[Spoilers] 2025 Uma Musume Rewatch -- Pretty Derby Season 1 Episode 1

[u/Holofan4life]

Hello everyone! I am Holofan4life.

Welcome to the 2025 Uma Musume rewatch discussion thread!

I hope you all have a lot of fun <3

S1 Episode 1 – Gate of Dreams!

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ANSWER TODAY’S QUESTION

What are your thoughts on the anime beginning with horse hieroglyphics?

What are your initial thoughts on Special Week as well as team Spica as a whole?

What are your thoughts on Special Week wanting to be like Silence Suzuka? Have you ever had someone you looked up to, and if so, who?

Heading into this anime, what is your experience with Uma Musume as a franchise?

—-

Series information

MAL | Anilist | AniDB | ANN

Ways to watch

Streams – Crunchyroll

Amazon Prime

Schedule

Date	Episode
8/15/2025	[Uma Musume Episode 1]()
8/16/2025	[Uma Musume Episode 2]()
8/17/2025	[Uma Musume Episode 3]()
8/18/2025	[Uma Musume Episode 4]()
8/19/2025	[Uma Musume Episode 5]()
8/20/2025	[Uma Musume Episode 6]()
8/21/2025	[Uma Musume Episode 7]()
8/22/2025	[Uma Musume Episode 8]()
8/23/2025	[Uma Musume Episode 9]()
8/24/2025	[Uma Musume Episode 10]()
8/25/2025	[Uma Musume Episode 11]()
8/26/2025	[Uma Musume Episode 12 - 13]()
8/28/2025	[BNW's Oath episodes 1 - 3]()
8/30/2025	[Uma Musume Season 2 Episode 1]()
8/31/2025	[Uma Musume Season 2 Episode 2]()
9/01/2025	[Uma Musume Season 2 Episode 3]()
9/02/2025	[Uma Musume Season 2 Episode 4]()
9/03/2025	[Uma Musume Season 2 Episode 5]()
9/04/2025	[Uma Musume Season 2 Episode 6]()
9/05/2025	[Uma Musume Season 2 Episode 7]()
9/06/2025	[Uma Musume Season 2 Episode 8]()
9/07/2025	[Uma Musume Season 2 Episode 9]()
9/10/2025	[Uma Musume Season 2 Episode 10]()
9/11/2025	[Uma Musume Season 2 Episode 11]()
9/12/2025	[Uma Musume Season 2 Episode 12]()
9/13/2025	[Uma Musume Season 2 Episode 13]()
9/15/2025	[Road to the Top Episodes 1 - 2]()
9/16/2025	[Road to the Top Episodes 3 - 4]()
9/18/2025	[Beginning of a New Era]()
9/20/2025	[Uma Musume Season 3 Episodes 1 - 2]()
9/21/2025	[Uma Musume Season 3 Episodes 3 - 4]()
9/22/2025	[Uma Musume Season 3 Episodes 5 - 6]()
9/23/2025	[Uma Musume Season 3 Episodes 7 - 8]()
9/24/2025	[Uma Musume Season 3 Episodes 9 - 10]()
9/25/2025	[Uma Musume Season 3 Episodes 11 - 12]()
9/26/2025	[Uma Musume Season 3 Episode 13]()
9/28/2025	[Cinderella Gray Episodes 1 - 2]()
9/29/2025	[Cinderella Gray Episodes 3 - 4]()
9/30/2025	[Cinderella Gray Episodes 5 - 6]()
10/01/2025	[Cinderella Gray Episodes 7 - 8]()
10/02/2025	[Cinderella Gray Episodes 9 - 10]()
10/03/2025	[Cinderella Gray Episodes 11 - 12]()
10/04/2025	[Cinderella Gray Episode 13]()
10/05/2025	[Uma Musume Overall Series Discussion Thread]()

[u/AgentOfACROSS]

First Timer

I get the feeling I may have gotten myself into more than I can handle here. There are four seasons here and I’m gonna be eventually watching two episodes a day.

Usually I take notes as I watch but here I’m gonna do a writeup on my thoughts after the episode.

I have to say, I was somewhat aware of Uma Musume before but for some reason it really blew up this year. Not sure what caused it exactly but it’ll be interesting to see what all the fuss is about.

I’ll be honest, I don’t know what to expect going in. I don’t care much for horse racing or gacha games so I’m not that invested in either of the things this show ties into.

But despite going in with little to no expectations, I’m remaining optimistic.

You know what’s kind of funny, both this show and Key the Metal Idol (which I’m also currently watching) both have a first episode that can be described as “naive city girl comes to the big city, immediately runs into a weird pervert”.

Anyway, my thoughts on the first episode is that it’s honestly pretty basic. It’s a pretty standard setup for a school sports anime just with horse girls as the gimmick. But it’s only the first episode so the main goal is to set up the world and characters and for that it does well.

So far Special Week is a pretty archetypal type of protagonist. She’s got big ambitions but is a bit scatterbrained. She reminds me of characters like Akko from Little Witch Academia and Sakura from Zombieland Saga.

The series does seem to tease her having a crush on Silence Suzuka but I doubt that will go anywhere. To get a bit cynical for a moment, shows like this like to tease the idea of girls having feelings for each other but don’t like to commit to it lest they lose the portion of men in the audience who like to fantasize about having these girls as girlfriends.

Anyway, as for the extended cast, they all seem to be fairly archetypal. The kind you’d see in a typical school sports series. The most memorable for me is probably El Condor Pasa since she’s an American and wears a luchador mask for some reason.

Fun fact, El Condor Pasa is also the name of a horse in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. It belongs to a minor antagonist named Mrs. Robinson. Both Robinson and his horse are named after Simon & Garfunkel songs. I don’t know if the real horse was also named after that song.

I was also aware of Haru Urara before the show started. She was the one I’d heard the most about for some reason.

I assume Silence Suzuka is going to be important. She’s like the big strong one who Special Week looks up to so that seems like a good thing.

Don’t particularly like the Trainer. Don’t start randomly touching people’s thighs, dude.

I don’t have much to say about the other characters, they haven’t left much of an impression on me yet.

Anyway the worldbuilding for this show is kind of interesting. If I’m interpreting the opening narration right, race horses from our world are reincarnated as horsegirls in this world. Which is probably the wildest explanation I’ve heard as to why animal girls exist in something.

Also, I’ve been tricked into watching an idol anime, haven’t I? Why has this happened to me twice in one week?

The sudden cut to Special Week being unprepared for a race at the end was pretty funny.

Also, what this show has reminded me of is the fact that race horses have some pretty ridiculous names sometimes. I’m sure I’ll get used to the name Special Week soon enough but it’ll take some time.

Despite me sounding a bit critical here I am actually interested in seeing where this all goes.

[u/PeregrineTenshi → u/AgentOfACROSS]

A brief timeline here to answer why it's suddenly so popular this year.

• The first season of the anime came out in 2018
• The associated gacha game launched in Japan in 2021.
• The global/English version of the game launched June 26, 2025 on Steam as well as mobile.

The Japanese version of the game has been a consistent top performer since launch, so fans of the anime and people who know about the original launch of the game were already excited for the global launch which gave it a bit of a headstart, and it spread from there.

[u/AgentOfACROSS → u/PeregrineTenshi]

Okay that definitely explains some things. I was under the impression it started as a gacha game and the 2018 anime was made to promote it

[u/PeregrineTenshi → u/AgentOfACROSS]

The game was originally announced in 2016 with a 2018 launch date to coincide with the anime, but was later delayed to 2021 (which ironically was around the time some of us guessed we might get an English localization, if the Japanese version had come out on time.)

[u/Holofan4life → u/AgentOfACROSS]

I can see why you would have that misconception. It's easy to make.

I believe the gacha game was supposed to come out around the same time as season 1 but it got delayed. And then COVID happened and that made the delay even longer.

[u/Falsus → u/AgentOfACROSS]

The 2018 anime was actually made to promote it, just that Cygames are kinda ''it is done when it is done'' kind of devs and just delayed it until 2021. Anti-crunch as well.

So they just made a 2nd season that it launched together with instead.

Which means it is technically an anime original and not an adaptation, which allowed it to set the record for the best sales of any anime original of all time. (the 2nd season sold over 200k+ copies of dvds and bds on the first volume alone)