Umayon 2: An Anime Short Reflection and Remarks on Upcoming Uma Musume Pretty Derby Projects

“Be wary of the horse with a sense of humour.” –Pam Brown

Everyday life at Tracen Academy continues at a leisurely pace for the Horse Girls, who participate in everything from enjoying sweets and experimenting with new techniques for winning races, to telling scary stories and changing up their appearances through fashion. Umayon 2 is a continuation of the series of shorts that accompany Uma Musume Pretty Derby, and similarly to its predecessor, consists of unrelated vignettes that bring to life the nonsensical, but adorable moments that act as highlights to some of Tracen’s Horse Girls lives outside of their competitions. Although shorter than its predecessor (Umayon 2‘s episodes have about a minute of content, versus the three minutes in Umayon episodes), these short episodes still remain quite entertaining and remind viewers that there is much that can be done with Uma Musume Pretty Derby. Animation studios are evidently thinking along similar lines – announcements for a new OVA, Road to the Top! and a third season, were made recently, and this has generated considerable excitement amongst fans of Uma Musume Pretty Derby: the series’ main stories have been generally met with positive reception, and the Uma Musume Pretty Derby universe has been unexpectedly well-presented, combining the large cast of the mobile game and its mechanics with a meaningful story that gives viewers incentive to root for the series’ respective protagonists. The first season saw Special Week rising to the occasion on her quest to become the best in Japan, while the second season portrayed Tokai Teio and Mejiro McQueen’s struggles with injuries, as well as their unwavering determination to be their best for the other’s sake. According to the Uma Musume Pretty Derby website, the third season will follow Kitasan Black and Satono Diamond, and is slated for a release later this year. If previous seasons are a precedence, then it is expected that this third season will be quite compelling to watch, as well.

Although Uma Musume Pretty Derby appears to be little more than a glorified track-and-field sports anime at first glance, closer inspection finds a series that brings the roster management elements in the mobile game into an animated format that focuses on specific characters to give viewers more insight about members of the cast that the game itself cannot convey. To this end, elements unique to the world in Uma Musume Pretty Derby are depicted with a high level of detail. The Horse Girls are treated with respect and have access to top-of-the-line facilities for training, and their competitions draw a considerable amount of interest. The world itself is lived-in, giving a sense of energy and enthusiasm for the Horse Girls and their race events. However, beyond this, every individual Horse Girl is shown as having their own stories and motivations for being their best. Beyond merely being an animated incarnation of their game forms, the Horse Girls have unique struggles, friendships and reasons for wanting to be at the top of their game on the track. Setbacks only spur them to fight harder, but encouragements from both friends and rivals also drive individual Horse Girls to push their limits further still, resulting in a surprisingly gripping and emotionally-rivetting experience. In short, Uma Musume Pretty Derby is successful because the anime is able to simultaneously give viewers reason to root for a season’s protagonists while at the same time, showing the world of Uma Musume Pretty Derby as one that’s been thoughtfully laid out. Uma Musume Pretty Derby‘s first season had been enjoyable, but the BNW’s Oath OVAs and second season definitively demonstrated that the Horse Girls’ stories could have a considerable weight behind them, as well, and with the sheer number of characters in this world, the potential for exploring this universe, and the Horse Girls’ stories further, remains limitless.

Screenshots and Commentary

• Traditionally, discussions of chibi spin-offs are difficult to write for, since these are meant purely for comedy rather than advancing the stories. However, the short format and lack of an overarching story hasn’t taken away from my enjoyment of these spin-offs: it is always fun to see the characters bouncing off one another in an environment removed from the gravity that accompanies a full-length anime series.

• In Uma Musume Pretty Derby‘s second season, Tokai Teio and Mejiro McQueen had both been put through an emotional grinder – Tokai Teio’s numerous injuries had prevented her from racing at her best, and although Mejiro McQueen had dominated their races, she herself would suffer from a condition that limits her days as a racer. I had admittedly been a little skeptical about shifting the focus over to Tokai Teio and Mejiro McQueen from the first season’s Special Week and Silence Suzuka, but the end result had proven to be solid.

• Seeing the format in Uma Musume Pretty Derby would actually lead me to draw a new conclusion about series like Strike Witches and Girls und Panzer: in Uma Musume Pretty Derby, after a satisfactory story has been told about a group of characters, in any story where world-building is solid, it is possible to change the focus over to different characters and explore things for other characters. This approach allows an anime to continuously build upon the world while at the same time, ensuring that every season is a self-contained unit that does not leave viewers hanging.

• In Girls und Panzer, for example, once Miho and Ooarai had won their championship, from a narrative and thematic standpoint, Miho had completed her journey of growth (or at least, almost, but this will be a discussion for another time), so there is technically no need to revisit Ooarai in future runs. Since Girls und Panzer shows the presence of numerous other schools, the story could show Panzerfahren from a different school’s perspective, and in turn, present different challenges and experiences.

• Uma Musume Pretty Derby has done precisely this, and this leaves viewers with self-contained stories in every season that are not dependent on a priori knowledge. This allows people to watch Uma Musume Pretty Derby in any order of their choosing and also lowers the barrier of entry to the series: if one entered Uma Musume Pretty Derby through the second season and Tokai Teio’s struggles, for instance, they are not dependent on having seen the first season and Special Week’s aspirations to follow along.

• Although Uma Musume Pretty Derby might be an anime adaptation of a game, the series has found its footing and tells compelling stories that connect viewers to the characters. In this arena, Uma Musume Pretty Derby succeeds in doing what Kantai Collection could not: the anime has piqued my interest in the mobile game. Despite its popularity, Uma Musume Pretty Derby remains unavailable to overseas players and has not been internationalised, which is a shame because the game actually looks fun to play.

• Umayon 2‘s episodes are shorter than those of its predecessors, and as such, there’s only enough time to build up for one joke per episode. In spite of this, Umayon 2 still manages to be funny in its own right, counting on non sequitur humour to drive things. The chibi designs are adorable, and I am reminded of both Kaginado and Strike Witches: Joint Fighter Wing Take Off!, which had similarly adopted a distinct art style to convey the sort of light-heartedness their original series did not.

• Because of the very large cast, Umayon 2 does viewers the courtesy of naming all of the characters that appear so one can immediately get a refresher on who’s who. Traditionally, in any series with a large number of characters, I don’t make any effort at learning the names of anyone outside of the core group. In Uma Musume Pretty Derby, I only learnt the names of Special Week, Silence Suzuka, Tokai Teioi, Mejiro McQueen, Gold Ship, Daiwa Scarlet and Vodka so I could discuss Team Spica. As the need arises, I’ll look up the other characters and subsequently try to associate names with faces.

• Besides its first episode, all of Umayon 2‘s episodes released all at once in December 2021. According to blog archives, I began watching Uma Musume Pretty Derby four months earlier, then became exceptionally busy ahead of preparing for the move. By the time I sat down for BNW’s Oath, it had already been six months later, and I would reach the second season a month after settling in. During last July, I wrote about Umayon, and here in the present, I’ve finally wrapped up Umayon 2.

• My timing couldn’t be better because a few days ago, one of my long-time readers had informed me of the fact that Road to the Top! and third season would come out this year. The former is scheduled for release on April 16, and while there’s no known date for the third season, the official website for Uma Musume Pretty Derby has indicated that this will release somewhere this year. Uma Musume Pretty Derby is one of the anime series I took up on recommendation from a reader, and I’ve found that nine of ten times, any recommendation that I do decide to pick up ends up being something I will come to enjoy.

• It is only in a place like Umayon 2 where unorthodox training techniques like these can be utilised: Haru Urara is shown to be experimenting with a plan for improving her racing by attaching a popsicle treat to Silence Suzuka and then keeping pace in hopes of winning the prize. In Uma Musume Pretty Derby, Haru Urara is a poor performing who never wins any races but is allowed to remain at Tracen Academy owing to her cheerful presence. The real Haru Urara similarly saw zero wins throughout her races, but remained popular enough so that she made enough income to continue racing, and after retirement, continues to live her days out peacefully in Chiba.

• One of the major appeals about Uma Musume Pretty Derby is the fact that every Horse Girl in the show is modelled after their real-life counterparts in some way, similarly to how Kantai Collection‘s Kan-musume. Small details like these allow Uma Musume Pretty Derby to give each of the characters depth, and when these elements are bought together into a story, there’s an opportunity to tell something especially meaningful. Prior to Uma Musume Pretty Derby, I’d never been interested in horse racing – generally speaking, people aren’t anywhere nearly as interested in the sport itself as they are in the gambling aspects.

• Conversely, Uma Musume Pretty Derby focuses purely on the thrill of the race itself, and why the different Horse Girls push themselves further every time they step out onto the track. By eliminating the gambling aspect outright and choosing to highlight the mental fortitude behind each race, Uma Musume Pretty Derby shows the positive aspects of horse racing that is far removed from the negative connotations surrounding the sport. I remember a lesson I picked up as a student – a talented instructor will be able to make even the most reluctant student appreciate the worth of a given subject.

• Although Tokai Teio’s plight in Uma Musume Pretty Derby‘s second season brought me to the verge of tears on more than one occasion, Umayon 2 has her restlessly bouncing on the couch in the student council office as she tries to persuade Symboli Rudolf to race her. Anime tantrums are somehow always so adorable to behold – Japan has managed to find ways of making cute even things that wouldn’t otherwise be seen a such, and what would normally be considered a nuisance in reality somehow evokes the same feeling one might get when cuddling with a stuffed animal.

• In the end, Symboli Rudolf decides that Tokai Teio can race her if she meets a challenge: “out-eat Oguri Cap”. This was ultimately a ruse to get Tokai Teio out of her hair, and the latter ends up being destroyed in a challenge. Vignettes like these might not give any more insight into the characters of Uma Musume Pretty Derby, but for fans of the series, they remain highly entertaining. At the opposite end of the spectrum, Umayon is not for folks who’ve never seen Uma Musume Pretty Derby previously – the spin-offs are dependent on some prior knowledge of the characters, their traits and place in the Uma Musume Pretty Derby universe.

• Admittedly, I don’t pick up on all of the jokes in Umayon, and the vignette where Agnes Tachoyon and Manhattan Café discuss fashion was a little out of my depth – things end with Vodka bringing out some chains and suggested Agnes Tachoyon would look better with chains. While I may not fully understand all of the comedy in Umayon, I find that for the most part, Umayon 2 is more enjoyable than incomprehensible.

• Besides Umayon, there’s also a series of shorts called Umayuru. Similarly to Umayon, Umayuru presents the world of Uma Musume Pretty Derby from a light-hearted and comedic perspective. At this point in time, I’m not too sure if there’s merit in writing about Umayuru – I do have plans to watch it, but since the premise is quite similar to Umayon, I’m not too sure if there’s any merits in writing about things.

• I do, however, have plans to write about Road to the Top! and the third season. With this, my final post of February is complete, and looking ahead into March, the biggest posts I have lined up will be for Girls und Panzer – since October, Girls und Panzer have been celebrating their tenth anniversary, and while the promotional teams have counted the tenth anniversary from the series’ original airing point, whenever I think about Girls und Panzer, I think about March 2013. To commemorate this milestone and share some of my thoughts on what is now a decade-old series, I’ve got some posts planned out.

• Beyond this, things have also settled down enough for me to begin watching The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House. Assuming my current rate of progression, I expect to finish the series and share my thoughts on this series mid-month. March also will see Mō Ippon! conclude alongside Itsuka Ano Umi de (whose final episode was delayed all the way to March 25, coinciding with the date Girls und Panzer‘s finale aired ten years ago), and as a result of production issues, Bofuri 2 was delayed by two weeks, so I anticipate writing about its finale somewhere in April.

• If there is interest in a discussion on Umayuru, I will write about it at reader’s request. However, I imagine that the next time Uma Musume Pretty Derby graces this blog will be somewhere in late April or early May, after the Road to the Top! OVA becomes available. In the meantime, I’ve been making my way through 2016’s Girlish Number. I appreciate that some readers have been interested in my thoughts on last season’s Do It Yourself, and while that series is on my radar, I’ve also been meaning to go through some of my older series, too.

Uma Musume Pretty Derby‘s success is an instance of how roster management games can translate gracefully into the animated format. Kantai Collection had been a forerunner in this regard, and in the aftermath, animated adaptations of miltary-moé games, like Girls’ Frontline, Arknights and Azur Lane followed. However, these anime are met with mixed responses from viewers: owing to the nature of the games, if a story is told around game-specific mechanics, then it becomes difficult for viewers to follow along. Moreover, the incongruity between the aesthetics and story results in a disconnect; humourous moments can seem out-of-place, and serious moments often appear excessively so, giving viewers the impression that the characters are overthinking things rather than acting with conviction. This is a non-issue in Uma Musume Pretty Derby. Races are emotionally charged and gripping, but off the track, the characters are free to be themselves. Further to this, the spirit to compete and improve is one that is universally appreciated, giving Uma Musume Pretty Derby more opportunity to draw in viewers. Through its successes, Uma Musume Pretty Derby demonstrates that roster management games don’t necessarily need to be military themed or focused on thriller elements. Sincerity and an emotional connection with the characters and their struggles are often more successful. Creating this connection with the characters is why spin-off shorts like Umayon and Umayon 2 are enjoyable for fans of the main series, acting as a means of sustaining anticipation for the upcoming Uma Musume Pretty Derby projects: it is anticipated that both Road to the Top! and the third season will be excellent additions to the Uma Musume Pretty Derby franchise, and I’m rather looking forwards to both watching and writing about them as they become available.

Umayon: An Anime Short Review and Reflection

“I’ve often said there is nothing better for the inside of the man, than the outside of the horse.” –Ronald Reagan

When Tracen Academy’s Horse Girls are not training for races, they’re found participating in make-up exams, shooting promotional videos for their school, put on Shakespearean plays, challenge one another to eating competitions and even act as Super Sentai to protect their neighbourhood from nefarious elements – Umayon is a series of shorts featuring Uma Musume Pretty Derby‘s most iconic Horse Girls as they navigate through life in an adorable and amusing manner. With each episode being a mere three minutes long, Umayon provides an insight into the world of Horse Girls and suggests that outside of the emotional intensity and focus that goes into each race, the Horse Girls themselves also exude a spirit of fun and can work as hard as they play. Umayon thus joins the ranks of Azur Lane: Slow Ahead and World Witches: Take Off in providing gentle, light-hearted humour, allowing characters to be invovled in outrageous moments that further accentuate everyone’s traits. Such series are, by definition, intended for fans of the series: they require prior understanding of the world and its characters, so for folks looking to get into Uma Musume Pretty Derby, Umayon is not the optimal route for doing so. Conversely, for viewers who found enjoyment in the original series, Umayon represents a hilarious series that pokes fun at some of the elements in the TV series and also gives the writers a chance to parody other series using elements that are unique to Horse Girls. While oftentimes considered as being frivilous, animated shorts like Umayon are superbly enjoyable because they give writers a chance to explore things that would otherwise not work in a standard series – having BNW go hunting for Rhinoceros Beetles amidst a training camp, surprise one another during the traditional test of courage or, most impressive of all, rig a race with strange parameters that allows Gold Ship to trivially win, would never fly in the original Uma Musume Pretty Derby. However, such antics work well as a series of shorts, offering a gentle parody of some of Uma Musume Pretty Derby‘s more outrageous elements.

Compared to most fans of Uma Musume Pretty Derby, I am a relative newcomer, having picked up and watched the series only last August. As it turns out, horse racing is a popular sport in Japan, and over twenty thousand races are hosted throughout the country on an annual basis. Here in my hometown, horse racing is a newer event: there are a few equestrian tracks around the city, but the first major one is located north of the city and only opened in 2021. Conversely, rodeo is immensely popular here; Calgary hosts the Calgary Stampede, one of the world’s largest rodeo events and possessing history dating back to 1886. Unlike horse racing, rodeo events are rowdier and built around activities that ranchers would have cultivated as a part of their work. Despite the dramatic differences between racing and rodeo, however, both events share some commonalities. Aside from obvious similarities, such as how horses are a key part of both, and that gambling drives much of the interest, the crowds for horse racing and rodeo exude a similar energy, even if the manner in which said energy is conveyed is different. Having lived in Calgary since time immemorial, seeing the spirits around the city and Stampede events being reflected in Uma Musume Pretty Derby is a show of the series’ commitment to convey the atmospherics surrounding horse-driven events. The crowds in Uma Musume Pretty Derby rival those of the Calgary Stampede’s rodeo in both exuberance and vigour. Small details like these are sufficient in creating a convincing, compelling world for Uma Musume Pretty Derby, and while the regular anime excels in conveying the tenour in and around races, being able to see the Horse Girls off the field in a series of shorts greatly enhances one’s appreciation for the characters.

Screenshots and Commentary

• It goes without saying that Umayon is a series purely for fans of Uma Musume Pretty Derby: the shorts demand requisite knowledge of how Horse Girls race, and there are small jokes here and there that are dependent on knowing other aspects of the show. With this background, the jokes connect; the first episode deals with Special Week, El Condor Pasa and Grass Wonder square off in the classroom as they are made to do a re-test after botching their exams.

• Here, the joke is that on an exam, speed is irrelevant, and score is what counts; while Special Week is first to finish, she fares the worst of everyone. Good humour is subjective, but having read about how comedy works, from folks who’ve nontrivial experience in the field, I’ve seen commonalities. All good comedy is derived off subversion of expectations; there isn’t anything about this approach that demands a specific cultural or social background, and this is why the best comedians are able to succeed anywhere in the world.

• For instance, Steven Chow’s films are almost universally funny simply because he’s able to create incongruity in actions and their consequences, while Bill Watterson uses time and space (in a medium like newspaper comics, no less) to allow viewers time to process the mismatch between a scenario and its context. Neither Chow or Watterson’s works depend heavily on complex self-referential humour or demand familiarity with a culture to appreciate; the bulk of the comedy is almost always universal, and then subtle references to meta-humour or jokes requiring cultural knowledge are more subtle, enhancing a moment.

• How well a work utilises this two-tiered approach is what determines how well it fares outside of its intended audience. If a work is able to appeal to a general audience, and then possesses nuances that enhance the experience for those who’ve got a background in it, it is likely to receive wider acclaim. A work that appeals to a general audience, but lacking in depth will be considered average, while works that appeal to niche audiences will similarly be poorly received unless one was familiar with its topic. Girls und Panzer and Yuru Camp△ are examples of works that is general enough to attract viewers, but then explores their chosen topics with enough depth to impress people with a deeper knowledge of the topic.

• Uma Musume Pretty Derby tends towards being more accessible, but small hints of the characters’ real-world namesakes and lovable characters, coupled with a fully-fledged exploration of the universe means that the series is able to be very successful. We recall that I did not start watching Uma Musume Pretty Derby until last August, but upon finishing the first season, I found myself impressed, and this is even though I’m not any experience in watching horse racing as a sport, or in playing the mobile game itself. This speaks to how well-presented Uma Musume Pretty Derby is.

• This post on Umayon marks the first time I’ve written about Uma Musume Pretty Derby while the Calgary Stampede was running; although horse racing and the rodeo are drastically different, watching Uma Musume Pretty Derby and seeing the Tokyo Racecourse’s grandstand reminded me of home. While Tokyo Racecourse has an impressive capacity of 223000, here in Calgary, the GMC Stadium’s grandstand has a total seating capacity of 17000, compared to Tokyo Racecourse’s 13750. Moreover, our grandstand has a fully enclosed suite in its upper levels for private functions and events, speaking to differences in their functionality.

• Umayon actually dedicates two full episodes to the Horse Girls’ food misadventures. Here, Special Week squares off against Oguri Cap and Taiki Shuttle in an eating contest, with the goal of demolishing a massive bowl of ramen in the least amount of time possible. In the end, Special Week and Oguri Cap draw for first, while Taiki Shuttle brings up the rear. The commentators speak to things like strategy, bringing to mind the likes of Adam Richman in Man v. Food. While I’ve never done a food challenge before, my general approach for eating larger foods is to always crack down on the vegetables first, as they tend to cool the quickest. Then I move onto the meats and wrap up with starches.

• This past weekend saw me enjoy lunches that were quite different than my usual routine: yesterday, I picked up a fish and chips lunch (pollock and potato wedges, which was especially tasty) from the local grocery store’s ready-to-eat value meals section as a quick meal prior to a dental appointment that had unexpectedly been moved up three hours. The dental office had managed to reach me at the last second on Friday, and I was more than willing to take an appointment three hours earlier than my original slot. The weather on Saturday had been standout, and after my appointment concluded, I took a walk around the downtown core under a brilliant afternoon sun, passing by my old office building and a pleasantly busy Steven Avenue Mall before heading back to pick up a few things and return home.

• Today, I spent the morning doing a slower leg-and-core day at the gym before stepping out to relax at the bookstore and then enjoy a grilled chicken and spring roll vermicelli (topped with a shrimp roll) from the Vietnamese restaurant across from my place. I was especially impressed with how flavourful the grilled chicken was, and the spring rolls themselves were packed with meats. Vermicelli has become a favourite of mine because of how well the flavours mingle, and how varied the textures are; overall, I’m pleased to know that I’m within walking distance of a fantastic Vietnamese and Japanese restaurant.

• Back in Umayon, Mejiro McQueen visits a casual noodle shop with Ines Fujin, Fine Motion, and King Halo. While Mejiro McQueen and King Halo are unfamiliar with more casual establishments, Ines Fujin walks everyone through the etiquette of ordering and eating at these places. King Halo mistakenly orders a mega-sized version of the ramen and struggles to finish it, resulting in much comedy, and in the end, although King Halo is barely able to walk after a titanic meal, she and Mejiro McQueen are thankful to have accompanied Ines Fujin on such an outing. Of course, Ines Fujin is already planning out their next trip.

• The vignettes in Umayon are completely unrelated, and there’s no overarching story, but this flexibility allows the series of shorts to go on whatever direction the writers choose. I vividly recall watching Biwa Hayahide, Narita Taishin and Winning Ticket overcome their own internal struggles to face one another again on the racetrack, but here, the three end up getting caught up in a hunt for beetles. It’s a hilarious change of pace, made more amusing after Winning Ticket kicks a tree to dislodge the beetles, only to end up breaking open a hornet’s nest. The three only escape by jumping into the ocean.

• In another episode, several of the Horse Girls are presented as being super sentai, and while they attempt to throw down with their sworn enemies, Silence Suzuka ends up being disillusioned after spotting how unfair their unit fights. While the Horse Girls are generally true to their personalities from Uma Musume Pretty Derby, Umayon capitalises on its comedic setup to mix things up; Silence Suzuka was stoic and reserved in Uma Musume Pretty Derby as Special Week’s role model, but  here in Umayon, she’s much more expressive.

• One thing I’ve always wondered is how race horses get their names, and while it is usually the case horses are named based on their lineage, so long as owners pick names that fall within certain criteria (they cannot be named after people without express permissions from said individuals or their families, be anything offensive, be named after racetracks or named after winning horses, to name a few), owners can actually be creative in their naming. During the Stampede’s rodeo event, I saw horses with names as creative as those from Japan (Special Delivery, Borderline Untimely and Born Fearless were some of the horses in events like Bareback and Saddle Bronc).

• I would therefore imagine that in Japan, horse names can use both fully Western names (like Grass Wonder, Gold Ship and Special Week), or combination of Japanese and English naming (Mejiro McQueen and Silence Suzuka). Here, Daiwa Scarlet and Vodka go at it again; this aspect of Umayon is true to the rivalry seen in Uma Musume Pretty Derby, and it is easy to see the pair spar over something as trivial as a test of courage. Matikanefukukitaru, another horse girl who has a fondness for all things supernatural, tries to spur the two on, and while the pair enter the test intent on proving the other wrong, scares from Haru Urara, Manhattan Café and Gold Ship send them packing.

• What’s truly scary is the fact that the real Matikanefukukitaru never accompanied them into the forest. While being scared by their friends would’ve been somewhat terrifying, the thought that they’d actually encountered a ghost causes the pair to faint. Although one might be inclined to believe Matikanefukukitaru was lying, others confirm that she never went into the forest with Daiwa Scarlet and Vodka. It suddenly hits me that I’ve never written about Matikanefukukitaru as a central character in Uma Musume Pretty Derby, and for this, I’m thankful: at thirty-one characters, her name would be a pain in the lower backside to type out.

• The idea of eliciting a confession on a coastal cliff brings to mind the likes of Gochuumon wa Usagi Desu Ka?‘s Phantom Thief Lapin, and this means that both Phantom Thief Lapin and Umayon must be parodying a trope from detective anime or live-action dramas. I’m not especially familiar with this genre, so I have no idea which shows popularised this setup and, on this token, I would be quite open to hearing from readers which series may have been the origin for this setup.

• The finale to Umayon‘s first half was especially fun to watch: with the past eleven episodes focused on various slice-of-life aspects surrounding Horse Girls, it was a fun return-to-form for a series that is known for its racing. This time around, we have Gold Ship and Tokai Teio providing the commentary, while Tamamo Cross, Super Creek and Hishi Amazon running the race itself. Competitions in Umayon appear to be constrained to three individuals at a time, but each and every time, this has worked to the shorts’ favour, allowing characters to really bounce off one another.

• Now that I think about it, I’ve never seen Hishi Amazon, Super Creek or Tamamo Cross in the spotlight in earlier iterations of Uma Musume Pretty Derby: this is a reminder of how many characters there are in Uma Musume Pretty Derby, and theoretically, there isn’t an upper limit of how many seasons production studios could make with Uma Musume Pretty Derby so long as the stories were all compelling and engaging: Uma Musume Pretty Derby‘s second season, for instance, gave Mejiro McQueen just as much focus as it did Tokai Teio, and this helped viewers to see more of Team Spica’s Horse Girls where in the previous season, Special Week was the star of the show.

• The race course Gold Ship’s designed is diabolical and non-regulation in every aspect. It is only in a slice-of-life parody that this concept would work, and suddenly, I find myself wishing that Girls Und Panzer: Motto Love Love Sakusen Desu! would receive a similar adaptation. I’ve always had a fondness for slice-of-life focused presentations of anime that have a significant world-building piece; since these anime focus so much on the activities, they leave less time to show what life in such a world could be like. Here, Tamamo Cross has switched into a kindergarten uniform, while Super Creek’s donned a housewife’s garb. Poor HIshi Amazon is embarrassed and enraged to be wearing a magical girl costume and is seized with a desire to beat up Gold Ship.

• As it turns out, Gold Ship orchestrated the entire race so she could win it. I do not believe I’ve ever seen Gold Ship win before in Uma Musume Pretty Derby, and while Umayon isn’t likely to be official, it was still fun to see Gold Ship go through all this extraneous effort to score a win where typically, old-fashioned training would be needed. With this post in the books, I’m one step closer to wrapping up all of the animated Uma Musume Pretty Derby content: unless I’m mistaken, Umayon‘s second half is all that I have left. I admit that I am a little surprised to have found myself Uma Musume Pretty Derby to the extent that I did, and that Uma Musume Pretty Derby may have contributed to an increased enjoyment of my first-ever rodeo this year.

Earlier this year, Uma Musume Pretty Derby fans were pleasantly surprised to learn that a third season will be released somewhere in the future and deal with new Horse Girls, such as T.M. Opera O, Admire Vega, Narita Top Road. However, rather than being released in a traditional format, this third season will be streamed. Moreover, Umayuru was also announced and has a known release date: it will begin airing in Autumn 2022. The fact that Uma Musume Pretty Derby has enjoyed sufficient success as to receive a third season and new series of shorts speaks to the series’ successes – sales of the anime have been uncommonly strong and have even edged out highly successful series, while the mobile game is widely played and quite accessible. Unlike Kantai Collection, which was dependent on Flash Player and required players register through an unwieldly lottery system, Japanese users can simply log into the App Store or Play Store, download the game and find themselves, quite literally, off to the races. With a compelling world, lovable characters and an accessible presentation of horse racing, it is easy to see how Uma Musume Pretty Derby has found success where other series based on games had not; it is rare for anime based on games to be successful because game mechanics do not necessarily translate elegantly into a story. However, Uma Musume Pretty Derby succeeds because it is able to bring out the emotional tenour surrounding each Horse Girls as they strive to be the best racer possible. From Special Week’s desire to become the best and win for her mothers, to Tokai Teio’s admirable efforts in overcoming numerous injuries so she can race alongside Mejiro McQueen, Uma Musume Pretty Derby has, insofar, given viewers plenty to root for and enjoy. A third season will, regardless of its format, be no different, and this would be quite exciting. Until then, viewers do have Umayuru to look forward to, and having seen Umayon, more daily tomfoolery from the Horse Girls is always welcome.

Uma Musume Pretty Derby Second Season: Whole-Series Review and Reflection

“If you fall behind, run faster. Never give up, never surrender, and rise up against the odds.” –Jesse Jackson

After seeing Symboli Rudolf take yet another title, a young Tokai Teio is inspired to become the best that she can be and earn a Triple Crown. Years later, Tokai Teio becomes a student at Tracen Academy and has cultivated a reputation for being undefeated. However, when she sustains a minor injury after her latest win, her physician suggests that she not raced until spring arrives. While she isn’t able to recover in time for the Kikka Sho, Tokai Teio nonetheless remains optimistic that she can still retain her old goal of remaining undefeated. She is further inspired by Mejiro McQueen’s recent victory and promises to push herself further, but when the pair end up racing in a long-distance competition, Tokai Teioi becomes injured yet again while Mejiro McQueen takes the win. Although disheartened, Tokai Teio continues putting her best effort in supporting Team Spica, even encouraging a distraught Rice Shower to race in the Spring Tennōshō despite having drawn the crowd’s ire for breaking Mihono Bourbon’s winning streak. With encouragement from Mihono Bourbon and Tokai Teioi, Rice Shower ends up participating in the Spring Tennōshō against Mejiro McQueen and defeats her. This stuns the audience, but McQueen thanks Rice Shower for a good race, rallying the audience. Inspired to beat Rice Shower and avenge Mejiro McQueen, Tokai Teio begins training again, only to suffer from yet another fracture in her leg. Heartbroken, Tokai Teio turns down words of encouragement from a fan and fellow horse girl, Kitasan Black. Meanwhile, Team Canopus’ Twin Turbo is determined to race against Tokai Teio, having been encouraged to do her best, and when Tokai Teio declines her invitation to compete, Twin Turbo is heartbroken, promising to reach a point where Tokai Teio will notice her one day. Later With the news that her odds of returning to peak condition are low, Tokai Teio loses hope and tenders her resignation from Team Spica after watching Mejiro McQueen train. Hoping to send Tokai Teio’s career off properly, Team Spica puts on an appreciation event for her. Seeing the energy in the crowd, and the sheer effort Twin Turbo’s put in to one day meet her on the track, Tokai Teio decides to make one final comeback. During a Halloween celebration, Tokai Teio and Mejiro McQueen make it plain they openly admire and respect one another. They begin to train for their next race, but Mejiro McQueen develops Suspensory Desmitis, a swelling in the limbs. This condition is chronic, and Mejiro McQueen refuses to accept that her career is over. She runs off, but Tokai Teio manages to locate her and promises that they’ll continue to support one another. Tokai Teio thus accepts a chance to participate in the Arima Kinen, a G1-tier race where participants are picked from a popular vote. Although Tokai Teio hasn’t formally competed in over a year and is going up against Biwa Hayahide, who’s never placed lower than second in any race, her feelings allow her to overcome all odds and win for Mejiro McQueen. Some time later, Tokai Teio and Mejiro McQueen train with one another to have the race against one another they’d wished to have.

Uma Musume Pretty Derby‘s second season represents a return to the world that P.A. Works’ 2018 anime had introduced. Here in the second season, Uma Musume Pretty Derby is able to capitalise on established mechanics and a familiar setting to explore characters in a way that the first season had not: by now, Special Week, Tokai Teio, Mejiro McQueen, Gold Ship, Vodka and Daiwa Scarlet have become familiar names, and with the first season seeing Special Week beginning to realise her dreams of being the top horse girl in all of Japan, her story drew to a close, allowing the story to switch its focus over to Tokai Teio, who had been a spirited and energetic horse girl who helped Special Week to learn the basics behind victory concerts in the first season. Beyond Tokai Teio’s cheerful demeanour lies someone who is determined to excel, and entering the second season, Tokai Teio has her sights set on a lofty goal: to follow in the footsteps of Symboli Rudolf and become undefeated. However, after a series of injuries stop her from performing at her best, Tokai Teio begins to lose hope even as Mejiro McQueen pushes herself further so that she may compete with Tokai Teio on an even footing. As Tokai Teio sits out numerous races and watches as her friends and rivals push themselves further, she becomes increasingly downtrodden, even contemplating stepping down. Similarly, when Mejiro McQueen is diagnosed with a serious, long-term injury and told her racing career is at a close, she is heartbroken and refuses to accept this. The portrayal of injury amongst athletes in Uma Musume Pretty Derby is a respectful one in showing the physical and mental impact such incidents may have. Even if an injury heals fully, one’s mind may subconsciously grow concerned and hold one back, while more serious injuries, which threaten one’s very livelihood, can indeed feel like the end of the world. Even professional athletes are not immune to this: after undergoing surgery for a hip injury, Calgary Flames centre Sean Monahan was unable to perform as he previously had. Reassigned to the fourth line where he had previously played along Jonny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk, Monahan was ultimately sidelined for the remainder of this season, and his future with the Flames remains unknown. Reality is harsh, but in anime, writing does allow for a more optimistic (if somewhat implausible) message to be shown: it is ultimately Tokai Teio and Mejiro McQueen opening up to one another and admitting that they’d found inspiration and support in one another, that allow the two to find their footing anew. Thus, after nearly a year of recuperating from her injury, Tokai Teio manages to win the G1 Arima Kinen race for McQueen to show her the extent of her thanks. The second season makes considerably greater use of theatrics to convey a much more dramatic emotional story behind how horse girls handle injury and tough matters related to their careers as racers, differentiating itself from the first season. In captalising on the series’ having already established its premise, Uma Musume Pretty Derby‘s second season is able to delve into a different side of horse racing in their universe to show how adversity appears unexpectedly, but in spite of this, can nonetheless be overcome with spirit and support from those around oneself.

Screenshots and Commentary

• Uma Musume Pretty Derby‘s second season opens with a younger Tokai Teio becoming inspired to enroll at Tracen Academy and follow in the footsteps of Symboli Rudolf. Because Uma Musume Pretty Derby is based off real-world horses and their histories, the dynamic between Tokai Teio and Symboli Rudolf is inspired by the fact that Symboli Rudolf fathered Tokai Teio. While things work a little differently in Uma Musume Pretty Derby, relationships among the horse girls’ real world counterparts are subtly referenced, much as how the kan-musume of Kantai Collection and ship girls of Azur Lane have traits and dynamics mirroring their namesakes.

• To draw parallels between Tokai Teio and Symboli Rudolf, Uma Musume Pretty Derby introduces two new horse girls: Kitasan Black and Satono Diamond. Satono Diamond (left) deeply admires Mejiro McQueen, and Kitasan Black (right) is a Tokai Teio fan. They frequently attend races involving the two, and while two older, male fans attempt to break down and analyse the horse girls, their previous stats and trends, and the current track conditions, Kitasan Black and Satono Diamond frequently override them, feeling spirit and determination is more useful a metric than numbers.

• These moments become quite amusing, since they would suggest that while hard data and qualitative metrics can be indicative of trends in the long run, anything goes in the heat of a competition. This is why in something like the NHL, it is possible for a team higher in the standings to be blown out of the water by a team that isn’t even in the playoffs depending on the game. Indeed, it was nice to see Kitasan Black and Satono Diamond supporting their favourite racers right alongside the crowds, and Uma Musume Pretty Derby‘s second season opens with Tokai Teio on a very strong footing.

• Having already seen Special Week rise in the ranks to fulfil a longstanding promise in the first season, watching Tokai Teio smash all competition to achieve her dreams would be a retreading of a familiar experience. As such, Uma Musume Pretty Derby‘s second season deals with the trickier topic of injury. The first season had touched upon this, seeing Silence Suzuka take a fracture whilst racing, and concern for her well-being had led Special Week’s own training to suffer. Uma Musume Pretty Derby‘s second season can be seen as being the equivalent of seeing Special Week being an experienced racer who must deal with the aftermath of being diagnosed with a string of injuries that threaten her future.

• What I had particularly liked about Tokai Teio was Machiko Saitō’s performance: while I’m only familiar with her role as Serina Nishiyam from Sansha Sanyō, Saitō’s delivering of Tokai Teio’s dialogue brought to mind the likes of Miku Itō (The Aquatope on White Sand‘s Kukuru Misakino and Locodol‘s Nanako Isami). Although doing her best to maintain a cheerful and optimistic manner, one of the aspects Uma Musume Pretty Derby strove to cover in its second season was how having one’s purpose threatened can be devastating: even Tokai Teio begins to lose hope at times in the series.

• Her first injury is of limited consequence: Vodka, Daiwa Scarlet, Special Week, Gold Ship and Mejiro McQueen are relieved to learn that Tokai Teio is back in fighting shape, and the trainer prepare both for the Spring Tennōshō race. This 3.2-kilometre run favours Mejiro McQueen, whose specialty is long-distance races. Conversely, Tokai Teio excels in shorter sprints. To ensure both his racers put in their best and not allow their friendship to hold them back, the trainer sets both with separate training regimens and asks that they do their preparations independently.

• For Mejiro McQueen, her training entails jumping with weighted shoes so she can develop improved power for the end of a fierce race. Mejiro McQueen graduates from jumping over inanimate objects to using Gold Ship, and while this works, whenever Special Week gets distracted as a result of a nearby ice cream truck, Gold Ship pays the price. This small bit of recurring humour reminds viewers that despite her regal nature and drive to excel, Mejiro McQueen is still subject to the same feelings and thoughts as other horse girls.

• Meanwhile, Tokai Teio excels with power, but her endurance is much weaker. To ensure she can keep up in the Spring Tennōshō, her training entails running for distances equivalent to the race’s distance, and with her injury seemingly in the rear-view mirror, Tokai Teio is confident that she has the strength to now keep up with Mejiro McQueen and surprise her once the race reaches its final stretch. Both Tokai Teio and Mejiro McQueen enter the Spring Tennōshō with no intention of losing, but despite the friendly banter exchanged, the pair do genuinely care for one another.

• One aspect of Uma Musume that has always stood out to me was the sportsmanship shown: rivals are presented as those who push one to be their best self, and loses are taken in stride. As such, even when Mejiro McQueen prevails over Tokai Teio at this race, there are no hard feelings. Tokai Teio’s only sorrow is the fact that she lost, but beyond this, she makes to embrace Meijiro McQueen and congratulate her on putting on a strong showing. On the side, it was fun to watch Kitasan Black and Satono Diamond cheer for their respective heroes.

• Unlike Uma Musume Pretty Derby‘s first season and BNW’s Oath, the second season is animated by Studio Kai: Uma Musume Pretty Derby‘s second season was their debut, and they promptly followed up with Super Cub. Despite the high bar that P.A. Works had set through Uma Musume Pretty Derby‘s first season, Studio Kai did a solid job with the second season: the characters still look like their season one counterparts, a consequence of the same character designers being retained, and overall, the art and animation are of a generally good quality. The races remain just as engaging, and while P.A. Works have slightly more fluid and expressive animations here, Studio Kai manages to keep up.

• When Rice Shower wins a race but becomes downtrodden that she’d managed to beat out even Mihono Bourbon, a focused and dedicated horse girl, she decides to sit out the Spring Tennōshō, fearing that all she does is bring despair to those who race. It takes some effort to convince Rice Shower to take things up again, and speaking again to the sportsmanship in Uma Musume Pretty Derby, Mihono Bourbon isn’t particularly worried that Rice Shower has beaten her: she even helps Tokai Teio to encourage Rice Shower to join the Spring Tennōshō.

• In Uma Musume Pretty Derby, weather plays a role in helping to portray the emotional tenour of a scene. The excitement and energy of both races and everyday life is, unsurprisingly, set under brilliant blue skies and fair weather, while revelations take place during sunsets. Moments where despair threatens to overtake hope, on the other hand, are set under cloudy, rainy skies. Whether or not a studio uses weather is dependent on the sort of story a given anime aims to tell: using symbolism through weather allows for things to be conveyed more succinctly, but it can also be cliché to do so.

• In the end, encouraged to do her best, Rice Shower participates in the race and stomps Mejiro McQueen: Mejiro McQueen had felt a terrifying aura around Rice Shower prior to the race, likening to a wild beast ready to shred her. While the audience is stunned, the horse girls themselves are pleased with the outcome; all horse girls like winning, but they like being spurred on and inspired even more, so when Rice Shower wins, it is the horse girls who applaud Rice Shower for her victory. Upset victories like these do show how who wins on a given day is determined by both statistics and trends, as well as intangible things like willpower and determination.

• This past weekend was the Easter long weekend, marking the first opportunity I had to sleep in since the move; although I make it a point to get up at a reasonable hour both on weekends and weekdays, long weekends tend to be the exception. This year, I spent yesterday sleeping in. After vacuuming in the morning and enjoying our first homemade burger at the new place, I took advantage of the time to begin exploring the area nearby under moody, overcast skies. It’d been overcast, but the weather cleared out earlier today for a few moments, affording me the chance to explore the river-side pathways further.

• I’d actually visited these river-side parks some eight years earlier while I was still a graduate student; during one summer day, I took an afternoon to walk the trails and found a delightful waterfall at the end of a quiet valley. I remember that day well: it took an hour and a half to reach the waterfall. This time around, the total walking time one-way was a shade under forty minutes, and I ended up checking out some of the rail bridges in the area, too. After the walk ended, I returned home for a simple, but tasty Easter dinner: turkey and ham with homemade stuffing and asparagus.

• Back in Uma Musume Pretty Derby, in the aftermath of her loss, Mejiro McQueen speaks to Ikuno Dictus and remarks that she’s not bothered by losing to Rice Shower half as much as she is bothered by the fact she’d let Tokai Teio down. Tokai Teio had been sent out to look for Mejiro McQueen, and overhearing this conversation encourages her. The events of the second season had made me much more fond of Tokai Teio and Mejiro McQueen; this is the mark of a successful series, when a story is sufficiently captivating so that one becomes invested in what happens to the characters.

• News of her latest injury as one threatening her career wrought a profound change in Tokai Teio’s spirits; previously, she’d shrugged them off and promises to get back in shape, especially since Mejiro McQueen had stated that her victory over her previously was done in a race favouring her style, and that it would be telling to race at Tokai Teio’s specialty to see if she can prevail here. However, the revelation that she might not be running again proves to be devastating: although she tries to make the most of things and spends a rare day off doing things she enjoys, there is a hollowness about things.

• Philosophers have long attempted to formalise how people define themselves. Beyond the –isms, I’ve found that only one definition really matters: a person is the sum of 1) what they can do for others vis-à-vis their skillset and 2) how they treat others. For Tokai Teio, she’s a horse girl who strives to be the best she can be and derives her identity from pushing herself further as a racer; when this is taken form her, a hollowness results, depriving Tokai Teio of both purpose and engagement. It was quite heartbreaking to see her smile anyways, putting on a brave front for those around her.

• However, the writing does appear to be on the wall: Tokai Teio tenders her withdrawal from racing and seeks out Symboli Rudolf to personally break the news. This decision cannot have been easy, and a part of me wonders what happens to horse girls once they stop racing. In reality, race horses are usually sent for other equestrian pursuits or breeding once they retire, depending on their career history (while a small percentage are slaughtered). This is never really covered in Uma Musume Pretty Derby, leaving my imagination to fill in the blanks (it’s not a stretch to assume that horse girls could become trainers and commentators, or otherwise exit the field and pursue other careers).

• Although more grim than its predecessors, Uma Musume Pretty Derby‘s second season still has its moments of humour. Here, Hana reacts after her phone rings while she’s attempting to overhear a conversation between Symboli Rudolf and Tokai Teio; the sharp contrast between the serious and comedic has long been a contention in the anime community; some feel that the juxtaposition breaks the emotional tenour of a moment, while others find that this serves to create a release in the tension. There is no right or wrong answer. For me, I find that in anime that are generally lighter in tone, the approach works well.

• Whether it was a consequence of the series being well-written, or because of post-relocation stress amplifying my sensitivity to things, I found Uma Musume Pretty Derby‘s second season to be a more emotional journey than the first season and BNW’s Oath. Seeing Tokai Teio’s spirit falter and having her seriously considering stepping down was tangibly felt, and the remainder of Team Spica’s reactions mirrors my own: I was close to crying, myself, on more than one occasion. Uma Musume Pretty Derby‘s second season kept me guessing as to where it would turn up, and this was an element that proved most unexpected.

• Whereas Tokai Teio had intended to announce her retirement and put on one final concert for her fans, seeing the energy in the crowd, from aspiring horse girl Kitasan Black, to those who’ve been rooting for her since day one, Tokai Teio is taken aback. However, it is one final stunt from Team Canopus that really changes Tokai Teio’s mind: Twin Turbo might not be in the same tier as she is, but seeing the grit and determination she has in winning her G3 race for the purpose of one day proving she can run alongside Tokai Teio is moving beyond words. The concert ends up pushing Tokai Teio to return to the track, and she starts training again in earnest in the hopes of running again in a race.

• Generally speaking, once I have an inkling of what the theme in a given series is, I can guess at the outcomes with reasonable accuracy. With Uma Musume Pretty Derby‘s second season, it was clear that this series was going to be about picking oneself up and finding a new way forward when one path closes, but how the series would go about doing this was tough to guess, since Tokai Teio and Mejiro McQueen would alternatively get injured, and falter in their resolve until the other picked them up. Here, Tokai Teio decides that one of the things she needs to do before formally retiring is thank those around her, and while it’s easy with the remainder of Team Spica, the hesitation Tokai Teio exhibits is, as Mejiro McQueen puts it, akin to a kokuhaku.

• In the end, it is support from Satono Diamond and Kitasan Black that Tokai Teio finds her way: she has the pair thank one another as a show of how it’s done, and quickly finds that embarrassment is natural. Because Satono Diamond and Kitasan Black are so close, being put on the spot makes them nervous, and Tokai Teio is able to spot this. She decides to take a different approach in thanking Mejiro McQueen, taking her on a date of sorts to a local Halloween Festival and capitalising on the environment to lighten things up.

• The friendship among horse girls in Uma Musume Pretty Derby is one of the anime’s great strengths: in the game setting, players take on the trainer’s role and simply build their own teams, pit their horse girls in races and unlock various things for them. While character traits are outlined, in the absence of a highly sophisticated algorithms that create behaviours which pass a Reverse Turing Test (to a computer, another computer appears human), it is unlikely that one would be able to see such friendships in the games. This is where the anime comes in, where writers can really portray the bonds amongst the characters.

• While Mejiro McQueen had been a steadfast presence throughout Uma Musume Pretty Derby‘s second season, promising to do her best no matter what happened to Tokai Teio, once her own future’s on the line, she experiences what Tokai Teio had been feeling. Where Tokai Teio had attempted to cope with things by busying herself with other tasks and supporting Team Spica in her own way, Mejiro McQueen is completely unprepared to handle things. She goes off for a run, hoping to convince herself that everything will be fine, but her leg begins acting up, and she crumbles to the ground in tears. This was easily one of the most rending moments in the whole of the second season.

• Saori Ōnishi delivers Mejiro McQueen’s lines, and her tears here brought to mind a moment from SaeKano: Fine. As it turns out, Ōnishi also had played Eri from SaeKano, so the feelings of similarity I got stem from the fact that Eri had cried her eyes out in a similar manner after spotting that she never had a chance with Tomoya. Seeing what running means to Mejiro McQueen leads her to make a promise: earlier, Tokai Teio had reluctantly agreed to throw her hat back into the ring after seeing the sheer support for her at the appreciation event, and now that Mejiro McQueen’s future is unclear, Tokai Teio comments on how things seem insistent on preventing the two from racing together. In spite of this, Tokai Teio promises to do her best for Mejiro McQueen so that they can fulfil their promises to one another.

• After a fierce race, Tokai Teio’s raw determination to make things worthwhile for Mejiro McQueen manifests and allows her to edge out Biwa Hayahide. In the aftermath, the crowd is moved to tears with the victory: no one had been expecting Tokai Teio to perform in this race, much less take first place. Naturally, no one is crying harder than Mejiro McQueen: for her, seeing the sheer resolve in Tokai Teio shows her the extent to which the latter is willing to go to keep their promise, and even with the condition that she’d been afflicted with, Tokai Teio isn’t about to give up on having a proper race with Mejiro McQueen, to be the rival she needs to go further.

• Any anime whose intent is to promote a game is successful if it is able to persuade me to at least look at the game. Previously, while I had fun watching Azur Lane and Kantai Collection, both anime were unsuccessful. Girls’ Frontline‘s anime similarly did not impress. However, Valkyria Chronicles and Kandagawa Jet Girls created considerably more excitement; Uma Musume Pretty Derby joins the ranks of Valkyria Chronicles and Kandagawa Jet Girls for motivating me to at least look at the game, and I might have actually picked up Uma Musume Pretty Derby had it been available in my country’s App Store. This speaks to the quality of the anime itself, for warming me up to the characters and their experiences.

• Overall, Uma Musume Pretty Derby‘s second season earns an A- grade: for taking the world its predecessor built out and exploring a direction that had been touched on during the first season, the second season created an emotional and impactful portrayal of what racing means to each horse girl. Seeing Tokai Teio come back, time and time again, to both find her place in the sun and encourage Mejiro McQueen, plus countless others, to do the same. With the second season of Uma Musume Pretty Derby in the books, I’m now finished the series in full. Uma Musume Pretty Derby has demonstrated that it is a series capable of exploring even nooks and cranies, from the rivalries between Vodka and Daiwa Scarlet, to Rice Shower’s own drive to succeed, or what experiences Kitasan Black and Satono Diamond have once they enroll at Tracen. The possibilities are endless, and although I do not anticipate that Uma Musume Pretty Derby will continue as an anime, the series does show that this universe is well-written enough so that separate anime could be created for the different horse girls, and all of them would likely end up being enjoyable to watch, as well.

Through season two, Uma Musume Pretty Derby demonstrates how anime adapted from games can find immense success even as standalone experiences. With the first season establishing the universe and its traits, Uma Musume Pretty Derby presented a plausible world that was sufficiently explained so that one could really focus on the horse girls and their aspirations. Special Week’s story is a classic Cinderella story, providing newcomers with a starry-eyed character to root for. However, with the appeal of this past, Uma Musume Pretty Derby turns its attention towards a more serious topic, but still strikes a balance between these heavier matters and the cheerful, hilarious antics Uma Musume Pretty Derby is known for. In this way, Uma Musume Pretty Derby‘s second season is able to show that such worlds can explore more involved topics while at the same time, remain respectful of the original aesthetics, to create a series that is engaging in its own way. This is a lesson that anime adaptations of games would be well-served to follow; Azur Lane had ultimately created a much stronger presentation in its slice-of-life spinoff, Slow Ahead!, while Kantai Collection has a second season, Itsuka Ano Umi de, coming out in the fall. Both Kantai Collection and Azur Lane had suffered because, rather than focusing on the characters and building the stories around their experiences, the story was written around game mechanics instead. Slow Ahead! managed to overcome this by allowing the characters to bounce off one another, showing how they were able to stand on their own experiences without the combat elements. As such, with both Azur Lane and Uma Musume Pretty Derby setting the precedence, Kantai Collection: Itsuka Ano Umi de at the very least, has the basis for how a continuation can be creatively utilised to explore aspects of a world in greater depth without re-treading familiar ground. Although Kantai Collection might be an older series, there remains the possibility that it could tell a standalone, and satisfying experience that shows viewers another side of the world that the game normally would not portray to create a more compelling sense that these settings are full-fledged places of discovery and exploration – in fact, with Uma Musume Pretty Derby having set the precedence for how such a series might turn out, expectations are high for Itsuka Ano Umi de to do the same for Kantai Collection and breathe some life into a series whose popularity had been on the decline since its pinnacle some seven years earlier.

Uma Musume Pretty Derby: Whole-Series Review and Reflection

“告訴他在擂臺上以命相搏是中國歷來的陋習, 可我們有另一種傳統叫「以武會友」!”
“He wants to kick your butt.”

–Huo Yuanjia and what the official translates things as, Fearless

Special Week is a horse girl who moves from her sleepy home town in Hokkaido to the hustle and bustle of Tokyo, where she dreams of making it big at Tracen Academy and fulfil her promise to her mother to take the title of being the greatest horse girl in. On her first day in Tokyo, she becomes sidetracked and ends up watching a race featuring Silence Suzuka, a skillful horse girl known for her speed on the track, and finesse as an idol. In a turn of events that can only be chalked up to fate, Special Week and Silence Suzuka end up being roommates, and what’s more, both end up joining Team Spica. While Special Week strives to improve herself, she must also deal with her own doubts when Silence Suzuka suffers from an injury. In spite of this weighing heavily on Special Week’s mind, she continues to train and makes a new promise with Silence Suzuka: to one day race together. Special Week thus experiences the thrill of victory, and the bitterness of a loss, pushing herself further to defeat even Broye, a French horse girl of exceptional skill, in the Japan Cup. However, it is at the second Winter Dream Race where Team Spica’s horse girls finally have a chance to race one another, and while everyone is running to win, the horse girls also have fun with their race. Based on the mobile game for iOS and Android, P.A. Works’ Uma Musume Pretty Derby‘s anime adaptation brings a very unique world to life to capture the spirit of the game, as well as immerse viewers in a universe where race horses from past eras are reborn as horse girls; despite the seemingly-outlandish premise, Uma Musume Pretty Derby ends up working out, being sufficiently detailed to make their world feel plausible and authentic.

When news of P.A. Works’ Uma Musume Pretty Derby reached my ears, the series had not been particularly appealing: I come from a city best known for The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth™, but horse racing had never been within my realm of interests, and I ended up skipping over the series. However, at the behest of one of my readers, I decided to give Uma Musume Pretty Derby a whirl: the series is prima facie The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth™ meets Kandagawa Jet Girls, Azur Lane and Kantai Collection, and recalling my general enjoyment of anthropomorphic anime, I figured that I hadn’t really been fair to Uma Musume Pretty Derby. Moreover, with P.A. Works helming this series, I knew that the visual quality would be typical of the studio’s usual standards. Thus, I began watching Uma Musume Pretty Derby, and by the time the first episode came to a close, I knew that this series exceeded my expectations going in. The series deals with typical messages of sportsmanship, perseverance and working hard to make promises happen, but more notably, there is no hint at all that Uma Musume Pretty Derby was from a game. The writing and world-building within the anime is seamless, and whatever mechanics drive the game are so finely woven into the story that the world feels life-like. Not very many anime can do this; Kantai Collection and Azur Lane, for instance, utilised elements pulled straight from their respective games, and even Kandagawa Jet Girls utilised the in-race commentary to help viewers keep up. On the other hand, Uma Musume Pretty Derby is able to succinctly introduce viewers into the world of horse girls without falling on game mechanics to define anything. This is ultimately Uma Musume Pretty Derby‘s greatest strength, helping to create a compelling world where the elements are so naturally incorporated that one can focus on rooting for Special Week and Team Spica as they race to fulfil their aspirations.

Screenshots and Commentary

• Special Week is modelled on the Thoroughbred of the same name, with a record of 10-4-2, including the Japan Cup in 1999. Uma Musume Pretty Derby‘s version of Special Week hails from Hokkaido, resembles Kandagawa Jet Girls‘ Rin Namiki in appearance and is voiced by Azumi Waki (Maika from Blend S, Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear‘s Fina and The Aquatope on White Sand‘s very own Tsukimi Teruya). Upon arriving in Tokyo, Special Week is overwhelmed by the sights and sounds, forgetting about her appointment at Tracen Academy and instead, winds up watching a race featuring the legendary Silence Suzuka.

• The trainer feeling up Special Week’s thighs is about as much fanservice as Uma Musume Pretty Derby gets into; the remainder of the series is entirely focused on Special Week, her desire to become Japan’s top Horse Girl, and the friendship she strikes up at Tracen. Initially, Special Week is very shy and clumsy, although she compensates by studying hard in her courses. However, Uma Musume Pretty Derby isn’t a run-of-the-mill series about high school, and so, much of the series’ focus happens on the race track, as well as the training leading up to races.

• Special Week’s only desire is to run on the same team as Silence Suzuka, and when she finds herself kidnapped by Team Spica, she initially tries to turn them down. However, she changes her mind almost immediately after learning Silence Suzuka (Marika Kōno, Hinako Note‘s Yua Nakajima and Sachi Tsubakimori of Slow Start), is set to join Team Spica, named after Alpha Virginis, a blue giant star that is one of the brightest stars in the sky and forms a part of the Summer Triangle along with Arcturus and Regulus.

• From left to right, Team Spica initially is composed of Special Week, Silence Suzuka, Gold Ship, Daiwa Scarlet and Vodka. There are many names in Uma Musume Pretty Derby, far too many to memorise, but fortunately, P.A. Works is nice enough to take a leaf from Shirobako and name all of the characters with tags for out benefit. With time, folks will at least remember Team Spica’s largest players, and several of the horse girls from Team Rigil, as well.

• While perhaps not P.A. Works’ most jaw-dropping anime, Uma Musume Pretty Derby nonetheless looks solid in terms of artwork and some of the best animation can be seen during races and victory concerts. Because this series is about horse racing, P.A. Works cuts straight to the chase, and Special Week debuts in a race that sees her take first place; despite her inexperience, Special Week is able to hold her own and win, impressing spectators with a solid first-ever showing.

• In terms of singing and dancing, Special Week begins her journey completely unprepared to perform, and blanks out during her victory concert. These concerts allow Uma Musume Pretty Derby to combine the thrill of racing with the spectacle of an idol anime – this trend is not new, and since The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya days, anime have combined musical showmanship with their main story as a means of driving up revenue. Voice actresses also sing, and adding in music to a series means being able to use an anime to promote album sales, too. P.A. Works also takes advantage of this to showcase their fabulous animation talents.

• With time, Special Week begins fitting in with the other members of Team Spica, even going for special training with Tokai Teio to better her singing. It turns out Special Week is motivated by a desire to excel for her both her mothers – her biological mother, who died shortly after Special Week’s birth, and her adoptive mother, who’d looked after her. To express her gratitude, Special Week promises to be “the best in Japan”, a lofty goal without a clear-cut set of criteria. The trainer helps Special Week to mold this into something more tangible, and a combination of training and her natural intuition leads her to victory in her earlier races.

• Done purely as visual comedy, Special Week becomes engorged after eating too much during a post-race celebration. Special Week, like Akagi of Kantai Collection and Girls und Panzer‘s Hana Isuzu, eats considerably more than her peers. Folks familiar with the original Special Week mention that this is a parallel of the real horse suffering a catastrophic loss at Kyoto Daishōten after gaining weight. Animated media is typically fond of using this approach for indicating when someone’s eaten too much; while unrealistic (food is not converted into adipose tissue immediately upon consumption), it’s a quick and simple way of indicating fullness.

• Uma Musume Pretty Derby would be dull if Special Week were to be the next Ip Man, so she also sees her share of losses; her first loss to Seiun Sky comes as she becomes distracted by her skirt not fitting correctly, and in the aftermath, although she promises Silence Suzuka that she’ll train harder, she cries into an open stump on Tracen’s campus grounds. The fact that such a stump exists for the horse girls shows that the campus is well designed, and gives horse girls a place to vent their frustrations before redoubling their efforts.

• While Uma Musume Pretty Derby doesn’t do anything particularly novel with its themes, the main joy in this series comes from watching Special Week open up to the others; setbacks and failures help her to lean on her teammates more. In particular, despite her exceptional talents, Silence Suzuka takes a liking to Special Week – the two are roommates, and therefore able to converse with one another, sharing stories and encouragement during the evenings. The two become friends over time, rather similarly to Akagi and Fubuki in Kantai Collection, and this slowly helps Special Week to grow as a racer.

• Uma Musume Pretty Derby originally ran in 2018’s spring season for a total of thirteen episodes, and a quick glance at the blog’s archives show that I’d been fairly busy: Comic Girls, Amanchu! Advance, and The Division had been keeping me busy, along with several anime films of the day. The archives also indicate that was when I hit a million views for the first time, as well, and looking back, I’ve covered a nontrivial range of anime here. Uma Musume Pretty Derby initially felt like one of those shows I’d have nothing to say about, but I ended up eating my words: attention to detail in world-building and the focus on racing allowed this anime to remain consistently engaging.

• When Uma Musume Pretty Derby was airing, viewers similarly reported a solid anime whose focus on the act of racing, the training leading up to a race and the aftermath was the series’ biggest strong suit. For many, the series proved to exceed expectations: anime about mobile games occasionally count on familiarity with game mechanics to drive some of the world-building, and folks who come into the series with no prior experience may become lost at the concepts thrown their way. Uma Musume Pretty Derby does no such thing, allowing the anime to stand on its own accord.

• One detail I particularly liked in Uma Musume Pretty Derby was the fact that Special Week’s ears wiggle, rise and fall depending on her mood. By this point in time, Tokai Teio and Mejiro McQueen joins the ranks of Team Spica. While the other horse girls may not get anywhere as much screen time as Special Week and Silence Suzuka, but the anime makes certain to show that the other horse girls are capable in their own right, winning races to the best of their ability.

• A longstanding part of anime I’ve always enjoyed is watching characters bounce off one another or have fun when away from their arena. Details like Daiwa Scarlet’s constant rivalry with Vodka, or the fact that Gold Ship’s teasing of Mejiro McQueen always ends with the former poking her eye do much to give the horse girls character. Series like Kantai Collection and Azur Lane similarly give their characters eccentricities based on their namesakes’ history and real-world traits, and it takes no small amount of writing to work everything into a game.

• While Japanese games may not possess the same level of technical awe that Western triple-A titles have (Uma Musume Pretty Derby and Azur Lane can run off a mobile phone’s hardware and command a sizeable player-base despite lacking real time ray-tracing, for instance), they offset this by taking characterisation to a whole new level. A major part of these games is getting invested with the characters and their stories, representing a pleasant change of pace from Western titles, where the spectacle and skill-ceiling is where the fun lies.

• Food is a secondary aspect in Uma Musume Pretty Derby, but in the typical P.A. Works fashion, it is still beautifully rendered. Watching the horse girls let loose at parties is always fun, especially whenever Special Week puts away an insane amount of food at various events.

• Sportsmanship is easily the best aspect in Uma Musume Pretty Derby: the horse girls are competitive and driven, but handle winning and losing very gracefully. Here, Silence Suzuka and El Condor Pasa exchange words before a big race, challenging the other to bring out their best for a good match. El Condor Pasa is bold, flashy and confident, possessing the skill to back her words, but in this race, Silence Suzuka suffers an injury that knocks her out of the game, leaving El Condor Pasa to win. In the aftermath, El Condor Pasa is devastated, and it was ultimately Special Week who tends to Silence Suzuka until medics arrive.

• Special Week thus focuses a great deal of her time towards Silence Suzuka’s recovery, visiting her every day and doing her utmost to encourage her. Encouraged by Special Week’s dedication, Silence Suzuka makes considerable strides in her physical recovery. Over time, Silence Suzuka’s fractures heal, and she’s able to walk around without a cast, and she returns to the track with the goal of racing again. The trainer comments that he’d not doubted Silence Suzuka’s ability to heal, but instead, worries about her state of mind.

• While Silence Suzuka is well enough to train again, the support Special Week had given Silence Suzuka came at a massive cost: Special Week begins to forget that she has her own races to win, and her training suffers as a result. This culminates in Special Week practically throwing a race, and in the aftermath, Grass Wonder confronts Special Week, asking if the latter’s heart had been in this race at all. Team Spica begins suffering as a whole, and this prompts the trainer to mix things up a little.

• At a training camp, the trainer encourages the horse girls to think of another as rivals rather than friends. After dividing them into teams, he asks them to hold nothing back, as they will be competing in a triathlon of sorts against one another (with a fancy dessert buffet being the victor’s prize). The exercise doesn’t produce any winners; the horse girls are unable to decelerate on a turn during the last part of their race and end up running right into the ocean. Team Spica ends up overcoming their reservations about putting their all against one another, seeing how pushing themselves will also pull their teammates up with them. They share a laugh together and exit the exercise with newfound resolve.

• Seeing Team Spica celebrate the end of their training camp with all-you-can-eat desserts reminds me of a time when I used to be able to go to Sunday brunches in the mountains. Back in those days, brunches consisted of being able to eat a scrumptious breakfast of made-to-order omelettes, Eggs Benedict and smoked salmon alongside beef stew, prime rib off the carving station and King Crab before wrapping up with unlimited cheesecake. At these buffets, I always favoured the main course type items, but looking back, the cheesecake, chocolate cakes and fondues were tasty, as well. The ongoing health crisis meant that such an experience isn’t possible for the time being, but during yesterday’s dinner (Southern Fried Chicken and gravy with fries), the idea of returning to the mountains was floated as a part of the conversation, and while things aren’t fully back up yet, it suddenly seems like a nice idea to plan out what such a trip might look like.

• Ahead of her races, Special Week is granted leaves and heads home for Hokkaido, but the moment she gets back, she’s tied to a post to keep her from stretching her legs, resulting in a hilarious and adorable, if somewhat mean-spirited moment. The intention behind this is clear; Special Week had over-trained previously and found herself underperforming during actual races. Her expression here is priceless, although shortly after, dinner is served, and Special Week’s adoptive mother shares with her photographs of their past, before gifting her a special set of horseshoes.

• Upon her return, Special Week shares with Silence Suzuka her thoughts; she’s striving to be the best to fulfil a promise to both her biological and adoptive mother, as thanks for all they’ve done for her, but since Silence Suzuka recovered, Special Week realises that she’s now longing to test her own mettle against Silence Suzuka and see just how far she’s come thanks to the time they’d spent together. However, before this promise can be fulfilled, Special Week must prepare for the Japan Cup, one of the most prestigious a horse girl can race in.

• This race is no joke, and France’s Broye expresses an interest in participating, especially after hearing about both Silence Suzuka and Special Week. Broye is a powerhouse in terms of raw speed and endurance; during the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, Broye had edged out El Condor Pasa to claim the victory. Although El Condor Pasa had been excited to challenge such a powerful opponent, the results of the race also devastated her, and she wishes for Special Week to do better and avenge the Japanese horse girls. On the day of the race, El Condor Pasa passes a French phrase along to Special Week and lets her know it means “let’s do our best”.

• The actual phrase is “don’t get full of yourself”, which only serves to fire up Broye and increase tensions during the race. This moment brought to mind Fearless, during the fight in Shanghai between Huo Yuanjia and Hercules O’Brien. When the official asks Yuanjia to sign a death waiver, he declines, saying that fighting to the death is an outdated tradition in Chinese martial arts, and that Chinese martial arts is also about friendship through challenging one’s opponents. The official disregards Yuanjia entirely and informs O’Brien that Yuanjia intends to “kick his butt”. While Yuanjia handily wins the bout, he also saves O’Brien from being impaled on nails that had come loose during their match, earning his respect.

• I imagine that the same holds true in Uma Musume Pretty Derby: Special Week; while her words may be trash talk, her tone of delivery suggests that she didn’t know what was going on, and she wanted a good match. Impressed with Special Week’s victory, Broye thanks her for the match and promises that they will meet again with her as the victor. With this achievement under her belt, the name Special Week is one that is known throughout Japan, and while Special Week’s original goal of becoming the best was vague, meeting Silence Suzuka and Team Spica allows her to make her dreams become more tangible.

• While Special Week’s become a fearsome competitor on the track, there are some small moments that still show her more clumsy side: as she steps onto the stage to thank her viewers and give a small victory speech, feedback from the microphone surprises her, causing her to stutter in shock. In mannerisms, Special Week is not so different than Locodol‘s Nanako Usami – now that I think about it, Nanako and Special Week share some similarities in terms of appearance, too.

• Despite the rough start, Special Week’s victory concert goes very well, and her teammates are happy to cheer her on. Overall, Uma Musume Pretty Derby is a very optimistic and cheerful anime, and looking back, my own reservations for skipping this series were unjustified. With this in mind, I did mix up Uma Musume Pretty Derby with A Centaur’s Life, which had aired a year before Uma Musume Pretty Derby did. At this point in time, I’m not sure if A Centaur’s Life is something I would write about, but perhaps there is merit in at least checking the series out.

• In the end, Special Week and Silence Suzuka get their wish when the trainer managers to get everyone on Team Spica slotted into a race against one another. This is what Special Week and Silence Suzuka had been working towards, and it’s a satisfactory close to Uma Musume Pretty Derby to watch this final promise be fulfilled, bringing the series to a close. During this finale, the trainer notices a new horse girl, standing where Special Week had a year earlier, and upon fondling her thighs, similarly gets kicked, suggesting that this new horse girl will walk a similar path as Special Week, continuing the cycle. Altogether, Uma Musume Pretty Derby scores an A- in my books for being an engaging series that paints horse-racing in a more interesting light with its colourful cast of characters.

• Earlier this year, Uma Musume Pretty Derby received a second season, and this one focuses on Tokai Teio, as well as Team Spica’s other members. P.A. Works has a fierce reputation for not doing second seasons, and Uma Musume Pretty Derby is handled by the up-and-coming Studio Kai, which I know best for their work on Super Cub. I’ll check it out as I’m able: I’ve recently decided that it’s time to make a dent in my backlog of slice-of-life anime, including Action Heroine Cheer Fruits, Hitori Bocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu and Mitsuboshi Colours, as well as wrap up Okusama ga Seito Kaichō. I do have plans to write about each of these series in the near future, and on top of that, this past weekend saw Far Cry 5 available for free play, so I’ll have some thoughts to share on that, as well.

Overall, I found Uma Musume Pretty Derby to be unexpectedly enjoyable: horse-racing in and of itself is unremarkable, and it’s a sport where spectators seem more concerned with the gambling aspect rather than the sport itself. This reputation means that I’m typically not a fan of horse-racing, but par the course for anime, Uma Musume Pretty Derby manages to remove this negativity outright and in its place, create a world where horse-racing is more entertainment than gambling – winning horse girls get to perform in a victory concert, an event that demands solid singing and dancing from those who participate. Similarly, while horse girls are deadly-focused on the track, off the field, they express a sincere enjoyment of racing and view the challenge posed by top horse girls as a means of pushing themselves further. Losses are only ever temporary setbacks, and sportsmanship off the track means that Special Week has no trouble fitting in with the likes of Silence Suzuka, El Condor Pasa and Grass Wonder; while everyone dreams of winning and making it big, friendship and personal improvement is no less important to everyone. It typifies anime to make topics like horse-racing worthwhile, and the character dynamics are balanced out with the races so that Special Week and the others’ efforts are something viewers can cheer for. The outcome of Uma Musume Pretty Derby, then, is the wish that real-world horse racing could be this compelling, and a newfound interest in checking the iOS game out – the anime is a solid standalone experience, but the fact is that it did succeed in piquing my interest for the game. I would go ahead and add this to my library of titles to experience and write about, were it not for the fact Uma Musume Pretty Derby‘s mobile incarnation is only available for the Japanese app store. While I can probably figure out the game for myself, my Apple ID is unequivocally bound to the Canadian App Store – I don’t have it in me to go through the process of switching things up for one mobile game, since my Apple ID is used for my personal Apple Developer license (including the associated provisioning profiles, development and distribution certificates). With this in mind, that the Uma Musume Pretty Derby mobile game has come the closest to convincing me to spin up a Japanese Apple ID is a testament to the anime’s successes, and for the present, one hopes that we might see an English-language release bound for the Canadian App Store one of these days.