Equestria Girls: Friendship Souls · 10:34pm Sep 14th, 2016
Equestria Girls: Friendship Souls
Tags: Adventure, Crossover, Equestria Girls
Rating: Teen
Author: thatguyvex
Wow, it has been awhile since I’ve done anything here.
I’ve been wanting to do a review of this fic for awhile. I started following this fic near its initial launch and have been waiting for some more development before I actually write a review.
A crossover of MLP and the popular anime/manga Bleach, this fanfic is not top-notch, as can be seen from its meager 157 likes, but it is definitely worth taking a look at.
Now that I think about it, I believe this is my first review of a crossover. I’ll make sure go over how well of a crossover this is.
This fanfic first aired April 15th, 2016, the day before Episode 5 of Season 6, Gauntlet of Fire. As such, it’s up to date with the current lore and established canon of the show. With its setting in the Equestria Girls universe, there is currently a lot of leeway due to how little has been established in that universe with its only two movies (until October 1st).
As mentioned, this is a crossover. Fimfiction.net defines a crossover as “Basically fanfiction for multiple fandoms at the same time, drawing from two or more sources for the story’s ‘canon’.” The two sources for this fic, as already mentioned, are MLP and Bleach.
Plot:
Following the events of The Friendship Games, an incident leads Sunset Shimmer and her friends to discover a supernatural threat and war that they are suddenly thrust into. Along the way, they encounter secrets and dangerous games of intrigue that force them to hurry to become stronger to not simply survive, but also to defend all they hold dear.
The Actual Review:
First impressions of this fanfic... are not that great. Thatguyvex is clearly in a rush to get to the action, and thus fails to create a fully immersive setting. Prior knowledge of the MLP universe is required when reading this fic.
The grammar is easily legible, but it isn’t all that fantastic either. Thatguyvex seems to have a bit of trouble properly using commas where periods would be much more appropriate. This is an issue that persists throughout the entirety of the fic, but can be tolerated.
However, if you can forgive the fic for its poor first impressions, it does have some redemptive qualities to it.
For those who are unfamiliar with the Bleach franchise, like me, the world is unveiled and explored in a manner that is well adapted to the already established Equestria Girls universe.
The fight scenes a decently choreographed, and there are really no Deux ex Machina's pulled to save the day. Everything is properly set up, believable, and foreshadowed. Speaking of foreshadowing, the events of the fights aren’t the only things that are well foreshadowed.
The other draw of this story is the mystery that is discovered. As Sunset and her friends become a little bit more familiar with the supernatural world, they soon discover that they have a history involved with it that becomes more and more intricate with each new discovery they make. Along with each discovery, things continue to get more and more crazy and dangerous, and the stakes seem to get higher and higher. Once this ride gets going, you don’t want to stop due to how entranced, curious, and gripped you become with each event.
When to Read It:
Reserve this for when you’re waiting for a real favorite to update and have at least 30 minutes to and hour to spare (depending on how fast you read) because once you’re gripped, you don’t want to put it down. Once you do for one reason or another, though, it’s still easy to put it off.
Crossover Rating:
I give this a 4/5 crossover rating. When reading this, the reader can really see that the Bleach universe, as well as the Equestria Girls universe, is blended into one. It doesn’t feel as though either of the universes have been shoved aside, violated, or scavenged.
The only thing keeping this from achieving a perfect rating is the setting, which suffers from the lack of experience of the world itself. We see the action, plot, and events, but we don’t really see the world. We have no historical, or geographical context for anything in this story. Because of this, full immersion of this blend of two universes is not achieved.
Rating:
I give this fic a 6/10. It suffers heavily from the lack of implementation of historical and geographical context for the setting; but the action, the intrigue evident in the background, and mystery provide quite the tantalizing bait to tolerate it. The plot and fight scenes allow the pursuit of said bait to be a worthwhile journey.
Conclusion:
That’s my review for Equestria Girls: Friendship Souls by thatguyvex. If you found this review useful to you in any way, please give it a like. If you think I missed something, thought I was a little off in something I said about this fic, or want to just make some comment about this review, please do so.
Click here to see this review on Tumblr, and even leave comment or a reblog if you’d like.
This is Little Voice saying “Read the best, write the best, and improve the rest.”
