Uma Musume: Pretty Derby Season 3

Since childhood, horse girls Kitasan Black and Satono Diamond have admired and aspired to be like their fellow horse girl named Tokai Teiou. Chasing their dreams, they enroll in Tracen Academy, an institution dedicated to training horse girls and preparing them for legendary races. Soon after, Kitasan Black lands on Team Spica, the same team as Teiou. Beaming with motivation, she remains undefeated until she fails to win her first Grade 1 (G1) race—the most prestigious type of race in the league—but she is determined to unleash her true potential as a horse girl.

Meanwhile, Satono Diamond comes from a long line of horse girls who, despite sporting incredible running prowess, have never won a G1 race. It is up to her to finally break this curse and bring the Satono clan the glory it deserves.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kitasan Black Main

Yano, Hinaki Japanese

Satono Diamond Main

Tachibana, Hina Japanese

Toukai Teiou Supporting

Machico Japanese

Rice Shower Supporting

Iwami, Manaka Japanese

Special Week Supporting

Waki, Azumi Japanese

Mejiro McQueen Supporting

Oonishi, Saori Japanese

Silence Suzuka Supporting

Kouno, Marika Japanese

Gold Ship Supporting

Ueda, Hitomi Japanese

Twin Turbo Supporting

Hanai, Miharu Japanese

Nice Nature Supporting

Maeda, Kaori Japanese

Masuo, Masashi Producer

Nishimura, Kento Producer

Oikawa, Kei Director, Storyboard

Morita, Yuuichi Sound Director

Reviews

Aug 24, 2024

Haru_Kobuchizawa

Recommended

Despite appearing to be an anime made to sell the game, Uma musume came back very entertaining, especially for fans of idols and horse racing. Uma Musume continues to prove that is much more than running idols (or Racehorse Girls Idols)
It's the best sports anime, without a doubt. and it continues to be wonderful with this third season.
Once again, we realize that the producers' passion for horse racing is genuine. The second season was sensational, all the drama and overcoming, it certainly made me love the anime even more.

The third season shows us new generations emerge. It was a great season, but many people compare ... it to season 2, which was perfect, which makes no sense to me.I think a lot of people are pushing it too much, like, "Oh, it's disappointing because it wasn't as good as Season 2."
Hey guys...
The season 2 was PHENOMENAL, of course it would be a difficult act to follow, classify season 3 as a standalone season and it's still a fantastic and well done season.

I liked the stories in season 2 the most because they had a lot of impact, and the passion the director put into every detail was crucial. But I loved the performance between Dia and Kita. The hardships Kitasan went through to become what she always dreamed of, the way she dealt with the decline and how it can affect herself. For many people, it's hard to attribute "struggle" and "effort" to someone who was able to overcome as much as she/he did (both in the anime and in real life).

Finally, I say that Uma Mussume is the best sports anime in recent years
I hope there are many films and many seasons to come for us.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by Haru_Kobuchizawa (17)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Dec 27, 2023

KANLen09

Mixed Feelings

Uma Musume: Pretty Derby - 3 seasons' worth of Uma Musume content with a change of studio production in-between...what could go wrong? Well, this season.

It's been 5.5 years since Uma Musume: Pretty Derby graced the small screen, giving us our first impression of CyGames's biggest IP in Japan (next to Princess Connect! Re:Dive a.k.a PriConne) and the anime equivalent to the live-action horse races, showcasing the rich history of Japan's most iconic horses, covering their rise to fame and their eventual downfall away from the spotlight. Since then, we have already had 3 seasons of the anime (Spring 2018, Winter 2021, and this Fall), 2 ... short series (Summer 2020's Umayon and Fall 2022's Umayuru), last year's Road to the Top ONA series, and a buttload of new manga series based on different characters, to boot. But out of all of these different showings, there's got to be a Black Sheep in the series, and it's very unfortunate that I have to say that Season 3 here is the worst of the lot.

Despite Season 1 all those years ago with director Kei Oikawa's staff team and Studio Kai coming into Season 2 to help things out with the production, the story plot has literally stayed the same, which shouldn't really be a bad thing to fans of the mobage and the anime-onlies...right? Sure, you had Special Week and Silence Suzuka for Season 1, which served as a good jumping start to the anime, then Season 2 with Tokai Teio and Mejiro McQueen, which is Season 1 but 10 times better due to the character developments that get you invested very deeply in both main horse girls, which raises the bar for potential future seasons to come. And then Season 3 appeared after almost yet another 3-year gap...and its central characters are nowhere near the brilliance and remembrance that were its predecessor season, or even Season 1, for that matter.

For reference, up until then, all horse girls are based off their real-life horse counterparts to anchor the story, and from what I can tell, the main horse girls of Kitasan Black and Satono Diamond are exactly just that, though somehow, somewhere in the process, it felt like their story elements together were too short to even make up a 13-episode series, so the producers and scriptwriters (some of whom like Shingo Nagai and Tetsuya Kobari were brought back from the Road to the Top ONA) decided to wing this season to the best of their abilities. You have Kitasan Black, who wants to follow in Tokai Teio's footsteps, and Satono Diamond, of whom the Satono "curse" deemed that none of its family members were able to secure G1 wins. I understand the story in this season that can be crafted for the latter, but for the former, it seems like someone is getting lazy trying to rehash the "tried-and-true" formula that made Tokai Teio a standout character in Season 2. Not all horse girls (and their real-life counterparts) have the same history and treatment (though sometimes they do sound the same), and in this case, you can tell that Kitasan Black is supposed to be the next generation leap forward as compared to Tokai Teio's, but the scriptwriting of her character just doesn't echo it like so, and instead, in my opinion, is an exaggerating version of Tokai Teio that is a ticking time bomb, until she becomes a frail horse girl with no redemption whatsoever, despite all the cheers and encouragement from Team Spica and its members who have done the same before her. Also, the other rivals in both girls' generations, like Duramente and Cheval Grand, I really find the former's story very intriguing, and it actually reminded me similarly to Gold Ship's plight, but it started and ended like a typical script with little to no motivation at all. As for the latter, they really want to make Cheval Grand's "win and lose" story mould together alongside the two main horse girls, but I just don't care for her that much.

In context, when we look back at Season 2, both Tokai Teio and Mejiro McQueen's backstories were so great that it makes us the audience very focused and engrossed on their melodrama, and even the racing action on the racecourses feels like they have substantial weight to them as a sign of improvement in how far they'd come in their sacrificial journey to push beyond their limits and achieve their very best. That to think that this was all in the span of the same 13-episode series that, in my opinion at the time, I'm worried that the production committee needs an extra oomph of time to deliver what was then one of the most spectacular races in Uma Musume's anime, period, and by the grace of the anime gods, they delivered in a very tight deadline to fulfill and cement the (at the time) sequel's legacy as a great follow-up to its premiere season. Season 3 here, however, has none of that.

If the story doesn't do you any favours for what's about to come for Season 3, then both the production and music will help deteriorate your watching experience. Studio Kai has done magnificently for Season 2 that's 3 years prior, and with the same 3-year gap, you would think that they'll be able to keep their consistency after a break this long. I'm sad to say that this is not the case here, as the animation has slipped to a downgrade (with the obvious tinges focusing on the race action), and while it doesn't look as bad as Season 2, you can tell that it is visibly less refined in an effort to save up on production costs, which is otherwise a mitigating factor concerning the anime overall.

The music is by far the worst aspect of Season 3. I was actually okay that the producers left the Winning Stage idol portion for the finale episodes since character development is the absolute priority for Season 2, something that had existed since Season 1 (again, to give anime-onlies an idea of what the mobage is all about in anime form). And Season 3 is the sum of the marriage of the worst decisions ever made, with an OST that is just as upbeat as the series is. But if anything, remembrance is not the keyword here.

Some will say that Season 3 is just as good as Season 2, if not a touch downward, which I can agree to an extent. But as it stands, Season 3 is a mere carbon copy of Season 2 with new characters that doesn't fire up the horse grooves as much as it could have. Better luck next time if there is a Season 4 in the future, though I will not count on betting in a horse race for improvements across the racecourse.

Such a missed opportunity for any kind of potential. And such is the case in the world of Uma Musume: Pretty Derby (at least for the anime), where it's more an Ugly Duckling, than a beautiful Swan song.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by KANLen09 (655)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Dec 20, 2023

Brainerrorboom

Not Recommended

Preliminary (13/13 eps)

After an amazing experience in season 2, everyone have high hopes on season 3, hoping it will be another banger.
Turns out, this is a horrible season - worse than the ONA aired on April or even season 1.
What went wrong?

In a nutshell:

1. Using up a lot of new character's time for old characters
-Before: New season, new characters
- Now: New season, old characters gets lots of screentime

... 2. Boring racing scenes
- (Apart from ep 12) Close up shots of girls trampling grass and keep yelling and shouting for minutes straight
- No memorable matches

3. Too frequent racings
- less time for character development
- There is no climax in the show

4. Lack of emotions
- The production team expected that you can save lots of emotion by just ONE episode - and release it out like
a flood through a race
-> Climax? No.

5. Time wasting on useless scenes
ex. Sakura Bakushin-O : Her only purpose is to interact with Kitason a bunch of times - without being any motivative source for Kitason

6.Wasting characters
Ex. Duramente: A perfect character to fit in the anime
-Gets screentime but no character development

7.Talking instead of action
- Actions are the best way to develop a character - and they chose not to, but instead talking for 12 ep straight
8.Confusing character developments (the worst)
Kitasan Black:
-Real life: Nicknamed " Tough guy"
-Anime: "Glassheart" - Keeps breaking down and have to get motivated every episode
ex. Within TWO minutes:
-Want to compete overseas
- Denied by the trainer
-Got sad and went out
- Motivated from two random guys on the street
- Cheered up
- Changes idea and will compete in Japan
->Totally time wasting and no character development and no emotions saved
- Amazed by how the production can turn a horse which is strong and got the most G1 trophies among all into
a girl who is stupid ,fragile and weak
Satono Diamond:
- Expected to get main screentime (rivalry with Kitasan irl)
- Reality: NPC with ONLY ONE EP for character development - and that ep was totally not passionate enough
New side characters:
- Have screentime but... simply no character development

Overall: A complete disaster which is not recommended to newcomers and even old fans. Seriously this is the only uma musume anime I dropped due to its boringness of the first few episodes- and I came back to watch if it gets improvements. The answer is clear no.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by Brainerrorboom (3)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Uma Musume Pretty Derby

by Raidori4

13 Entries · 26 Restacks

2023 Fall YouTube Critics Recommendations - Returning & Continuing Shows

by SnoopyInOrbit

19 Entries · 14 Restacks

Cygames Animation

by SnoopyInOrbit

23 Entries · 17 Restacks

Recommendations

'Uma Musume: Pretty Derby' Anime Movie Announced for May 2024

The 13th and final episode of Uma Musume: Pretty Derby Season 3 announced an anime movie titled Uma Musume: Pretty Derby - Shin Jidai no Tobira (Uma Musume: Pretty D...read more

Dec 27, 2023 8:38 AM by Hyperion_PS | Discuss (11 comments)

Fall 2023 Simulcast List [Update 10/22]

In this thread, you'll find a comprehensive list of television anime acquired for simulcast release during the Fall 2023 season. Anime series licensed for home ...read more

Sep 29, 2023 8:06 AM by Snow | Discuss (26 comments)

	Poll: Uma Musume: Pretty Derby Season 3 Episode 6 Discussion Xanek - Nov 8, 2023	32 replies	by PeterLee176cm »» Sep 10, 9:06 AM
	Poll: Uma Musume: Pretty Derby Season 3 Episode 13 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Xanek - Dec 27, 2023	52 replies	by Shocked »» May 25, 12:16 AM
	Poll: Uma Musume: Pretty Derby Season 3 Episode 9 Discussion Xanek - Nov 29, 2023	36 replies	by lasodamos »» Mar 16, 1:43 PM
	Poll: Uma Musume: Pretty Derby Season 3 Episode 5 Discussion Stark700 - Nov 1, 2023	36 replies	by lasodamos »» Mar 12, 2:13 PM
	Poll: Uma Musume: Pretty Derby Season 3 Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Xanek - Oct 4, 2023	59 replies	by lasodamos »» Mar 10, 1:29 PM