really sure how that works, but i don't know anything about bunny anatomy and weight training anyway, so yeah.
this series is probably one of my favorite western magical girl adjacent(?) type show! the aesthetics of it are so nice, especially with the new graphics from the netflix version (the backround art for everyone's bedrooms in particular i thought looked really good). i remember first finding this series because one of the comics was in the children's sections of a library! i'm jealous of my younger self... i haven't been able to find any of the comics in stores or libraries for the past few years.
i haven't watched the youtube series in a while, i'm thinking of doing so though. i did watch the netflix version a couple of times, but i do wish they explained more of the story (since they have more screentime to do so, being a tv show), and focused more on deckard. he didn't have much time in the show after he went to cooking school, which makes sense, but his side story with failing his classes was interesting to me, and i hoped his story would have some sort of a finish. it was nice to meet his brothers though, i liked the clown(?) one and fish(?) brothers. cass and toast were cute to see again as well!
(spoilery area for the show here!)
they did expand a bit on puppycat, which i thought was good. i couldn't find many analysis's on the show since it has a general laidback tone, but i was curious to see interpretation's of it. so far it seems like puppycat became a space outlaw after getting betrayed by the princess/queen(?i forgot), and was turned into the "monstrous" puppycat form as punishment. then he went to earth to hide while the hands were given the job of tracking him down. throughout the series, he was seen collecting bee's old stuff from the ocean, which was presumably all made by her father(?). and at the last episode he succeeded at his goal of putting the space ship together (which was... the entire island, interestingly), and flew off while bee, cardamon + his mother, toast, deckard's family, and that one guy from the cooking school who followed him there were still on it. i hope it does get a season 2, i'm curious as to what would happen. it would be nice to get a continuation on the storyline, even if it's not too big of a focus in the show. i'm also curious about cardamon's mother, and her connection with puppycat, plus the reason why bee was made. i didn't really focus on the past puppycat scenes too much, i'll probably do so in another rewatch!
i'm going to admit, i actually don't know much about winx club even though it's super well known? i think i watched the first four or so seasons at some point when i was younger, but i mostly played the games/quizzes on the website and stuff. i do like the general aesthetics of their designs (flora and aisha are super pretty! and bloom's blue color scheme is unique for her power, but also makes a lot of sense since blue fire is stronger than regular fire, which is a good touch) and both of the theme songs, but i've never gotten too involved with it. if anything, i was actually more interested in the sort of spin off comic series they released later on. i have the first two, and reread them a ton when i was younger. most of what i know of the show/characters is just from reading comments about it online. i do vaguely recall that my favorites were musa and aisha though! ...meanwhile i barely have a recollection of any of the guys, rip to them i guess.
outside of the website, i do distinctly remember this one winx game i used to obsess over. it took a little to find again since i didn't remember the name, but it was bloomix battle!
i've always wanted a magical girl fighting game, and come to think of it, this game was pretty similar to what i want! you basically start off with a team of three of the girls, battle enemies, find the rest of the winx, and can use special abilties/level up your stats. i swear when i was younger it took me days to complete the game because it was so difficult to fight the bosses... then i tried playing it again recently at like, 2 a.m. or something, and finished it in... 20 minutes? maybe? it's kind of funny, but also makes me wonder how i was playing the game back then. oh well.
by the way, i got recommended what seems to be a reboot of the original series on youtube the other day? i didn't hear anything about it, but it had already been released a few days ago. i guess it didn't get much hype which is a bit sad to hear, since it seems decent so far. i did hear that the original creators were more involved with the creation of it, which is always a good sign. i do wish animation studios would go back to using 2D animation since i prefer it, but the cgi looks decent for a tv series from the promo. i might try to check it out when it releases, or watch a bit of the og show again!