If someone were to tell me that premise, half of me would think that it would sell extremely well and the other half would believe that person is out of their mind. Yet, this anime works so well.
The foundation of this anime is in its great storytelling about a girl by the name of Special Week going from, essentially, inferiority to idealism. The story is by no means original, but that doesn't matter when it is executed as well as it is. There is plenty of foreshadowed plot points that are complemented by quick resolutions, which keeps the pacing of this series upbeat. The storytelling of this anime is very textbook, and I think its through that rigidity that viewers get offered a substantive story, instead of an anime studio taking the low-ground with CGDCT fluff.
The art design and sound of Uma Musume doesn't really give much to be desired. The biggest problem that I can see people having is that the CGI racing girls don't really blend well into the colored backgrounds. Having that drastic switch between digital art into CGI is not really a harsh criticism, but it can be a little jarring to see clean digitial art movement that gets quickly shifted into CGI. I think that could have been cleaned up a bit more.
However, I don't think anyone can talk about this series without talking about how cute the girls are and how their outfits are fantastic to look at. I sincerely hope the costume designers had fun creating those outfits. The racing outfits were all the same, but when it came to individual stuff, I think it was really good looking.
Uma Musume is one of those once in a few years anime that was made to break expectations. It is by no means the best anime of its season. However, to call it less than a top 10 anime for that year, I think would be a great disservice to how well executed it was. Please give this series a watch. I don't think you'll regret it.
