Uma Musume: Pretty Derby

One of the better Gacha adaptations in my opinion is Uma Musume. Technically, it’s not a Gacha adaptation since the anime came first before the game but I supposed the anime is used as a potential buildup for said game. Uma Musume is very interesting for surprisingly a lot of reasons. From the looks of how the series designs its characters; it’s another animal girl show in the modern years. Like, you have girls that have horse parts, mainly the ears and the tail. But don’t be fooled about that part, it has an interesting history where it’s based on real times. With that in our heads, how does the show tackle its ideas? Well, only one way to find out. The premise behind this series is intriguing. It’s about horse girls who work as both students and idols and race during horse race events, as well as win in order to appear as icons. The school they study in is called Tracen Academy which is located in Tokyo. The main horse girl we’re following here is Special Week. Her goal is to be a top horse girl in order to spread her popularity and promise her mother. Something interesting to note here is that this is based on the history of Japanese horse racing from 1998 to 1999. The horse girls are based on Japanese horses, looking at both their silhouette and their color schemes, and certain of them based on this season’s choices appear as they’re also based on their IRL counterparts’ histories. This is interesting because of how this show presents its own take on horse-racing history. The horse girls are students on certain things they’re assigned to and they’re idols while they’re still based on their IRL horses and therefore, racing each other in order to reach their spotlights. How well does this show tackle these things? To that, I answer, very well surprisingly. Sure, it’s quirky and comedic but the first season of Uma is both competent and relatively philosophical with its own ideas. Uma Musume shows the tension of racing. The horse girls will try their damn best to keep on getting stronger until the day they enter a competition. There are two different types of racing events. One is normal racing which, while it still results in who will appear on top of the leaderboards, is still a testament to how strong a horse girl can get. The other is grand racing which will serve as something like an assessment of how skilled and competent you are in a race. You need to work hard if you want to appear on top. If you lose, you need to wait for weeks or even months until another grand race will happen. These races are executed well because not only are they fun but they also show both the fighting spirit and knowledge of each horse girl. Not only that but it also wants you to prove how worthy you are at racing. Even if you lose, you can still work harder. Another aspect that has been done well is the worldbuilding. The direction of this season is consistent. It shows us the buildups of events and what a character will do in there. The touring in Tracen Academy is very endearing, to say the least. We actually see what the academy looks like and how each location serves its purpose. We have the main building, cafeteria, library, training rooms, you name it. While they seem basic from initial looks, we actually see certain character buildups before they perform the big stuff like racing each other, allowing for consistent character writing which we’ll get into later. The years in the school are kind of confusing but then again, every character doesn’t really have a confirmed age (and we’re not counting the ages of IRL horses here) so that’s kind of a whatever. The racing places look sick and I don’t think I would touch on that more since I already tackled the racing aspect. Not just those but we also tour around other places where we see our favorite horse girls do what they like to do in their casual times. There’s one major flaw to this, however, and that is how this show uses comedy. That isn’t to say that comedy in this series is bad or even run-of-the-mill. The comedy here is actually very good. There are jokes that are handled well. My personal favorite of the bunch is Rudolf cracking up dad puns for a living. It’s just that Uma uses it a little too much for how philosophical its storytelling is. It’s not overwhelming per se but somewhat half of the time, comedy is this show’s secondary tool whenever the story sometimes runs out of ideas. While it doesn’t hold the series back, it’s still a relatively big problem we need to address. Another problem is, surprisingly, the racing. Going back to that aspect, there’s something a little wrong. Again, the racing in this series is handled well. It’s just that there isn’t a lot of strategy to be found. There is almost little involved which is still okay since a lot of the horse girls can have the same type of strategy depending on their individual pros and cons. So while the racing is still engaging and directed nicely, it can be a little repetitive at times. Also, the idol aspect is a somewhat important addition to the series and sadly, it’s not utilized to its full potential. There are some idol performances and they’re great but for the most part, it’s treated as fanservice. Then again, though, Uma Musume as a whole is about showing the ideals and messages of how complex and enticing racing can be so I guess this aspect doesn’t matter as much. Let’s talk about characters which might be the weakest aspect of this season but that doesn’t matter since it’s still solid. We’ll start with our main horse girl, Special Week, who’s determined and wishes to appear on top of the leaderboards. Spe is a good protagonist and better written than people would like to admit. She shows how dedicated she is to her journey, she has good chemistry with certain characters, and she’s a great introduction to how competent the series is with its cast. She also does the "protag who knows nothing about the world" trope done right. Just one problem, though. Her obsession with Suzuka is kinda annoying and this is shown in most of the middle portions of the show. Speaking of, Silence Suzuka, Spe’s racing mate, is also a good main character for similar reasons, although she’s a little better written than Spe could ever be. The side characters are decent. You have Teio, you have Rudolf, you have McQueen, and so on. They fulfill their characteristics well but the best side character here is Gold Ship. In fact, she’s arguably the best part of the show. She’s quirky, she’s wacky, and yet, she’s very dedicated. Even if she’s written as a side character, she’s more developed than any other character in this season because of how much fun this season had with her. Shoutouts to the duo of Vodka and Daiwa too. Those two characters are also very endearing with a very good chemistry with one another. Now then, what about the animation? The animation for the most part is well done. It’s not groundbreaking but it’s straight to the point with how it conveys the action of racing. The character designs, even for this series’ standards, are criminally overlooked. The aesthetics lean towards a great blend of simplicity, style, and how they fit well with each character. The music is also underrated. Each track nicely matches with each sequence. And who can forget about the voice acting? Most of the voice acting is great, with the best one being Gold Ship’s energy. And those are my thoughts on Uma Musume season 1. I’m sure there are more aspects I can talk about but I elected to discuss the ones that are the most important. The first season is overlooked. It has more things about its story that aren’t just cute horse girls thingy. It shows the complexity of racing, it has great worldbuilding, and it shows respect for its characters. The only problems are that it can tone down comedy just a bit, it would have opened more variety of how the horse girls race, mainly picking up more strategies, and it could use more on the idol aspect. But alas, the first seaso…

As someone who loathes hyper-competitiveness, I can't really bring myself to enjoy this anime. I honestly did want to like Uma Musume, but I just can't do it. The artstyle, the animation, the music, the voice acting, the character designs, they all range from good to great, and some parts in the anime remain enjoyable enough to watch despite everything else. However, when the entire premise of the anime (and almost everything around it) revolves around competition and the need to win and not much else, I just lose interest in it. For the most part, it doesn't even seem like there's much reason behind their obsessive need to win and compete except the boring 'I'm gonna be the best.' Even the friendships in Uma Musume revolve almost entirely around competition and rivalry. Oh they'll say 'I wanna make others happy,' but at the end of the day it all still comes back down to needing to run and win races in order to do it. Why can't it be about them having fun first and foremost, perhaps even outside of racing? Why does everybody usually treat eachother, friends or not, like rivals to be defeated? Why does every character, in nearly every scene, have this pervasive need to improve their running like it's a life-or-death situation? I would've liked Uma Musume so much more if the characters had more to their lives and personalities than just constant training/racing. If it had some more lighthearted slice-of-life moments to flesh out its characters and alleviate that serious/intense tone around its racing. On top of that, other criticisms I have with Uma Musume is that the pacing could've been better, and that there are a few too many characters overall. This results in many of those characters being unable to really have enough screen time and character development - at least within just 13 episodes. Thus, I find it a bit hard to really care much for most of them. To be sure, Uma Musume is definitely not awful, because it certainly does have good aspects and ideas, and it deserves a few points for that at the least. However, overall, I still didn't enjoy it that much, and that's why I ultimately gave it this score.

This Review Contains No Spoilers Disclaimer: The following review is my personal opinion, how I experienced and thought about the anime Uma Musume. It is not an attempt to convey objective facts, as one would find in a report, on the contrary, it is my opinion and how I think about the anime, it is purely subjective, not less and not more. Story The main plot is nothing completely new but the horse-girl aspect and the rivalries were entertaining, and, in their best moments, even dramatic. The humor felt sometimes off, especially when it relied on the team-members: They felt gimmicky and tacked-on until much later in the anime where they finally got the chance to establish a relation with the viewer, but this was too little too late. The direction and series-composition put on the shoes before the pants, in this regard. The races themselves were well-staged, created proper excitement, and were often the highlight of each episode. One aspect I could neither understand nor accept though, until the very end, was the performing-of-a-song aspect after each race: It never received proper attention to justify its existence in the story, aside from episode 2, and it also made no sense whether we compare it to reality, where such a thing doesn't exist in horse-racing, or to what we learned from the Uma Musume universe itself: The girls are professional athletes, they train running, every day, and nothing else, that's their profession, singing and dancing is not part of their training, and yet the story expects them to be able to sing and dance on a professional level. Try to make sense of that. Hint: It doesn't make any sense at all. Speaking about not making sense, it could be argued that there are no antagonists in Uma Musume, for even the leader of the rival team is begrudgingly supporting our girls and our team. Were we to judge them as actual antagonists, we would not find much antagonizing about them, which was disappointing and leads us to an overall 6.5/10. Characters The main character may be steeped in various cliches but has, despite that, enough individuality, visually and in terms of personality, in order to be recognizable in the vast sea of anime characters. There is also an interesting dynamic between the two main characters, which, for the most part, is carrying the main plot. Among the supporting characters, the team-members of Special Week (the name of our main character) feel flat, in their best moments, and slightly aggravating, in their worst moments. They could have added to the anime if a little bit more attention and time in the spotlight would have been dedicated to them. This actually does happen towards the end of the anime, but, as previously mentioned, it is too little too late. The rival horse-girls though are diverse, memorable, and entertaining enough to justify an overall score of 7.5/10. Visuals The character designs are quirky, tasteful, and covered with numerous lovely details. The attention to detail is also noticeable if we check out the backgrounds, the props (_carrots, carrots, carrots_), the outfits, and hair accessories of the girls. The designers did a great job in this regard. Some horse-girls though lack a little bit of visual individuality, and can be hard to tell apart until later on. That may also be attributed to the sheer number of girls which the viewer has to become familiar with. The visual quality is slightly above average with the odd scene and background here and there dropping in quality while the horse-girls themselves are well drawn, but not enough to warrant an overall Very Good rating: 7.5/10. Audio I experienced serious issues with the sound-mix where effects (steps, ringing, doors) and background noises (crowd cheering) were twice as loud as they are supposed to be, which made for a dangerous and unpleasant experience with headphones. This actually stopped being an issue from episode 9 and onward, but such a blunder can simply not be defended. The soundtrack is mostly invisible, which doesn't have to be an issue for music that is meant to stay primarily in the background, but there were, with a few exceptions, almost no noteworthy moments at all. In the end, it managed to be below average, and that is quite an achievement in itself. The opening song is unremarkable too and leaves us with a scent of no-risk, no originality, but the ending song makes up for it with a nice melody that is actually catchy and well-fitting: 5/10. Enjoyment Despite the flaws and letdowns with story and sound, I enjoyed most of my time with Uma Musume: The charm of the main characters, paired with the cute visuals, managed to overshadow many shortcomings: 7/10. Summary A weak start was followed by a surprising sprint, but Uma Musume ran out of breath and missed a spot on the podium by several horse-lengths: 6.7 - Fun, but not winning any trophies. Afterword: My rating is not based on my own abilities and skills to produce anime, but it is relative to all the other anime I was privileged enough to watch and enjoy so far. I believe that a creator is always above the critic: It takes not only skill and dedication in order to create, but, above all, courage, whereas it takes no bravery to judge the work of someone else. In this sense, the effort it took to write this review is, despite the rating, a way of expressing my humble admiration. PS. This review appeared first on Anilist, three years ago.

If you like cute girls, but as horses, well not literally (the horse part), you will love this. The story has cute, funny, and emotional moments, you will enjoy this a lot. I teared at the sweetest moment some of which were not even sad. The animation of the race was actually amazing and obviously characters wear special outfits which I actually found interesting/amazed/cute. The story flows at a great pace where you will find it amazing, there are a lot of characters which I couldn't remember all of them, my favorite el condor pasa, and this anime off a mobile game apparently and real horses. Just enjoy the anime and have fun in the silly moments.

Out of 100 Nobles watching... 84 were impressed! 6 were busy laughing at derpy 3d models 5 aren't into idol stuff 5 weren't too amused with the tropes Uma Musume really had no business being as good of a show as it was. It stands as a testament to the intrigue and life that can be given to a show when the protagonist of a story has no guarantee of victory. The show is set in an alternate universe where the spirits of famous race horses from our world are reincarnated into "Horse Girls" in this world. The horse girls have horsey ears and tails, but otherwise are regular human women. It's a pretty low tier monster girl for consumers of THAT genre, but the execution is done well and the fact that the girls don't have a dopey double set of ears like many monster girls from other media the show automatically gets a few Nobles attention for the immersion factor. The story follows a young horse girl from the countryside named Special Week making her trip to attend a prestigious school for training horse girls for races. She holds the dream of being the best horse girl in Japan and her pursuit of that dream directly colliding with the hopes and aspirations of the other characters in the show are where things get interesting. As mentioned earlier the show does well with its immersion. It has a well built world that the horse girls live in that makes horse girl racing and culture feel like a living breathing part of its canon. The show contains a massive cast of characters and every horse girl is based on a real-life racing horse with aspects of their personality, appearance, and clothing reflecting their origin. It's a nice touch and shows P.A. Works really cared about the product they were making. A short note on the OP and ED. They're both amazing and filled the "Shiny Days" and "Ishukan Communication" shaped holes in my heart left by Yuru Camp and Kobayashi's Maid Dragon. The biggest draw back to the show was that it was very obviously made on a budget. Panning still shots, recycled frames, and the implementation of mixed 3d/2d effects that strain the eye are the offenders here. For the most part the show makes very good use of editing and action lines to make the more "animation light" sequences still feel alive and natural. The use of CG models in a number of background crowd shots were annoying but even worse were models used during some of the actual horse racing scenes that presented an image of 3d characters float-walking on a 2d plane. This wasn't a huge problem though because despite some of the janky weird looking running animations there were lots of racing scenes that were gorgeous and conveyed a powerful sense of motion and speed that were a joy to watch and left me at the edge of my seat wondering who was going to win. To conclude, I don't like idol type anime or manga, but Uma Musume had so much more than just an idol show to offer and presented a moving narrative that at times had me shedding manly tears the same way Boku no Hero gets me. The aspirations and dreams of characters you love with only one allowed victory... who will win?

Spe-chan, you are the best horse girl in Japan 😭😭😭 I never imagined myself saying this, but the horse girls anime is one of the best ever created. Jesus, the way I was emotional in the last two episodes was no joke I simply loved this anime. The story is really cool, and with such charismatic characters it’s impossible not to like this masterpiece. Not to mention, knowing that it’s inspired by real horses, even down to their personalities, adds a special charm. The only criticism I have is that I wanted to see a bit more of the other horse girls, like Haru Urara, who was actually one of the reasons I wanted to watch it after finding out she sadly passed away in real life. There are so many great characters that it’s hard to choose just one favorite, but I’d say mine are Silence Suzuka and Gold Ship ksksksksks.

This is not the best start to uma musume, the game does a much better job of introducing you and getting you to like some characters. Even if those characters that appear in this anime happen to be the ones you like from the game you can simply watch the episodes they appear in. You don't have to watch this just play the game and look up funny moments from it on YouTube. I have not seen the 3rd season and I don't want to. Its like every mid slice of life anime you have ever seen but with maybe some cool horse women eating food I guess. I highly recommend every other form the uma musumes appear in as for some reason they are all better written and better directed. I am extremely addicted to the mobile game. Thank you. It was mid.

Well discovered this seeing a post in an anime group I'm in, it was the opening when she arrived on the train the look of wonder on her face was magic, I don't wish to spoil anything but she has quite an interesting back story as well. It looked interesting, girl runners with the cute touch that they are horse girls. Binge watched it and thoroughly enjoyed it. This is the first sports themed anime I've watched I could seriously find nothing to dislike about this anime, if you like comedy, drama watching someone attain their goals in fierce competition and defying the odds this anime is defiantly worth the watch.

Uma Musume: Pretty Derby *****May Contain Spoilers**** Run Spe Run! Pretty Derby as it is commonly called is a 2018 Spring anime by P.A. Works, which brought us Angelbeats. In my personal opinion I think this show might be some of it's best work yet. The show gave us something we didn't know we needed, until they brought it to life in this anime. HORSEGIRLS!! Story: Ok, so Pretty Derby is about a world where all the great race horses that have passed away in our world are reincarnated in this new one as horsegirls. Which as essentially just normal girls expect they have tails and ears of a horse, as well as their speed and endurance. The main story revolves around Tokyo's Tracen Academy, a highschool for horse girls hoping to moving on to fame and fortune as both racers and idols. (The top three winners of each important race have to preform on stage in fancy get ups to sing and dance) That is for those who are not familiar with idol anime. *Spoiler* The horses in this show are ones that actually did exist in real life, main characters and all. The races are real events that happen in Japan and the ones around the world mentioned in the show. If your curious you can look up all the horses and see what made them special in real life. but that will basically make the show less exciting because they list all the races that each horse has ran. As someone who grew up around horses and race horses in particular I can really appreciate the design and the characteristics that have been Incorporated in characters. The story centers around Special Week a horse girl from the countryside, who has just transferred to Tracen, and she's determined to fulfill her promise to her mother to become the best horse girl in Japan. On her way to the school for the very first time, she takes a pit stop at the race track and instantly falls in love with Silence Suzuka's style, becoming determined to race on the same team as her. Winning the races is the main point of the story but the writers did an amazing job of portraying every single race as important in its own way for the characters develop. I was on the edge when Suzuka just went from world record breaking speed to slowly decelerating, limping one leg after the other, barley being able to still keep going. Wow was it immersing. Weather it was Suzuka's loss and hospitalized race, to Special Weeks win at one the G1 races, to El Condor Pasa's vistories in Europe. Each and every race had a meaning and I honestly think that is one of the main reasons why the show is so popular. Characters: I thought the idea of incorporating the real life horses into horsegirls was a little strange at first, but it quickly grew on me. Special Week and Silent Suzuka are probably the two who develop the most in the series. They both find a kinship in one another through racing. Not just to win but to inspire others to shoot for the stars, and that anyone can achieve their dreams. I found it be a endearing relationship that built upon each other. Special Week never gave up on a crippled Suzuka. Suzuka never stopped believing that Special Week could become the best horsegirl in Japan. The rest of the characters while important were unfortunately not touched up in a series manner like the other two. I will say that the fact that this show never took itself too seriously is what makes the show great and a cut above a lot of others. Still it would have been a little nicer to have gotten to know more of the main teams characters like Vodka and Scarlet better then just them comically competing over everything. Then again, that is one of the points that makes the show funny. Yes school work is still important as well as training but whenever everyone is around there friends go out of there way to make themselves laugh and have a good time. Animation and Sound: The animation is actually cutting edge in it's own right. I am not an athletic person and when I am in the mood to exercise running is probably my least favorite sport. This show actually puts a very good spin on the race, trying their best to not make it look like NASCAR. That's even with the frilly dresses that logically one could not run that far in. Specifically when Special Week, Suzuka, Pasa, or Air Groove really start running they form air that is not something you see in real when people run but you can see it when horses run. The detail in the movements is extremely lifelike, with Suzuka the best way to hold out her hands when she's running and the way that they "kick" off to make their move to steal first place. This puts the world in a realistic perspective that I'm sure took a lot of hours of watching the Olympics. The music is geared towards the target audience which I would say is preteen- teen girls. It defiantly isn't bad. The idol aspect is really undermined, but it was kind of ridiculous to begin with. I think they just liked the idea that everyone can look up at the winners dancing and admire them to the point where they will want to push themselves. In conclusion: This anime is probably one of the best of 2018. It's funny, its endearing, shit it even makes running look fun (Run at your own risk). As I've stated in my previous comments the show is successful because it does not take itself too seriously. You can sit back and enjoy this show without having to worry oh who's going to die, who is going to cheat on who. It's pretty realistic in nature of the way people interact with one another. Quite possibly the way we wish our friends would treat us in the real world. If you looking for something to entertain yourself and have a good laugh with every episode I would give this anime a try. Score: 8

Uma Musume: Pretty Derby is an Anime about Horse Girls going to School and Copeting in Diferent Races Inside of Japan and even Outside of it where the winner gives a small Idol-style performance. Its kind of a weird Premise but I ended up Enjoying it. Maybe a bit too much... Story: 4/10 The Story follows Special week. A horse Girl that Wants to be the best Horse Girl in all of Japan in her Quest to do so. When She Arrives to Tokyo Tracen Academy with the help of her Perverted trainer, she meets Silence Suzuka, One of the best Race horses of her generation, along with other aspiring race horses. She ends up Joining Team Spica, Having a Friendly Rivalry with Silence Suzuka and The enemy team's El Condor Pasa at a smaller Degree. This Story Felt very Battle Shonen like but adapting it to a Slice of Life Sports Show. If I Had to make a Direct Comparison it Would be to Naruto (I know the Low Hanging Fruit When Critiquing Shonen but I Ha to Use it.). Suzuka vs Spe felt a bit Like early Naruto vs Sasuke. Her Small Friendly Rivalry felt a bit like Some Naruto vs Lee (Even though that is more prominent in the Rock Lee Spin off but Whatever).Even The Trainer's Relationship with the Enemy Trainer felt a Bit Jiraiya and Tsunade like. I felt like the Story was too Copy and Pasted but Don't Worry because the anime makes up for it in Diferent aspects. Art: 7/10 The Anime has good animation. The races never felt so bad that I wanted to Skip them. The Races were nicely paced and made you feel like they were very high stakes. The races is where this Anime Shined. The Idol segments were very well animated. Even during the massive insert song at the end of EP.13 it didn't look bad. Instead of Going Full CGI Like Love Live they went with traditional animation similarly to Idolm@ster. Very Nice Overall. Sound: 6/10 The OST Was Good Enough. It wasn't too Distracting during the races and acompanied their scenes well. The ED and OP are very Catchy. I remember When the First two Episodes Aired I Couldn't get "Make Debut!" Out of my Head. I Still love the song But not as much as the other Song used in Promotionat Material for the Mobile Game. The Seiyuu fit their characters really well. They even Got Spe's Real Life Jockey,More on that later, to Voice as part of the Commentary team during one of the races. Overall, The Sound Design was really Good. Good Casting and Nice OST. Character: 6/10 Every Character in the Show is based on REAL race Horses from the late 90's to Early 2000's and their Jockey.That can be Noticed on their Character Design. The Horses Themselves look like anthropomorphised versions of their IRL counterparts and their race costumes use similar color that their IRL jockeys used to Use. Their Personalities felt very Copy and Pasted. With Most Characters, I felt like I Had already seen a Similar Character Somewhere else. Most of It's points in this category are for the Character Design and their Atention to detail. For Example, They Gave El Condor Pasa a very Subtle Engrish accent to simbolize that she is an American breed and a Luchador Mask to Simbolize The Latin Origin's of her name. Is it a bit racist? Yeah but I didn't rally mind as a latinamerican myself. I see How someone could've gotten triggered by it. Enjoyment: 8/10 I really enjoted the Show. The Races were very entertaining and even the S.O.L Parts were funny at some points. Every horse girl has something likable about them and Even if their Character dinamics and Personalities are Copy and Pasted they are extremely Likeable. Maybe It is because of my Former love for Love Live (pun intended). I was a bit disappointed that there weren't that many Idol segements but whatever. That was not the min selling point for the show. Overall: 6 The Anime is really good if you have nothing to watch. Most episodes end in a Race so you will always get a Climactic Finish. If you Like CGDCT Shows or Horse racing in general I recommend this show. Even If you Don't like any of those I still reccommend it. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Uma Musume: Pretty Derby is an interesting hybrid sports anime. It's basically track & field under the guise of horse girls. Initially this show was one of the ones that I thought I would drop after an episode or two but luckily that wasn't the case. The Idol aspect of the show that popped up in the first episode didn't take up too much time and also wasn't a main focus for the remainder of the series thankfully. Also there was a race happening almost every episode so I think there was plenty for a sports anime fan like myself to enjoy even if I didn't particularly care for some other elements of the show. The story is your standard one that you'd find in some other sports anime, a new character arrives at a new school/town with dreams of being the best. They then compete, find new friends and rivals along their journey. So in that respect, the story is average with the high points coming from the emotions you would feel watching the races and the low points being the slice of life moments between the characters in my opinion. I think the best aspect about Uma Musume: Pretty Derby is definitely the art. I loved the character designs and always thought that there was a lot of thought that had to have gone into color coordination because while everything is very colorful it never once feels like it was obnoxious. The animation was okay but maybe it wasn't the style I had in mind for when I want to watch track and field. The soundtrack was pleasant and when the idol moments did happen, the songs were nice. I had a minor gripe with the sound effects as I thought the audio balance may have been off a couple times and they were too loud as a result. The characters were good and I liked the main character pairing of Special Week and Silence Suzuka. The show did a decent job of getting the audience invested into what each of these characters desired. The cast of side characters are good as well but the big problem was that there was so many of them that at some point you just end up not caring for most of them after a while. While I recognize that Uma Musume: Pretty Derby is a very good show, there were a couple things aesthetically that took away from my enjoyment of the series. Nevertheless I still think that this anime is worthy of a recommendation.

I watched this because I got really into the memes I saw from Instagram reels and TikToks, Also played the game for a bit which is alright in my opinion Uma Musume only watching this is pretty solid, Nothing amazing but pretty solid, I didn't really care for any of the characters expect for Goldship, Haru (Biased opinion, I love the pink horse) and the trainer was alright Special Week is kind of a bland main character, So I didn't really care about her development all that much, But I'm going to try the rest of this franchise since I know the movie is really good and worth waiting for I give this a Rating of 6/10, It's almost a 7 but due to Special Week being kind of bland compared to literally everything else and it bumps it down some, But I did enjoy the plot this had without giving any spoilers away, I'd give this a try if you like the game

What season does Jovial Merryment appear in? It's about as good as you would expect an anime set in a world where horses are replaced by horse women who also love to run. However, I have many questions about how the advent of horse women would change world history. Like forget the fact that horses were an essential animal for many jobs, I wanna know about what happened to the Golden Horde in this alternate universe. Did the famous horseback Mongol archers ride horse women? Are there horse men? What are horse women's rights like? Do they selectively breed like real world race horses? I imagine that since there is a lot of money involved in betting on derbies that there is probably significant underworld involvement with the state of horse women? Has a horse woman ever held political office? I don't expect any of this to ever be answered but I couldn't help but wonder. This was mostly a good show to watch in the background while doing Limbus Company dailies.

Cute horse girls racing for their dreams. That is Uma Musume in a nutshell. A very easy-going show with hardly any drama that just focuses on the journey of a group of girls. Now despite the show having an ensemble cast because it's a gacha game adaptation, the show mostly focuses on two of the girls, Special Week and Silence Suzuka. I think they work fine as the main duo, I even liked their relationship even if it's nothing deep. However, most of the other girls sadly miss out on good development because of this direction choice. Now, maybe people that play the game already know enough of the other girls but as someone who is anime only I seriously struggled to even remember the names of half of the other girls. Also I wish they at least gave Trainer-kun a name, even if he is meant to be the player self-insert. Oh and Uma Musume isn't just a sports show. For some reason they also have the girls do idol performances after the races..? I suppose Japan really loves their idols but to me it would have been better to focus on one or the other rather than trying to mix them up. Granted in this show, the idol stuff was hardly present so it's only a minor gripe at best. The pacing of the show is a bit too fast to my liking. Granted most of the races that get glossed over with just mentions don't seem to be very critical to the plot at least. Although the progress of Special Week felt rushed to me. It's a bit hard to fathom all of the stuff that happened actually happened in just a one cour runtime. Now to mention something good for once; The show doesn't just randomly name the girls, they are actually based off of real life counterpart race horses that have existed and reading through discussion threads of people that are into this sport, it was cool to see that even a lot of the races were parallel to real history. Albeit some smaller and bigger liberties were taken to make the story more engaging and I'm okay with that. I had seem some people say visually the first season doesn't hold up well and even if the latter seasons improve on it, I have to say I think the show looked fine. Sure, some of the CGI wasn't all that pretty but the races were mostly hand drawn anyway. Sound department was solid too, the gallop during the races made things more tense. This show to me is the exact same how I felt about Girls Und Panzer too. Cute and wholesome girls duking it out in some kind of weird fantasy sport setting. It's all face value and no depth and that's not necessarily a bad thing. It's just not a mix that I can personally get that into. PS Gold Ship was probably my favorite.

I would like to start by saying while I gave this a 7, I did not enjoy the series. But the quality and polish is without question. The story: plot is that a horse-girl, Spe-Chan, wants to be the best horse girl of Japan. The setting is completely wonky with the idea of horse-girls. Are there horse-boys? We don't know. Do horse-girls have professions that arent racing? Not that we see. Why do horse-girls do idol performances after a race? To say thank you to the fans. We don't know a lot but horse girls are the most popular thing of Japan in this world. Why did I rate this a 7? Because they fucking based the plot off of IRL race horses and races. And they did their homework for this show. They took the actual stories of race horses and put them into girls bodies and made an anime off of it. Even more, this is based off a gotcha mobile game. S1 follows Special Week and Silence Suzuka. I think they characters relationship is unhealthy and awkward. I think nothing makes sense in this setting, but the characters frustration is really well written. The art is a stupid well polished aspect of the show. Who the hell puts so much effort in facial expression, backgrounds, dirt flying, ect for a freaking gotcha game anime about horse-girls no less? Apparently those who worked on Uma Musume. While I don't think the art is groundbreaking, it is consistent, well done, outfit designs are unique, and the animation is of superior quality. Even if you hate this anime, there is little to criticize. Similar to the Art, the sound also cut no corners. While the music isn't my style, every character can sing (season 2 literally has a song with over 32 characters singing). The music is up-beat and catchy. The sound editing and sound effects are also on point. It really does have a very high quality. Characters: Well, the characters are based on actual horses. And once again, the studio did their homework on the personalities of the horses. I don't love the characters, except for Goldship. Goldship is best horse-girl. But we have a rather large cast of characters that while not fully flushed out, do have the potential. Considering the season is only 13 episodes, we get a lot. Some of you will love every character. I did not like most of them, but I can't help but give credit where it's due. My enjoyment was rather meh. I watched this because a friend of mine loves it. I did not love it. I didn't even like it. I couldn't get over the hurdle of horse-girls are idol athletes who everyone loves and they may or may not be the equivalent of Rome's gladiators, loved by fans, but also have no other option but to fight. I like sports anime, but this was not what I wanted. Overall, I think the quality speaks for itself. If you don't enjoy this, it's certainly not an issue of the quality. I can't say this anime is for everyone, but there is something to be admired for the show.

If you told me before the season started that one of my favorite anime would’ve been about cute horse girls doing races and performing idol performances... I probably would’ve believed you because that actually sounds dumb enough to be good. Uma Musume wasn’t JUST good, it was great. Even if you take away the whole horse girl side of things, you still have a great anime about character striving to be the best runners they can, how they deal with training, rivalry, and losing on their way to achieving their goals. It’s a great character piece where the Main Character doesn’t always win, doesn’t always pull through when she has to, and sometimes you don’t know who to root for. These races can get surprisingly intense. It’s not as simple as “whoever has plot armor wins the race.” Each race is full of interesting characters with their own unique designs and racing tactics. While not all of the main cast gets enough time to truly shine, the main two were wonderful to see. Special Week and Silence Suzuka were great to see help one another as friends and rivals. The other members of their team never get the spotlight themselves, but they do well in supportive roles. The screen time they do get is always fun to see. It’s also worth mentioning that every character in the anime is based off of a real life race horse. So if you’re really into horse races, you’ll definitely see some names that look familiar. In the anime, the winning horse girls in a competition get to do these big idol performances to celebrate their victory. However, outside the first and last episodes, we really never get to see them. I should probably be glad the races themselves were made more important than idol performances, it would’ve been nice to see more of. While this was all technically just promotion for the upcoming mobile game, it was great for a standalone anime. It’s filled to the brim with colorful, unique characters, had some intense races, great character dynamics, and is an anime that I will truly miss watching each week. It really did a great job of selling the premise of the game. I’ll definitely check that out and get frustrated when I don’t summon a SSR Special Week.

Uma Masume, on the surface another one of Japan's stranger animes as it's about horse girls (yes, horse girls. Hey there are cat girls so I guess there should be one about horses now right?) How does this anime stack up? Let's find out. Story 7/10: Basically, the story is about a girl, er well, horse girl, named Special Week who lived in Hokkaido and starts attending school in some, well, horse girl school in Tokyo (I think) to learn to become the best horse girls they can be. In Special Week's case, she wants to be Japan's number one horse girl. In order for her to help reach her goal, she gets "recruited" (read: kidnapped) by some horse girls from Team Spica in order to help them become a great team and help Special Weak become a great horse girl In regards to being the number one horse girl, this consists of winning races, the biggest being the Japan Cup. After the race, the winners perform idol concerts. Yes, you read that right. In the main races, they wear costumes that you would see pop idol's wear then they perform a concert afterwards (they have basically an unranked/minor races wear they wear generic gym outfits). Simply put, imagine each show as if the girls from Love Live or Idolmaster ran a track race then performed a concert afterwards. It's a weird combination, but they stop mentioning the concerts after episode 4 I think until the last two episodes where they have a big concert. All this though is fine, it's simplistic but it works. There is some drama thrown in there because hey, what's any anime without some drama but all of it is fine. Art 8/10: The art here is really good. I like how the characters look, the scenery looks, how basically everything looks. It's pretty nice. Sound 8/10: The OP and ED were pretty good, and the BGM was fine to capture each moment well. Character 8/10: (I should probably note this here, but in the first episode they talk about how "great horses from the past are reincarnated as horse girls" or something along those lines. I thought this was to explain why the world has horse girls but apparently they are based on actual race horses who exist. I'm serious, go look up some of the names on Google and you will find wikipedia pages of horses with their name.) The main characters are Special Week, a cheerful, upbeat yet clumsy horse girl who wants to be Japan's best in part because of a promise she made to her step mom (human) and her real mom (died after giving birth to her, so it was more like a promise to her grave.) There is also Silence Suzuka, a quiet but very talented horse girl who leaves Team Rigil to join Team Spica because they help to remind Suzuka how much fun racing can be. This is all you know about any of the characters (except for Trainer at the end). Which is fine, I hate when they try to make every character important for no reason, and when you expect them to provide more information they don't. The only thing I wished they gave more information on is Trainer-san because they mention a few times about his past but don't go too much into it, although I wish they did. The only backstory they gave on Trainer-san was at the last episode. Overall, the characters were fine. Enjoyment 7/10: Now, with all this, you might think I would've enjoyed it a little more than a 7 perhaps? Well, not really. This was fine, but nothing really stood out to make it a great anime, but nothing stood out to make me dislike it as well. Nothing really hooked me on it, but nothing really felt like a chore to watch. It was a fine, enjoyable anime overall. Overall 7/10: Overall, I enjoyed this show. Don't expect to be wowed by anything, but I'm pretty sure you won't really hate anything from it (assuming this is the kinda anime you like to watch.) I would definitely give Uma Masume a watch.

Once in a while you see a piece of media, weather this be an anime, a video game, or just a trend. This piece of media doesn’t need to exist, nobody has asked for it, but yet, once you saw it, you knew you were in love with it. And as it turns out, other people felt the same way. Uma Musume: Pretty Derby is a show just like that. Described by MAL as a slice of life sports anime, Uma Musume: Pretty Derby follows an aspiring horse girl named Special Week, working her way to become the greatest horse racing girl in Japan! Horse girls are made to run, so many of them spend their careers participating in races, much like the racehorses of our world. Along her journey, Special Week meets other horse girls, all acting as rivals and friends as she attempts to reach the top with them. As I was scrolling through the Spring anime season and saw this show with some cute poster art of horse girls and a synopsis with nothing but the description, “Based on a mobile game,” (The synopsis changed later) I thought nothing of it. But the fact that they were horse girls, I thought that this would be a new extension of the “Monster girl” genre. Much like Monster Musume, or the highly regarded Dragon Maid. So the decision to watch the show was based upon that alone. Although, the first episode hooked me. The first episode starts off with introductions to the main characters. They introduce Special Week arriving to the city, where she was previously from the boonies. Her character is just your average happy go lucky girl that's inspired by horse girls. As well as determined to become one of those girls. Silence Suzuka is one of them. She comes out as first as the quiet girl who has the talent to be the greatest. She wins a race by a landslide before Special Week’s eyes in an honestly well put together and exciting race. This inspires Special Week to want to race with her. And furthers the plot. After the race, the winners then go on to hold an idol concert. Special week is then introduced to her manager and the other supporting character horse girls. The episode ends with a fun and upbeat ED to match the show’s tone. The rest of the show consists of Special Week racing in various Derbies and Cups around Japan. It also further develops her relationship with Silence Suzuka. Every episode has an exciting race in it, which helps to the pacing of the show. Although, that being said, many of the races are similar to each other, and if you’re not really into the races in the first place, you may find yourself bored very quickly. Special Week and Silence Suzuka’s relationship is very generic in terms of happy slice of life friendships. Although, with what the show is trying to accomplish, works fine. Speaking of what Uma Musume: Pretty Derby is trying to accomplish. This anime was made to advertise a mobile game of the same name. As of writing this review, the mobile game has yet to come out. As an advertisement, it's easy to view the formula it’s following to sell as many games and merchandise as possible. Its cute and noticeably different characters, their outfits, their personalities are all made to sell. Uma Musume is even taking from the idol genre, one of the arguably most profitable advertising strategies in effect in Japan right now. Despite its origin and nature, the people who created this had a lot of care and research into crafting these characters. Every horse girl is based on a real Japanese racehorse. And each girl’s design is very uniquely based on the horse they’re based on. The shows events even loosely follows the races each horse in real life wins. This includes somewhat major plot points. Animation is good and fluid. The art is nothing different. Music is fitting to what the show is. Character designs are top tier, even if the character personalities don’t. I liked this show. Even if the content is predictable and samey, it does what it needs to do well. It was pretty popular this season, and it deserves it. I recommend this to those already familiar to these types of anime advertising. I give this show a 7 out of 10. This has been your PixEFit’s spoiler free, but not really review.

Well, here we go for the sixty-ninth time: Characters: -Main Characters: These original protagonists serve as the foundation for the franchise. That’s about it; I won’t deny that they’re likable characters, but honestly, they don’t really stand out much within this sports anime genre. (5/7) -Supporting: There are characters I liked, but unfortunately, the friends of the Team Spica protagonists didn’t have much to contribute this season because it’s in the next one where they’ll be fleshed out—or so it seems. (1/3) Logic: These are races featuring horse girls; the best one isn’t going to win every time while her opponents give it their all, so within its context, I consider this anime logical and coherent. (10/10) Entertainment (Personal): I enjoyed it because I haven’t watched a sports anime in over two years, though it could also be that the premise itself makes this series entertaining to watch. (7/10) The basics of an anime: -Animation: The animation quality drops noticeably in the final episodes. (1/2) -Music: I’m aware that many consider this the weakest music in the entire franchise when it comes to the anime, but to my taste, it’s decent for this genre. (2/2) -Tag Development (genres, themes, etc.): Yes, this was definitely “Racing,” because that’s literally what this anime is about, and I love it. (2/2) -Re-watch (Personal): It’s not a must-watch, but for a generic racing anime that’s good and laid-back compared to its other seasons, I could rewatch the occasional episode featuring my favorite character, El Condor Pasa. (1/2) -Ending (SPOILER): Despite being nice, it was what disappointed me the most—not to the point of leaving a bad taste in my mouth, but it did leave me thinking it could have been more original. (1/2) Plot development + personal reflective impact (The objective and subjective aspects of this anime, in my opinion): SPOILER It’s an original story since we haven’t seen this combination of sports and anthropomorphic beings—horses reincarnated from another world—before. It might sound a bit crazy, but it works well as the main reason many people watch this series in the first place: the horse girls. Apparently, this first season features Special Week, who has just moved to the city because her goal is to become the best horse girl in Japan. And then important things happen, such as Special Week—whom I prefer to call Spe—being recruited by Team Spica, where there are also high-level horse girls. This isn’t due to a strict doctrine on the part of the coach, but rather because he, in addition to not imposing racing strategies on them, encourages the girls on this team to have fun through healthy competition. Then Spe becomes friends with another of the anime’s protagonists: Silence Suzuka, whom I’ll just call Suzuka. And it’s thanks to this friendship that the reason behind Spe’s dream of being the best in Japan is revealed: she does it for her two mothers—her deceased biological mother and her adoptive mother, who raised and trained her since she was a child. As I suppose is typical of sports anime—since, counting this one, I’ve only watched a couple—I assume it’s nothing new for the genre that the protagonist also loses races, which I see as necessary since these are small turning points that I consider essential for the protagonist’s development. After several more episodes where Spe manages to overcome her rivals in their rematch through sheer effort, the story shifts its focus to Team Spica’s rival: Team Rigil. This team features interesting horse girls, such as Symboli Rudolf, the student council president; Grass Wonder, one of the best because she exudes an aura during races that makes her unstoppable, though she’s currently recovering from an injury; El Condor Pasa, currently Team Rigil’s best horse girl; and others who excel in different types of races. The only ironic thing I don’t like about this first season is that we learn more about the potential of the other horse girls when we see them race for real, while we only see the Team Spica girls racing in training. It’s revealed that Suzuka will compete in the Grand Prix once she wins her next few races, but this doesn’t happen because she gets injured in the middle of a race—which is sad, since this is how the story has chosen to focus on this protagonist. Still, Spe is by her side supporting her, and they promise each other that one day they’ll both race together in the same race. What I didn’t expect, though, is that this would end up being detrimental to Spe, who was dedicating her time and her races to Suzuka instead of to herself, as she should have been. That’s why, after about nine months, when Suzuka finishes her rehab and returns to training with her friends, the coach gathers them and takes them to a special training session at the beach—one that won’t be a one-day affair, since they’ll be staying overnight at a hotel. What the coach is aiming for is to foster competition within his own team to motivate them to pursue their goals, so he organizes a triathlon with a prize. Everyone runs, but Suzuka and Spe fall behind; then, at one point, Suzuka trips and falls to the ground. Spe was about to help her, but the coach stops her with words, convincing her that the best way to help her friend is by being her rival. He also tells Suzuka that she should stop being afraid of getting injured again, which encourages both girls and helps them regain their form. Plus, thanks to this experience, Team Spica becomes closer. Then more things happen, such as El Condor Pasa, Japan’s best, losing a race abroad against Broye, Europe’s best. As a result, Spe and El Condor Pasa become closer friends than before, since the defeated El Condor Pasa reached out to Spe over the phone to tell her how she felt after that loss, which later motivates Spe to train harder. Then there are more races where Spe and Suzuka manage to win their respective races, which is a relief for Team Spica. And the day of an important race arrives, where Spe and Broye, among others, will compete. Everyone goes to watch the race, including Spe’s adoptive mother, but Spe gains an early lead over Broye—only widening it further after hearing words of encouragement from her friend Suzuka in the crowd. There’s a celebration on stage, and the coach has a moment of realization: Spe’s ability to carry dreams is what gives her strength. And that would be a good ending, but there’s still an extra episode, featuring a race among the most outstanding horse girls—including all of Team Spica. During the race, the coach didn’t want to see anyone from his team lose, because to him, each of them has her own value. Luckily for him, his wish came true, as all the horse girls in that race finished in a tie. All of this ends with the horse girls putting on a show on stage while the coach seeks to recruit another horse girl from the audience, who is moved and admiring the horse girls of Team Spica. End of what is supposedly the weakest season of the Uma Musume anime franchise. (15/20) Comments: It may not be the highest-rated season of the franchise, but at least it managed to meet the expectations I had before I started watching it. Plus, it’s been a while since I’ve watched the “Sports” or “CGDCT” genres—and even though this anime isn’t labeled as such, I consider it close to those genres. Plus, I needed to watch a fun anime with that Spokon vibe during this spring anime season, where I’m watching a lot of anime from different genres and needed something that wasn’t romance, seinen, or overly complex plots. My favorite horse girls this season are Daiwa Scarlet and El Condor Pasa; I just wanted to write that down so I’d remember it when I start the second season in the hopefully near future. Final score: 8.5. (Note: Since I’m very lenient with anime, my minimum score for everything right now is 4.)

Umamusume is a series that one of my best friends introduced me into after being hounded to play it and watch the anime and watch the movie I caved and I watched the movie and I loved it, I played the game and I love and now that I watched the first season of it? I love it even more, every Uma is adorable and I had a good laughs here and there and I love watching every single moment the anime shows me and I had a huge fun time watching this. I’m a fan and I love it. The beauty of being with friends and enjoying your time with each other, competing with each other and being rivals, this is a sports anime in horse girl form and I’m all for it! One of my favorite animes I watched from a beat friend’s recommendation and I will always thank them for it. It’s beautiful