| S3 of Pretty Derby kinda disappointed the fans, especially in Japan after the highs in S2 and RTTT ONAs. There's a lot of reasons like patches of poor storytelling, messy narrative, bad screentime management and other technical things. There's also cheesy repetitive shots and some episodes felt like overcompensating by featuring every uma possible or including SoL elements. The age dilemma is too conspicuous to avoid. S2 features horse protags from 90s and Kitasan is not from even a decade ago. But I am focusing only on the main character here, Kitasan Black. Her real life version is a badass and robust stallion that won so many hearts that each and every one of his victories were like the beginning of a festival. The raw strength, inelegant but spectacular technique has been adapted well into the anime. In fact I like her motivation to "recreate the sensation the crowds felt after Teio's Arima Kinen win", while it's hidden under the more superficial goal of "not losing". Otherwise, we went through a huge missed opportunity regarding one of the most beloved modern Japanese horse. I kinda researched about what ticked off the Japanese, and that gave me some of the answers. 1. Kitasan Black popularity: He was more of an underdog because of the not very impressive pedigree. Meanwhile our uma musume just starts out like a hyped prodigy or next big thing from get go. 2. Very rocky beginning: Even after winning his first three races, people were less than impressed. Was not in top 5 in Derby favourites and justified people's low expectations through being placed 14th in the Derby. The steely performance in Tenmo Sho (spring) brought the trust back. The show was more focussed on some Rice Shower-Bourbon reunion as mentors fanservice. 3. Actual rivals versus Dia chan: Continuing Dia chan and Kitasan narrative from S2 was an example of a unnecessary continuity. Satono Diamond is younger than Kitasan; in fact Kitasan's biggest rivals were Satono Crown and Cheval Grand. But they barely bothered about Crown - the opening even teases one of his best races in Hong Kong. Cheval Grand is treated very obscurely until the sudden confession of love. Ok she's shy and had her screentime with sisters, but where's her on-screen dynamics with Kitasan? This story is meant to be about an underdog who grew up to dominate the field with sheer toughness as all the contemporaries bravely line up to defeat them. What we instead get is a prodigy breaking into tears whenever she encounters the slightest obstacle and over-involving seniors, trainer and even common people to gain the strength to win. 4. Unlikely mentors: Mihono Bourbon and Rice Shower, as much as I love the duo, overstayed their plot heavy welcome. Tokai Teio just gave some obligatory pep talk. Dunno what they planned with Gold Ship, he just ended an arc that never began. Finally, they used the fan favorite Nice Nature as a mentor too. All of this makes Kitasan look more spoiled than ever, when the real life version was a battle hardened warrior. Some people even saw Sakura Bakushin O as a better mentor figure, considering he's the "grandfather"; but in the anime he's just the part of a (literal) running gag. All being said, I appreciate how they treated Kitasan's retirement storyline and made her a "people's champion". But they really missed the opportunity to handle a different kind of protagonist. Also a horse believed to struggle crossing 2000m, but he became a stayer!!  |
Laplace_kunJun 3, 3:08 AM
| "All truth is meaningless. In the end, 'meaning' comes from the mind of each individual human. Even when there is a single truth, it can mean different things to different individuals. The truth has no meaning in itself!" - Erika Furudo |
| @Vizvezdenec your thoughts on the matter? I saw your reply to that guy in the CG thread, but didn't want to contribute further to that thread. |
| "All truth is meaningless. In the end, 'meaning' comes from the mind of each individual human. Even when there is a single truth, it can mean different things to different individuals. The truth has no meaning in itself!" - Erika Furudo |
| @Vizvezdenec absolutely agreed, it would be hard to match the drama aspects of Rice and Teio, but as I said this could have been a different genre story. For example, Agnes Tachyon was not about rivalry; even the injury wasn't the biggest part, it was about her discovering the limits of horse racing. But like a scientist, she doesn't mind if someone else does it in her place. People love her character because of the smart writing. And that is what we need, not every beloved horse has a Oguri Cap or Deep Impact like career. Kitasan's biggest trait is "reliability". So S3 shows this by... making her help the locals! I mean I am not complaining, it's sweet. I think the biggest mistake was already the awkward time skip of eras. Which kinda made the world building wacky. After RTTT, the natural order would have been Opera-Doto era and then the movie, followed by Digital-Manhattan times and so on... The Pretty Derby series and Cygames branching out feels like MCU and Fox studios running parallel universes. Kitasan always had opponents who were hyped to beat him in media, but he overcame them. So, as you said, rivalry could never have been the biggest component here. This makes the Satono Diamond rivalry stint felt even more awkward. In fact the attempt to continue S2 legacy (a Mejiro and Teio type pairing) was lazy. Unlike Teio, Kitasan became a stayer like McQueen. The Japs were mad for good reason. They know that Kitasan story is not exactly the "miracle comeback" type of story for Teio or "heel or hero" thing of Rice Shower, but it had potential to be the tale of a battle hardened warrior who started out as an underdog and earned victory unmoved by the pressure of expectations. We got a diminutive Kitasan (real life version is a huge horse) who cries again and again after the slightest setback as if she saw S2 reels. The first three episodes were a mess of narration. What's with the same shot of the space guy again and again? What's with the continous screaming? Why there is a separate episode entirely dedicated to showing each and every uma musume? The Kitasan-Diamond episode just was inserted to represent any semblance of dymamic between them. You mentioned it yourself, Duramente's retirement makes more narrative punch than Gold Ship retiring. Because Gold Ship himself (slightly before Black era) was never shown properly as a legend outside of memes. Anyway, I felt the lyrics of "Lost Shine", Kitasan Black's song tells her story better than whatever S3 tried. |
Laplace_kunJun 29, 4:32 AM
| "All truth is meaningless. In the end, 'meaning' comes from the mind of each individual human. Even when there is a single truth, it can mean different things to different individuals. The truth has no meaning in itself!" - Erika Furudo |
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