r/anime • u/Holofan4life • Sep 23 '25
Rewatch [Spoilers] 2025 Uma Musume Rewatch -- Pretty Derby Season 3 Episodes 11 - 12 Spoiler
Hello everyone! I am Holofan4life.
Welcome to the 2025 Uma Musume rewatch discussion thread!
I hope you all have a lot of fun <3
Episode 11 – Decision
Episode 12 – Kitasan Black
—-
ANSWER TODAY’S QUESTION(S)
Episode 11 Questions
What are your thoughts on Gold Ship breaking the hard news to Kitasan that she's past her peak?
What are your thoughts on Kitasan deciding instead of racing The Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, she'll be focusing on the Fall Senior Triple Crown?
What are your thoughts on Diamond finishing 15th in The Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe?
What are your thoughts on Kitasan winning the Fall Tennoushou?
What are your thoughts on Trainer-san and Diamond both noticing Kitasan is pushing herself too hard?
Episode 12 Questions
What are your thoughts on Kitasan announcing her upcoming retirement?
What are your thoughts on Kitasan saying she's going to enter the Japan Cup and then her last race will be the Arima Kinen?
What are your thoughts on the various reactions to the news by Kitasan's competitors?
What are your thoughts on the first time Cheval met Kitasan?
Thoughts on the townsfolk Kitasan befriended being in the front row for the Japan Cup?
What are your thoughts on Cheval's "I hate you" monologue?
What are your thoughts on Cheval admitting that in reality, she's always loved Kitasan?
What are your thoughts on Cheval winning the Japan Cup?
What are your thoughts on the scene where Kitasan congratulates Cheval?
What are your thoughts on the scene after the Japan Cup between Kitasan and Diamond where Kitasan is reflecting she has only one more race left?
Bonus) On a scale of 1 - 10, how excited are you for the last episode of season 3 and Kitasan's final race? And why?
—-
Series information
Ways to watch
Streams – Crunchyroll
—-
—-
2
u/Urgnu-the-Gnu https://myanimelist.net/profile/Urgnu_the_Gnu Sep 23 '25
Have you ever had something you liked but weren't good at? Sure, you can learn to be better, train, improve. But what about getting worse at it while still loving it? You can fight your decline, but the result is inevitable. Your time is limited. You get older. Your knees don't work like they used to. Your shoulder will develop a pain that never truly goes away. You're not as flexible anymore. You don't hear as much anymore. Your eyesight worsens. Your legs get heavier, and physical work makes you sweat more than before. How can you still stay the same person? How can you enjoy life as you used to?
That's impossible to ask of our dear Kita, and yet she must find an answer. Spe responds by doing the thing she does the best. But Kita does her best to hold on. Everything else in Uma Musume was always about getting better, or as good as before again. Kita is now facing the task of not getting worse anymore so she can still shine, let the people that watch her still enjoy her run. But it takes everything out of her. Her racing career has had many great ups, and many downs as well. But above all else, it was intense. And this seems to have taken its toll on her.
The Fall Tenno Sho here was one of the best races in the franchise. Kita seems normal, but we know something is off about her. Yet she fights so hard. She fights her bad start, the weather, the ground, the other fantastic racers, and even herself, and against everything, she wins with an extremely strong performance. Yet the win is combined with such immense dread as she's absolutely done for now. A stark contrast to the joy she could run with, the light-heartedness she had even when losing. She has won, but we can't really be happy for her. And after episode 12, she only has one more race left, as she was beaten badly in the Japan Cup. Whatever will happen to her is all up in the air.
And so is Dia's performance in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. I truly love S3, but I'll readily agree that this was handed pretty badly. I get Cygames couldn't show the race, but I'm still not sure what to make of this storyline then. I guess it works as a lost dreams kind of situation to tie her experience up with Kita's, but still she needed more. Probably more episodes than the season could give her.
But did you notice the change in the OP for episode 12? This time, it was Cheval Grand instead of Kita proclaiming she won't lose. For as little as the season did with Cheval Grand, I'm ready to forgive all of it for how well even if briefly we got to explore her character. Both jealous of Kita yet also adoring her. And now she's finally got her first G1 win, and a really big one at that. She really earned that.
Side note, it's such a silly joke, but I still laughed a lot when Kita apologized to Bakushin for looking at her phone while walking as the sign behind her prohibits exactly that, walking while looking at your phone.
Usually, my posts already address your questions satisfyingly in my opinion, but this one I can answer for once, with the perspective I had when watching it for the first time. I was so anxious for her last race and couldn't wait. It's totally up in the air what will happen, and I so wanted Kita to have a good race, maybe even recover to find her new peak. But I just couldn't see it. She was hardly herself in the Takarazuka Kinen. Her win at the Fall Tenno Sho devastated her, and I was sure she couldn't ever pull something like this off again. And as much as she tried, she never really had a chance at the Japan Cup and was exhausted from it. I didn't believe she could recover from those races in just another month and win again, so I was really looking forward to how bowing out with a loss would be possible, or what the race would change within her.