First Impression: Uma Musume: Pretty Derby

Synopsis

In a world where there exist “horse girls”, there is an academy where only the best go, Tokyo’s Tracen Academy. It is in this academy that horse girls train their hardest with the goal of becoming both racers and idols. One of these girls is Special Week, a high school horse girl who had transferred from the countryside.

Special Week is more than excited to be entering the school as she aims to become the best horse girl in Japan as a promise to her mother. On the way to the school, however, she makes a pit stop at a race track and discovers Silence Suzuka, a top racer, and idol. Inspired by her style she becomes determined to race on the same team as her.

The Good

The concept is interesting enough and the visual of the characters are rather fun. It was interesting to see how the characters are established and the comedy slipped in. As expected the running animation was rather smooth and the way that it was more than blurred motions and had some comparison is interesting. Overall in terms of art, it’s rather smooth and the characters are all cute in design.

On the note of the characters, Special Week makes for a rather cute and the way that her character was established is rather solid. The same goes for the rest of the characters that were introduced in the series. Basically, it’s nice to see the anime setting up building blocks for the rest of the series.

The Bad

While there are some weird aspects of the horse girl aspect presented, the cliches are really what stand out in the episode. From the earnest main character to her being inspired by the star of the track, there are a lot of points that can be found in the typical sports anime with the earnest and innocent protagonist. Honestly, the only thing different with Special Week is how she reacts to certain things and her not being a complete underdog. On a minor note, the whole aspect of them becoming idols seems just a tad tacked on. Them being track racers would h

Conclusion

The concept is interesting, the art and animation are smooth and brings a good visual for the series. Other than that, there is a lot of cliches to be found with the episode, especially with the protagonist and her goals. Really, the whole aiming for the top and being inspired by a star of the spot has been done just one too many times. It’s not bad, but personally, the series doesn’t really incite high interest.

Rating: 6/10