The racing and singing horse girls will return to the anime world in 2023!
Reports hit the internet on Sunday, November 6th revealing that the Uma Musume mixed-media franchise will launch two new anime series next year; one of them will be a third television series produced by Studio KAI (who produced the animation for season two, taking over for P.A. Works) and the other will be an original net animation titled Uma Musume: Pretty Derby Road to the Top that will stream on the PAKA TUBE YouTube channel starting in spring 2023. Cygames Pictures will produce the animation for the latter series.
Uma Musume Season Three Announcement
Uma Musume: Pretty Derby Road to the Top ONA Promotional Video
Information regarding the third television series, such as the premiere season or story details, was not provided at the time of the announcement. The staff was kind enough to share that the story for Uma Musume: Pretty Derby Road to the Top will focus on a trio of characters: Narita Top Road, TM Opera O, and Admire Vega. It was also noted that the TV series and the ONA will be two separate series with their own stories.
Uma Musume has been an interesting series to watch since the first season premiered in 2018 (which is when the video game was originally supposed to debut). On paper, the idea of famous racehorses being reincarnated as horse girls is a bit silly. Combine that with the bit where these horse girls decide to compete in events where they must not only be the fastest runner but also perform idol routines and you have something that is very silly, which isn’t a bad thing (I mean, if you can’t handle the occasional silly plot you might be in the wrong hobby).
Yet somehow the creators behind this series found a way in two different seasons to craft stories that were genuinely emotionally compelling. Even more impressive is that the staff did it with two distinct characters; Special Week in the first season and then Tokai Teio in the second season. While familiar characters appeared in both seasons, the primary focus of the sequel shifted to an entirely new main character that fans had to get to know and decide to support. I’m already interested to see where the story will go in the third television season whenever it airs.
Sources: Crunchyroll News, Anime News Network
