(Please cut me some slack this is my first ever review lmao)

Where do I even begin? I think the initial feelings after watching this cour.

UMAZING!

Absolute Cap Fiction... Cap as in PEAK!

Now to a more structured approach:

Let's start with a sentiment I think many might agree with:

I truly hope they continue to make Umamusume anime of making an actual sports anime. Don't get me wrong I liked season 1 to 3 especially the characters. I even liked the Slice of Life parts and the more relaxed parts. I get that especially the earlier seasons (especially season 1) were to advertise the game. But what makes a sports show good are interesting characters, a nice high-adrenaline competition in the sport they compete in and hype moments in said matches.

This is the reason why the episodes with meaningful races like the Rice Shower or Tokai Teio ones felt so great as they did: because they were impactful to their character growth and story regardless of who won. There were stakes and beautiful character writing included in those moments. I feel like they really stuck to the game identity with the idol cutesy stuff, especially to cater to japanese folk who already knew of that game which is fair given they made millions of japanese people alone. I however feel like a little bit of the competitiveness go cut short by that as we got slide show wins or a single picture of them holding the trophy while an ending plays (sideye to Season 3 especially who did my goat Kitasan dirty).

Rambling about the boom of Umamusume in the west (Review continues on a later part):

But then they did something. Something I am pretty sure was 100% a marketing move and intended. As we know CyGames is a corporation first and foremost. A corporation who analyzes the market. And how do you get a niche concept as this into a world wide audience who might not even be into horse-races in the first place? You release a movie with no prior knowledge needed with absolute top-notch peak animation that goes absolutely ham. Why else is something like JJK or Solo Leveling so outrageously popular among casuals who watch for mindless fun? And I am pretty sure they knew that.

Some might not remember but in 2024 the outrage on social media was enormous on how a show about "horse girls racing" is allowed to have such godly animation while stuff like "Tower of God" and "Blue Lock" get done so dirty. And honestly? I am also one who got to know of Uma Musume through outrage on Social Media (not that I shared their sentiment at all. I just got to know of this franchise through that). But exactly one month after the movie released they confirmed an english/global release for this franchise. And ever since then they had ideas to expand to global CyGames took over Anime Productions (I know Road to the top came out before season 3) for Umamusume.

Now about Cinderella Gray:

Of course this anime has, unusual for Uma Musume, a Manga that it follows and one that is released in Weekly Young Jump so of course would follow a more manga-sports theme than the previous iterations of this verse. High-stakes competition, with characters to root for, gorgeous visuals, top-notch voiceacting, great rivalries and easy to follow premise? This show is such a banger it's insane. It does such simple things so well which other shows just seem to not get. The biggest factor for me: not a powerfantasy mc who always wins like most sports anime. The fact that Oguri can and will fail sometimes and not just once for "development" is just so damn good. I can't even fully describe it except for easy to digest sports show that made me glued to my seat like I was watching an actual sports game especially since Oguri can always fail and just not finish first which makes it all the more satisfying when she does (although I am a Tamamo glazer can't lie).

I can only hope for the next installments to follow the high-adrenaline sports rivalry of cinderella gray. let's not forget that beginning of a new era was also made with no Manga as a source so it's not that farfetched to hope for the next installments, which are not cinderella gray, to lean more into the sports drama type also to cater to their new world-wide found fanbase (copium tastes nice).