840https://i.ur.com/Z3nzUWK.jpg This Review Contains No Spoilers Disclaimer: 600https://i.ur.com/24aZBhj.jpg Story The main plot is nothing completely new but the horsegirl aspect and the rivalries were entertaining and in their best moments even dramatic. The humor felt sometimes off especially when it relied on the teammembers: They felt gimmicky and tackedon until much later in the anime where they finally got the chance to establish a relation with the viewer but this was too little too late. The direction and seriescomposition put on the shoes before the pants in this regard. The races themselves were wellstaged created proper excitement and were often the highlight of each episode. One aspect I could neither understand nor accept though until the very end was the performingofasong aspect after each race: It never received proper attention to justify its existence in the story aside from episode 2 and it also made no sense whether we compare it to reality where such a thing doesnt exist in horseracing or to what we learned from the Uma Musume universe itself: The girls are professional athletes they train running every day and nothing else thats their profession singing and dancing is not part of their training and yet the story expects them to be able to sing and dance on a professional level. Try to make sense of that. Hint: It doesnt make any sense at all. Speaking about not making sense it could be argued that there are no antagonists in Uma Musume for even the leader of the rival team is begrudgingly supporting our girls and our team. Were we to judge them as actual antagonists we would not find much antagonizing about them which was disappointing and leads us to an overall 6.5/10. 600https://i.ur.com/EzQ6ss5.jpg Characters The main character may be steeped in various cliches but has despite that enough individuality visually and in terms of personality in order to be recognizable in the vast sea of anime characters. There is also an interesting dynamic between the two main characters which for the most part is carrying the main plot. Among the supporting characters the teammembers of Special Week the name of our main character feel flat in their best moments and slightly aggravating in their worst moments. They could have added to the anime if a little bit more attention and time in the spotlight would have been dedicated to them. This actually does happen towards the end of the anime but as previously mentioned it is too little too late. The rival horsegirls though are diverse memorable and entertaining enough to justify an overall score of 7.5/10. 600https://i.ur.com/Fwb4F8L.jpg Visuals The character designs are quirky tasteful and covered with numerous lovely details. The attention to detail is also noticeable if we check out the backgrounds the props carrots carrots carrots the outfits and hair accessories of the girls. The designers did a great job in this regard. Some horsegirls though lack a little bit of visual individuality and can be hard to tell apart until later on. That may also be attributed to the sheer number of girls which the viewer has to become familiar with. The visual quality is slightly above average with the odd scene and background here and there dropping in quality while the horsegirls themselves are well drawn but not enough to warrant an overall Very Good rating: 7.5/10. 600https://i.ur.com/s5G9HNO.jpg Audio I experienced serious issues with the soundmix where effects steps ringing doors and background noises crowd cheering were twice as loud as they are supposed to be which made for a dangerous and unpleasant experience with headphones. This actually stopped being an issue from episode 9 and onward but such a blunder can simply not be defended. The soundtrack is mostly invisible which doesnt have to be an issue for music that is meant to stay primarily in the background but there were with a few exceptions almost no noteworthy moments at all. In the end it managed to be below average and that is quite an achievement in itself. The opening song is unremarkable too and leaves us with a scent of norisk no originality but the ending song makes up for it with a nice melody that is actually catchy and wellfitting: 5/10. 600https://i.ur.com/58TJpAF.jpg Enjoyment Despite the flaws and letdowns with story and sound I enjoyed most of my time with Uma Musume: The charm of the main characters paired with the cute visuals managed to overshadow many shortcomings: 7/10. https://youtu.be/nuuq0Ulc Summary A weak start was followed by a surprising sprint but Uma Musume ran out of breath and missed a spot on the podium by several horselengths: 6.7 Fun but not winning any trophies. 600https://i.ur.com/sVdQfFa.jpg Afterword: