(C) BoingBoing
This story was originally published by BoingBoing and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Horse racing but it's anime girls [1]
['Rob Beschizza']
Date: 2025-07-16
Umamusume Pretty Derby is a video game about horse races but the horses are cutesy anime girls. Alice Ruppert is a horse expert who writes about equine games at The Mane Quest. At Aftermath, these forces converge: "Video Game Horse Expert On Umamusume: 'I Have Supremely Mixed Feelings'"
"It's not that I don't think this should exist, and I don't think it's bad that people are having fun with a silly sports game that features girls as horses. I do very much see the harmless fun in it. … [But] it's not about horses, which is usually what my criteria for something being a horse game is. But it is very much within that world of horse racing. It is very much inspired by real horse racing." Umamusume's determined not-quite-centaurs are all based on real racehorses, a genuinely interesting twist that's resulted in fans forming parasocial relationships with the handful that are still alive, because nobody can just be normal about anything anymore. On that front, Ruppert appreciates the game's attention to detail.
A point made well: "a good horse racing game about actual horses could do just as well if it was implemented just as well," Ruppert adds. Alas, no. As Xenophanes wrote: if otaku could draw, they would draw their gods as horses.
Previously:
• Horses look weird from this angle
• Meet the world's greatest horse photographer
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://boingboing.net/2025/07/16/horse-racing-but-its-anime-girls.html
Published and (C) by BoingBoing
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/boingboing/
