Umayon

If you are watching this it is because at least you saw Uma Musume: Pretty Derby (TV) and you liked one or two girls, if not, I suggest you first watch the anime which is a 10/10, one of my favorites really.

Umayon is a program that shows us animated shorts with an average duration of 3 minutes, where we can see once again the horse girls that are so characteristic of this anime, but this time... in a chibi version! Which makes them quite fun to watch throughout the show.

In general, for each chapter they choose some girls to be the protagonists of the day, ... where we can observe them doing multiple activities of all kinds, but they always present us as a competition or at least alluding to the races, since after all that is the essence of Uma Musume.

How it is clear that this is animated shorts with chibi version characters, the animation has to be simple, but not bad, since in reality, taking into account the purpose of these shorts, not too much is required in this regard. Either way, they did pretty well.

Regarding the sound section, despite being simply animated shorts, it is quite well done and it is that they did not leave aside that in addition to being competitors they are idols and therefore in the ending songs we could observe the girls singing and dancing, or just singing, but accompanied by a background illustration.

Finally, the enjoyment of this program is quite good, for almost anyone, since these animated shorts are funny and remind us of the essence of both the program and the characters, which by the way are many and that surely we all longed to return to see. And how can you guess, because of the above, this show qualifies in its entirety to be a 10/10 for animated shorts with chibi version characters.


By the way, after the broadcast of these shorts had ended, the second season of the anime was announced... Excellent news!


Thank you for reading my review and feel free to leave a comment on my profile if you want to mention any aspect of it or talk about something else.

Have a happy day.

Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, is what they say, this also applies quite well to short anime made out of quick skits to enjoy as a appetizer for the bigger shows, and in this case as a quick advertisement for Uma Musume's second season.

This short series is definitely aimed for those of us who already enjoyed the original shenanigans of the Team Spica along with a handful of other side character already presented in the original and new characters that might become regulars in the sequel.

The chibi-like flash artstyle make the quick gags with limited animation shine on what is meant to ... be blazing comedy not to be taken too seriously or overthink it.

If you already liked shows like Teekyu this is one to watch in between or just binge in one sitting.

I was a bit afraid of Umayon. The humor of Uma Musume missed a lot of the time for me, so a series that was just jokes seemed like a death sentence. But fortunately Umayon is silly and cute little scenarios with enjoyable jokes sprinkled in.

Considering both “seasons” are basically the same, this review counts for both of them. The only difference is that the first 12 episodes are 3 minutes per episode and the latter 12 episodes are 2 minutes. It doesn’t seem like that big of a difference, but unfortunately the latter episodes felt noticeably shorter. The first half’s episodes were the perfect ... length to click through, but the second half’s episodes left me wanting more. These short runtimes also include the EDs, though they do change several times each “season”. The EDs are even sometimes are intertwined with the episode itself, which is nice.

The episode plots are fun slices of life that feature a large variety of horse girls. At best they offered a good look into the horse girls I wasn’t familiar with and gave me some insight into their personalities. At worst, unfamiliarity with the horse girls didn’t ruin the bite-sized experiences. You could perhaps watch Season 2 first, but I don’t think many horse girls from that are featured too much anyway.

Considering the whole experience will take you less than an hour (and feels like a lot less), I don’t think there’s a reason to not watch Umayon if you’re interested.