Uma Musume Pretty Derby Season 3

Episode 7

A chilly wind blows across the field as the horse girls arrive at their next Arima Kinen. It's a seasonal sign of what brought them here: Time and the change that comes with it. Viewers have watched Kitasan Black and Satono Diamond grow over the first half of the season. Most pertinently, the childhood friends have built up the wins they needed to feel like they're racing on an even level of accomplishments with one another. But any story worth telling can't stay simply level forever. There has to be a break. While the first cracks of that are showing in this episode of Uma Musume Season 3, it could do to quit reining things in quite as much.

That seems like a weird want from what was probably Season 3's most exemplary episode yet last week. But all the concentrated catharsis of Dia finally getting her G1 win is followed up by a subdued episode that's only working in emotional increments. It's easy to feel that some sort of shift is on the precipice of happening. This episode reiterates this season's recurring vibe of only briefly touching on various to-be-important-later horse girls while mainly foregrounding Kita and Dia's escalations. The adorable foal friends are preparing to compete against one another directly, the idea being that at least one of them might not be prepared for what an active rivalry means.

This direction is great in concept. Kita's brand of sports-protagonist optimism has served this season's unique take on winning and losing well thus far. So, inciting some questioning of that can make for a purposeful thread to pull going into the show's second half. Kita knows that she and Dia can't share first place as they have so much else in life, but does she truly understand that? It's a slow realization borne out of the fact that the pair's package-deal status has been a feature for ages. And so, Dia "going on ahead" is a smarting shock to Kita. There's a difference between saying that you're going to do your best to win against your friend and earnestly doing so.

It's a coldly calculated idea that is only barely communicated by the end of this episode. So much else is filled out with the kinds of preparation and platitudes that it's easy to have grown used to from Kita. It's still fun to see her looking to Nice Nature as a source of advice or earning a check-in from her idol, Teio. This run-up also visits Dia's side to confirm that the confidence boost brought on by her win in the last episode was enough to break the jinx (such as it was) for the rest of her family. And B-story broncos Sounds of Earth and Cheval Grand are touched on just enough to pique curiosity. It continues to be refreshing to have a season of Uma Musume where the characters' winning struggles are more about overcoming mental blocks than watching them agonize through multiple fractures and physical therapy.

And that itching inkling of a shift by this episode's end is handled expertly compared to all the more pedestrian proceedings. The vibes that Kita is now forced to feel between her and Dia are pointedly off, ripe for mulling over as this story continues. It's a chilly wind that continues blowing after the race that sets these questions running and is as solidly portrayed as the better competitions in this season. It's understated as much of Season 3's runs have been until the last stretch when the leading duo is enveloped in dueling colors, their contrast symbolizing that now-visible divide between them. There's uncertainty in the understatement of where this will take Kita and her relationship, and I'm all for the palpability of that question hanging in the air.

However, there's also something to be said for more aggressively portraying the triumphs and defeats, the epic highs and lows of high school horse racing. Not to continue worshiping too hard at the altar of Uma Musume Season 2, but the shamelessly melodramatic gut-punches throughout that volume made it work so well. There's still time, of course, and I acknowledge the possibility that watching all of Season 3 once it's out instead of waiting week to week will be a boon for its emotional pacing. But much like Kita questioning the uncertain feeling between her and Dia, I find myself grasping for an intangible something that will take hold of me. I'm still totally down for the ideas it's laid out, but I wish that in getting there, Uma Musume would quit holding its horses.

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

Chris is excited to be back for the mane event and hopes 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.