Why I run, you ask?
Because I can.
Being able to stand and run...
That alone is like a miracle to me.
So even just running makes me happy.
That's all.
In a world full of protagonists who aim to reach the top - catch all the Pokemon, be the king of pirates, the number 1 hero, the best at football, basketball, volleyball, let it even be the best chef in the world, I don't know, you name it - in a world chock full of those characters aspiring to reach some lofty and admirable goals, sometimes you will find an outlier going against the "norm" among them.
Someone who doesn't try to make it to a metaphorical finish line, someone who doesn't need to be the best, the most popular, the most thought-after player in the business.
Someone who is just content with what they have and what they can do.
Someone who is not searching for a goal, but the goal is searching for instead.
Someone like, for example, Kotetsu Kaburagi from the Tiger & Bunny series, who doesn't do any of that hero business for some kind of big fame or money, but just to make his daughter happy and think he's a cool dad (he is, btw).
To put it in the words of the series itself
"Someone who you'd feel like supporting with all your heart, as if you see yourself in them."
For Cinderella Grey, what we have is nothing but a girl who runs.
A girl who likes to run - just because she can.
That.
is Oguri Cap.
Behind her drive to participate and win in these races, there is no big inspiration to be the best, there is no huge motivator keeping her afloat that she can fully rely on or fall back to whenever she finds herself in a bind. There is no need for those for her in her life.
What is instead spurring her on is an unbridled and unparalleled passion for the sport.
She runs for no reason other than the fact that she is capable of doing so.
Born frail and fragile, with her knees so weak as if they were seemingly made out of glass, barely able to even stand or walk at first, she falls into the care of her "mother"'s physical therapy with daily leg massages to make them more flexible - turning her biggest weakness into her biggest strength - until one day she is finally capable of moving ahead on her own.
Until she - like her actual mother before her (I think that was implied in an earlier episode, someone help me out here lol) - can finally run to her heart's content.All her accomplishments, the goals she sets herself and aspires to reach together with her equally passionate trainer Kitahara Jones and the other umamusume around her as her rivals and/or friends, come after the fact. Those goals find her just as much as she finds them.
She decides to reach out for the stars, because the stars decided to reach out for her.
Don't get me wrong, her eventual goals she settles on along the way in itself still are the top of the nation and all that jazz but what takes priority over all of it first and foremost, though, is her love for running. Her love for the sheer fun she has while letting loose on the field and the adrenaline rush kicking in when pushing her feet to the ground for her last spurt of these races and feeling the wind pass by on her skin.
A love so bright and blinding, a quiet passion akin to magma bubbling beneath the surface ready to burst at any moment, that inspires not only her trainer, the other umamusume around her, the audiences of the races on the tracks and in their homes cheering her on, no...
A love and passion that inspires you - the viewers - to not only root and cheer for her in these races, but to also try to work on yourself and improve your life for the better.
When she experiences a setback, she doesn't let herself get down by it. She uses her passion and love for running - and the connections she ultimately makes through those - as a fuel to carry on and improve herself steadily the more and more experience she gains.
Oguri Cap isn't loud, isn't overly optimistic, energetic or bubbly like you would expect from the usual cute girl protagonist - or even just from what I am writing here.
Instead, her love and passion is a quiet, more restrained one of few words and more actions that nevertheless manages to pull you in completely.
Oguri Cap.
Make this era - this world your own. Let your races light a fire in your fan's hearts. Give them the strength - the courage - to carry on. Become an Umamusume beloved by all. An Umamusume that can give all that love back.
An Umamusume unlike any before her.
Adn most certainly the love she will give back!
While this show sports an incredibly tightly-written and compelling cast in the aforementioned trainer Kitahara, Berno Light, Fujimasa March and her goon squad, Tamamo Cross(especially her as the perfect rival Oguri can have), Symboli Rudolf, Sakura Chiyono, ~~Roppei~~ Ginjirou Musaka, Yaeno Muteki and many many more, she is what ultimately makes it what it is. What makes it as special as it is.
Because at its heart...
Cinderella Grey is Oguri Cap - and Oguri Cap is Cinderella Grey.
Or in other words:
Oguri Cap added to listed favorites.
Step aside Solo Leveling.
THIS is what aura REALLY looks like.This show scratched the itch my recent Run with the Wind watch unfortunately wasn't fully able to reach...
Not to mention, the comedy in the show is JUST my type of humor, too.
This was my very first dive into the Umamusume franchise, and if this is what I can expect out of it going forward, then I might just be the happiest man alive right now!
Forget all the big emotional and hype climaxes, epic battles or huge reveals of certain mysteries. The true beauty of a story lies in these small, seemingly insignificant moments of interactions between the characters talking about their feelings or the most normal stuff out there, and making those scenes effective and impactful. They are what enhances a show beyond being merely fiction and bring them to life - they carry them right into your heart and soul.
This is a show that I could very well see becoming part of my favorites with its sequel seasons.
In my heart, it already absolutely is one.
I've read ahead a bit in the manga over the course of the last two weeks, and by now I'm sure the second cour for this in Fall this year is gonna be front favorites material! So, needless to say, but
I am HYPED!
It is, undoubtedly, my personal pick for new Anime of the Year so far.
And I quite honestly think that's probably not gonna change anymore...
And this was just the build-up to the big stuff coming afterwards...