Forum - View topicREVIEW: Uma Musume Pretty Derby Season 1
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Merxamers
 Posts: 720 |
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I ended up a huge fan of this show; once you get past the eccentric premise, it really is a solid sports anime, and the drama from that is enough to ground the plot and give emotional investment. The review was fairly comprehensive on it's positives, so I'll just second:
- the background and sight gags really are great; there's a quirky sense of humor to the show that always got a chuckle from me. At its best, the humor has a lot of heart to it, like that flashback where Special Week's adopted mom tries to train her for racing. - the animation during key action scenes was adrenaline inducing, bringing out the best of simply "people running very fast." At times it was like they had jet engines
This was consistently hilarious too! It's like the show had to be constantly reminded that "oh yeah, they're supposed to sing and dance too, huh." I liked this show quite a bit; I'd recommend both this and the second season (which triples down on the sports drama and will tear your heart out). It's goofy but has a lot of heart. |
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Millhi
 Posts: 144 |
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Yup also agree with this. Hope Christopher liked the show enough to also review season 2 which honestly I think is miles better then S1. |
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Electric Wooloo
Posts: 315 |
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Really enjoyed S1 myself, though haven't watched S2 yet. (It being about Teio put me off as she was my least favorite of the group, but reading about it after finishing I wanna watch it when I have some time)
This series does a sort of "adapting reality" thing that's really difficult to do well but super rewarding when done right. All the character quirks and race performances are based of the actual horses and their race performances but the series tells its own story. Reminds me in a way of Girls und Panzer and how that series managed to integrate historical references and callbacks while also being a "sports" series with its own plot/premise. |
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TasteyCookie
 Posts: 423 |
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I absolutely agree and also hope we get a season 2 review. It was slept on by way too many (myself included) due to being in such a packed season. Where season 1 was a fun show with a lot of heart, season 2 is a genuinely emotional and compelling tale of the struggles athletes go through. As someone who is not usually keen on sports shows, season 2 blew away my expectations of how invested I would get into the lives of these lovable horse girls.
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drmagma
Posts: 3 |
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Please do a review for season 2. It is genuinely a cut above the first season (not to disparage season 1 in any way), and arguably one of the best sports anime I have ever watched.
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kotomikun
Posts: 1205 |
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It feels... rather less subtle than that, given that it's based on a mobile game that was created because someone realized they could make a lot of money by getting anime fan(boy)s into the age-old gambling bonanza that is horse racing (on top of the game being gacha). The inanity of the whole concept kinda turns me off to it from the start, even if it is, in theory, a case of the animators making the best of an uninspired idea. |
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Electric Wooloo
Posts: 315 |
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To a certain extent I agree with you, but on the other hand the mobile game only came out last month while Season one of the anime came out years ago. The anime was made to hype up the game certainly, but the game was plagued with delays (People assume licensing issues with so many actual horses who's names they're using). So the anime was more made to complement the game and stand in it's own right. |
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Dark Mac
Posts: 323 |
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The idol stuff and the trainers were big flaws. S2 wasn't much better, unfortunately.
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H. Guderian
Posts: 1255 |
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About 80% of all Anime:
"Listen, once you get past how dumb the setting is..." |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11627 |
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Yeah, me too. I keep hoping to have time to watch it, but until seasons start to even out a bit more in terms of quality/quantity, it'll probably remain on the shelf. I would've liked S1 better without the idol bit thrown in. That was just a bit too extra and nearly made me drop it in the beginning. I was also dismayed that the anime never acknowledged the rl death of Special Week during its run, like in an end card or something, like they do when staff or actors die during airing. But I was impressed at how faithful they were to the race in which spoiler[Suzuka] was injured, right down to the part of the track where it happened. The ending was kinda weird, either super ambiguous or ridiculously improbable and cheesy, if they were implying what I think they were implying (spoiler[an 18-way tie??]). I can see that Christopher had fun in the course of writing this, what with all the equine puns jockeying for position. |
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Electric Wooloo
Posts: 315 |
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[quote="Gina Szanboti"]
I remember being baffled by that as well. After all the carefully thought out races beforehand that was out of left field. Looking back it feels like they weren't planning a S2 and wanted to have an spoiler[ Everybody wins! ] ending leading into the planned release of the game. |
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Covnam
 Posts: 3857 |
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The horse puns in this review were on point, looking forward to reading the season 2 review.
I had a lot of fun watching this show (and the next season). I thought it was just going to be some nonsense I could put on before going to sleep, but I ended up really enjoying it. The unpredictability of the races being based on real events is a nice touch. While not a significant issue, I think the mobile game origins of this show hold it back though. The impractical use of horse shoes and even more impractical outfits they run in leaves you scratching your head when the girls are talking about getting every ounce of speed they can. The inhumane paddocks they are forced to start in along with the ill-fitting idol shows also stick out (though those don't happen as often as you'd expect). Hopefully there's a 3rd season coming 
The character focus change at the start of S2 turned me off a bit as well, but it was well worth the watch. |
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omiya
 Posts: 1857 Location: Adelaide, South Australia |
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Also worth watching part of a live performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rm6fdmaiIlw
They also appeared at Animelo Summer Live 2018, running around the inside of Saitama Super Arena. |
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scineram
 Posts: 371 Location: Green Hell |
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[quote="Electric Wooloo"]
Actually it's not like they were super faithful throughout the series apart from Suzuka. Special Week and El Condor Pasa had just one race together. There was no tie between them later of course. |
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Electric Wooloo
Posts: 315 |
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[quote="scineram"]
All the races leading up to the Japan Cup, Suzuka's races, Grass Wonder's arc of recovery and race positions, El Condor Pasa racing abroad, the race with Broye, the summary at the beginning of episode 13 stating Teio and McQueen's records are all pulled right from actual races. I'd argue that just about every race up until the end of episode 13, except for the tie with El Condor Pasa for dramatic purposes, was pretty darn faithful and carefully adapted. |
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