Uma Musume: Pretty Derby Season 2

Within the horse-racing world, the horse girls of Team Spica have been gaining popularity as they continue to rack up victories. The one receiving the most attention in the group is Toukai Teiou, known for her cheerful personality and exceptional running skills. Teiou aims to become an undefeated Triple Crown horse girl by winning all three G1 races consecutively, a feat that has not been accomplished since the legendary Symboli Rudolf managed to do so many years ago.

On her path to obtaining the Triple Crown, Teiou is met with many challenges, encountering both old and new rivals. Amidst her fierce rivalries, however, Teiou is soon confronted with decisions that will leave a huge impact on her very own racing career.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Toukai Teiou Main

Machico Japanese

Mejiro McQueen Main

Oonishi, Saori Japanese

Oguri Cap Supporting

Takayanagi, Tomoyo Japanese

Rice Shower Supporting

Iwami, Manaka Japanese

Gold Ship Supporting

Ueda, Hitomi Japanese

Special Week Supporting

Waki, Azumi Japanese

Silence Suzuka Supporting

Kouno, Marika Japanese

T.M. Opera O Supporting

Tokui, Sora Japanese

Kitasan Black Supporting

Yano, Hinaki Japanese

Nice Nature Supporting

Maeda, Kaori Japanese

Masuo, Masashi Producer

Matsumura, Nao Producer

Shouji, Yuki Producer

Akita, Minoru Producer

Reviews

Mar 29, 2021

KANLen09

Recommended

It's been almost 3 years ever since CyGames' Uma Musume came out, and while Season 1 back in Spring 2018 only garnered moderate attention, it was enough to make it stand out amongst the other shows that aired in the similar time period. Fast forward the same time to Winter 2021, and it was even a surprise that Uma Musume would get a sequel season with almost everything intact from the story basis to the characters, albeit the only change now is with a new studio.

In a nutshell, if you remembered what went through in Season 1 all those years ago, the same plot template ... can be found here: 2 central horsegirl characters, accompanied by their own team with rival teams and horsegirls, and most importantly, staying true to the history of their legacy and remitting the exact same emotions and feelings of the former.

This sequel season changes the main roles from Special Week and Silence Suzuka to Tokai Teio and Mejiro McQueen, and for the most part, the character story established here is indefinitely stronger than just the student-teacher relationship of Spe-chan and Suzuka. For the most part, both Teio and McQueen have been very competitive horsegirls, from Teio bearing the exact same story basis of Season 1 with Tracen Academy's Student Council President Symboli Rudolf and looking up to her as the inspiration of being a horsegirl, to McQueen bearing the prestigous family name to uphold high standards. Friends-cum-rivals, winners or losers, lead or support, do or die, there's traits that will keep all engrossed in the tight loop of experiencing emotions like a true horse race of smiles and cries to the breaking point of bets earned or lost.

New to Season 2 are more characters from the game, and adding to what is already an extensive list of the Uma Musume character roster. Included are the horse girls from Team Canopus: Ikuno Dictus, Nice Nature, Twin Turbo and Matikane Tannhauser, and individuals like Mihono Bourbon and the underdog Rice Shower to give some semblance to the "antagonist" story feature that Season 1 lacked with in the rival segments of the show. For the most part, it's as what you'd expect if you've watched Season 1, nothing is new here, and I'm fine with it since the characterization has been carried forward with minimal changes and such.

As anyone would've guessed, when a replacement studio comes in, there's bound to be some legitimate worries, but I can safely say that Studio Kai has kept everything that P.A. Works have established (it's still helping in production cooperation). With the improvement in the 3DCG camera work of the horse races to make it look more realistic and appealing, it's largely for the better since P.A. Works didn't really do a great job on the production of the horse races in Season 1 with everything being 2D. Nonetheless, this could've been a double studio cooperation work, but I understand why Studio Kai (which only existed to produce Netflix anime) is chosen as the lead animation production studio.

Music is just pretty much the same ear-punching goodness carried forward, and I'm fine with this season cutting out the Winning Stage for the horse girl winners entirely since it only existed to promote the game back when Season 1 aired, otherwise this is no right to exist in this season since the characters play the integral part this time around.

All in all, for a pretty competitive season, Season 2 brings a pretty compelling story to say the least, and top it up with some needed improvement in the animation spectrum, you have a sequel that is the same as the last, but leaps and bounds better for a nice touch.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Mar 29, 2021

halfaspider

Recommended

I can’t lie, I made the mistake of writing off Uma Musume as a show to be skipped up until just a week ago when I tried starting the first season. At the surface, there are a lot of reasons it seems likely to fail--the biggest being 1) girls with animal ears and tails and 2) game source-material. Empirically, you are probably okay to skip shows with either one of those qualities so you’d think you can skip one with both. Yet you, like previous me, would be making a mistake skipping Uma Musume. This show is not great *in spite* of these qualities, but ... rather *because of these qualities* and it is made possible by what is clearly a LOT of love and attention from its creators at every level of detail. The thought put into season 2 in particular results in one of those rare gems of a show that has you laughing while you cry and wishing it would never end.

I’ll start with the above points that stood out most to me prior to watching the show. It is really easy (and usually fair) to see a show with a bunch of cute girls with animal ears and tails and call it gimmicky. Uma Musume is not a show about girls who just happen to have horse ears and tails, it is a show about horse girls. Why do they all have such crazy names? Because they’re horse girls. Why do they love carrots so much? Because they’re horse girls. Why do they all run in competitions? Because they’re horse girls. Why do they sometimes struggle to get into the starting gate? Because they’re horse girls. Why do they do idol-style dance performances after each race? Probably because they’re horse girls (not 100% sure on that one I’m not a horse expert). But these things along with many others are *built in* to the show in the dialogue, the plot, and the characters themselves. I don’t necessarily recommend looking up the real horses that the girls were named after (it can be pretty depressing), but many of their behaviors and many of the plot points were derived from a horse that really ran the racetrack. Regardless of whether you think that is neat or not, it does serve to give an element of unpredictability to many of the stories and personality to the characters. If somehow all the horse girls in Uma Musume were suddenly not horse girls but regular girls, it would be a fundamentally different and less interesting show.

As for the game source material, the problem you expect a show to run into when it is based on a gacha game is almost always going to be lack of substance. And it makes sense; if you go off source material only, you might have nothing more than a few Ultra Rare JPEGs and some voice lines to make up a character. In that sort of situation, it is up to the anime creators to fill in a lot of blanks--especially with two full seasons (so far) of content. On the other hand, you can imagine these circumstances may allow for greater creative freedom than is ordinary if the creators will step up to the plate; and I can only imagine that is exactly what happened. The director, Oikawa Kei, clearly deserves the maddest of props and has made his way straight to my favorites (I’m also a huge fan of Hinamatsuri). Just about every scene was so packed full of layers of entertainment--the main story happening in the foreground while jokes and gags constantly fill the background. Running gags that go on for entire seasons USUALLY get old about half way through, but there are actually just SO many that are placed with such precision I found myself laughing throughout. At the same time, moments that seem like they should have been cheesy were insead incredibly hype or emotional. Even the “trainer” character who is clearly a stand-in for the player character in the game adds to the story and has meaningful interactions that keep him from feeling like a completely flat self-insert character. Uma Musume actually makes it feel that if the team is talented enough to get creative and REALLY make the show their own (plus with the budget of a gacha game backing the project), game-based anime may not just be viable; but preferable to some of the other adaptations we’ve been seeing.

There is definitely plenty to say in terms of praise for the show and I think that most everything I’ve mentioned applies to both season 1 and season 2… just not to the same extent. I liked season 1. It was enjoyable for many of the reasons I have written above, but if it were just season 1, I would not have gone to the effort to write a review. But season 2? Season 2 took what was already a pretty good show and upgraded nearly every part of it like I’ve never seen upgraded before. You get upgraded main characters, upgraded side characters, upgraded main stories, upgraded side stories, upgraded rival club, upgraded comedy, upgraded drama, you name it. All somehow while maintaining the show’s identity and feeling. It is clear that an incredible amount of thought and planning was had on what could be improved or fixed up going into the new season. That, along with the *density* of content, really made me feel like the people making this were putting as much effort into it as their characters were putting into winning their races.

I absolutely loved Uma Musume and would be ecstatic to hear a third season announcement. I have no doubt they could take even any of the side characters (c’mon Twin Turbo) from either season and, if the same amount of love and attention is given, make something awesome again. My recommendation is that everyone check out the first season. If you for some reason HATE the first season, okay it isn’t for you probably. But if you like it at all, get ready for a treat in season 2 and hopefully season 3 someday.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Mar 31, 2021

JiangHaoyi1979

Mixed Feelings

Move aside Special Week and Silent Suzuka, cu'z it's time for Teio Tokai and Mejior McQueen to shine......on the 1st season it was more like a subtle yuri/ rivalry between Special Week and Silent Suzuka, now it was more like sets backs, bad luck and getting back on your feet theme for Teio ToKai and Mejior McQueen's being on top to tumbling down kind of thing.....

So, WTF is the fuck?

Story-Mediocre 5: However you wanna put it, it was just simply an repeat of the of that winning the ultimate prize thing. set back that happens to Teio and Mejior were just part of ... that "Oh so the drama" thing.

Art-Mediocre 5: All that zettai ryoki and not fanservices usual stuff.

Sound- Good 7: that was for Teio's song in the last episode.

Character- Mediocre 5: We already knew Teio Tokai and Mejior McQueen from the pervious season, right???? So what's there to say, when the bottom line was for her to win that G-1 Arima Kinen race to which she got in in a silver platter when something bad has happened to Mejior McQueen, that has prevented her from continuing.

Enjoyment-fair 6: Ok, I would say that this was enjoyable, but given that this was merely a repeat of the first season but with different character, one part of me finds this a chore to watch, but one part of me doesn't.

Overall-Mediocre 5: If you're not gonna find this boring then enjoy, if not then drop this........season 3???? The question is , who will it be this time?

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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