Historical fiction often struggles to break away from the confines of its genre: slavish recreations of historical wars and conflicts, or history lectures dressed as community theater. Both of these create similar problems, also: context-devoid interpretations, diminishing and compression of human history into militaristic conflicts, or overly somber moralizing about Great Men and Great Heroes or the Consequences of Actions. Few works of historical fictions approach their subject matter from a place of inspiration and joy, celebrating periods of triumph, the struggling for competition, or the thrill of realizing one’s dream. But sometimes it takes a dark horse to break from the pack and blaze a path that shows that historical fiction can be thrilling, compelling, and inspiring without relying on violence and combat, a position that Cygames’ Umamusume: Pretty Derby franchise takes with a commanding lead, showing how the history of horse racing and it’s dramatic ups and downs can represent the passion for competition burned into the human spirit. That’s right: Umamusume: Pretty Derby is historical fiction, and one of the best in the world at building a model for how to utilize history to create while helping teach and inspire awareness of it.
But why are we talking about it here on Goonhammer Dot Com? Because while our primary focus in war gaming and miniatures, we also spend a lot of time thinking about competitive games, of storytelling in those games, and of how to enjoy historical media in our hobbying as well. And sometimes, the best way to better understand a think we love is to see a different way of expressing that joy and wonder, while also exploring how to do them differently.
A Horse of a Different Color
Umamusume: Pretty Derby is a media franchise that initially started as a mobile phone game concept that initially released in 2021 after being delayed from an original date of 2018, with an explosion of media in anime, manga, a theatrical feature film and even stage play devoted to one thing: a love for thoroughbred horse racing. The twist to Umamusume is that the name sake “Uma Musumes” (literally “horse girls”) are anthropomorphized versions of real, historical horses. Each named horse in the franchise is based on a real horse, and the media works set in the Umamusume setting all recreate real races and results; if a horse won in real life, their win is recreated as a glorious triumph of will and spirit, of scraping for the brass ring against amazing odds, or a display of training and passion. But if the horse lost, those losses are equally recreated in devastating ways, ranging from injuries and career endings to losses of self and identity, of the evaporation of confidence, and the teetering brink of the abyss that is giving up.
The Umamusume world takes some obvious liberties with reality, of course, if the Horse Girls weren’t an obvious enough sign of that. In the UM world, Uma Musumes are humans born with horse ears and tails, with cardiovascular systems and musculature that gifts them superhuman strength and speed. Also, horses don’t exist (which has some very bizarre historical consequences to consider), but don’t worry about that part so much. Everything else that has ever happened in history has happened, more or less, in the world of Umamusume: the Statue of Liberty exists in New York, holding high a giant carrot instead of a torch; when COVID-19 struck the world, Umamusume introduced the virus dutifully due to the introduction of Daring Tact, the horse who won the Filly Triple Crown undefeated in five races to empty stadiums devoid of onlookers due to the pandemic. The only fictionalization Umamusume grants racers is that in the Umaverse, horses’ careers ending, either from retirement, injury, or death, are respected but allow them to live on past tragic fates. Whereas the real Suzuka Silence died tragically during the 1998 Autumn Tenno Sho, Umamusume sends the severely injured Suzuka off to America to recover, returning as a guest character in spots to keep her around, even if she never races again. This semi-immortality allows horses from different eras and careers to meet, interact, and race against one another, celebrating the athletes at the center of the sport in a world of healthy competition.
Also, they occasionally put on big concerts with choreographed dancing. Don’t worry about it.
Putting the Anime Before the Horse
Due to unforeseen delays, the release of the Umamusume game was delayed from 2018 to 2021, but that didn’t stop the rest of the franchise from existing. Starting in 2018, P.A. Works created the first Umamusume anime season, with two more airing in 2021 and 2023 udner the direction of Studio Kai. For people most curious about the franchise and the concept of it as historical fiction, the anime is likely the best place to start, as each of the seasons centers around a generation of horses and the races that they competed in. Season 1 focuses primarily on Special Week, a horse who raced from 1997-1999, and introduces many of the concepts that the Umamusume universe would expand on as the series grew and became more popular: Uma Musumes attend Tracen Academy, a “school” that focuses on training and promoting racers in the Twinkle Series, which mimics the real schedule of horse racing in Japan and the real races run every year. The mixing of anime tropes with historical fiction creates most of the whimsy in the series, but also some of the bumpier parts of it; particularly, Season 1 suffers the most from not having quite found the footing that makes the series so intriguing and compelling, instead shoehorning in a male trainer that the girls all are centered around. Seasons 2 and 3, as well as other spin-offs, do away with this conceit, but it is worth noting it for anyone going in that Season 1 is a little different before finding its voice.
The racers, however, are the true stars of the series. Each episode or storyline focuses on real races, many of which have been preserved on the internet, and through the popularity of Umamusume, have become more an more well-known; in 2021, the then chairman of the Japanese Racing Association (JRA) even thanked Cygames and the series for helping promote and popularize horse racing to new generations. Although Season 1 struggles at times to reach the heights of more recent branches of the franchise, there are some great historical moments to learn about and appreciate. Seasons 2 and 3 expand on this even further, focusing on the overcoming injuries narrative of Tokai Teio and the “new generation” of 2010s racing through Kitasan Black.
A Horse in Motion Stays in Motion
The birth of film as a medium is often attributed to the chronophotography “The Horse in Motion” by Eadweard Muybridge, and so it may not surprise you, dear reader, to discover that Umamusume’s theatrical debut, “Beginning of a New Era”, begins by depicting its own version of that historical moment over a narrative explanation of the world and universe, moving from the sepia tones of the past into a RGBY transition to the “present” of modern racing. “Beginning of a New Era” is, in this writer’s subjective opinion, an absolutely gorgeous film that is deeply invested in the concepts of competition, legacy, chasing dreams, losing hope, and overcoming one’s own fears; it is also perhaps the best single example of how the franchise excels at taking history and using it to tell compelling stories that are almost universally understood. Beginning of a New Era is a movie that is as much about a love of horse racing and sports history as it is a movie about cinema and film-making, blending various animation styles, lighting techniques, color filters, camera tricks, and much more into a movie that is, ostensibly, “about horse girls running in circles”.
The film follows 4 horses from the turn of the millennium: Jungle Pocket, Agnes Tachyon, Manhattan Cafe, and Dantsu Flame, with Jungle Pocket being the primary focus of the film, with heavy investment into themes of what does it mean to win, chasing ghosts, and learning to accept yourself; these are all fairly common sports themes, but also deeply human themes that stories about competition can often highlight in ways that are simple to see or grasp but offer depth in doing so.
Although the film was never made officially available outside of Japan in English, I urge people to watch it, and I’ve taken to showing it to curious friends as just an example of a well-made film made by people who love their medium and their subject. And in many cases, that’s the real “magic” of Umamusume: a love of the sport and it’s history ensures that excitement and passion is often passed on to the viewers.
Sometimes, Fiction is More Real than Reality
Perhaps benefiting from the wider popularity of horse racing in Japan than in other regions of the world, these fictionalized retellings of historic racers and their triumphs and failures struck an obvious chord, and the works are thrilling and fun to watch, showing a new way to think about or appreciate historical tales in a new way. And while racing is “simple”, just run in a big oval, the concepts of competition and striving to be the best, of wanting to win and stand out, is an almost universally easy to understand human experience. Perhaps ironically, that simplicity is also a strength of Umamusume; in a world of sports anime with “special moves” and “hidden abilities” like Kuroko’s Basketball, Haikyuu, or the frankly absurd Blue Lock, Umamusume leaves the “nonsense” to the existence of the horse girls, but every race is decided on the things that make up the real and tumultuous world of sports competition: skill, training, strategy, luck, and taking advantage of situations. When Gold Ship famously loses 12 billion yen in betting losses, Umamusume recreates it. When Tokai Teio overcomes three nearly career ending fractures, Umamusume recreates that too. The “fantastical” victories, events, and losses are often less fantastical than real life, making it harder to believe the reality over the fiction at times.
Recently, that’s been the case in the Umamusume series Umamusume: Cinderella Gray, a manga and now anime series (which you can watch in most English regions currently!) that follows Oguri Cap, the horse often attributed with giving birth to a new age of horse racing popularity and investment. Oguri Cap’s career was not just legendary, it was unprecedented, with the horse giving rise to things that Japanese Horse Racing still has him to thank for nearly 40 years later, and who Umamusume may not have even existed without; even the concept of “idol horses”, which Umamusume spoofs by having the horse girls be actual singing idols after winning races, is attributed to the real life Oguri Cap, who created armies of fans (many of which were women), who demanded merchandise to celebrate their favorite horse. Today, the JRA’s most popular pieces of merchandise are “Idol Horse” plushes, of which Oguri Cap still sells out.
While Cinderella Gray follows Oguri Cap’s story from an unknown and nearly undiscovered country horse to a horse racing legend, the realities of his Cinderella Story are often more bizarre than the illustrated versions are able to recreate. Perhaps one of the greatest examples is that of the 1989 Japan Cup, in which Oguri Cap, along with all 13 other horses, all broke the Japanese record for fastest finish in the Japan Cup. Not just one, or two, or even three: every single horse in the race broke record, and not just one, but multiple: the first was breaking the 2000m record held at 1:58.3 to 1:58.0, and then every distance record after that until ending the race at 2:22.2, a record held for an entire decade after this race. The inter-horse relationships were also unique and bizarre; Ibn Bey, who began the mad dash pace of the race after reportedly being scared by the 100k people in attendance, seemed to rile up the American horse Hawkster, and the two fought for dominance for almost the entire race until Pay the Butler, Oguri Cap, and a New Zealand horse named Horlicks broke through for the final stretch. It was Horlicks and Oguri Cap’s neck and neck finish that caught the crowd, and racing history, as a timeless moment of horse racing legend. The two of them battled with a ferocious intensity in the final stretch, with the potential of two national legacies at stake; for Oguri Cap, it would have been to be the first Japanese winner of the Japan Cup since Symboli Rudolf, and for Horlicks, her victory would become the savior of New Zealand’s dwindling horse racing hopes. The 1989 Japan cup also had one other famous, lingering theory as to why Oguri Cap, a horse who reportedly cared about very little but eating and running, wanted to keep up with Horlicks so much: he supposedly had a crush on her. No matter how many “Oguri Gals” existed, Oguri Cap only had eyes for one horse, apparently.
Global Tomorrow? No, Global Today!
Of course, all of this is simply fun to talk about without trying to argue that it has had real impact on the historical longevity and current popularity of horse racing, either in Japan or abroad, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that Cygames gamble on the sport is legitimate and profitable. The game, which up until 2 days before this article was published, was only available in Asia (primarily Japan), has accrued over 2 billion dollars in profit, which has allowed Cygames to continue pursuing the franchise, and also begin to sponsor actual horse racing. To say that Umamusume has been profitable is quite an understatement, certainly, but the niche aspect of the topic does make it seem more incredible; while horse racing’s popularity has waned in America, for example, with only a few races such as the Kentucky Derby or Preakness Stakes making national headlines or media coverage, the sport is immensely popular in Japan amongst men and women; as a short comparison, Churchill Downs, where the Kentucky Derby is held, can hold about 170,000 attendees (this years estimate was 147,406), the JRA race track in Tokyo, Tokyo Racecourse, can hold a whopping 223,000 people. Advertisements for the JRA and horse racing are common and often appeal to both men and women in Japan, selling merchandise (like the aforementioned Idol Horse plushies) to both, promoting the sport as unisex and for all ages. Cygames has noticed, or at least, capitalized on that, and the estimated Umamusume player base is 25% women, a feat that’s far higher than most other game franchises (mobile or non, frankly).
Cygames has taken that love of the sport and passion for promoting it abroad, as well. The recently run 151st Kentucky Derby, for example, carried a sponsored race by Cygames, even featuring a tent by the company on the grounds and allowing curious visitors to see and play the game while enjoying the weekend of races. Later in July, Cygames has also become the primary sponsor the Grand Prix de Paris on July 13th, now the “Cygames Grand Prix de Paris”, in their partnership with France Galop. Visitors to Kentucky’s International Museum of the Horse can even see a special exhibit on the history of horses in Japan sponsored by Cygames until January 2026.
So what is it really that makes Umamusume: Pretty Derby so uniquely special as a historical fiction franchise? While the concept is silly and cute, the game and media are far more than “cute girls doing cute things”, and the franchise is far removed from using sexually provocative imagery to sell itself; often times, the anime and manga feature the horse girls nearly snarling and yelling as they exert themselves, expressing the extreme physical and mental feats of competition (in a very anime way, of course), so there isn’t always a lot of just sitting around cutely either (but there is some of that too). It also exists in multiple incarnations, meaning that one can watch the show or read the manga without ever picking up the game; in fact, up until this week, picking up the game wasn’t even actually possible for people outside of Japan without using VPNs or proxies, while the anime have been running on streaming services since 2018.
In reality, I think the answer is quite simple; as I said in the beginning, Umamusume: Pretty Derby shows that historical fiction does not need to be chained war and conquest to be compelling or interesting. But another very important factor is that Umamusume takes the source material, horse racing, and demystifies it: races are made simpler to understand, horse/trainer/jockey personalities are made easier to understand or parse, and the concept of horse racing as either something exclusively enjoyed by the wealthy or for gamblers is proven false by expressing the joy and wonderment of pursuing a sport either as a competitor or spectator for the love of the game.
I don’t expect that this article will convince everyone who reads it to become a devout Umamusume fan. But I do hope that perhaps it will give some people the push to check it out, to see what historical fiction can do with concepts that aren’t world wars or medieval battles, to see sports fiction as a vector for telling very human stories, even if those humans have horse ears. I hope it gives people a chance to discover the wonder and excitement of horse racing, a sport with hundreds of years of history that spans the entire globe, with storied heroes and villains and everything in between, of the weird and charming horses who populated it and whose unique identities made them unforgettable. I even hope that people who simply enjoy good films will check out Beginning of a New Era, an animated film that shows true dedication to original craft film making in an era of rote CGI and dull green screen remakes. As for the game itself, well… let’s just say that you should keep your ears perked, dear reader, because I may have something in store for you on that front.
Of course, If all this does is make you scoff at the idea because “anime girl = bad”, then I suppose we’ll never see eye to eye, and that’s fine too. You probably didn’t consider logging on to Goonhammer Dot Com today and reading about the Horse Girl Anime, right? I can’t blame you for being skeptical, but I can at least hope that you’ll consider that the next time you try to spin up a narrative campaign or tabletop role playing game world, you pause to at least consider: does that world’s only meaningful historical conflicts have to have been war, suffering, or conquest? As the saying goes, dear reader, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make her drink.
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