I highly, highly recommend going and watching Uma Musume: Pretty Derby, even just to see if it's your thing. Otherwise, spoilers below.
I don't remember ever deciding to become a runner. Unlike my initiation into rowing, it grew organically out of a love for freedom and competition, and was something I just happened to get into as a kid. But despite its unceremonious beginnings, track and cross country quickly became my identity. My team captured three straight league titles during my last three years in high school, and I won MVP as a senior - the only time I've ever accomplished anything in life (even if I didn't earn it). My last go at the 300M hurdles was over three years ago, but I still have an intimate emotional connection with that segment of my journey - the challenges I overcame on the track and the things I accomplished, earned or not, made me who I am today.
Given its premise, Uma Musume: Pretty Derby has no business nailing such a complex web of emotions nor being such a damn good sports anime. Adapted from a mobile "horse girl" idol collecting game being developed by CyGames, the show's primary goal is to simply hype up the game and introduce each horse girl to enrich the collecting experience. Yet it depicts competition in a grounded and human fashion, and there's a rare delicate touch on display in each and every race. By the end of the first episode, the show has its feet clearly planted in two genres: sports anime and idol anime. God bless P.A. Works, because after a few episodes the idol performances fade into the background and we're off to the races.
Hands down the most impressive element in the show is the racing. Because the stakes don't constantly inflate, in a given race anything could happen. Spe can train like mad and still get 7th, Suzuka can get out to a massive lead and then fracture her foot. Things aren't always going to go well - in fact, for everything to go off without a hitch is rare - but we get to see our main characters respond to adversity, and find ourselves getting inspired in the process. The fresh memories of these hardships deepen the significance of their performances on the racetrack. We're all crying during Suzuka's comeback not because the race itself was tear-inducing, but because of her resolve in the face of all the adversity she struggled through. Spe doesn't beat Broye in some come-from-behind nail-biter, but her victory is the culmination of a long-fought journey fraught with peaks and valleys. The pain and the punches taken up to that point make first place taste that much sweeter. I'm way beyond the guy who cried for seven hours straight after inhaling Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso three years ago (/r/blunderyears?), but not once in the fifteen times I've rewatched the Japan Cup between Spe and Broye have I gotten even halfway without crying. That's not something that just happens by accident.
A copout analysis would attribute this to the fact that each race is a near carbon copy of its real-life counterpart. There's more to it than that. I could watch every major G-I and G-II race from the late '90s on YouTube and not feel an eighth of the emotion I would from watching 3 episodes of Uma Musume. The Japanese thoroughbred Special Week never went back to the tree stump late at night to scream in frustration, and we never got to see Silence Suzuka's long road back from his injury in the 1998 fall Tennoushou. There is a magic here owing to more than just the imitation of reality. At the end of the day, writing is about more than just the results -- you have to make the characters and their struggles believable and real, and P.A. Works passes with flying colors. This was the most I have enjoyed anime since Monogatari. That is a tall order.
Being frank, though - and this should come as no surprise - Uma Musume is a far cry from perfection. The emotions are raw and powerful but lack polish at times, and the storytelling occasionally leans too far towards clumsy and ham-handed. Those last three minutes of the bonus episode were the most cowardly asspull I have ever seen and left me with a really bitter aftertaste clouding an otherwise superb work. They waste a lot of time trying to shove in as many characters as could conceivably fit on a MAL page, leaving some of the more prominent supporting cast light on characterization. (Where is my Narita Brian episode? Why does it take until the bonus episode to show us Gold Ship's loyalty to Spica? Why does El-chan get comically shafted in the last four episodes?) The character designs are sharp and attractive but occasionally off-model, especially in the background, (in fairness, they did fix much of it in the BDs) and there's just so damn many horse girls that lots end up bland and unmemorable. The animation is not bad but its fair to wonder if it could have been better: despite some good CG moments, enough CG shots stand out like a sore thumb to disturb the viewing experience, and the camera doesn't move anywhere near as much as it should for action shots. I wish the world was more fleshed out. (Imagine betting scandals! P.A. Works won't!)
Still: Uma Musume is legitimately good, and not just relative to expectations. At their best - which is not always the case - the backgrounds shine even by P.A. Works' lofty standards, and the color palette is vibrant without being too obnoxious. The direction tells the story of Special Week and the others thoughtfully and passionately with a fantastic sense for comedic timing. Most of the jokes are hilarious, even if the humor is more pointed and gutbusting in season two. Not every voice is a hit, but there are very few duds and a number of home runs. Takahashi Minami as El Condor Pasa, Waki Azumi as Special Week, Machico as Tokai Teio, Ueda Hitomi as Gold Ship, Okino Kouji as Trainer, and others bring the story to life. The commentating is executed to perfection and enhances every lead change and final sprint. The soundtrack, sporting one of my favorite EDs in forever, falls flat in more laid-back moments but delivers some of the highest highs all season. The little details - the way the girls hold telephones, the way their ears give away their feelings, the attention to each unique running form - unify to elevate Uma Musume far beyond some generic cute-girls-with-a-twist mush.
Though I race all the time in boats now, Uma Musume was the first show - not Prince of Stride: Alternative, not Koi wa Ameagari no You Ni, not Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru - to make me reminisce about my track days, and is one of the few anime to capture the fleeting and hazy glory of my youth. The pain, the joy, the sadness, the excitement: every emotion is recounted with sincerity and respect, allowing the audience to walk in the (horse)shoes of each girl. It's nearly impossible not to empathize with or even fall for many of these characters, and if you ain't fist pumping when Spe or Suzuka kick into gear you don't have a heart. The story is simultaneously thoughtful and entertaining - the audience is invested in each girl's emotional journey, but never does the narrative get bogged down like in a show such as Yorimoi. Sure there are flaws in the writing and production and I understand skepticism over the premise, but if you can buy in - which is not hard - you're in for one hell of a ride.
Strong 8/10
I was very ready to give this a Strong 9 after episode 12 and the first 3/4 of episode 13, but the absolute bullshit of the last 3 minutes brought it back down to a solid to strong 8.
I'M PISSED THAT THEY ALL WON BUT P.A. WORKS WHATEVER I NEED TO DO FOR THERE TO BE A FAITHFUL SECOND SEASON OF THIS ANIME LET ME KNOW RIGHT NOW AND I WILL DO IT [update 2021: I didn't even have to do anything! And Season Teio is better in pretty much every way despite being a faithful sequel! (we will address the elephant in the room in a future post) and they didn't even have to drive off a cliff right at the end! go watch season 2. i don't care if you didn't watch season 1]
P.S. The game is its own post, probably. If you're wondering whether to play it, you probably shouldn't. If you've already been sucked into the Gacha Black Hole like I have, then I probably shouldn't stop you, but remember: you were warned
P.S.S. Best girls: 1. Spe 2. ECP 3. Suzuka 4. Narita Brian 5. Grass Wonder 6. Gold Ship 7. Oguri Cap 8. Seiun Sky 9. Symboli Rudolf 10. Haru Urara 11. Taiki Shuttle 12. Maruzensky 13. Mejiro McQueen 14. Broye 15. Tokai Teio [2021 update: calm down jon calm down, Teio has been #1 since 2019, I'll update in the season 2 writeup whenever I do that]
留言