I Regret To Inform You That the Horse Girl Anime Is an Extremely Compelling Sports Drama

By Elijah Gonzalez | October 23, 2025 | 4:00pm

Anime Features uma musume

I Regret To Inform You That the Horse Girl Anime Is an Extremely Compelling Sports Drama

Since the Umamusume: Pretty Derby game released worldwide on Steam and app stores earlier this year, it has sparked interest in a series that was previously niche outside of Japan; it was previously accessible via spin-offs but not via the main source, the game. Popular streamers like Northernlion started playing it, likely pulled in by the baseline absurdity of the premise—training anthropomorphized horse girls who are based on real-life Japanese race horses—and before long, the meme had gained a life of its own.

But as previously alluded to, like with many multi-media franchises aimed at pulling you into a nightmarish gacha vortex, Umamusume isn’t just a game but a whole lot of other things: a manga, stage plays, live events, and of course, several seasons of anime. While the Umamusume: Pretty Derby anime series has been running for quite some time, Umamusume: Cinderella Gray began this summer, a prequel set before the events of the main series.

As a prequel to a marketing tie-in set in an inherently absurd universe, you may not go into this one expecting much. But of course, looks can be deceiving: I can say without hyperbole that Umamusume: Cinderella Gray is one of the best sports anime I’ve seen in quite some time.

Following the rise of umamusume Oguri Cap (who again, is based on a real-life racehorse of the same name) as she goes from her small regional racing circuit in Kasamatsu to the big stage, the series demonstrates a fundamental understanding of what makes sports compelling, communicating both the underlying drama and the strategy that goes into this quasi-fictional pastime (again: the horses and competitions are based on real-life events, but the specifics obviously end up quite different).

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Much of this begins with Oguri Cap herself, who is both a loveable goofball and a veritable force of nature. She’s a bit of an airhead, but so outrageously sincere that it’s hard not to root for her. Her backstory is that growing up, she had “weak legs,” making it difficult for her to walk, and only after years of intensive physical therapy administered by her mother was she able to run; and once she started running, it was more or less all she cared about.

umamusume cinderella gray

While at first she’s largely carefree, so naively good-natured that she doesn’t even recognize when others are trying to bully her, something awakens in her after her first defeat: a burning drive to defeat her rival. From here, she jumps from one goal to the next as she climbs to the top.

That may sound like any number of sports stories, but one of the things that makes this one so compelling is how well it builds up her foes. It’s a trait shared by many greats in the genre, and here, the opponents in Oguri Cap’s way are frequently given almost as much screentime as our heroine, as we see their quirks and often the deeper reasons why they race.

For starters, there’s Fujimasa March, a girl with big dreams and a fierce look in her eye that belies her deadly self-seriousness. While at first abrasive, it eventually becomes difficult not to sympathize with her intense earnestness, especially as she kindles a competitive fire in Oguri Cap.

Then there’s Tamano Cross. She’s cocky, very small, and also unstoppable. In just half an episode, she receives a sympathetic backstory that reminds us how virtually all athletes have people cheering them on, those who’ve sacrificed much to see them succeed. Perhaps the highlight of the entire first season comes as she breaks past her limitations to achieve a new level of dominance, a moment brought to life with staggering impact. Overall, these characters are explored in enough detail, with each of their wants laid bare, that each sprint feels as important to the audience as it is to its participants.

And when it comes to these actual races, they carry forward the drama of those underlying storylines. For starters, we’re given enough context into how the mechanics of racing works to understand the significance of the twists and turns of each match—we learn about the importance of being on the inner vs. outer track, how different track surfaces affect technique, and the numerous running styles out there (i.e. leading from the font vs. waiting in the back for a late-stage sprint).

Perhaps what sells this competition the most, though, is CygamesPictures’ incredibly talented group of animators. While a relatively new studio, they’ve quickly made a name for themselves, handling two other excellent anime this year, the weirdo sci-fi workplace comedy Apocalypse Hotel and last season’s best series, The Summer Hikaru Died.

With Cinderella Gray, they prove no less impressive, visualizing these athletes’ unique strengths with visual motifs that emphasize their superhuman strength while pulling from battle shounen aesthetics in the process. At one point, a character shatters her previous boundaries in a flash of lightning, stunning both her opponents and the audience as she defies the rules we’ve previously internalized.

But perhaps the most satisfying recurring moments are when Oguri Cap does what she does best: come back from behind. As the series’ name implies, this is very much a Cinderella Story, as a racer from a “nowhere” district that has never produced notable competitors dashes onto the national stage with a brutal sprinting style. There are multiple layers here: Cap’s backstory as a kid who grew up not knowing if she’d ever walk at all, her small-town origins, and then the nature of her running style.

As a sprinter who stays in the middle back of the pack until she can put away her opponents with a monstrous dash in the final moments, she’s animated less like a typical protagonist and more like a big bad, her face obscured as she crushes her opponents. It’s an interesting visual choice that underlines her sheer power and determination, making it satisfying every time she barrels towards the finish line. Because despite her skill, she never stops feeling like an underdog, with increasingly tough opponents and competitions to keep each bout tense.

All of this is to say, you never know where the next star will come from: I went into this series with reserved expectations due to its silly veneer and skepticism over its ties to a not-particularly-ethical real-life sport and gacha game. The series is so absurd, though, and so thoroughly down the rabbit hole of its own weird universe, that it stands on its own to a large extent, and while I don’t blame anyone for staying far away for a variety of reasons, it is undeniably compelling. Cinderella Gray makes for a beautifully executed story that, horse girls or no, fundamentally understands the appeal of sports.

Elijah Gonzalez is an associate editor for Endless Mode. In addition to playing the latest, he also loves anime, movies, and dreaming of the day he finally gets through all the Like a Dragon games. You can follow him on Bluesky @elijahgonzalez.bsky.social.