If you are here then you have already seen the first season and have some general idea of what to expect, so I won’t waste time writing obvious introductions or descriptions.
After watching the 2018 anime I didn’t feel much. Yet another idol-like anime, just this time it’s horse girls and racing. Some events and race results surprised me and felt un-anime-like, but that’s it. Back then I didn’t know the reason behind them is the fact that it's based on real stories.
Coming into the second season my expectations were mixed: on one hand MAL score makes one wonder what is this thing hiding. On the other switching protagonists I got used to with some secondary characters felt wrong. It sure took some time to get used to it. But it was worth the try. Maybe they just picked more interesting horses to follow or maybe learned and made better use of their stories. I don’t know, but I do know the 2nd season worked much better. The fact that we get a more general outlook on everything, like fans, rivals and less important horse girls, helps too.
So back to where I started: don’t judge a book by it’s cover - don’t worry about absurd premise of horse girls racing, don’t think about it being a mobage adaptation - purely the fact that race results don’t follow shounen logic is already a huge boon that turned this anime into one of the more exciting titles I’ve watched. Obviously that wouldn’t work without right directing and character building, which are much better than you’d expect. On top of that they did a really good job at conveying the feeling of characters, their passion and their worries. This “mobile game promotion material” manages to be incredibly emotional and exciting, while also doing its promotional job quite well. I mean, I ended up checking out the game and read stories of all real horses that we saw in anime…
So yeah, if you watched the first season and, like me, didn’t get the hype, I really recommend you keep going and watch the second one. It’s truly a memorable experience.
