Whats up of us, and welcome again to Fallacious Each Time. At the moment I’ve bought a considerably unorthodox piece for you all, as we contact down initially of Umamusume: Fairly Derby’s second season. I truly reviewed the primary two episodes of the unique Umamusume again once they premiered, and apparently had a laundry listing of critiques: the slice of life materials felt by-the-numbers, the sports activities facet did not create stress, and the idea was so absurd that I might by no means obtain the buy-in mandatory to have interaction with it emotionally. Nevertheless, I’ve persistently heard that Umamusume’s second season is an enormous enchancment on the unique, and am thus ready to have one other go at its fantastical horse woman world.
From what I hear, this second season apparently tunes down each the slice of life interludes and preposterous “additionally they’re idols” contrivance, honing in on the franchise’s sports activities drama fundamentals. That looks like a sturdier basis than the primary season’s combine, so whereas that is nonetheless fairly far exterior my standard wheelhouse, I’m gonna do my finest to maintain an open thoughts about everybody’s favourite horse woman idol drama playing app tie-in franchise. Let’s get right down to the observe!
Episode 1
We start with our narrator explaining the distinctive options of this world, like how horse ladies someway inherit names of horses from one other world. I suppose you may as properly embrace that contrivance, as making an attempt to elucidate their weird names in-universe would probably solely tear on the fragile material of this actuality
Additionally looks like a little bit of a gentle reset, not essentially assuming the viewers has seen the primary season
We glance down upon what appear to be crop circle-esque pictures of horse ladies in excessive grass. I did like when the unique collection leaned into the incidental eccentricities of this world, like horse girl-sized telephones and particular horse woman street lanes
We then contact down at a Tokyo race course. I’ll have an interest to see how this manufacturing mines efficient drama out of its races; it’s an inherently trick sport to dramatize as a result of there’s no direct interplay between contestants, however that didn’t cease Run with the Wind from dazzling
The animation is kind of stable for this establishing minimize, which isn’t any simple feat – there’s like twenty characters all operating away from the digicam, necessitating a complete mess of particular person redraws for what appears to be a comparatively excessive drawing depend
Apparently Symboli Rudolf is breaking away. She’s launched by way of an formidable panning minimize, exhibiting off her delightfully overcomplicated hairdo
As I stated, I’ll do my finest to offer this present a good shot, however it’s actually loads tougher for me to spend money on tales with these kinds of ostentatious gacha character designs – principally, designs that seem like they had been meant to pop by way of overwhelming shade contrasts and glut of ornamentation, however which consequently additionally appear fully inconceivable as precise outfits in any kind of cohesive general world. I really feel such designs naturally undercut each characterization and worldbuilding, making me really feel awkwardly acutely aware of their origin level
We see a youthful model of our presumed season heroine watching within the stands
Rudolf takes the crown. She is later provided congratulations by her obvious rival Maruzensky
“You’re going to want expertise, effort, and luck. And you’ll’t afford to overlook a single one.” A right away admission that zeal isn’t sufficient
Our lead’s title is Tokai Teio
We then leap to the current day, the place a horse woman named Mejiro McQueen has simply received a race
Apparently Tokai Teio is now “arguably the most well-liked horse woman on the market.” Fascinating level at which to begin our story!
Kinda sterile CG backdrops, however her bed room is satisfyingly full of little markers of her persona, in addition to that of her obvious roommate. Kinda shocked that even the most well-liked horse ladies should share rooms
Her roommate is Mayano Prime Gun, which actually explains her Prime Gun poster
Yep, the backgrounds on the whole are fairly underwhelming. CG is the usual at this level, however it’s at all times a bit of disappointing
So she’s additionally apparently nonetheless a excessive schooler? I suppose they’re clearly not going to push in opposition to anime’s overwhelmingly youth-focused paradigm for a gacha adaptation, however this story actually does demand an enormous diploma of fantastical buy-in for a premise that isn’t significantly sturdy within the first place
We’re briefly launched to a wide range of different horse ladies as they attain the highschool gates, together with the primary season’s protagonist Particular Week
Apparently they’re all members of Group Spica, which can be internet hosting the day’s open campus occasion
Cute gimmick of different horse ladies passing by with their very own names floating beside them. Oh hey, there’s Tremendous Creek, the “goo-goo infants” horse
The open campus occasion is a helpful trick, permitting our forged to elucidate their schooling to inexperienced persons (and thus the viewers) despite the fact that they’re all veterans
I like how the “schooling” a part of their curriculum is simply studying about horse woman racing occasions
This episode is struggling an issue frequent to gacha recreation variations: it’s completely cluttered with far too many characters, because it’s making an attempt to ensure everybody’s favourite character will get not less than a second within the solar. One of many many causes such works are likely to fall flat in adaptation, as they often prioritize providing cameos for longtime followers over telling a targeted, uncluttered narrative that may seize a brand new viewers
They then move by the Yelling Stump, the place one horse woman is declaring her passionate emotions for an additional into the void
Apparently Teio is the primary competitor to enter the Derby undefeated since Rudolf
These younger would-be rivals are additionally names I vaguely acknowledge from social media posts. Kinda attention-grabbing how this present stretches out the compressed, simultaneous timeline of the sport into distinct generations of rivals
Looks as if they’re actually setting Teio up for a fall, given all of the momentum at the moment behind her
Wait, Rudolf can also be of their college? So do horse ladies develop up as quick as precise horses, or is their academy simply kind of a liminal perma-high college that every one skilled horse ladies attend?
“The second step is profitable the Derby, so I’ve to win!” Looks as if our eventual journey can be about Teio grappling with an unthinkable disruption to her life-long dream
Unsurprisingly, the present makes use of considerably janky CG fashions for its non-showcase race moments
We run into Good Nature at lunch, one other obvious favourite amongst my mutuals. Immediately recognizable to me because the Kumiko Euphonium horse woman. I like her little Christmas-colored ear heaters
We then stumble upon Twin Turbo, maybe probably the most overdesigned character up to now
A pleasant Rocky coaching montage as Teio prepares for the derby. Man, they’re actually setting her up for an terrible fall
She bumps into McQueen on the native shrine on the afternoon earlier than the Derby
McQueen is shocked by Teio’s informal referral to her as her “rival.” Totally different yuri-flavored anime have a wide range of illusion-of-doubt phrases for his or her apparent {couples}, however “rival” is unquestionably one of many funniest. I’m reminded of this traditional Hark, A Vagrant comedian collection
“That’s occurring Umastagram.” Improbable
Apparently these races are broadcast worldwide. Teio’s fairly the superstar
I like how every of the racers in flip has some non-public thought on the traces of “this appears like future” as they step ahead. Each destined victory is another person’s bitter failure
The race begins, with Teio in eighth place as they take the primary flip
Rudolf underlines the problem at hand: “you possibly can nearly say at the moment’s race is a check of Teio’s luck”
Oh shit, she truly takes the Derby
Within the aftermath, she finally notices one thing improper along with her left ankle. Hoo boy
Welp, I assume we’re nonetheless doing the post-race idol concert events for some purpose. This time each her coach and Rudolf discover a difficulty along with her ankle. Nicely yeah, you shouldn’t do an idol routine after a observe race!
And Completed
Nicely, that was advantageous, all in all. I frankly don’t really feel significantly extra compelled by this season than the previous one, not less than up to now; it nonetheless feels extra like that is payoff for current followers greater than a story meant to draw newcomers, and concessions just like the overwhelming glut of characters and common incoherence of worldbuilding nonetheless made it troublesome to emotionally spend money on Teio or her universe. The characters really feel so abstracted that “reaching your goals” has moved past any kind of relatable human context, and “have a look at all these horse ladies” is a pitch that doesn’t actually do something for me. Nonetheless, this was all nonetheless buildup to this season’s precise battle, so it stays to be seen if the present can mine some real pathos out of Teio’s eventual hardships. It’s arduous on the market for a horse woman!
This article was made potential by reader help. Thanks all for all that you just do.
