Uma Musume Cinderella Gray

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Never in my life, had I ever thought I would read a biography of a horse through a horsegirl in manga format. And yet here I am. Laughing at its ups, and crying at its downs.

Cinderella Gray, or CinGray for short, is roughly based on the racing career of Oguri Cap, a real life horse in Japan, told through an Umamusume (aka Horse-Girl) of the same name. Make no mistake, the creators have gone through meticulous efforts to add every tiny detail of their real life counterparts that they could find. The character's design, personality, habits, races, rivalries, and the nationwide effect its career ... created, all based on real life. The story and art has as much raw shonen energy, intensity and emotion as any other shonen out there.

In terms of story, it feels very well written for what the subject matter it is about. The side-characters aren't forgotten, subtle foreshadowings skillfully integrated, each race more intense than even a shonen fight, meaningful character arcs, and above all, raw intensity and emotion. Conveyed through both, the story, as well as the art.

To watch this you don't need to watch or read any other Umamusume series from the franchise, prior. You can go in blind. And I hope you have as much fun or even more, when reading it, as I did.

On today's episode of "is this manga highly rated because the source material it's associated from is culturally relevant right now, or is it unironically good:" we have Cinderella Gray! I believe that I: someone who has been reading the series week-by-week since 2023 and has finally caught up to it's finale has the right to speak up on it, with proper understanding of what makes this series itself, and..

It's a shittier, moe version of Makibao and that's fine. It doesn't need to be more than that to be enjoyable.

Uma Musume is a rather odd franchise when it comes to gacha games. It's a ... absurdly dedicated project from Cygames, that spent a few years on development hell, almost got cancelled, got three whole redesigns, got delayed for years, and hit the japanese side of the internet like an absolute TRUCK. To say that Uma isn't a phenomenon right now is a misunderstanding, the moment I started reading Cinderella Gray I knew that this series would absolutely be an easy mainstream winner. It has everything you'd want from a spokon. It has passion. It has hard work.

But! There's are two caveats to this, and it's my biggest complaint when trying to make Uma Musume (and my biggest issue with Cinderella Gray as a fictional story) a serious spokon.

1. What the fuck is the actual objective?
2. This is a real story, anyone reading this could've just looked up Oguri Cap's real track record to get spoiled.

Cinderella Gray struggled with trying to get me compelled after reading Oguri Cap's record as a real racehorse. The problem is that since this is essentially a documentary spokon-hybrid abomination akin to the ones you'd see for a MLB player, it carries that same spirit for Cinderella Gray. And when it's presented to you, you just can't help but think "huh. that's interesting."

And yes, I believe that Oguri Cap (and most uma) do not have a reason to lose, to win, to cry after a defeat, and to cheer after a victory beyond the surface level idea of "winning a competition." This is my biggest issue with Uma Musume as a franchise, the horse girls are trained their whole life to the simple idea of running a race, and there's no real prize for winning beyond a silly concert. There's no real meaning behind winning each competition beyond "I wanna accomplish my dream" -- this is made very clear by the race Oguri Cap had with Bamboo Memory, what I'd argue is the lowest point in this manga quite easily.

It's a race that proves my negative points with this manga, it is a very straightforward race, with the simple premise of it being "Bamboo Memory cheers on Oguri Cap for seven chapters, then Oguri Cap goes 'I wanna make my dream come true' and wins the race" -- and that kinda makes your spokon suck. Now, I don't believe that Uma needs to have a over-the-top hyper insane power system to be a interesting spokon, but the two previously mentioned flaws loop around to create a experience that, while well drawn, struggles to find any sort of footing or any way to be compelling beyond riding the hype the series has gotten lately due to it's English localization.. And it's just not interesting. Yes, Lebron James doesn't have a real reason to win games or be the star he is, but in a fictional narrative that has "victory, chasing your dreams and passion" as it's core center, Cinderella Gray fails because you're just watching Oguri Cap go through the motions of her career.

I do believe that characters like Jou or Tamamo are genuinely compelling, Uma Musume has a lot of good characters (which shouldn't be surprising, this IS how they get you to want to spend 30$ for a single character) and the best part of this manga is easily, the original Uma. Dicta Striker, Belno Light, Michelle My Baby, Obey Your Master, they're all characters who in my opinion, deserve a series of their own. They are compelling characters and prove to be more interesting than Oguri Cap because of this simple idea: They are partially based off horses rather than full-on being the horses, which instantly proves to be way more interesting than the norm for Uma, and I wish these characters got to do way more. They're characters I would like to see in the actual game or in any other way or form, but you know.. copyright issues.

Still, it is very obvious that there was never a real end goal to begin with, which does really make the documentary comparisons from earlier way more true. It ends with Oguri Cap going to Tracen, and meeting Special Week in a MCU-ass way, which is fine.. It is a really basic way of ending the manga, but I swear. This manga fails in a lot of technical aspects, but I can't bring myself to give it anything but a six because it is easily, one of the better pieces of Uma media out there. I think the art's nice, and the original Uma genuinely make up for the rather boring storyline, but it is a really, really, REALLY mediocre spokon that just meanders after a decent first half.

Verdict: Yes, this series has a 9.02 rating because of the fact that Uma's popular right now!
I hope to see you in another episode of "is this manga highly rated because the source material it's associated from is culturally relevant right now, or is it unironically good!"

I've read 100 chapters of the story and for some reason I still don't understand the apeal of this spokon. The races don't feel interesting at all, the girls are boring as fuck with sad/mid backstory that I should care about for some reason.

I don't understand the stakes that they have - what is the fucking award for winning the first place? They try to be on top for what reason, I don't see any difference in their life - for example Ougri at the beginning was eating 10x times more than everyone for free and at the 100th chapter in a different school it ... is still the same.

Ougri wants to win because people convinced her that she should do that, why? She is basically blank, she is me, she is you, she could be literally anyone, I don't feel any personality in her, she is a blank paper that wants to win.

In theory the manga about running is an interesting concept, in reality our mc is not an underdog, though the story tries us to convince that she is indeed hence the title of the manga.

When I was reading the manga I was constatly thinking about Viral hit - a korean manhwa that has an underdog mc and we care for him because author explains the way he wins, we see multiple plot twists within one fight, we see the way he trained and how people care for him, it is just as hype as it can be.

What do we have here? I don't know, whe she runs, suddenly someome will run faster and at the end someome will run faster and will win. What a joke.

I don't feel any stakes here, I don't see any reasons for Ougri to fight for the first place , she has nothing to lose, she has nothing to gain basically, she just runs because she likes it, okay. Why should I care whether she wins or lose? The weirdest spokon ever.