April 2nd, evening.
The anime "Uma Musume," planned by Lin Zhiyan and produced by L.S Produ, began airing.
Judging by the name, the anime indeed gives the impression of a "moe" anthropomorphic work. In reality, it is a story about anthropomorphized racehorses, but it's different from typical "moe" anthropomorphic titles.
First of all, every character in the anime has a real-life horse prototype, and all characters are designed based on these real-life horse prototypes, rather than being designed on a whim or purely based on aesthetics.
Most of the characteristics of these characters can be traced back to their real-life horse counterparts, which shows the attention to detail in this work.
Furthermore, it's not just the character designs that reference real-life prototypes; the races the characters participate in and even their life experiences are also based on the actual racehorses.
For example, the main character, Special Week, is set up as an energetic horse girl who came to Tokyo from the countryside of Hokkaido. She has long brown hair and purple eyes. Her mother passed away shortly after she was born, and she was raised by her adoptive mother. She has a cheerful personality, and because she grew up in the countryside, she has a simple, natural, and slightly airheaded side to her. Her goal is to "become the number one horse girl in Japan."
In reality, Special Week's biological mother passed away five days after she was born, and she was raised by a farm horse. Before she began racing, she often played alone at Hidaka Taiyo Farm, yet she was very friendly toward people. Throughout her racing career, she achieved a record of 10 wins in 17 races.
Furthermore, in the anime, Silence Suzuka, who is the definitive second lead, has a very close relationship with the protagonist, Special Week; in reality, these two racehorses also shared a deep, fateful connection.
Unlike China, Japan has a rich horse racing culture. Although not everyone follows horse racing, and the overlap between the anime fan community and the horse racing community is quite low, works meticulously crafted based on real-life racehorses are still relatively easy to gain mainstream support.
Simply put, this anime has deep roots and is indeed different from typical "girl-ification" animations.
Additionally, besides the girl-ification aspect, this anime is not at all pandering to otaku culture; it's not just a story about girls bonding. All the plotlines revolve around horse racing and include a variety of specialized horse racing terminology.
However, since all the racehorses have been anthropomorphized into girls—retaining only their ears and tails, with no other differences from ordinary young women—one could even disregard the anthropomorphism entirely and simply view this anime as a sports series about running.
Even if you only treat it as a show about running, you won't be confused, even without any knowledge of horse racing terminology or Japan's horse racing culture.
One more point worth mentioning is that while real-world horse racing involves betting, gambling doesn't exist in Uma Musume.
The setting in the work is as follows: every race is watched by many people, and winning the championship is an honor that brings huge popularity and attention. After the race, the top three finishers must sing and dance on stage, with the winner taking the absolute center position and performing a specially tailored character song.
In other words, by removing gambling—an element unsuitable for an anime or game—and incorporating idol elements, the anime is made more appealing to ACG (anime, comics, and games) fans.
A work like this might be relatively niche in other countries, but it could never be unpopular in Japan.
There is no need to wait for the game to be released; once the animation was out, it immediately topped the popularity charts.
Of course, it's not just the excellent setting; the production is even better.
As L.S Produ's flagship animation in 2018, used to warm up and promote their own game, the production budget could only be described as overly generous.
Every single frame is exquisitely drawn, and the representation of "speed" during the races is spot on, satisfying enough for anyone who came to watch the anime for a running series.
The performance on stage after the race features very fluid dance movements that don't feel awkward at all.
It can be said that in every aspect, one can see how much effort was put into the production of this animation.
An original, meticulously crafted animation definitely provides a more comfortable viewing experience and makes it easier for the audience to feel satisfied.
After the first episode aired, many viewers had already given the animation rave reviews:
"Before, seeing that the animation was called 'Uma Musume,' I thought it would just be a story about horse girls being cute together, but after watching it, the experience was unexpectedly good."
"Horse racing fans say that the character designs in the anime seem to be based on the characteristics of their real-life horse counterparts. They really put a lot of effort into it."
"I don't understand horse racing, but watching Silence Suzuka's race in the first episode, where she took the lead and finished far ahead of everyone else, was so satisfying. I can totally understand why the main character, Special Week, fell in 'love at first sight' with Silence Suzuka."
"The horse girls are all so cute, and it's obvious that the production budget is sufficient. It is truly worthy of being LSP's flagship anime this year."
"Before it aired, I thought, 'Since it's a project planned by Lin Zhiyan, I'll just take a peek.' I didn't expect to fall in love with this anime immediately after watching it."
"I have to say, that guy Lin Zhiyan really understands me; every time he manages to make an anime that I like."
"Works that turn animals or monsters into girls are not uncommon, but I couldn't get into any of the previous ones. This time, 'Uma Musume' is truly different. It feels very good, the character designs are also exactly to my liking, and I will keep watching. I hope the rest of it won't disappoint me."
Popularity, buzz, and quality naturally lead to good reviews.
However, there are more bantering voices online:
"This anime is so weird... It's got horse racing, it's got pretty girls, it's got idols; it stuffed so many elements in. The key is, with all these elements mixed together, it somehow doesn't feel out of place. That's actually pretty impressive."
"Having an idol performance after the race—as expected of the production company behind 'Love Live!', the founders of the cult."
"Before watching: They're actually turning racehorses into girls? Since when did Old Thief Lin get into this stuff? After watching the first episode: I was wrong, Old Thief Lin truly understands me."
"What do I do if I've fallen for Special Week and Silence Suzuka? They're so cute, I want to..."
"A person cannot, at least they shouldn't."
"I previously said, how would the Horse Racing Association ever allow a work that anthropomorphizes racehorses like this to exist? Now I highly suspect Old Thief Lin just took the character designs and went straight to the Horse Racing Association people. With horse girls this cute, who could resist?"
"My personal tastes are developing in a strange direction. It's all Old Thief Lin's fault. Seriously, why did he have to design these horse girls so cutely?"
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