Uma Musume: Pretty Derby

"Uma Musume: Pretty Derby" the anime is like one big smorgasbord where the skilled chef forcefully insists you try each of the +30 dishes on the table; each dish is tasty, but you have no time to savor any of it. It's mostly a "sports" anime, but the show also wants it to be equally an idol, school, and slice of life. Each part of the anime is really fun for the short time each segment is given, but the show gets a case of ADHD trying to balance showing horse racing, training montages, idol concerts, school conversations, and family dialog all at once. Not only does it not focus in on a genre, it also has over 30 horse girl characters it tries to get you to care about, even though some only get 1-5 lines in the entire show. The music is mostly the typical upbeat and catchy idol music. The opening song "Make Debut" is a great tone-setter for the entire show and the animation does a good job of trying to explain all of the main horse girl's characteristics in the short time it has. The animation and art direction is pretty good and the effects they use in each races' key moments are impactful. There is a hearty sprinkling of humor to help break up some of the more intense scenes. The biggest issue with the show is who the show writers decided to become the main characters. The main horse girl characters the show primarily focus on is Special Week and Silence Suzuka, which are the most bland and uninteresting out of all of the horse girls. Special Week's only distinct character traits is that she likes to eat a lot of food and has trouble adjusting to city life due to growing up in the country. Silence Suzuka's only distinct character traits is that she is the serious, soft-spoken character. Oguri Cap literally does all of these character traits better and in a more humorous way, but is barely in this show. In any other show, screen time would instead be given to the characters that exude the most personality. Meanwhile this show almost completely ignores the best personality, Haru Urara, who is the biggest fan favorite in both the show and the actual horse in real life. The show only gave her 5 lines of dialog. 5. The show also could've just been entirely about Gold Ship's antics and it would've been a 10 out of 10. Instead the show went for the "safe" characters to get all of the screen time. If you played the game of the same name and want to see you favorite character (even if it's only for 5 lines of dialog) animated on screen, this is the show for you. If you want this to be your first exposure to the Uma Musume as a franchise, you really should just play the game first instead.

(Note I am using my Rubric, consisting of 5 categories that has 2 points each: 1= Fun & Artistic, 2 = Recommendation Confidence, 3 = Narrative Consistency, 4 = Emotional Moments, 5 = Personal Bias) def fun and artistically unique 2/2 It takes the premise of Horse Racing and adds a Cute Girls doing Things flair to it with Horse Girls racing instead. Plus the show itself was quite enjoyable, I found myself constantly cheering for the characters in their races and got myself emotionally invested with Suzuka too. narrative consistency is perfectly solid, the 2 problems i had was why is suzuka in spica and the rigal v spica disparity. But it doesnt bother me since the plot services really well despite it. That's a 2/2 too Narrative Consistency can be simplified to starting any episode and being able to ask "What are we doing? Why are we doing it? When is this? Where are we? and How did this happen?", with a narratively consistent show being able to answer all of the above with a reasonable accuracy if not full clarity. At no point in the show did it felt like things were dragging, they made motivations clear, goal posts clear and wasted no time in moving the plot along whilst giving ample room for all the characters to breathe and shape up. I personally never felt lost and could trust the show to answer most questions satisfyingly whilst I enjoy the races themselves. Plus lots of fun subversion moments as well, and of course how the characters grow as a result of defeat and how Make or Break works. Emotional Moments. There was definitely One. <SPOILERS> was the pull that sold me from 2x and 1.5x down to 1x speed. But besides that not much, i doubt ill remember any other moment after a while except Suzuka here 1/2 Emotional moments can be defined as any scene in the show that leaves a strong impression on you such that you will remember it long after the show is over. Like 2 years later if this show was mentioned, I'd still recall that scene of Suzuka there and the intense emotions it inspired in me. Those emotions can be Joy, Sadness, Anger or merely Thought Provoking Silence. Point is it leaves a strong impression. 1/2 since there is only 1 moment, I expect more. A good example is 3gatsu no Lion, its pack full of Emotional moments that make me remember it long after it ended. It caters to my personal bias of drawing inspiration from history. but ofcourse no deep idealogue or magic systems here (if they used physics terms like horsepower and what not maybe. They did it once with the stream-way thing where if u tail a horse u can block air resistance. they also did the shallow step technique for uphill running, but besides those 2 there is a lot that could be done. 1/2 Personal biases for me mean when a show has 1 = Historical inspiration, 2 = Interesting Magic/Power System, 3 = Deep Idealogue. No fancy powers here and no deep philosophy either, which is fine. But the fact that the races adapted in the show actually happened IRL is a strong inspiration from History which is a big plus for me, hence 1/2 Would I recommend this to everyone? Idk, its definitely the category of cute girls doing things without much more to it. Since its subjective on someone liking it as a hit or miss, id give it a "I'll happily recommend it but ik its not for everyone" hence 1/2. The premise of the show makes it hard to sell to an outsider, its definitely the cute girls doing things flair but telling someone its a show about horse racing doesnt begin to describe the emotional investment of seeing these Horse Girls competing in a sport unique to theirs. The fact how life threatening injuries are (quite literally) makes it all the more intense and how quickly no stars can be borne. That said, while I personally enjoyed, I can see why it may not be for everyone. Hence a 1/2 here as a niche recommendation. That brings us to 7/10 leaning 7.5 since they sorta did do the magic system/physics system slightly, but i feel they could do more. at 7/10 its in the same league as Jujutsu Kaisen and Cyberpunk Edgerunners for me

I wanted to watch Uma Musume because I wanted to see the characters’ personalities. After all, the mobile game this is based on is pretty popular…but not translated to English. I actually wouldn’t recommend watching this anime for that reason on the grounds that anything that can influence you into playing a gacha game (and therefore risk you sinking money into it) can be very dangerous. But even if that’s not a concern, the anime actually focuses on one girl — Special Week — instead of providing wide view of the characters. Despite not really getting what I wanted out of the anime, I ironically ended up liking this approach more. It makes Uma Musume feel like an actual anime that could’ve been conceived without the mobile game. Plus, I think the Special Week was a good main character! She’s very endearing despite being awkward, which works well. Silence Suzuka ends up as the second main character, and her aloof personality eventually makes way for a character you root for. Ironically, the characters in their rival group end up with more personality than the members of their own group. Despite their limited time on-screen, most of the other horse girls didn’t feel shallow. I actually liked how much the Trainer actually cared for his team…even though his introduction was deeply regrettable. This anime suffers from corny writing and tropes, especially around the beginning. For every joke or gag that lands, there’s at least one that doesn’t. But I would rather have that than pervert jokes, which thankfully aren’t present in the anime at all…besides the three or so times the Trainer does the leg thing. The dialogue can also get repetitive at times, but thankfully repetitive jokes only rear their head a lot in the beginning. It’s unfortunate that those things are the first impression you get of the anime because it actually starts to become more sober after a handful of episodes. The early races did good setup, but later races start to have actual stakes. The races themselves aren’t anything special. They really only focus on two girls and upsets only ever happen because one girl could run faster. Yet despite that, the races can still be heart pumping thanks to the buildup and potential payoff thanks to clear motives for each girl. It feels like the anime is written to be inspirational and I think it works (even when it’s only felt empathetically). It can definitely get emotional — especially in the second half — and I’ll admit I teared up a few times. And when the anime isn’t pulling at the heart strings, it just has pleasant, fun vibes all around. For example, everyone is surprisingly sportsmanlike. Uma Musume may start off feeling worryingly inane and hollow, but grows to be surprisingly sincere…especially for an anime about girls doing horse racing…based off of a gacha game. I can’t guarantee that it’ll have the same impact for everyone, but I would describe it as a pleasant surprise.