Uma Musume Pretty Derby Season 3

Episode 11

It's the eternal fear of athletes, performers, and, well, anyone, really: What if you're past your prime? And it's at that concerning crossroads that Kitsan Black finds herself in this week's episode of Uma Musume. Obviously, her surprise loss last week indicated that something was off, but surely that was just the next hill she needed to get over. The series smash-cut to a credit roll two weeks ago following her latest, greatest triumph and resolving to take her festival touring worldwide. But the seeming finality of that win's presentation might have precluded Kita from reaching her peak, with everything going downhill from here.

Whether her diagnosed downturn is something that Kita can't hard-work-and-guts her way out of hasn't been set in stone this episode. But that's the narrative intent for the week, and Uma Musume plays it up as deliberate and dramatic. This is a very measured, direct episode, particularly for the first half. In places, it's in as much of a holding pattern as Kita is, as she deflects the questions of when she'll join Dia in France. Yet it's also ominous in its quiet background music and simple framing. Even the underserved side characters are deployed with purpose here, as Satono Crown and Cheval Grand expound on the wins they've been getting in the background while Kita has been stalled. Is she falling behind due to sheer uncertainty, or is it something more?

This episode isn't hurting for Uma Musume's expected lightheartedness (including a detail I am obsessed with in Kita tucking her Dia plushie into her partner's bed while she's away). But you know something's different when the classic comic relief character Gold Ship is brought in to somberly deliver the diagnosis. I might generally question the validity of a single odd observation from that hilarious horse as this sort of narrative turning point. But Season 3 already used Gold Ship to great effect in propelling Kita up to the peak she's now seemingly tumbling down from. Gold Ship's been a staple of Uma Musume since its beginning; she can spot when something's run its course.

Now you all know I love metatext, and I think I've observed some pretty clear conversation thus far between Season 3 and its immediate predecessor. And part of me wants to read Kita's conundrum as a continuation of that. Is it at all possible for Uma Musume to recapture the highs of Season 2, or did it thoroughly peak then? Ultimately, I can't in good faith conclude that this reading is intentional. Clever as it would be, it would also be pointedly unambitious for a franchise entry to effectively slump its shoulders and throw a pity party for itself at not being as enthralling as it was a few years ago. Yet the broader ideas at play with Kita's portrayal in this situation still make the story well worth engaging with personally.

Fact is, Uma Musume Season 3 has not been as top-tier a watch for me as Season 2. It's had some clever elements and a few damn high points, but it hasn't been able to wholly recapture the rawness of its predecessor. Yet I still enjoy watching and engaging with this season perfectly well, and for an entertainer, is that not enough? Like Tokai Teio's struggles and shifting goals, Kitasan Black cannot run in exactly the places and ways she wants to. But she still enjoys running, specifically at the behest of entertaining others, and wishes to do so for as long as she can. The people of her shopping district and the audience each have different opinions on what they'd like to see from Kita as they cheer her on. Audience members can't all be pleased by their fave, but they should come together as a community to support them regardless.

It's a compelling commentary on the nature of entertainment, sports or otherwise. And if it's not directly metatextual to the state of Uma Musume Season 3, it still provides a neat vector to quantify my feelings. And the anime demonstrably isn't settling for less in this episode's race, showing that it still has plenty of potential left where Kita herself might not. The rendering of the muddied track is one unique trick, while the horse girls' strained faces as they struggle through that terrain recalls lessons learned from the Road to the Top ONA. The questionable state of Kita and her prospective victory lends more dramatism to the outcome than ever—this, above all else, is why I don't spoil myself by checking Wiki pages. Even by the end, with Kita's record-setting double-victory outcome, things have ominously dipped. Her ragged breathing and painful realization recall just a bit of that Season 2 edge. This isn't the show it was before, but I'm still entertained watching it.

Rating:

Uma Musume Pretty Derby Season 3 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Chris is excited to be back for the mane event, and is hoping he won't have to be a neigh-sayer. You can catch him horsing around on his blog, as well as Twitter, though he doesn't expect that to be around furlong.