Uma Musume: Pretty Derby Season 3 Episode 11 Discussion

So, how long in-universe has passed since the start of this season? Cos in 11 episodes, we've gone from Kitasan having to work her way to her peak, to reaching it and then immediately falling beneath it. It feels like no other horse girl in this series has fallen down as quickly as we're being told Kitasan is, a feeling that's exacerbated by how bad this series is at conveying the passage of time in general.

Biwa Hayahide stuffing her face with bananas in the background is gold. This is because irl Biwa Hayahide loved bananas too: https://youtu.be/_QQL2JwXUMo?si=DFEStMr9stn3fiJt
Bakushin only got like, half a minute of screentime this whole season, but I love it when she appears.
And yeah, Dia got absolutely destroyed at Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe coming at 15th place (I already spoiled myself the whole season by looking up Kita and Dia's careers). I wanted more coverage of that, but I guess they can't really do much with foreign races because of rights and stuff.
Got chills during the race again. I guess Kita being so out of breath after the race signifies that she's past her prime now. And that look on Dia's face...
The ED has been so out of place the past couple episodes lol. Good episode!

Btw gigantic plushies of Kita and Dia were announced yesterday and they became a big meme in Japan lmao. There is so much fanart. Would buy if I could.
https://x.com/umamusu_goods/status/1734399865093042500

And just my own things: Two days ago I pulled my first non-ticket character gatcha and got a Cristmas Mejiro Bright. Either I spent all my remaining luck this year or just beginner's luck. She's perfect for the next Champions Meeting so even better! Also I feel like the game is taking a bit too much of my time lately...

Very touching episode, great race. Kitasan pushing her limits despite realizing she has passed her prime. I hope Dia will understand her decision not to join her in France. Can't wait for the wrap-up.


I started playing a year ago, no signs of slowing down. It's VERY addictive.

I adore Uma Musume, I adore Kita and this season, but I think the plot is really weak in comparation of the previous seasons, I've been thinking about that for a while now, but this episode confirmed it.

In season 1 we had Spe doing her best to win against her many rivals, it was simple but effective for a 1st plot, she was a new student and managed to become the 1#.

In season 2 we had Teio, a girl we new from s1, lose her dream and fall into a heavy depression because of an injury, she lost her ego and motivation but I think the way they handled her redemption was amazing, the way McQueen and Twin helped her realize it wasn't over, giving her beautiful reasons to keep running, showing us that it wasn't just about winning, but about the act of running itself, it was great.

In this season we have Kita in what seems to be an endless loop, she gets sad because she loses, but then she gets happy because the people from town cheers for her, we have seen this loop for at least 3 times now, and it is really lame, specially considering that was the exact same plot for Narita in Road to the Top, but there it was handled way better and since that anime is short we didn't had to see the same stuff over and over again. Sometimes she gets to talk with Nice and she also helps to cheer her up, but I still don't really understand why Nice has been a more important character than Teio since Kita joined Spica just to train with her (I love Nice Nature tho)
I thought her main goal was to surpass Teio, but I feel like that wasn't really important for her after all, there is also her rivalry with Dia but that kinda just ended, and even tho she was other rivals like Crown and Cheval I never feelt like they are even that important for her, like if she didn't even care about them, Crown won the race in the last episode but in this one Kita was never like "I'll race against crown again, I must win this time to prove I'm better!", she was more like "Oh, Crown is here again, ok", she only cared about not lossing her "peak" and that can lead to an interesting plot but as I was saying, I feel like she underestimates anyone who is not Dia or herself, not even Teio was like that.

I really hope this gets better since there are only 2 episodes left 💔

Anyways, this episode made me kinda sad because we had the oportunity to see Bakushin train with Kita (something they kinda hypped up in the 1st anniversary animation), but again nothing happened, lame.
That would be really nice since Sakura Bakushin O was one of the grandfathers of Kitasan Black, just like Mejiro McQueen was one of the grandfathers of Gold Ship (yeah, kinda weird how Gold Ship really is a crazy af horse when it has Mejiro blood lmao), in case someone is reading this long ass comment and didn't knew that lol

Btw Satono Crown has been the best character this season, fight me.

@StallionXD

Kitasan's main goal was never about surpassing Teio and at this point, Kitasan's race record has already surpassed Teio with 6 G1 wins XD.

Initially she wanted to be like Teio, including copying her stylish running style which focuses on explosive sprint at the final stretch. But she lacks the explosiveness that Teio and Duramente has to be able to run like that. So you see her consulting Nature sensei to realize what is her edge in racing and moving away from Teio to focus on herself. She is pretty average in every aspect except her durability so she just trains a lot.

Next she explores on why she wanted to be like Teio. Ever since young, she is fascinated by her dad's performance on stage and how it made the audiences smile. Becoming like Teio is the closest to her original dream, which is to become a star and make her audiences smile (Very boring dream sounds like every idol ever). The town people will always be there to support her, no matter if she wins or loses. She is the star of the town.

I don't think Kitasan underestimates anyone as she gives her best in every race. She is also the top dog and favored to win almost every race in later half. If anything, Crown and Cheval are the ones who need to prove they can win but they are not the main character so not much focus on them.

@Aeru47 I get the "being like Teio" plot, and I do know she has surpassed her at this point lol, but that's the problem, since she completed that goal so soon, what do we have left? Kita won against Dia but it was never her top priority, now she wanted to go to France but that got quickly scraped, she decided on her new goal of winning the Fall Triple Crown like "I wanna keep running, and trainer said to do this, so might as well" lol, this feel so unfocused, Kita doesn't have one true goal unlike the protagonists from previous seasons, including RttT.

And I still think she underestimates them because every time she loses a race she is out of focus, thinking about Dia or about herself instead of focusing in the race she is on, I think it was badly handled when Crown won in the last episode because they make it seem like she didn't won because she ran better than Kita, she won because Kita was "feeling weird", lame, these are real horses, irl Crown won because it was the better horse, not because irl Kita was having an existencial crisis in the middle of the race lol I understand they do this stuff because of the plot, the drama they need, but for people that watch this and has 0 knowledge about the real horses (I've seen a lot of people watching this 3rd season that still have no idea all of these horses and races actually exist/existed), they may think just that, "oh, Crown only won because Kita was feeling bad, so her victory doesn't matter".

In the end nothing of that changes the fact that we are trapped in a loop: kita wins, kita loses, she is sad, the town people cheer her up, repeat. I really hope that doesn't happen again in the next episode, she won this race but it was bittersweet, focus on fixing that by herself, by her own will to get better, don't give us the banana seller having to cheer her up again lmao

sry if my english is bad btw

@tiXhl I can't see the numbers in the screenshot, can you post it again with the numbers too? And yeah, it's addictive indeed, here are my numbers (started 2 months ago right when episode 2 of season 2 aired, this might not seem like too much, but I read through all the stories and events and training one character can take me days):