#cygames

i really hate the weird timelime with umamusume

in the game, you have umas like rudolf running in the same races as umas who join the school after she's retired as if they started their careers at the same time

but, in the anime, it gets way worse for me

rudolf seems to be retired by the time oguri joins, which is before special week joins. but she also meets teio while she's still racing and is retired when teio starts her career

suzuka, mcqueen, teio, gold ship, and special week (not counting daiwa scarlet and vodka in this since their races actually didn't get shown too much iirc) join team spica around the same time (and retired umas are STILL in team rigil) but teio and mcqueen don't start their careers until special week and suzuka seem done with theirs

gold ship ends her career like a year into kitasan blacks (if we're going by the game 3-year system, this would be the end of the first year). so she starts her career a year after teio and mcqueen?

so lets say rudolf debuts at 15, meets teio when she's 18 and about to retire. okay, normal, right? then she's still there when oguri joins the school, okay. she's still there 3 years later when special week joins so she's now 21

she's already overstaying the setting, but it keeps going

special weeks career goes, she's 24. by the end of teio's she's 27. and at the end of season three she'd be 30. what is she still doing in school, how many things can you learn after 12 years??

even after that, with all the more recent horses/umas, she's still at the school. and maruzensky debuted before her, how old would maruzensky be??

cygames wants to keep these horses in a highschool (yes, highschool. colleges don't have uniforms unless it's a specific exception but i can't remember it right now) setting

i get it since the game can't really change its core mechanics, but costumes and events showing the umas moving on from tracen wouldn't be too bad

there's also umas who are shown to be much younger (nishino flower canonically skipping multiple grades, mayano top gun) who would not be in the same school as all of the others but they are. I don't even think you get a reason for maya being there??

i get that they're trying to fit all of these horses from so many different generations into one while staying true to their generations and timeline, but let rudolf and maruzensky graduate already 😭😭

the timeline issue bugs me so badly because it also just seems to be such weak worldbuilding and writing

if umas age differently from humans, it would be better to have an in-universe reason (saying "they age like elves" isn't a good reason and is more a shitty add-on to quickly explain it without much thought) and if they don't? mention that! show that! maruzensky using old slang and liking things that aren't "trendy" anymore is great to show that

having either an in-universe (good) explanation for them aging slower (like having the mutation that caused umas to start existing affect their lifespans), showing a huge difference in age between older umas and younger umas (and giving them canonical ages) without them aging slower, or having the retired and seemingly older umas graduate would genuinely improve the timeline issue

because, yet again, WHY are maruzensky and rudolfs generation still here after like 12+ years. how has tazuna remained the same age if she's supposedly a human?? I'm assuming director akikawa is still there in the anime and she's canonically referred to as a child, is she also unaffected by the timeline??

it's also so weird to have this teen cast of characters be vaguely both young and old