Uma Musume: Pretty Derby - Shin Jidai no Tobira

English

This is on another level—what an insane movie, simply S-P-E-C-T-A-C-U-L-A-R in every possible way! Starting with the animation: absolutely breathtaking. Since it was made by the same studio behind the game, the quality is undeniable—they spared no effort. It’s easily one of the most visually stunning works I’ve ever seen. The direction is outstanding: the way it shifts from an eagle-eye view to the protagonist’s POV, then to a side shot that captures the intensity of all the racers, and back again to POV. Sure, we’ve seen similar sequences in previous races of the franchise, but here it’s just on a GOD-TIER level. The ... OST is flawless, and the seiyuu performances are phenomenal. Sumire Uesaka, A.K.A. Agnes—what an incredible aura she radiates with her performance!

As for the script, it doesn’t fall short either. The protagonist overflows with personality: an Uma who simply wants to compete. The rivalry she builds with Agnes is handled brilliantly, because for the first time in the franchise, a character truly feels like a full-fledged antagonist. The usual friendship/rivalry dynamic from previous entries is replaced with a pure rivalry. With Agnes as a complete "villain," the protagonist takes on a very different, more intense presence. If this is the path Uma Musume is going to follow, I honestly couldn’t be more HYPED.

Español

Esto está a otro nivel, ¡qué locura de película, simplemente E-S-P-E-C-T-A-C-U-L-A-R en todos los sentidos! Comenzando con la animación: una auténtica bestialidad. Al estar realizada por el propio estudio que desarrolla el juego, se nota la calidad en cada detalle, sin escatimar en nada. Es, sin duda, una de las mejores obras visuales que he visto. Toda la dirección es magnífica: los cambios de planos, cómo pasa de la vista de águila al POV de la protagonista, para después ir a un plano lateral que transmite toda la intensidad de las corredoras, y regresar nuevamente al POV. Sí, antes lo habíamos visto en otras carreras de la franquicia, pero aquí es sencillamente DIOS SANTO. Su OST es perfecto, y el trabajo de las seiyuus es brillante. Sumire Uesaka, A.K.A. Agnes, ¡qué aura tan imponente transmite con su interpretación!

En cuanto al guion, no se queda atrás. La protagonista desborda carácter: es una Uma que solo quiere competir. La rivalidad que forja con Agnes está construida de manera magistral, porque por primera vez en la franquicia se siente a un personaje como antagonista completo. Se rompe con la clásica dinámica de rivalidad/amistad que tenían las protagonistas anteriores y se apuesta por una rivalidad pura. Con Agnes como una "villana" total, la protagonista adquiere un matiz distinto, mucho más intenso. Si este es el camino que seguirá la saga Uma Musume, no puedo estar más HYPEADO.

I'll head this off with a bit of a disclaimer: I haven't seen Pretty Derby the show, Cinderella Gray, haven't played the game, etc.

Taking a quick look online, this seems like an "acceptable" way to enter the series but whatever the above sentence makes you feel about my credibility, there it is

That being said, I did not enjoy this movie.

It has a very weird beginning where Jungle Pocket (our protag, henceforth known as "JP") sees her idol racing and she's like "man, I wanna race!" and then after an OP, we cut to her being trained by her idol and her trainer and JP has ... already won a race offscreen.

To me, it just kind of cuts out all the excitement of seeing our protagonist grow from "man, I wanna do this" to being an actually competent athlete.

JP is clearly a competent racer from the jump, the problem is Agnes Tachyon exists and is better and that is never challenged throughout the movie.

And I feel like that might be the point but the problem is JP and Tachyon are pretty much the only characters who are worth mentioning.

Dantsu Flame and Manhattan Cafe also kind of exist but we only get the barest of table scraps for a personality for each of them.

JP's idol and trainer also kind of get some sort of personality but it's as much buildup as your average trainers get.

This movie just feels like a poor compilation of a season-long arc.

JP forces herself onto Tachyon and insists that, despite being head and shoulders a worse racer, they be rivals.

The overarching... arc of the movie is an inherently fine one but within the context of a 2 hour movie, I don't think it builds its characters well enough to care.

It kind of sets up the idea that the horsegirls are born to run and they all wanna break their limits and race faster than the fastest pony and I mean, yup, sure.

Since they all want the same goal, I feel like it kinda just feels like I should pick a horsegirl and root for them but see above, JP and Tachyon are the only ones that really get all that much of a character and Tachyon's supposed to be the antagonist.

We're just immediately thrown into a world where the only person who can theoretically beat JP is Tachyon but she jobs so much, she might as well be Jobber Pocket.

The races pre-Derby can be described as

JP: "Grrrrr, we're rivals!"
Tachyon (slightly amused): "Lol, sure, ok."
*Tachyon whips JP's ass*
JP: "Grrrrr, I'll get you next time!"

An event happens, JP gets depressed, gets over it, and has one big climatic race.

The only race that had any sort of tension to it was the final one and it was less of "will this character I like win?" and more of an intellectual curiosity over if they'd go for some sort of bittersweet ending or something.

She doesn't even really feel scaled to level for the final race, I don't really believe she is as powerful as the overlord of racing, we're just kind of told that she is.

I think that's my biggest issue.

JP is already (outside of the very beginning where she isn't even entered in [formal? They mention that she transitioned from freestyle racing but we never see this] racing) super fast and her only problem is that there's exactly One person in her league who's faster. They do a couple scenes playing at her training but I never really FELT that she did anything that'd tangentially increase her speed outside of "wow, she sure is working hard!"

To top it all off, it ends with some sort of fanservice concert of the main 4 horsegirls singing which I would imagine would be very good and sweet and cool for the more diehard Uma Musume fans but it just kind of took me out even more.

What did I like about it?

It's a nice looking movie. It's got a lot of cool looking Stuff during the races.

But good God, I could not have cared less about any of these characters.

I gave it a mixed feelings instead of a not recommended because this might be up Uma Musume fans' boats, idk how much JP and pals are in the main anime so maybe you already grew to care for them or something. But I did not enjoy this.

Interesting to see only positive reviews for this one. From the protagonist who is a generic shounen protag carbon copy whose only character trait is the "want to be the best", to the lack of development or even basic characterisation of most of the supposting cast it seems quite baffling to me. Dantsu has basically no role in this movie, and Manhattan Cafe's motivations are hinted at but never really explored. Tachyon as the antagonist does carry the movie pretty hard though. The relationship with the trainer and the retired horse girl is done reasonably well, but was ultimately just an inferior version of the ... season 3 plot with Kitasan Black. The animation is great, but the races are definitely over-edited where the "last spurt" moments which are supposed to be the highlights of the races just become drawn out internal monologue scenes with colourful effects everywhere. Sometimes it's nice to see the girls actually racing each other rather than just against themselves... Contrary to popular belief, using sakuga with people screaming does not infinitely create hype and gets boring after a while.

All the humour and memes from the show are gone, and due to the aforementioned issues with the characters and the depictions of the races, I found for the first time when watching Uma Musume that I didn't really care who won the races either. Saddest was definitely the final race against a legendary horse girl foreshadowed throughout the movie, only to be animated in the same way as the other races and dwelled on for all of about 2 seconds after its end before moving on. Only watch this movie if you like battle-shounen anime as that is the formula they seem to have chosen for some reason, and the target audience whom I imagine are the ones scoring this movie so highly.