The Horse Girl Anime Shouldn’t Go This Hard. [Uma Musume]

Commentaires

N7CombatWombat2025-12-26 22:12

First season is one of my favorite anime, love Special Week.

Willing_Seesaw_80472025-12-26 22:22

interesting, season one was the weakest of the three mainline seasons for me

N7CombatWombat2025-12-26 22:23

Most people share your opinion, and the animation quality did improve. But, Special Week is so adorable, she's the only character that interests me.

Willing_Seesaw_80472025-12-26 22:25

fair enough, special week is indeed an adorable little goober

NitroXSC2025-12-26 23:30

> and the animation quality did improve

[This infamous S1 animation error](https://i.imgur.com/UiviHMs.jpeg) really shows it.

gary255662025-12-27 00:11

>me before clicking image open

is it Temu Opera O?

Thankfully the OVA and movie improve the supreme overlord

DMking2025-12-26 23:42

I wish she wasn't so generic personally

Makoto_H2025-12-26 22:27

It's not in the global version yet but special week gets her story remade in the game eventually which is much better than the anime imo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aedKn62Obuc

N7CombatWombat2025-12-26 22:29

Oh, neat! I'll need to see if someone's uploaded all the cut scenes from it.

VatOtaku2025-12-26 23:10

Might be weak but it sold me on this weird idea of singing horse girls going to school and living their youth to the max, which made me wait for the game to release when time used to move slower, now I don't have time to catch up with the franchise but the horse girls still hold a dear place in my heart thanks to that first season.

I used to watch like 15 anime per season back then and I remember thinking Umamusume was anime of the season for me, it felt weird but good with a lot of care poured into it, kinda unique

Cuvrette2025-12-26 23:43

That's season 3 for me. It felt like they're grasping at straws to give Kitasan something to struggle with.

Abysswatcherbel2025-12-26 22:22

I a in the opposite, I don't like season 1 at all, the other two from Pretty derby are fine, the Cygames Pic entries since then are where the series really hit for me

N7CombatWombat2025-12-26 22:26

Given how popular the game is, I can imagine it's pretty great.

GtrsRE2025-12-26 23:07

Man they absolutely cooked with Agnes Tachyon

VoidEmbracedWitch2025-12-27 00:13

I think S1 gets a worse rep than it deserves a lot of the time. It didn't blow me away like S2 or Beginning of a New Era, but was a generally nice one season sports series. ~~I prefer it over Cingray.~~

DirtyTacoKid2025-12-27 00:22

I don't know how people hate so much on S1. Its "the worst" but its still good.

ccoddesss2025-12-27 03:48

Season 1 really made me consider using my 3* uma selector on Special Week in the game.

Alamandaros2025-12-26 22:23

Ok, my interest has been piqued. What's the watch order for this? Release date, or watch Cinderella Gray first into release date?

Ok-Boot60632025-12-26 22:27

Watch the movie and then cinderella gray (cinderella adapt races from 80s and the movie from 90s but it really doesn't matter tho)

Original serie is peak, but S1 is rough for a lot of people

Falsus2025-12-26 22:28

It doesn't really matter.

Pretty Derby season 1, 2 and 3 are largely self conatined even though they are technically following some kind of time line. But you could watch them 3 > 2 > 1 or whatever order you wanted and you wouldn't really miss much.

The two movies, Beginning of a New Era and Road to the Top are completely stand alone stories as well.

Cinderella Grey follows the career of Oguri Cap so that is the one where you want to make sure to watch season 1 first.

VanillaCakeShrimp2025-12-26 23:16

Which one has the most hype animation?

Just Cinderella?

Teknoblade2025-12-26 23:20

The movie, Road to the Top, and Cinderella Gray all have stellar animation, the movie especially, so if you’re looking for insane animation and aura farming, go for those.

Falsus2025-12-26 23:22

Even Pretty Derby 1, which is easily the weakest of the lot in terms of animation got some pretty good moments.

When Gigguk's video talks about quality it really means it.

But I would recommend starting with Cinderella Grey or the movies. Pretty Deby season 2 was also insanely good.

extralie2025-12-26 23:32

Beginning of a New Era and Road To The Top both are hype. New Era movie is legit one of the best animated anime movie out there.

VoidEmbracedWitch2025-12-27 00:20

Beginning of a New Era is where it's at for a constant production flex. It really has no scene that doesn't impress. After that, Road to the Top firmly takes second place.

I wouldn't even put Cingray close to those two.

PeaceAlien2025-12-26 22:32

Play the game /s

ggunslinger2025-12-26 22:41

Gotta start with Prisma Urara or Golshi Order.

Surfeydude2025-12-26 22:40

Eh, I’d say you couldn’t go wrong starting with whichever series you want. A lot of people started with Cinderella Gray and worked backwards. Each series sort of contains its own cast and continuity, so you aren’t missing much by going out of order.

If you are interested in release order, it’d be:
Pretty Derby (Seasons 1/2/3) > Road to the Top > Beginning of a New Era (Movie) > Cinderella Gray

The only two that share a continuity are RTTT and BOANE. Even then, the movie is perfectly standalone, since it focuses on a completely different cast of characters.

cppn022025-12-26 23:15

Ultimately inconsequential but don't PD S2 and S3 technically also share a continuity seeing how S3 Main characters are little girls in S2?

Surfeydude2025-12-26 23:26

When I refer to “Pretty Derby”, I’m referring to the entirety of the “main series” anime. Seasons 1, 2, and 3 of PD are all within the same continuity.

cppn022025-12-26 23:34

Fair enough. Then again I don't think there is actually anything tying S1 and S2's storylines together the same way as S2 and S3.

goffer542025-12-27 02:03

Yeah, season 3 is the only one I'd say you shouldn't start with.

HugeRichard112025-12-26 22:54

It’s fine to just watch Cinderella Gray if you aren’t sure you’d want to commit to all of it yet. It has improved art and animation during the race segments than the main series imo. They’ve really improved though the original animation is good too still.

Works as a stand alone that introduces you to the world and series.

If you like it enough afterwards then there’s lots of more content to watch.

Astewisk2025-12-26 23:02

It doesn't matter. With exception to the Cinderella Gray anime, every season or movie is a standalone story. Quality varies from gacha ad fluff to hype sports peak with most skewing towards the former. But CGray and the movie are both firmly in the latter camp

Needs_Improvement2025-12-26 23:07

It kinda depends on what you’re looking for. I’ve watched them all minus the movie, but my personal thoughts are:

The best standalone is Cinderella Gray. 23 episodes of great sports anime. If you don’t know anything about the background of the series (re: real life Japanese horse racing), I think it does the best job at selling how important G1 races are and their magnitude. It’s probably the best place to “jump in.” But it’s also the highest quality of the seasons, so the others (in both animation and story) might lack once you’ve seen it.

For the pretty Derby Series, I’d watch Season 1 or Season 2, then Season 3.
S1 is the weakest season overall; you can kinda tell they weren’t sure what they wanted out of the series in hindsight. It’s still solid, but a lot of the major events don’t really stand out without more knowledge. (See above comment re: Cin Grey.)

I don’t think it matters where you watch Road to the Top, except that I would watch it after Cin Grey and before Season 3 (*personal reason.*)

Perfect-Asparagus3002025-12-26 23:11

I'd recommend this watch list/order for new uma musume fans imo:
- CinGray
- Road to the Top ONA
- Beginning of a New Era
- Pretty Derby Season 2
- Pretty Derby Season 3 or 1, but these two aren't as good as.the first 4 imo. I'd say 3 > 1

CinGray helps introduce the world and is a good prequel to the rest. It's also imo the overall best contained show that can stand by itself.

Road to the Top/Beginning of a new era follow the irl next generation after CinGray MC and she makes cameo in the bg as a chill senior. These two are also phenomenal animation and have a subtle continuity in storylines.

Season 2 of pretty Derby goes into the further irl generations/continuity and isn't as good animation wise but just under CinGray in terms of writing quality/emotional weight

EnthusiasmOnly222025-12-26 23:13

Watch either New Era or Cinderella Gray first, the original S1 is probably the weakest part of the franchise

CyborgUnleashed2025-12-26 23:28

The second cour of season 1 of Cinderella Gray just ended, but a season 2 is on the way. It takes place in its own continuity* (technically you could argue it takes place before everything else) and you don’t need to watch anything before it

Malefic_Fatalis2025-12-26 23:30

Season 1,BNW OVA, Season 2, Road to the top, Season 3, Movie, Cinderella Gray.

chappyfish2025-12-26 23:35

I personally believe Road To the Top is the easiest jumping on point if you have a passing interest in the franchise. It is a 4 part OVA that is available (subbed) on [the official Umamusume YouTube for free.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjPXzJedwiA&list=PLzFNGS7Rcf-PZC8MfcTJX7srArpLdvyfb) It is an easy bite-sized experience that is mostly standalone and directly leads into the incredible movie Beginning of a New Era.

bandannadann2025-12-27 00:18

I like Cinderella Gray the most, and that's where I started

akjd2025-12-27 01:24

I started with Cinderella Gray at release, watched cour 1, then backtracked to Pretty Derby (the main series), watching by release date after that.

Either way should work since they're self contained stories. I do feel that watching CinGray first made me appreciate some inside jokes in Pretty Derby a bit more, but that's about the extent of the impact.

Main thing that I would say, is that CinGray is a bit more serious and gritty tonally, and Pretty Derby is a bit more cutesy and upbeat. Both have their lighthearted moments, and both have serious moments, but their overall tones and art styles are as I said. If you feel one or the other might hook you in more, then I'd start with that. If you do start with CinGray and backtrack, just be aware Pretty Derby season one is a bit rough around the edges compared to the rest. Still good, just not at the same level as the rest.

And make sure to watch Pretty Derby itself in release order, whenever you start it. Each season is its own story but there's a lot more crossover characters, references, and callbacks from earlier seasons.

Nerdcorefan232025-12-27 02:37

it's a spin-off to that series. Origui Cap is the main character here while there she's a side character. I say your fine.

Gegejii2025-12-27 04:20

Honestly you can start with any that pique your interest. Only really season 1-3 is technically a continuity but it's still pretty much it's own self contained story each season. You could argue there is also somewhat chronological order about which real life events each anime covers but it's still pretty clear none of the animes are really connected and or follow a straight continuit.

So the here in release order and which racing years they cover:

- Pretty Derby Season 1: covers the story of Special Week and builds the umamusume world as well as is trying to retell the story of the so called "golden generation" which in japanese horseracing is around the year 1995-1998.

- Pretty Derby Season 2: Covers story of Tokai Teio and Mejiro Mcqueen which and retells their entire career which took place around year 1991-1993.

- Pretty Derby season 3: Covers story of Kitasan Black and tells mostly latter half of her career so set around year 2015-2017.

- Road to the Top: Covers story of Narita Top Road, Admire Vega and TM Opera O and focus on their classics racing years in 1999.

- Beginning of the new era: covers the story of Agnes tanchyon and Jungle Pocket. Timeline wise would be 2 years after road to the top and set in 2001

- Cinderella Gray: Covers the story of Oguri Cap and retells her entire career which is from year 1987-1990.

The more newer the entry is the better the animation and production but overall honestly they are all decent and you can start whereever you want.

dan_camp2025-12-26 22:26

i too was surprised at how fully i embraced the horse girl anime, excited to go back and watch from the beginning (started with cinderella gray last season)

Falsus2025-12-26 22:29

Cin Grey is a legit AOTY contender for me. It was just so damn fantastic.

supermycro2025-12-26 22:50

I know I have nearly 700 hours on the gacha game and im biased, but CinGrey is above all others for me this year

VanillaCakeShrimp2025-12-26 23:24

I'm not sure if there was much competition though, Dandadan and Solo Leveling and Chainsaw Reze were awesome but overall I feel like this year had the least anime highlights I've seen in the past 15 years. I literally cant remember any previous year as dry as this year was, and i see the same complaints in every weekly anime poll too

bealzu2025-12-26 23:49

Was definitely a rough year

_sLLiK2025-12-27 00:19

Even with Kaiju no.8 and Solo Leveling?

stickdudeseven2025-12-27 01:38

CinGrey made me biased enough to save 30k carats for Christmas Oguri when she releases. Never thought the background comic relief character who always eats a lot would be one of my favorite protagonist within the series.

chili012025-12-26 23:33

CinGray and the one with Agnes Tachyon are my fav, that movie has great visuals.

mooke2025-12-27 00:04

If Apocalypse Hotel hadn't struck just the right chord with me then CinGrey would have been a shoe-in.

So CyGames managed to take 1st and 2nd for me this year.

Other than that, everything else that would have made my list has been a direct sequel (dress-up darling, dandadan, apothecary diaries). There was maybe Silent Witch, which was good, but not "anime of the year" good.

Falsus2025-12-27 09:27

> There was maybe Silent Witch

Fun trivia: Cygames did the music for Silent Witch.

Cygames might just be the best anime studio right now.

thisisembarrazzing2025-12-27 06:10

The manga just ended and it was also peak.

PeaceAlien2025-12-26 22:33

Horse girl anime is excellent but getting into it can be a hard sell

DontRefuseMyBatchall2025-12-26 22:36

Love Gigguk, simple as that

N7CombatWombat2025-12-26 22:39

I normally don't think one way or the other about anitubers, but I have a dislike for the Gigguk machine mostly due to some of his fans treating him like Youtube Jesus. The other part is I just don't agree with him most of the time from the clips and whatnot I've seen here and there.

DontRefuseMyBatchall2025-12-26 22:41

….. Cool 😬👍

N7CombatWombat2025-12-26 22:48

Thanks! It's definitely an opinion I have, not even my hottest take, but I'm glad it resonated with you.

blakeavon2025-12-26 22:55

So basically you don’t like someone because they are too cool? I never got that sort of edgy logic.

I don’t agree with the Anime Man like ever, but that doesn’t stop me watching his stuff, like Gigguk. I don’t watch people to agree with me, I watch other people to make me think outside the narrow box of my tastes.

N7CombatWombat2025-12-26 23:03

Never said that I don't like him, I said I don't like the whole public image/persona due to how some fans just go overboard about him, it borders on para-social in some cases and that just turns me off the entire thing, just like how some people can get turned off from a show because of the fanbase. I don't know anything about him as a person, so I can't dislike him specifically. And "disagree" was a poor choice to use, I should have said that his tastes don't usually align with mine, so I've never felt any desire to watch him on the reviewer profession level.

VanillaCakeShrimp2025-12-26 23:21

Instead of downvoting you, ill tell you why everyone is downvoting all your comments.

Gigguk is being glazed because his opinions reflect what most of us think, so we enjoy his content and recommendations.

That's extremely rare and important because over the years, most anime reviewers change their style or personality or preferences, I have unsubbed from every single person except Gigguk. Because he's rarely wrong, and my time is too precious to waste it watching someone else who may be wrong

N7CombatWombat2025-12-26 23:27

I think that's pretty obvious, if he's saying things you agree with, then yeah, that's going to be someone you want to watch. My issue is that some people take it way too far, and that's what's put a sour taste on the thing for me. And then we get into the personal taste factor, I'm legitimately thrilled that his taste works for you and so many others, but his taste doesn't line up with mine most of the time, and that's not a bad thing, but for me, when someone has different taste or a different view, I prefer to have a dialogue about it, I'd like to know more, why they feel that way, what the nuance is, where does that come from. And obviously you can't do that with a video, it's why I don't watch any reviewers for anything, it's less informational/entertaining for me when I'm not able to interact.

HugeRichard112025-12-26 22:48

I assume Gigguk didnt come out with this video until now, because he mentioned on stream he hasn’t watched Uma musume until recently. As he thought it was just idol bait lol

Hope they announce the next season soon.

Castor_0il2025-12-26 23:43

I'm probably going to hell for [repurposing a 13 year old meme](https://imgur.com/LUVCkgp), but I feel Gigguk would fit the target of it.

[The OG meme for the unexperienced.](https://www.reddit.com/r/mylittlepony/comments/orf6t/nonbrony_watches_an_episode_says_it_sucks_then/)

JustAWellwisher2025-12-27 01:20

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiH8fkJOonQ

INeedtoThinkAUName2025-12-27 02:15

A bit ironic considering Cinderella Grey featured the first and probably most important and biggest Idol Horse in Japan.

LiterallyANoob2025-12-27 02:56

Same reason I never watched or played it.

I watched the first episode of pretty derby when it was in season and yeah, it does look like another idol show mixed with races.

ODST_Parker2025-12-26 22:49

Already feel weird enough as an anime fan in my thirties, so adding horse girls on top of that could do irreparable damage to my dwindling sanity.

It is really interesting to know it actually follows the real history of race horses though. No one ever told me that about Umamusume. Never been into sports, let alone horse racing, but that really was a cool idea for an anime.

N7CombatWombat2025-12-26 22:54

I'm an anime fan about to hit 50, and the horse girls are great, if you're interested, you should give it a go. Sanity is overrated anyway.

ODST_Parker2025-12-26 23:26

That's a fair point. I'm in this far, and I've seen my share of weird. Not sure what crossing lines even looks like anymore.

bluinkinnovation2025-12-27 00:15

Don’t feel weird bro. Thats just society making you feel that way. Enjoy your passions and fuck everyone else.

ODST_Parker2025-12-27 00:28

Agreed, but sadly, I must still live in said society. Since I've never met anyone as interested in my passions as I am, guess it's just gotten to me a bit.

bluinkinnovation2025-12-27 00:30

Loving yourself is the first step. After that you will attract like minded people.

ODST_Parker2025-12-27 00:31

Doomed then. Oh well.

lkrafiki2025-12-27 01:44

Doom????

Castor_0il2025-12-27 06:32

[Whadda ya' mean Doom!?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kscTD_9a5ec)

SakuraNeko72025-12-27 02:14

There are people out there that live perfectly fine in society doing *much* weirder stuff much more openly and especially in secret. Just live your life for yourself and if it's not something that the people around you will like then it isn't their the business to know.

theentiregoonsquad2025-12-27 01:21

I mean, it's a pretty normal sports anime about racing.

Most of the characters just happen to have a tail and horse ears. The fact that they're horses doesn't really have anything to do with the plot other than some background jokes.

Urgnu-the-Gnu2025-12-26 23:04

It's really not as weird as it might seem, and way better than you'd think it can be. Just try it out and see if you'll like it - there's nothing to lose from trying, only a lot to gain.

HugeRichard112025-12-26 23:52

It's really not that out there when you're watching the series most of the time. The horse girl aspect is really the hook and makes it easily unique and memorable.

Literally just track and field, sometimes you forget they're even horses girls as the focus is on them being athletes.

If you download the game on your phone that's where your sense of normal might drop lol

Stikarii2025-12-27 00:02

Not into sports anime but openminded enough to recognize when one has an interesting aspect like that? Try Girls und Panzer!

In this one the interesting thing is how freaking many historical references they can jam into each and every single frame. All the tank models and strategies are historically accurate, but even every single date or codename is an actual battle in ww2... they went really hard

ODST_Parker2025-12-27 00:23

My man, I have been obsessed with military history, especially tanks, for most of my life. I *love* Girls und Panzer.

Abysswatcherbel2025-12-27 00:24

>so adding horse girls

Also idols horse girls

akjd2025-12-27 00:28

42 here, same for me. Barely into sports, barely even thought about horse racing other than that it's a thing that exists.

Started with Cinderella Gray just on a random whim when it first came out a few months ago. Got hooked and been working my way through the earlier content. Just finished season 3 today.

Shit's peak. Highly, highly recommend.

As far as how closely they follow reality, I've seen some side-by-side comparisons of the actual races with the anime, and even positioning and specific moves are replicated quite faithfully in a lot of cases. Names of side characters/NPCs are often changed for licensing reasons, and some creative liberties were taken in season 1 in particular, but aside from that there's some insane attention to detail.

I will say that I never quite had the "wow this is just such an absurd concept" feeling that seems to be pretty common. I mean, demi humans are a dime a dozen in anime, not sure why horse girls would be *that* much harder to accept, unless it's just because it's not in a fantasy setting.

FTSalary-man2025-12-27 00:48

36 here. Sounds like a skill issue, comrade.

racingmaniacgt12025-12-27 00:49

As a 43 years old getting into horse girls anime was not on my bingo card going into 2025, but here we are. It's kinda crazy how hard the whole franchise hits.

The manga really shows how much care they went to crafting this alternate history of if Oguri Cap is a horse girl. And so far the anime is going above and beyond matching that beat so hopefully we will have one of the series of all times if they do the whole thing...

ThePupnasty2025-12-27 00:52

Adopt, adapt, over come. Horse girls are the way.

iliketurtles69_boner2025-12-27 01:08

Also an anime fan in my 30s. One of the best parts about getting old is not caring about what people think. Also the bizarre aspect of anime is one of the funniest things about it, even my fiancée finds the weirdness a bit funny.

I’ll always take the Miku doll out of my PC case before guests come over though, some level of shame is acceptable

ODST_Parker2025-12-27 01:15

Another fair point. I got into anime in large part because of the stories here which would *never* be told elsewhere, serious or otherwise. My love of it has only grown in these few years.

Still, feels like the kind of thing where I have to gauge a room before talking about it. That, and to go in stages, because one man's tasteful art is another's disgusting degeneracy. Can't jump right from Attack on Titan to High School DxD, you know? My early exposure led me to disregard weirdness, whereas some people are still normal.

Nerdcorefan232025-12-27 02:35

I like the weirdness. I think the facial reactions have made me laugh before and even said thing that's said that leads to the reaction.

Veaeate2025-12-27 01:28

As a guy in my 40s I can say thay Umamusume is actually decent. I learned about it when social media was making fun of PowerPoint lock (blue lock). Apparently horse racing, and umamasume is insanely popular in Japan, so its why it goes so hard and is so popular. Each season follows a different girl/horse. I stopped after the 3rd season, but mostly cuz i just moved onto other anime, not cuz it was bad. Will probably go back and finish uma off.

Levait2025-12-27 02:01

The show is actually jam-packed with historical references and even the characters designs are based on their real life horse, their jockeys outfit, the horses personality and the public perception of those horses.

Sweaty_Molasses_38992025-12-27 02:06

The "follows history" part is what really makes this interesting. If a uma wins a race, it's not plot armor or protag power, they really did win. The side effect is getting spoiled by decade old race histories.

ODST_Parker2025-12-27 02:07

I loved that line from his video, how there's no more plot armor in the anime than there was in life itself.

racingmaniacgt12025-12-27 06:56

The fear of spoiling the story from Wiki was so real...

Comprehensive_Dog6512025-12-27 05:49

You’re literally watching a guy in his 30s who is one of the most successful anitubers talk about the horse girl anime

ODST_Parker2025-12-27 05:53

The keyword in there is "successful".

sadman43322025-12-26 22:50

It’s so good

PeaceTree8D2025-12-26 22:52

Thought this was just gonna be a raw clip from the show, then the gigguk jump scare happened lol

FetchFrosh2025-12-26 22:59

This is like the sixth time that the horse girl anime has gone this hard. At this point I'd be surprised if it didn't.

Leitz912025-12-27 02:13

Fr, they've been consistently cooking since day one. It's basically a guarantee at this point.

Astray2025-12-27 03:24

Season 1 is a lot weaker than anything else they've put out and it is unfortunately the starting point for everything

Orochi642025-12-27 04:05

Eh I thought it was fine, good enough for me to want to see more.

Mistral-Fien2025-12-27 04:18

Suzuka's arc gave us a glimpse of what's to come.

HeelerDawg2025-12-27 05:00

It made me tear up once. Season 2 made me cry 4 times. Both seasons were fire! I’m thinking to watch season 3 now or Cinderella Grey.

Astray2025-12-27 05:23

Just go in release order if you already are. Before S3 you can watch Road to the Top. After S3 is Beginning of a New Era. Then Cinderella Gray. S1 has some fun OVA episodes you can watch any time. Also Umapyon is hilarious once you're deep enough into the game and anime.

HeelerDawg2025-12-27 05:25

Okay! I only saw Pretty Derby on Crunchy and Cinderella Grey on Prime. Are Road to the top and New Era somewhere else?

Astray2025-12-27 05:26

You'll have to sail

saga9992025-12-27 07:29

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzFNGS7Rcf-PZC8MfcTJX7srArpLdvyfb

Road to the Top is on YouTube. It's official. They also released it as a movie by compiling the 4 episodes together. I don't remember whether there are extra scenes in the movie. And you might have to sail to find that.

WhyDid_I_DeserveThis2025-12-27 02:47

That's what you get when you give Cygames a massive amount of gacha money.

Not to mention, the owners of the irl horses + the JRA breathing down their necks /jk

th5virtuos02025-12-27 04:06

Man I'm kinda sad that Granblue got left behind. I really like Versus Rising and the whacky characters so it's a shame the IP will forever be a niche one (in the West). The gacha game being a decade old browser game with shitty on boarding, 500+ SSRs, insane powercreep over the year (why can't I use Cag????), dogshit UI and the nickname Grindblue Fantasy does not help it either

PartRight64062025-12-27 05:05

nah cygames has other banger anime too. Specifically, The Summer Hikaru Died and Akiba Maid War., They also did Zombieland Saga which a lot of people liked and might have the best truck-kun scene in all of anime.

Ok-Ad-10122025-12-27 07:14

small correction: they are just the producers for akiba maid war and zombieland saga. basically it's mostly their ip but a different animation studio worked on it.

akiba maid war - p.a. works
zombieland saga - mappa

South-Answer57242025-12-26 23:03

Yet we get absolute gems like 7ds, opm, etc get shafted so hard by criminal levels of bad animation.

cppn022025-12-26 23:17

>absolute gems like 7ds,

[](#peasants)

South-Answer57242025-12-27 00:14

7DS was very good at the start. The manga went downhill towards then end but the anime got screwed over. You don’t get nicknamed 7 deadly frames for having good animation.

dagreenman182025-12-26 23:17

To think it’s single handedly responsible for the best Broncos season in a decade

ZevenMortem2025-12-26 23:24

Watching this video, I realize how sometimes the haters of a successful person like Gigguk label him as “anime tourist.” C'mon, man, how can you drop off the franchise based on the first season, which isn't even that bad, Seasons 2 and 3 are much better and have many races and action scenes and season 2 have very good dramatic weight. CG is the culmination of the work done in the other seasons of the franchise.

UMP45isnotflat2025-12-26 23:37

This year convinced me to get into Uma Musume, I probably will start next year.

cppn022025-12-26 23:43

Damn that Alan Partridge bit was some deep cut reference.

GameMaster00972025-12-26 23:53

Oguri Peak

sewerdiving2025-12-26 23:53

Was pretty damn good as an action spectacle. I just wish we got more on the character writing front. After 23 episodes all I know about Oguri is that she had bad legs as a kid, likes to eat, and really likes to race.

JMB_Smash2025-12-27 00:24

Then check out season 2 or the Star Blossom manga. They focus much more on amazing writing over hype like CinGray.

Ok_Scheme_45792025-12-27 00:08

Wait Gigguk is an Arsenal fan?!

your_nan2025-12-27 00:09

Just to be clear, starting with Cinderlla Grey is fine right? I'm seeing comments saying that you'll need to start with S1 and it's confusing the fuck out of me.

bandannadann2025-12-27 00:17

Yeah, I started with Cinderella Gray and it's a great place to start. I went back to the other Uma content afterwards and enjoyed it too, but it is a different vibe

VoidEmbracedWitch2025-12-27 00:31

Uma is an iterative franchise. You can start with any entry you want and it'll have its own lead characters with their own self-contained story. So yeah, don't worry about it and start with Cingray if it looks appealing to you. The only things you're missing are some background cameos and references. ~~Also, watch RTTT and the movie.~~

Malefic_Fatalis2025-12-27 00:25

I really like the fact that it follows the real life results because it avoids classic sports anime tropes and maintains a certain amount of unpredictability.

xWardz2025-12-27 05:01

This is what really elevates the show as a "sports" anime imo. It adds real stakes to how the races play out. I get so into rooting for the characters because I know that the results really happened, and no matter how much flair they add in adapting the horses' careers, they can't change which races they win/lose. As someone who has enjoyed classic sports anime, tropes and all, I have to say the way Uma Musume does it is extremely unique and refreshing

Auctoritate2025-12-27 10:31

It's really funny how either in Cinderella Gray or even just the main anime, you'll go into a race and it'll have one character said directly to be the heavy favorite to win, and then they just eat shit and come in *6th*.

No-Maybe95312025-12-27 18:13

There are moments, especially in season 2, that I would criticize if it was in any other show for being too contrived, but then I remember it’s based on reality which makes the story of these horses even more insane.

lan600002025-12-27 01:04

this show is more of a sports shounen than a lot of sports anime these days, and thank god for that.

Temperance102025-12-27 01:07

Legitimately today was my “FINE, I’ll watch the horse girl anime” breaking point. I’m now five episodes in and really enjoying it.

Anyone know when all of the episodes are gonna come back to YT? I’d rather keep watching there than on Prime.

EDIT: EPISODE 6 MADE ME CRY. *OKAY* HORSE GIRL ANIME, YOU WIN! HAPPY NOW!?

DontHAvacado2025-12-27 01:20

Just finished season 1 today and a few episodes of session 2. Only thing I notice is oguri cap in every other background eating food

aeroslimshady2025-12-27 02:00

Why not? What dictates if something is allowed to go hard or not?

Juppness2025-12-27 02:32

Can't believe Gigguk made a "Peak" joke and didn't include Kitahara's "Cap, as in Peak" line.

Deletereous2025-12-27 02:38

Never watched horse-girl anime. Are there horse-guys too?

BirdOfFiire2025-12-27 02:46

I can’t wait for Kagurabachi getting animated by Cygames Pictures. They did an amazing Job on Hikaru aswell!

Remote-Ad78792025-12-27 03:15

Oh is this the one based on an actual Cinderella story race horse?

Ryfy-MLP2025-12-27 04:56

Based on the late 1980s idol superhorse Oguri Cap that piqued the whole nation's interest in horse racing

DarkTenshiDT2025-12-27 03:38

Love me some Oguri Fat

Kassssler2025-12-27 04:40

Heres the random opinion of a man who took one look at this anime and thought "dancing horse girls? Hard Pass."

I took this videos advice and watched a few eps of Cinderella grey since its apparently disconnected and it's own thing.

What impressed me more than the races was actually the humor. Show is damn funny, and any show that gets open laughs out of my ill-humored ass is a winner. I recommend it.

Gegejii2025-12-27 04:49

One thing I have to say while I love that they did indeed focus way more on the sports aspects of the series I'm so glad they didn't completly went away from the idol aspect. Like the winning concerts are very few but in the rare cases they are shown they hit so much harder after a big major race (umapyoi after every season end still hits so hard).

However I feel like when people talk about the idol aspect taking the backseat they usually just think about the concerts or have the cutesy idol type in their mind as definition but feel like many miss out that most of unamusume still have a more general definitin of Idol aspect to it that makes it good and I don't think to many talk about. Like in form of the fan support the umas have, the dreams they carry for themself as well as all their fans who passionately follow and support their career. Them becoming like this "Idol" every aspire to be or overcome. Oguri cap fame starting the trend of plushies and merch sale. Like them trying to reflect the fans love for horse racing I argue is also all aspect of the Idol aspect which i feel not too many talk about. Honestly like there is a reason one of Oguris Cap nickname was "the Idol Horse" since he was basically a big idol of his era. So them trying to reflect that aspect by including and trying to represent it with more modern japanese idol culture is honestly quite an great idea and idol culture in umamusume is more then just simply "cutsey idol concert performances" which again IMO not to many talk about whenever idol culture in umamusume is brought up.

Tigerzof12025-12-27 05:18

The second half of my year so far:

1. What a silly concept. Horse girl idols. But it seems pretty popular and hyped from the us release so I’ll check the game out.

2. Wow, this game is actually pretty fun. I like how all horse girls are viable so you don’t feel obligated to spend your money and roll. Mechanics are up my alley.

3. Oh shit, there’s an anime. Might as well check it out. S1 of Pretty Derby is pretty much cute girls doing cute things. Kind of funny, I guess. But no real need to continue.

4. Damn, I’m kind of addicted to this game. I must do my dailies. Omg, summer maruzensky. I must have her even if I need to break out the credit card.

5. Damn, I need to wait to regenerate TP. Might as well check out season 2.

6. Watching season 2… why am I ugly crying over horse girls? This was so peak. I’m going to binge watch the rest of this series. Oh shit, I didn’t even realize Cinderella Gray is currently airing. Might as well check that out too. Whoa, that’s where my gacha money has gone to.

7. It is now December and I live and breathe uma musume.

KyeeLim2025-12-27 09:15

while I am just:

1. Oh wow this game that is so popular somehow, my friend group is playing it, might as well give it a try and see if it runs on Linux.

2. Oh wow it run on Linux, well I guess I shall make a report on ProtonDB and see if I like the game.

3. I actually kinda like the game.

4. What? it is based on real horse?

5. There's anime? I am kinda free so gonna give it a watch.

6. Teio wow, incredible.(anime now)

7. Starts to follow and watch some horse race.

8. Actually learning about honses.

9. Starts to change my 2026 December Japan trip plans to include Nakayama Racecourse as one stop so I can go to watch IRL Arima Kinen.

detarameReddit2025-12-27 07:08

I have been putting off CinGray ever since the show started, simply because I never found the time to watch it. Getting into Uma Musume has been one of my 2025 goals, which I unfortunately will not be able to complete.

I'm now ankles-deep in the Uma Musume fandom, and I'm still pushing this anime to the future. I really need to get to watching Cinderella Cray...

SnooTangerines68632025-12-27 07:20

He could talk about the anime instead of making 1/2 of the video about Ronaldo and his sponsorship...

Cool to see mu fav anime of 2025 regardeles.

DeithWX2025-12-27 09:16

Sports anime going hard? What's new.

[](#smughaikyuu)