Welcome!

An Introduction to Umamusume

Umamusume: Pretty Derby is a multimedia franchise about real race horses being reincarnated as anime girls and living out their careers. The series spans from multiple anime and manga projects, games, music, and more!

This is a simple website explaining why you should get into Umamusume and what the franchise has to offer!If you’re here, you must’ve been sent this document by someone who really wants to share the best series of all time with you! How sweet!!!

What's So Special?

"What? Horse racing anime girls? That's ridiculous!"Trust me, we've all been there. But on top of an incredibly unique cast of characters, as well as amazing art direction and stellar writing, you'll wonder why you ever doubted the series!Since Umamusume is a multimedia franchise, there's bound to be something for you!

The buttons below will offer a short rundown of each aspect of the series, as well as some useful links!

Characters

Umamusume has an amazingly diverse cast of characters, each following their own goals. Each one has their own stories to be told, and are by-far the most important aspect of the series.Not only does every character have a unique design, made to resemble the horse they're based off of in real life, but also each follows their own path, with an entire story to be told about their career.There are over 120 characters, and I can guarantee at least one will have a story that captivates you!

History

History? Yes, history!As stated previously, Umamusume is based off of real race horses. This series is incredibly dedicated to accurately portraying the real life horse's career within the series!This goal manifests itself in several aspects, including, but not limited to:

  • Shot for shot remakes of career-changing races!

  • Character designs, portraying both the visuals of the horse, but also implementing the outfits that their jockeys wore into their respective outfits!

  • The personality of the real life horses, but made to feel human!

  • A LOT of trivia and references to their real-life careers!

A quick rundown of everything the series references in regards to real-life happenings would be impossible, there's always so much to learn! But that feeling of always learning something new is what keeps the franchise fresh, and it makes learning about new characters enamoring!Where can i start to learn about the history?
Everything is just a search away! Some great starting points are the trivia sheet and the fan Wiki!Research IRL horse history at your own discretion, as the information may spoil important plot points in the series!

Media

When it comes to media, Umamusume is chock-full with dozens of hours of content, each focusing on a different protagonist! Despite being predominantly a sports series, the series has a variety of genres to offer!

Anime

Here's a short introduction to all of the animated series Umamusume has to offer!Watch order for each separate series doesn't particularly matter, so just watch whatever interests you the most!

Umamusume: Pretty Derby
A.K.A the "main anime"The main anime series is the first anime ever released under Umamusume. As of 2024, it consists of three seasons, and one OVA. I recommend you watch this series chronologically! You can watch this series on Crunchyroll! Or wherever else you watch your anime. Each season follows a different protagonist, those protagonists being Special Week, Tokai Teio, and Kitasan Black.Episode count: 43 total
3 seasons, 3 episode OVA, 1 ONAWatch order (Anilist):
Season 1
Season 1 OVA (optional)
Season 2
1st Anni. ONA (optional)
Season 3

ROAD TO THE TOP
A short ONA available to watch for free on YouTube with English subtitles! This series features Narita Top Road, and is a fantastic place to dip your toes into the series. The gorgeous animation and captivating story will show you what Umamusume is all about!Episode count: 4YouTube (ENG subs) — AnilistA movie version of this series is also available, featuring a handful of bonus scenes.

BEGINNING OF A NEW ERA
A gorgeous movie featuring the protagonist, Jungle Pocket, as she aims to become the strongest Umamusume of her generation! This movie has amazing visuals, a captivating OST, and a phenomenal story.You don't need any previous knowledge of Umamusume to watch this movie! Though, watching ROAD TO THE TOP first may provide more context to some characters.Anilist

UmaYon/Umayuru
UmaYon and Umayuru are two comedy miniseries without much plot substance, but are fun nonetheless! Each episode is only 3 minutes long, and just a fun watch if you want to see a sillier side to each of the characters, especially those that don't get much of a spotlight!Episode Count: 48 total
UmaYon - 12 + 12 OVA, Umayuru - 24UmaYon Anilist
Umayuru YouTube (official)
Umayuru Anilist

Cinderella Gray
An action-packed shounen anime, based on the manga of the same name! This anime will follow Oguri Cap as she moves from the countryside to take Japan by storm!Air date: April 6, 2025Episode Count: 24Anilist

Manga

Here's a short introduction to all of the manga series Umamusume has to offer!There is no reading order, read whatever catches your eye!

Starting Gate!
SG is the manga featuring the series most prominent protagonist, Special Week! It has a lighthearted tone, and shows the beginnings of some of our beloved horse girls!Anilist — Mangadex
(Translation unfinished)

Cinderella Gray
Cingray is a shounen series, featuring Oguri Cap as the protagonist. If you love action-packed series, dynamic art, and badass character designs, this manga is for you!Anilist — Mangadex
(Currently releasing)

Star Blossom
Star Blossom is a manga featuring Sakura Laurel. It takes on a more shoujo aesthetic in comparison to Cinderella Gray, but still carries the same strong suits. Strong action scenes, amazing art, and compelling characters!Anilist — Mangadex
(Currently releasing)

Peace Peace☆Supi Supi Golshi-chan
PisuGolshi is a goofy gag manga featuring a kindergarten-aged Gold Ship, as she gets into insane antics that only Gold Ship is capable of finding herself in.Anilist — Mangadex
(Translation paused)

Umamusumeshi
Umamusumeshi is a cutesy food manga, but with horse girls! Each chapter follows a different group of characters, as they all enjoy tasty food!Anilist — Mangadex
(Currently releasing)

Anthology Comic STAR
This is an anthology series, where each chapter is illustrated by a different artist, following a different set of characters! It’s a silly and lighthearted look into each character’s daily lives.Anilist — Mangadex
(Infrequent releases)

UmaYon
UmaYon is a four-panel comedy series that follows the original 60 horse girls!Anilist — Mangadex
(Translation paused)

i will not recommend haru urara ganbaru to anyone. don’t ask me to.
read it at your own discretion.

Other Media

Due to Umamusume being a multimedia franchise, the fun doesn't stop at just anime and manga! The series has a plethora of other things to offer, including games and a very large music discography!

Umamusume: Pretty Derby (gacha game)
Umamusume is most notable for for being a gacha game!However, this game is only available in Japanese, Taiwanese, and Korean, and most people overseas require VPNs to access the Japanese servers. However, the game will be available in English soon.The game is a training sim! The gameplay loop requires you to train a horse girl, win as many races as you can, and increase her stats! The game is as casual or as competitive as you want it to be.Each playable character has their own unique in-game story, as well as their own gameplay route, which takes you through the career of the IRL horse counterpart.The game is available on mobile, and on DMM games, and requires at least 20GB of space.To play the game, you can either download it on your device’s Japanese app store, or play on DMM.If you’re interested in just reading the character stories in-game, a cataloged list of translations is available in this Discord server:
Umamusume Translations Discord

Party Dash
Party Dash is a party-style game, featuring many themed mini games as you celebrate Tracen Academy's sports festival!This game is available on Steam, Playstation, and the Nintendo Switch.

MusicThe series has a wide variety of music, from character solos, group songs, instrumental tracks, etc. in just about any genre you can imagine!The series' music is currently not available on streaming platforms outside of Japan, but there are plenty of reuploads on YouTube!You can view a list of albums here!

Live EventsTo accompany the music, the voice actresses of the characters perform the music from the series in concerts! If you have any passing interest in music, idols, or voice actresses, I'm sure you'll take a liking to this side of the franchise!You can view a list of live events here!

Links and Resources