User Reviews

The 8th season of My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic has now begun, and sure enough there was a lot to take in. The season takes place immediately after the events of the My Little Pony Movie, so not only do we have a whole other world to now explore, but also new creatures.

In order to spread the learnings of Friendship throughout and beyond Equestria, the mane 6 decide to open up and entirely new school for that purpose, where many other races (including ponies) will be attending in the hopes of learning the meanings of friendship.

It was interesting to see a new group of mixed characters be brought into the show since all of them were of a race we had already come to meet and understand. We have another new pony named Sandbar, a griffin named Gallus, a yak named Yona, a dragon named Smolder, a changeling named Ocellus, and one of the newest races to the show a Hippogriff/Seapony named Silverstream.

I really did like how the show began to develop a "Team Avatar" (reference to Avatar The Last Airbender) sort of friendship where we have a group of friends who are all from completely different races working together to succeed in their goals. Seeing as how this has never happened in the show before, it should be interesting to see the further development of this group and how their relationships with one another will play out.

The only issue I really had with these episodes were the pacing of it, mainly since most of the scenes felt rather rushed into getting straight to the point. But to be fair, I suppose it's only natural when you're trying to introduce a whole bunch of new things at once to further progress the rest of season.

As for the Mane 6 (along with Starlight as a resourceful Guidance Counselor), it was interesting to see some relatable topics come into play when it came to the methods of teaching they were all forced to follow under through the "EEA" (Equestria Education Association). But nevertheless, we can see that the struggles eventually pay off as they realize that using your own methods can often be better than following what's typically required from someone else entirely.

Overall, this was a very nice opening to the new season. The show's atmosphere felt like any usual episode, and many of the new surroundings and characters were well liked and fairly original. In the near future, it should be nice to see what the rest of season 8 has to offer with these new elements put into place.

The first part of Season 8's opener "School Daze" was a very promising start and among the best episodes of an uneven season. Like other 'My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic' two parters, it was a little rushed at times but the episode set things up beautifully and the character writing is superb. Only the first episode and the promise was huge. So anybody that liked the first part would understandably expect Part 2 to be equally good or perhaps even better.

"School Daze Part 2" doesn't disappoint in this regard. While the very few problems that the first part had are not quite addressed here, all the same great things are here except done even better. On the whole the second part is not just every bit as good but to me it is slightly superior. It is another very good episode and another one of the better Season 8 episodes, while the season did have slightly better episodes there were also worse (the worst being on the same level as the worst of Seasons 5 and 6).

Again "School Daze Part 2" felt rushed, even more so actually at times with it being more eventful, which would have been solved if there were fewer characters.

Gallus' personality again is difficult to warm to, again pessimism and apathy are not desirable traits.

The other Student Six characters despite not having as much to do as in the first part are still handled very well. Loved their distinct and interesting personalities and how individual they were from each other, Yona and Ocellus standing out. It is again great to see Twilight more proactive and interesting to see how she coped under pressure (something that was done quite relatably). Really liked Starlight's role, like the sympathetic voice of reason when Twilight was upset and doubting herself. It was interesting seeing the sponsors characters, including a more tolerable Prince Rutherford. All the Mane 6 are well done and Sandbar's laid back-ness is not overdone.

Furthermore, the animation is very colourful and polished throughout, especially in the expressions and reactions. The music fits beautifully and never seemed at odds, despite loving the "School of Friendship" song in the first part "Friendship Always Wins" is even more catchy and lifts the soul even more. The writing is thoughtful and has a lot of heart and fun. The story is not perfect in pacing, but it never felt dull or bland and its exploring of true to life topics was sincerely done. A different side to Equestria can again be seen and it was interesting to see Twilight not being in as complete authority as one would think. The voice acting is great all round.

Overall, very good second part to a promising season opener. 8/10.

This episode continues the last one by revealing that the kids have run away. It's one of those episodes where you really get to see how gorgeous the animation is. We get all these wonderfully unique creatures in the show's style. It's great to see these characters bond with each other. They don't seem like forced relationships at all. We see them spend a lot of time defending each other.

What's my favorite species here? Probably the changelings as they have the best design. Kind of ironic given that they can shapeshift. I love the part at the end where they mention that they're annoyed by the ponies' singing. I was getting a tad fed up with that myself. It's great how the show's story arcs keep building up on each other. ****