Uma Musume: Pretty Derby - Road to the Top

Ill be referring to my narrative rating rubric which can be found in detail on my profile.

2/2 = peak entertainment and art
Entertaining and Artistic:
Uma Musume is back with top tier animation and sound design which is accompanied by incredibly intense and fun races. The artistic appeal of someone who has the talent and hard work but faces the reaility of losing is well explored and so is the burden of survivors guilt for the other. Making this a compelling piece to watch on its own

2/2 = perfect narrative consistency
Narrative Consistency, defined as the strength of story telling such that in any episode you can stop ... to question What is going on, Why is this happening, When is this happening, Where are we and How is this unfolding. Essentially going from one plot point to another without causing confusion and being coherent. With 4 episodes, there was suspicion of toning down the plot a lot that it may feel jarring but thankfully not. We follow the Consequential Classic Races and the flow from one plot point to another is clear and enjoyable making it a pleasing and entertaining watching experience that ensures you arent lost.

2/2 = Has something for everyone, wholeheartidly recommend
Recommendation? Wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone. While knowledge of the Uma Musume-verse helps, the 4 episodes are largely self contained even though we have some characters in Rice Shower and Urara chan making an appearance. The narrative story of seeing someone work hard and use the best of talents but still fall short, and work to fight that frustration is a compelling story for any athlete. Admire Vega's story arc focusing on her sister too much was unfortunate consequence of 4 episodes, but it works really well to its advantage where we are able to see her journey of coming to terms with her survivors guilt.

2/2 = CHOCKFULL OF EMOTIONAL MOMENTS
Whether its the first race with someone making a statement from the outside.
The second and third race, especially the second, with a blow out phenomenal performance that left me losing it.
And of course the finale. Oh the finale.. a nail biting moment with emotions running high culminating in a very memorable high.
Multiple highly Emotional moments gives this full points here and will be stay with you long after.

Bias:
Historical Accuracy is top tier, Admire Vega vs Narita Top Road vs T M Opera O is an amazing 3 way rivalry to cover

The Idealogue is top tier. Top Road suffers from the complex of combining hard work and talent to the max and still falling short.. overcoming that hurdle was a big win. Admire Vega suffers from survivors guilt, the story of overcoming that mental block is amazing. TM Opera acts as an amazing foil for both of the protags here.

Power System exists in a satisfactory capcity. We are demonstrated the strengths of each of the 3 and then the play is around out competing each other.. the Final race was heavily unusual as it betrayed most norms and was a tight race of strategy and expectations leading to an explosive finish that kept you guessing

For satisfying all 3 of my biases, thats a 2/2 here as well

And as a Bonus cherry on top.
*I didn't skip a single second start to finish* which includes the OP as well. Its a rare honor deserving only of 10/10s
If you like Uma Musume, you will absolutely love this. If you haven't watched uma musume, this one still has something for you in regards to an amazing sports drama.

I've been an Uma Musume fans from the game release back in February 2021 (in turn, fan of the real Japanese horse racing as well) and consumed all of its media since then. So I was very delighted when they announced the production of this anime and season 3. While I enjoyed the overall content of this anime, there are some points that I'd like to address.

PLOT: 7/10
I would give a lower score if this is a full season anime, but since it's just a 4-episode ONA I give it a loose pass.

The pros:
+ Reference and accuracy with real-life events. Somewhat comparable with faithfulness to ... the manga/light novel source, almost every bit of details in this anime has a real-life reference, from the characters names and traits, conversations and events, and even the races from tracks, gate numbers, progressions, and finishing orders and gaps. This is something you would expect if you're into Uma Musume prior to this reading.
+ Thrilling and quite unpredictable outcome of races. For those who unfamiliar with Uma Musume or the history of Japanese horse racing, the story have been dramatised so much that it would be difficult to guess who will win the races (bar a certain race). They treat the three main characters as if they're all the heroine of the story.

The cons:
- Pacing. It's a bit too fast for each episode, as there might be watchers who are new to Uma Musume franchise and have no clue of what's going on.
- Plotholes. Again, because it's just a 4-episode, expect a lot of unfilled plotholes by the end of the anime.
- Missing jigsaws of real-life events. While the references are accurate, there are some important events that's not even included on the screen, which potentially can be used to fill the plotholes and complete the anime as a whole. My personal dissatisfaction on this point majorly laid on the last episode, especially the aftermath of Kikka-shō. Instead of a short storytelling about what happened to the trio in the future, the production decided to waste the last minutes by throwing the winning live (yes, that idol concert).

GRAPHIC/ANIMATION: 9/10
The graphics are gorgeous and a major upgrade from season 2, thanks to Cygames Pictures. What preventing them from getting the perfect score is a bit of choppy animations that can be spotted on several occasions, mostly the action scenes from the races.

SOUND: 11/10
Oh boy. This is where the anime gets very exciting, the limit of 10 score is just not enough. While I'm not the big fan of the opening, but the BGMs and their utilisation are godly. They're so beautiful, so touching, and massively enhance the atmosphere and emotions happening on the screen. Simply perfect.

CHARACTER: 10/10
This is a biased score, since they put some of my favourite Umas on the screen, that is Oguri Cap, Manhattan Cafe, and Admire Vega (the others are Neo Universe, Mihono Bourbon, and Nakayama Festa).

OVERALL ENJOYMENT: 9/10
While I'm not entirely impressed with the plot, but the rest of the aspects really patch that up to make this anime still very enjoyable for me, as an avid Uma Musume fan. I can't really say if this would be enjoyable for a non-Uma Musume fan, but if you like instrumental BGMs, you're in for a treat.

I was wondering if Uma Musume's formula was starting to wear off on me while watching this. I mean, admittedly it probably is since it still follows the same beats, moods, writing, and racing "twists" as the first two seasons despite the new main characters. And while season 2 had this same problem after watching season 1, the difference there is the high highs that ultimately made parts of it very emotional and memorable. While Road to the Top certainly has emotional moments, they didn't reach me.

The MAIN main character, Narita Top Road, is the strongest of the main three thanks to her emotional struggle ... being written well-enough. However, while the foundations are there, it ended up feeling weak since her supporting cast isn't fleshed out. It still had its moments where you can tell what the writers were going for, at least.

Admire Vega's whole situation felt asinine to me and made her not enjoyable throughout. This wasn't wasn't helped by it being very obvious how it was going to end up for her. I will admit that I still like how it happened...but even then it should've happened in time for her to flex it. Plus that would've stopped her from repeating herself up to the end. Actually seeing it would've definitely helped me like her more.

Opera O is unsurprisingly a joy and the best foil to put next to these two, but she definitely felt more like a secondary character than an equal. But maybe that's for the best. I think the point of her (and a great aspect of her) is that, unlike most other horse girls, she doesn't have anything to flesh out. I think that gave the writers a hard time making her impactful enough to fit as a main character as advertised, though.

Another issue is that the supporting cast is basically non-existent — besides Top Road's trainer (who is good). The rest of small supporting cast that actually is there felt very one-dimensional and not impactful to the main trio. And they're all you have. I ended up missing when the first two seasons gave small one-line roles or mentions to the other unimportant racers, because they get literally nothing here. It made the world feel surprisingly empty. Of course this is probably because this was only a four-episode ONA and all they wanted to do was highlight the main three, but that doesn't stop the experience from being weaker as a result.

For what it's worth, I think this anime still works as far as highlighting what makes Top Road, Admire Vega, and Opera O notable and likeable characters (at least if you haven't met them in the mobile game already like me). It just does it in a way that isn't interesting, especially after watching the previous seasons. At best I'm left to imagine the best versions of these character (which, hey, I'll take).