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Uma Musume Pretty Derby Gets Special Anime to Commemorate Game's 1st Anniversary
posted on by Alex Mateo
The official Pakatube YouTube channel for Cygames' Uma Musume Pretty Derby series began streaming on Tuesday a special anime commemorating the first anniversary of the game's release.
The cast of the television anime return for the special. Hinaki Yano and Hina Tachibana perform the ending theme song "Ambitious World" as their characters, Kitasan Black and Satono Diamond, respectively. The special anime follows these two characters at Tracen Academy's entrance ceremony in spring.
Kei Okawa (This Art Club Has a Problem!, Outbreak Company, My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU TOO!) returned to direct the special anime at Studio KAI. Tetsuya Kobari was the scenario director. Meiko Matsuno wrote the screenplay. Minami Kiyonoga supervised character design. Yousuke Kabashima and Tomoko Tsuji returned as character designers, and Tsuji also served as chief animation director. Keita Fukuda returned as animation director. Tetsuya Uchida (Umayon) composed the music.
The first anniversary livestream also introduced the characters Sakura Laurel, (pictured above) Yamanin Zephyr, Aston Machan, (pictured below) and two mystery characters.
Uma Musume Pretty Derby launched in February 2021 for iOS and Android. The game was originally slated for a release in Winter 2018, and was delayed in order to raise the game's quality. The game got a release on PC via DMM Games in March 2021.
The first 13-episode Uma Musume Pretty Derby television anime season premiered in April 2018. Crunchyroll streamed the series as it aired in Japan. A "BNW no Chikai" (BNW's Oath) anime came bundled with the Uma Musume Pretty Derby television anime's fourth Blu-ray Disc volume in December 2018.
Oikawa directed the first anime season at P.A. Works. Yousuke Kabashima (D.Gray-man Hallow, Lord Marksman and Vanadis) designed the characters and served as chief animation director. Masafumi Sugiura (aka Pierre Sugiura, Touken Ranbu: Hanamaru scripts) and Cygames' Akihiro Ishihara both wrote and oversaw the series scripts. UTAMARO movement composed the music at Lantis.
The second season of the main Uma Musume Pretty Derby television anime premiered on the the Tokyo MX and BS11 channels in January 2021. Crunchyroll streamed the anime as it aired in Japan.
The Uma Musume Pretty Derby franchise's spinoff manga series Umayon also inspired its own television anime that premiered in July 2020 and ended in September 2020.
The game's concept begins with Uma Musume (Horse Girls), girls endowed with excellent running capability, and who aim to become top idols and compete in the national sports entertainment show "Twinkle Series." Players take the role of both teacher and trainer for the girls in the Nihon Uma Musume Training Center Gakuen (Japan Horse Girls Training Center Academy) and help them make their debut.
Cygames is also publishing several other spinoff manga for the franchise on Cycomi, including Uma Musume Pretty Derby: Haru urara Ganbaru! and Starting Gate: Uma Musume Pretty Derby
Sources: Uma Musume series' Pakatube channel via Yaraon!, Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web
