Sammy J's Ponies

I've been sitting with the popcorn watching the mixed reactions from Bronies. The consensus is that G5 is a total flop and we're all craving something better to fill the void. I've seen about 75% of videos hyping it up "Will this be the NEW MLP???" and the rest calling it "Bootleg Ripoff" and at worst just hating on it for all the same reasons they blasted G3.

Wild Manes is a comfort show. Not something action-packed and profound with deep lore like G4 was, and it shouldn't be compared as such. These other shows I mentioned above have an audience of an entirely different set of people that Bronies often refuse to accept exist.

We do also love profound shows like G4, but the kinds of people who exclusively like G4-type shows have a hard time accepting different genres if they're not exactly the same... and tend to shame the people who have different tastes as if everything else is objectively "bad".

Imagine a person who refuses to eat anything but chicken tenders getting on a high horse and insulting a foodie for enjoying more foods than just chicken tenders.

As for my review of the show so far:

They're doing VERY well with storytelling for being limited to a 5-minute runtime, and if they ever get the chance to do more, I think they have great potential to have amazing stories. The "You're probably wondering how we ended up here" gimmick at the beginning of each episode, which is jarring to some people, would be way more enjoyable with a full 20-minute episode. In fact, it's VERY refreshing to see a cartoon doing something different for once.

As I said, I love how the show makes me feel. The art style is great. The background art is great. There's no villains or monsters or world-ending scenarios at stake, which is again, refreshing.

(Another thing Bronies tend to not realize is some people just don't want to watch characters fighting 24-7. High-stakes episodes are enjoyable once in a while, but how can it be special if that's how things just are all the time? I don't know about anyone else, but big battles to save the world are a lot more meaningful to me when we've spent some time living happily in that world to sympathize and understand why it's worth defending.)

And sometimes, I just want to watch cute characters have fun and live life, where the worst of the problems is a minor disagreement with your friend that gets worked out in the end. A world I can wish I lived in.

My only biggest complaint so far is that I wish the hair moved. You'd think with such a focus on hair, they'd have some real physics in the animation.