road to the top is an interesting one because its formatted into a 4 ep ovas which i wished they gave us a full season instead but i guess that asking for too much considering the level of quality that cygames is pushing for these types of projects. this is where we get really into those crazy level animations that you can just see the blood sweet and pure passion that burns in the viewer’s eye. really everything in this ova is just eye candy and i cant wait for whenever we get another one of these “cygames special omega budget” uma projects if ever.

uma musume is great at showcasing interesting and unique characters that give them life thats more than just the character themselves (if that makes sense, i hope it does). opera o is one example of that, even though we dont see much of her as she really is just a competitor in relation to top road and vega. top road is a character that is very much that standard protag herione that wants to win above all else and make her trainer proud. vega here is winning for personal reasons, that she stole her sister’s “life” knowing that winning is a just device to make sure that she suceeds in the place of her dead relative. opera o is the spirit of winning, she relishes in it, bathes in it, and that regardless of outcome, all she wants is to just have a good ass horse race.

what makes road to the top so special (week :trollface:) is that all 3 of these characters represent on what winning means to them. but the road is not just about winning, whats your reason, why is it your reason, to win? winning also doesnt just contain yourself, its the people around you that supported you on this journey. vega here doesnt like that idea, meanie. but she has a reason for thinking its selfish for her to enjoy winning. her imaginary visage of her dead sister doesnt allow that satisfaction. she thinks it is her fault for robbing that life away from her, in fact that its the complete opposite. the heartwarming moment when she realized that she should enjoy racing, she is able to live and see this racetrack in place of her sister. that is what this whole movie is about, and top road is a victim to this as well. we see that as she started losing, she desperately wanted to go back and force herself to train even harder so that would never want to let her trainer down. to people to envy her and cheer her on as she is the horse’s champion of her hometown. and where does opera o fit into all this? well she may the most narracstic, charismatic horse that flauts about amazingness in every word she says, she does care about the people who race with her. that without strong opponents, who is going say “im the strongest in the world!” without being any competition in the first place.

road to the top is a short but inspiring story about uma musumes that want to know what it takes to win without sacrificing the joys of it and learning from what we could take from our mistakes. god this show is fucking good. going to new era next.