The whole line-up for the spring season was unreal. So many good animes released, I don’t even know what to watch first. I haven’t even finished watching some of the animes from the winter season line-up. As my PTW list, grows longer and longer, I decided to watch whatever was on the spring season that interests me the most. Well, as you can see from the title, its Uma Musume Pretty Derby.
UMA MUSUME PRETTY DERBY
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. (MAL)
My Thoughts:
Judging the anime before its release is never a good idea. When I first saw the preview of this, I actually faced palm. But after watching Keijo!!!!!!!!, I know that even the weirded and most absurd premise could be still be a really enjoyable show. Hence, me watching this one.
Who would’ve thought that I would like an anime about horse girls racing. This is too unreal. I don’t even watch horses race, or even gambling, and yet…I got too deep with this. Uma Musume Pretty Derby is about horse girls competing with each other to be the best horse girl in the country. That premise itself is absurd. Still this anime made it work. The story was weird yet interesting. The pacing wasn’t all over the place, it was consistent. The characters were really lovable and you can’t hate them. The art & animation, uuuggghhhh, P.A. Works totally did their magic. See?!?! Everything works.
One of the things I really like about this anime was the characters. Just like any other slice-of-life animes, the characters development all through out the series is the main focus. This anime had a main character, Special Week, its understandable that she gets alot of character development. But what shocked me was the amount of character development the other girls in the show got too. Even though most of them got few minutes of screentime in every episode, they always leave an impact to me and they also used their time well to show who and what kind of person they are. This adds alot of enjoyment and interest, it made me curious as to what’s going to happen next.
Another reason I like this anime would be its unpredictability. This is not your usual sports anime where you get to see the main character win again and again. Special Week actually has an irregular and inconsistent record in racing, and I love that. It just shows that the main girl is like anyone else in the show, a flawed girl who just wants to win a competition. It made me root for her more to be successful. Not only that, I also like the fact that she’s not always the center of attention. I mean, she wears purple colored uniform during the race, even though its common for the main girl to use either pink or red. Even Suzuka, the fastest girl in the series and the most cutie, wore green instead of the usual. Its very interesting, I like it. The unpredictability of the show made me intrigued to know what’s going to happen next.
Lastly, the art & animation of this series is really unexpected. I had watched alot of slice-of-life animes or sports animes that has fanservice one way or another. And yet, this anime has none. Yep, you read that right. NONE. From their usual school scenes, training scenes, beach scenes and to the competitions scenes. You can’t find any questionable camera angle or weird panty shots. Its….refreshing. I LOVE IT. This anime just wants you to focus on the story and the characters. Yes, I admit the artstyle was abit on the generic side (its the usual P.A. Works design), still, it fits well with the story and theme of the anime. The animation was pretty much alright too. Yes, I do see CG here and there, but they were not distracting at all. The whole series animation was pleasing in the eyes.
Now, I could end this whole review here, but I don’t think this anime would only get positive remarks. Most of my negative remarks went to the trash bin, the moment I finished the 12th episode. Ending it there would be the best way possible for the anime, and yet, there was still the13th episode.
The 13th episode was something I didn’t want. The episode felt like an OVA to me. It was rushed and too many unimportant characters were randomly introduced. It also highlighted one of the negative points I thought I had threw on the trash bin, the supposed importance of “trainer-san”. I admit, he was always there for the girls in Spica. I even sympathized with everything he went thought. But, I had only seen him as a trainer in the first episode, the rest, nah. Even though, the girls do say they are doing the ‘regimen’ the trainer gave to them, I wanted to see more of the trainer-san in the first episode. It was a downer.
Still, my overall enjoyment of the series wasn’t wavered. I had fun watching this one. Every episode was a pleasant watch and it made me look forward to the next episode. I also got excited seeing the girls race. i even cheered and randomly move while watching. It was the enthralling.
Definitely, an enjoyable show. You guys should watch this. The premise might be absurd, but its all worth it.
That’s it for now.
Thanks for reading!!
PS: I so want to see a competition where its only Suzuka & Special Week. Ooohohohohoh
