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The premise behind this series is intriguing. It’s about horse girls who work as both students and idols and race during horse race events, as well as win in order to appear as icons. The school they study in is called Tracen Academy which is located in Tokyo. The main horse girl we’re following here is Special Week. Her goal is to be a top horse girl in order to spread her popularity and promise her mother. Something interesting to note here is that this is based on the history of Japanese horse racing from 1998 to 1999. The horse girls are based on Japanese horses, looking at both their silhouette and their color schemes, and certain of them based on this season’s choices appear as they’re also based on their IRL counterparts’ histories. This is interesting because of how this show presents its own take on horse-racing history. The horse girls are students on certain things they’re assigned to and they’re idols while they’re still based on their IRL horses and therefore, racing each other in order to reach their spotlights. How well does this show tackle these things?
To that, I answer, very well surprisingly. Sure, it’s quirky and comedic but the first season of Uma is both competent and relatively philosophical with its own ideas. Uma Musume shows the tension of racing. The horse girls will try their damn best to keep on getting stronger until the day they enter a competition. There are two different types of racing events. One is normal racing which, while it still results in who will appear on top of the leaderboards, is still a testament to how strong a horse girl can get. The other is grand racing which will serve as something like an assessment of how skilled and competent you are in a race. You need to work hard if you want to appear on top. If you lose, you need to wait for weeks or even months until another grand race will happen. These races are executed well because not only are they fun but they also show both the fighting spirit and knowledge of each horse girl. Not only that but it also wants you to prove how worthy you are at racing. Even if you lose, you can still work harder.
Another aspect that has been done well is the worldbuilding. The direction of this season is consistent. It shows us the buildups of events and what a character will do in there. The touring in Tracen Academy is very endearing, to say the least. We actually see what the academy looks like and how each location serves its purpose. We have the main building, cafeteria, library, training rooms, you name it. While they seem basic from initial looks, we actually see certain character buildups before they perform the big stuff like racing each other, allowing for consistent character writing which we’ll get into later. The years in the school are kind of confusing but then again, every character doesn’t really have a confirmed age (and we’re not counting the ages of IRL horses here) so that’s kind of a whatever. The racing places look sick and I don’t think I would touch on that more since I already tackled the racing aspect. Not just those but we also tour around other places where we see our favorite horse girls do what they like to do in their casual times.
There’s one major flaw to this, however, and that is how this show uses comedy. That isn’t to say that comedy in this series is bad or even run-of-the-mill. The comedy here is actually very good. There are jokes that are handled well. My personal favorite of the bunch is Rudolf cracking up dad puns for a living. It’s just that Uma uses it a little too much for how philosophical its storytelling is. It’s not overwhelming per se but somewhat half of the time, comedy is this show’s secondary tool whenever the story sometimes runs out of ideas. While it doesn’t hold the series back, it’s still a relatively big problem we need to address. Another problem is, surprisingly, the racing. Going back to that aspect, there’s something a little wrong. Again, the racing in this series is handled well. It’s just that there isn’t a lot of strategy to be found. There is almost little involved which is still okay since a lot of the horse girls can have the same type of strategy depending on their individual pros and cons. So while the racing is still engaging and directed nicely, it can be a little repetitive at times.
Also, the idol aspect is a somewhat important addition to the series and sadly, it’s not utilized to its full potential. There are some idol performances and they’re great but for the most part, it’s treated as fanservice. Then again, though, Uma Musume as a whole is about showing the ideals and messages of how complex and enticing racing can be so I guess this aspect doesn’t matter as much.
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Let’s talk about characters which might be the weakest aspect of this season but that doesn’t matter since it’s still solid. We’ll start with our main horse girl, Special Week, who’s determined and wishes to appear on top of the leaderboards. Spe is a good protagonist and better written than people would like to admit. She shows how dedicated she is to her journey, she has good chemistry with certain characters, and she’s a great introduction to how competent the series is with its cast. She also does the "protag who knows nothing about the world" trope done right. Just one problem, though. Her obsession with Suzuka is kinda annoying and this is shown in most of the middle portions of the show. Speaking of, Silence Suzuka, Spe’s racing mate, is also a good main character for similar reasons, although she’s a little better written than Spe could ever be.
The side characters are decent. You have Teio, you have Rudolf, you have McQueen, and so on. They fulfill their characteristics well but the best side character here is Gold Ship. In fact, she’s arguably the best part of the show. She’s quirky, she’s wacky, and yet, she’s very dedicated. Even if she’s written as a side character, she’s more developed than any other character in this season because of how much fun this season had with her. Shoutouts to the duo of Vodka and Daiwa too. Those two characters are also very endearing with a very good chemistry with one another.
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Now then, what about the animation? The animation for the most part is well done. It’s not groundbreaking but it’s straight to the point with how it conveys the action of racing. The character designs, even for this series’ standards, are criminally overlooked. The aesthetics lean towards a great blend of simplicity, style, and how they fit well with each character. The music is also underrated. Each track nicely matches with each sequence. And who can forget about the voice acting? Most of the voice acting is great, with the best one being Gold Ship’s energy.
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Quick character tier list for a recap. I'm sure there are far more but I only include ones that catch my attention.
And those are my thoughts on Uma Musume season 1. I’m sure there are more aspects I can talk about but I elected to discuss the ones that are the most important. The first season is overlooked. It has more things about its story that aren’t just cute horse girls thingy. It shows the complexity of racing, it has great worldbuilding, and it shows respect for its characters. The only problems are that it can tone down comedy just a bit, it would have opened more variety of how the horse girls race, mainly picking up more strategies, and it could use more on the idol aspect. But alas, the first season is just the tip of the iceberg. We’ll talk about season 2 at another time.