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Uma Musume Pretty Derby (TV) (all seasons).


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Stark700



Joined: 30 Jan 2012
Posts: 11762
Location: Earth
PostPosted: Sun Apr 01, 2018 2:53 am Reply with quote


Season 01: Uma Musume Pretty Derby (TV)
Season 02: Uma Musume Pretty Derby Season 2 (TV)
Season 03: Uma Musume Pretty Derby Season 3 (TV)

Source: Multimedia Franchise (created by Cygames)

Demographic: Everyone

Animation Studio:
Season 01: P.A. Works
Season 02: Studio Kai
Season 03: Studio Kai

Genres: comedy, drama, tournament

Themes: horses, racing, reincarnation, sports

Plot Summary: In a world very much like our own, great race horses of the past have a chance to be reborn as “horse girls” – girls with the ears and tails of horses as well as their speed and endurance. The best of these horse girls go to train at Tokyo's Tracen Academy, hopefully moving on to fame and fortune as both racers and idols.

Special Week, a high school horse girl from the countryside, has just transferred to Tracen, and she's determined to fulfill her promise to her mother to become the best horse girl in Japan. On her way to school, she takes a pit stop at the race track and instantly falls in love with Silence Suzuka's style, becoming determined to race on the same team as her.

Air Date & Platform:
Season 01: April 1, 2018 (Sunday)
Available on: Crunchyroll

Season 02: January 4, 2021 (Monday)
Available on: Crunchyroll

Season 03: October 4, 2023 (Wednesday)
Available on: Crunchyroll

Episode Count / Runtime:
Season 01: 13 episodes
Season 02: 13 episodes
Season 03: 13 episodes

Total: 39 episodes
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11378
PostPosted: Sun Apr 01, 2018 11:07 pm Reply with quote
Ep1

Seems harmless enough but I doubt I'll be sticking with this. I still don't understand why spoiler[she lost that race. Was it fixed?] The idol thing is kinda where they totally lose me.

Ep 2

spoiler[At least she won her debut.]
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15481
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Sun Apr 01, 2018 11:12 pm Reply with quote
Episodes 1 and 2

Has anime gone too far? IS this really what P.A. Works decides to do after season 2 of The Eccentric Family and Sakura Quest? An anime where racing horses are horse girls, and act as idols upon winning races. And this comes out right as going through various April fools jokes.

In the face of all that, screw it, I will watch it and probably like it. In the very least it looks good, and it has its charm. Even if it feels a little dehumanizing of the girls in it. I am not even sure if makes sense. Were there never horses in this world? How are they aware of another world, enough that those area apparently the their source of giving these girls names. I was kind of wonder if maybe would have been better to not have that fact, and or maybe have normal names, but take on something like stage names, which are like what horses have.

Not sure how proud of it I am, but I am interested. No more groping though, please.
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mjtags11



Joined: 07 Dec 2017
Posts: 5
PostPosted: Sat Apr 14, 2018 11:52 pm Reply with quote
I am a horse racing fan - I watch the Kentucky Derby, Triple Crown, Breeders' Cup, and every race in between - I've been to countless tracks and follow racing of 6+ countries. I am also a huge anime fan and an anime convention runner. This is a weird mix, but my talents come in handy for this show.

While I generally hate sports anime and idol shows, this one gets to me, not because of the story or the characters, but because of all the real life homages. Here are some below that might not be obvious (spoilers):

spoiler[
* El Condor Pasa told Special Week that they were "rivals" in Episode One - those two horses in real life were rivals
* The colors the girls wear on their clothes are those of the real life horse's silks
* Tokyo Racecourse is faithfully recreated - nearly perfect
* The president, Symboli Rudolf, won the Triple Crown, and the horse's real life offspring was Tokai Teio, who is the president's assistant in the show
* Special Week won her first race in the same fashion as the real life horse did
* The school motto "Eclipse first, the rest nowhere" is a famous saying about the champion racehorse, Eclipse, a phrase his owner used before making any bets.
* In Episode 2: Special Week reveals her real mom died and she had a new mom take care of her; in real life, SW's dam died after giving birth and the stable hands had to take care of the horse.
]


There are so many more and I will definitely need to write a panel about all of these references.
Enjoy! And if you have any racing questions about the show for me, feel free to ask!
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11378
PostPosted: Sun Apr 15, 2018 12:01 am Reply with quote
Thanks for posting that. Saves me the trouble of looking it all up. Smile About all I knew going in was that the horses' names were real. I look forward to more.
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Zork



Joined: 08 Jul 2005
Posts: 199
PostPosted: Sun Apr 15, 2018 9:57 am Reply with quote
This has turned out to be a pretty good anime. It's humorous, the animation of the girls running is well done, the characters are all likable and even rivals seemed to get along. When Special Week was called into the Presidents office, I felt sure we were going to get the standard "haughty Student Council President looks down on country girl and wants her to fail" but I was pleasantly surprised the president was supportive and friendly.
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11378
PostPosted: Mon Apr 16, 2018 12:37 am Reply with quote
mjtags11 wrote:
And if you have any racing questions about the show for me, feel free to ask!

I forgot to ask again, and no one has followed up, so can you explain why she lost that first race in episode 1? It sure looked to me like she won, she thought she won, and there was nothing said about her being disqualified for some unintentional infraction or anything. What did I miss?
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Yttrbio



Joined: 09 Jun 2011
Posts: 3653
PostPosted: Mon Apr 16, 2018 1:55 am Reply with quote
Oh, she was just fighting for second place with someone and hadn't noticed that there was someone else in the lead.
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11378
PostPosted: Mon Apr 16, 2018 2:33 am Reply with quote
Huh, guess I didn't notice either!
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Saruta



Joined: 03 Feb 2012
Posts: 2
PostPosted: Wed Apr 18, 2018 7:04 pm Reply with quote
mjtags11 wrote:
While I generally hate sports anime and idol shows, this one gets to me, not because of the story or the characters, but because of all the real life homages.


Wow, thanks. Even after reading some other forums there are many here I did not know. Please do a panel!

But this real life reference thing seems to be setting things up for a very interesting turn after some episodes. In Ep 4 Trainer discusses future races with Suzuka and mentions the Tennoshou and there is an "awkward silence" moment...

spoiler[Real life Silence Suzuka got injured at Tennoshou and then the sources say he died - as far as I can understand, he was put down. And if they are going to do THIS, with horsegirls, too, being put down, we're looking at another Madoka. And I so want them to be doing this. A sudden dark turn and deconstruction.]
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11378
PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2018 2:13 am Reply with quote
Ah, well, RIP Special Week. 5/2/95 - 4/27/18 Crying or Very sad He apparently had some sort of accident while grazing and injured his hip? 23 years was a pretty good run though. Green pastures, Spe-kun.

If you can read Japanese:
http://jra.jp/news/201804/042706.html
https://twitter.com/nikkankeiba/status/989801506550493184
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15481
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2018 5:03 am Reply with quote
It is kind of unfortunate for that to happen during this run.
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11378
PostPosted: Sun May 06, 2018 5:41 pm Reply with quote
So they don't shoot horse girls, do they. :/

It was interesting how closely they adhered to the actual race. In the video I saw, Suzuka was just booking it and leaving everyone else way back in the dust, then on that last turn he stumbled, and you could see his jockey fighting to pull him up asap because he still really wanted to run. Very sad. He barely got him off the track before the other horses caught up and nearly ran over him. Had he not had such a commanding lead, it could easily have turned into one ugly pileup.

I thought they might do an end card for Special Week, but they didn't. Maybe too much rl sadness for one episode to carry.
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15481
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Mon Jun 04, 2018 4:18 am Reply with quote
Episode 11

This episode felt strangely final, I was thinking it might even have been the end, but Wikipedia says that there should be 13 episodes, and does not say it has ended yet. It would have kind of been sad, because I have lately had myself being kind of distracted while watching it, the drama being kind of lacklustre, and it does not feel like anything interesting has actually happened to the characters, despite them actually trying.

A straight slice of life show can do some work to make some characters really stand out, and it feels like the show has could have done better in that area, despite this not really being a slice of life show. Everyone has their quirk, and I am hoping in the last couple episodes it could kind of try to make them fun and memorable.
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11378
PostPosted: Thu Jun 07, 2018 1:04 am Reply with quote
I didn't get why Spe-chan couldn't take an hour off to go watch the race. Or why she wouldn't, since she obviously could.

I'm still enjoying this. It was nice to see her win and I'm looking forward to Spe beating Broye (I thought it said "Brony" when they first showed her. Smile I wish they wouldn't sub the names vertically).
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