Umamusume: Cinderella Gray – Episode 1

What’s it about? Umamusume are racers who inherit the fighting spirit and names of legendary race horses from a world where horses aren’t girls—at least not human ones. Among these legendary racers is Oguri Cap, a rural girl with ambition in her eyes and an appetite for winning! Follow her as she goes from rural rags to racing riches in this hot-blooded, horse girl legend!

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I’m not new to Umamusume as a franchise, though I’ll fully admit I haven’t engaged with it in a while. Still, going into this premiere I know what’s what and the lay of the land. But what I’m most interested in is testing this from the viewpoint of someone brand new to the franchise who has no significant information other than “horses are anime girls” and knows that it’s a pretty big deal.

Now, as AniFem’s resident Horse Fearer, this was a bit of a daunting task. Would these anime girl horses win my heart over? Is there a trick up their sleeves–neigh, their socks–that could make me fear the concept of Horse at least like, one percent less? You already know you’ve got to keep reading to find out. So gallop on past the image and get into the horse heart of my review!

Episode 1, “Finally, A Star” starts off with a bit of worldbuilding before skipping ahead to modern day. You see, Umamusume have existed since Ancient Egypt, depicted in hieroglyphs for their glory. Now, in modern day, these young horse maidens hit the green and race circuits, aiming for hooved glory. We witness this in a very high-octane race, watching the Japanese Derby home stretch. Multiple maidens race, bodies tilted forward as they pump their arms and push themselves to take the lead and the ultimate glory. It genuinely feels quite exciting too, even if you’re not a fan of horse racing.

We gallop to the deep countryside of Japan at Kasamatsu Tracen Academy, a school in Gifu Prefecture, and a herd of brand new racers looking to make their mark on the racing world. Yet it seems like no stars have been born. That is, until Miss Cinderella Gray herself comes rushing by, silver ponytail flapping in the wind as she races past two trainers who see sudden potential.

Damn, I like horse girls. I really, really, really like horse girls and I love Horse Girl the Franchise so much. But I’m going to cut myself off now before I start getting too gabby about my return to this franchise because I’d really like to examine it in terms of viewership: that is, in terms of if you can watch this as a separate entry or need context.

Personally, I found it very possible to engage with this as a separate entry automatically. You get enough context to know what the world is doing with its concept, but also just enough interest in this as its own thing within the franchise to remain interested. This feels standalone enough that I never felt like I needed one of the multiple characters to look at me directly and take a minute to explain things. There’s enough happening in this premiere that you can logically extrapolate what you need as you watch Oguri interact with her fellow racers, especially since she’s kind of oblivious despite her tough exterior.

That said, I imagine this will vault many viewers who find this spin-off interesting into the main series for more media to engage with. I know I’m certainly going to be returning to Umamusume’s roots to get more horse girl anime. In fact, I’m kind of chomping at the bit to revisit where it all started!

So much of the joy of this premiere was having a relatively grounded story with this very playful conceptual spin. It reminded me a lot of how KEIJO!!!!!!!! treats its premise by taking the concept of fighting Butts to Bust seriously, just like in a shounen manga where everyone scream-shouts their attack. Here, the concept of human girls and eventually, women, who have horse ears, manes, and tails and race just like a derby horse, is taken seriously as a sport that has its own academies and training facilities around the world. 

I like that seriousness because it makes Umamusume: Cinderella Gray feels more grounded as a rags-to-riches story. Sure, the concept is silly but if the story respects it, so do you as the viewer, and honestly, I really respected and enjoyed being able to engage with this premiere. It left me smiling by the end and ready for next week when I get to sit down and watch the next episode.

If it isn’t clear, I really, really liked Umamusume: Cinderella Gray. I feel like it’s a great premiere that sets ups a rise to fame for Oguri while also showing the interplay between her fellow racers who yearn for the same goal. It’ll certainly be interested to see how this story plays out over the course of this season. I really encourage folks who have always wondered about this series to get into it: it’s on Amazon Prime unfortunately, but don’t let that be too big of a deterrent to one of the best seinen series this season.