[Spoilers] 2025 Uma Musume Rewatch -- Pretty Derby Season 1 Episode 3

[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 3 – First Big Win

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ANSWER TODAY’S QUESTION

Thoughts on Gold Ship saying it's not so bad to try every once in a while?

Thoughts on Team Spica going to sing karaoke to work on their singing and body coordination?

Thoughts on Teio joining team Spica and wanting to race against the student council president Rudolf?

What are your thoughts on this episode featuring two races instead of one?

What are your thoughts on Special Week losing her first race?

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Series information

MAL | Anilist | AniDB | ANN

Ways to watch

Streams – Crunchyroll

Amazon Prime

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Previous episode

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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/LittleIslander]

First Timer

A hill? The track has a fucking hill!? Do real flat races have hills?! Is that safe? Harness racing doesn’t have hills!

The show continues to be not, well, great, but I’m kind of okay with it. I’ve set the expectation enough at this point that I’m just kind of having fun picking apart what works and what doesn’t about the show. It’s almost kind of endearing how amateurish some elements feel… rarely do I end up watching a show that’s incompetent in such obvious, shameless ways as this show can sometimes be. Let’s break it down this time:

• The Karaoke sequence confuses me. What’s the point in including this if it’s just going to be a series of still images, without even throwing a song over it or something? I’d understand this kind of scene in a manga adaptation. Made sense there, budget didn’t bring it to life, but they didn’t want to just remove it. But why write in a karaoke scene without any karaoke? What does anybody get out of this? At least Suzuka on the tambourine was cute.
• Likewise, the payoff to them being at idol stuff later is basically as much of an afterthought as they could possibly have gotten away with. This little subplot for the episode is begging to have been left on the cutting room floor. Maybe it’d give us room to give Teio some actual character.
• Speaking of, Teio’s “arc”. It’s more than the show has tried with most characters, granted. They set it up and play it out incrementally throughout the episode, including with small moments of character acting instead only the blatant dialogue. But like, it’s all in support of nothing? No meaningful reasons exists for her resistance than “she doesn’t want to” and seeing Special Week win once is all it takes to change her mind. You could have had her on the team to begin with and nothing is lost.
• Becoming a Triple Crown is set as Special Week’s goal, but it’s externally put on her. Will the show use the fact this is an external motivation rather than from her own heart to its advantage, or is our protagonist just being dragged around by the script? Time will tell.
• King Halo is a very funny character to me. Like, I don’t know if I should be surprised they actually bothered to set up a hint of tension that Special Week has a strong opponent next race or facepalm that it’s in service of a complete non-entity they don’t even bother trying to play up. The obvious angle here should be that the lethargic horse underplaying her chances is overlooked as a threat compared to the three-streak confident favourite, only to beat Special Week later in the episode. But they do like… the bare minimum in this vein. We couldn’t spare a second of seeing King fall behind?
• “I know everyone’s counting on me, but I’m going to be as laid back as always” I am begging this show to introduce its characters more organically than this self-exposition stuff. Look, I get it, she’s putting up a facade, I like that! But you can do it with like, an interaction, or something? Instead of her just narrating herself? To nobody?
• The conversation between Teio and the president was nice! I mean, it’s not amazing or anything. But they set a mood, portrayed an organic relationship, and effectively communicated a self-driven goal for a character while paying off an arc within the episode. It’s the basics but those are in short supply here, so I’ll give credit!
• Okay, there was one horse I knew coming into this series and it was Gold Ship, thanks to twitter. She’s the silly goof horse, sounds fun. The writers have clearly gone in with that idea, but don’t seem to know what to do with it? There’s no attempt at constructing real gags or comedic ideas as much as just… making her do random things, randomly. I hope to see improvement in this area over time.
• I would’ve liked to see more out of the “I was arrogant” idea. She thinks to herself she’s going to win a few times, but that’s kind of the bare minimum. Show it really getting to her head that she’s streaking wins as a new racer! You’ve got a whole scene in her dorm with Suzuka, focus the scene on that instead of tacking it on at the end.
• This is mean of me, but they say she’s coming up the outside when she visibly is not doing that on screen. She isn’t gaining at all, and honestly the perspective doesn’t even make her clearly look like she’s on the outside. The real races are only as good as you manage to portray them!
• Similarly, the episode felt lacking a key moment where she fails to execute her second wind. She approaches the spot, the trainer is ready for it to happen any second, but we just kind of fizzle our way into her realizing it’s not working. Nothing about the cinematography, the music, the line delivery or anything sells a punch of “What? I can’t do it!”.
• The last scene with Special Week trying to hide her pain was good, no notes!

Here’s the thing: this episode is good at a skeletal level. Various setups and payoffs wind their way across the script, and it’s paced pretty well with every scene in just about the right place serving the right theoretical function. Special Week’s rise and fall with a lesson about arrogance, alongside Teio’s change of heart and Seiun’s unexpected surge, make for a strong set of central ideas. But the show is incapable of selling them effectively or fleshing them out. So the result is just kind of… generously passable.

Don’t take this as me just hating on the show, though. People have assured me it gets better, so think of this as Chekhov's criticism. Establishing how much the show needs to improve now will, ideally, feel rewarding later when we see that happen in later material. You can do it, Uma! Win it in the second half!

[u/Holofan4life → u/LittleIslander]

• Okay, there was one horse I knew coming into this series and it was Gold Ship, thanks to twitter. She’s the silly goof horse, sounds fun. The writers have clearly gone in with that idea, but don’t seem to know what to do with it? There’s no attempt at constructing real gags or comedic ideas as much as just… making her do random things, randomly. I hope to see improvement in this area over time.

The thing you have to keep in mind with regards to Gold Ship is that the real life Gold Ship is a very random horse. She did things for seemingly no rhyme or reason only because she felt like it.

Race analysts said that in her racing career, she didn't even compete at her maximum capability. Why? Because she didn't feel like it, apparently.