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catt ([personal profile] cattnep) wrote2025-07-09 04:30 pm
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[Movie Review/Braindump] Umamusume: Pretty Derby - Beginning of a New Era

Umamusume: Pretty Derby - Beginning of a New Era movie cover

Preamble:
  • I am a new UmaMusu fan. I have friends who have been interested in the series for a while and have osmosis'd some knowledge, and I pre-registered for the English release of Pretty Derby, though I haven't actually opened the app yet.
  • I have also never been to an anime convention before. Anime Expo, where this movie was shown, was my first.
Praises:
  • English subtitles by Jasmine Li of Cygames America and three editors. I really, really enjoyed them, as a translator myself. They had an incredible amount of spark and passion.
  • Animation was top notch, expected for a theatrical release. Though it really impressed me as a new fan who's never seen UmaMusu animated before.
  • Cinematography was phenomenal, the dramatic parts reminded me a lot of what I enjoyed about Revue Starlight without as much baggage.
    • PARTICULARLY the imagery of prismatic light, through the use of Pokke's necklace and the window decoration in Tachyon's dorm. The metaphor conveyed is really powerful: Fuji acting as a catalyst for Pokke's talent, and then Pokke acting as a catalyst for Tachyon to return to racing, and then back to Fuji too. A prism that reflects and enhances the light shone through it. So good.
  • I appreciate characters like Pokke, Opera O, and Tachyon getting focus the way they do. When it comes to all-female casts, the tropes that those three play into tend to get snubbed by the work. Orekkos, princely bokukkos, and mad scientist freaks in my experience tend to be more "niche" favorites in properties like these. Like yeah, it makes sense for ME to squeal over Opera being cool or Tachyon being unsettling, but it was kind of bizarre to hear EVERYONE ELSE in the audience squealing over them too. It's nice but also incredibly bizarre having an oshi that's actually a popular favorite.
  • Relationships between the girls were really well done. One moment in particular I appreciate is Dantsu getting a moment to shine and show that she IS a worthy rival to Pokke even without Tachyon there. Fuji and Pokke's mentor-pupil relationship with Tanabe was also incredibly wholesome and heartwarming.
    • To that end: YURI NUKE!!!!!!!!!!!! I need these horses to kiss. The chemistry they have in the movie is so (chef's kiss) mwah.
  • Official UmaMusu guidelines prohibiting romance between the horses and trainers, as well as any sexually suggestive content, is a good thing, actually. Shoutsout.

Theater Experience & Miscellaneous:
  • Thoroughly enjoyable experience. Exceptional movie. I'd watch it a million more times.
  • My friend Lily was also in the theater with me, although unfortunately we couldn't sit together. But she's a bit more invested in new releases and consuming lots of anime properties than I am, and she said that this was possibly one of the best anime movies she's ever seen.
  • The movie screening was held in panel room 403AB. There was a MASSIVE line to get in, easily around or above 500 from what I could glean, and even before the movie started the staff were asking people not to leave until they filled the theater completely. And within the first 10-20 minutes, there were staff opening the doors intermittently and saying "we have XX seats available" which caused a lot of commotion near the back. 403AB is one of the bigger panel rooms from what I could tell, so it wasn't an awful choice, but I still felt like it would've been better suited for a different venue. Like the third floor ballroom of the JW Marriott that was reserved for the Detective Conan movie screening and was over half empty the entire time lol
  • Lots of clearly longtime fans with merch and plushies and light sticks. Every time there was a cameo of the other non-focus horses the crowd went fucking crazy.
  • Audience was almost too well-behaved, climactic moments I expected to get the crowd going wild had less reaction than I anticipated. It felt like I often had to be one of the first people to cheer and woop before everyone else got the hint.
Final Thoughts:
  • Will finally be entering the horse girl pit after that movie.
  • This wasn't enough of a complaint to warrant a whole "complaints" section, but I didn't quite gel with the pacing of the races in this movie. This speaks less about UmaMusu race pacing or the movie pacing and more about how I'm relatively unversed in this property. I'll get used to it probably
  • I LOVE YOU TACHYON I LOVE YOU TACHYON I LOVE YOU TACHYON