#ouugghhh...iiim baaaack

This is Sugar Nymph!

Say hi to her she's my baby (Immediately entered top 5 mobumas to me after reading her story.) She appears in Sweep Tosho's career story as a rival and friend. With her IRL counterpart being Yamanin Sucre!

Off the bat, there's something funny about her design. Her color ACTUALLY MATCHES THE HORSE!!! Why is this strange you ask...? Afterall, this is consistent with every other uma in the game.

Well for some reason most special mobumas....don't???? At least the ones I've researched (Brusquement, Harp Alpha, Holy Cure, Waltz Of Shadow, etc) all have silks that are completely different from the irl horse's??? For some reason??? And Sugar Nymph is the exception! She's actually pretty close to the irl horse design wise. Her purple ear accessory even matches the little horsie headband....! She's one of the better special mobumas designwise as a translation of an irl horse imo....

The next weird thing about her is...

They never use her name in the dialogue??? She's not named for some reason????????? And again, with every single other special mobuma I've seen they use their name but Sugar Nymph is listed as "Umamusume with Blue Ribbons"???????????

It seems to me like, since she was only the 2nd Special Mobuma, they were still feeling out how they wanted to portray the special mobumas as a whole.

Anyways ONTO THE STORY ANALYSIS!!!

Sugar Nymph is a really fun character in this... At first, she's simply used to setup the way Sweep Tosho breaks from the crowd. A trait deeply important to Sweep as a character is that she breaks through preconcieved ideas and expectations, going "THAT'S LAME AS FUCK!!!!! ABRA KADABRA!!!" and Sugar Nymph sets up those ideas and expectations. She starts out normal. After the first leg of the triple tiara, she simply states "I will be running in the 2nd."

Meanwhile Sweep Tosho comes in and goes,

She breaks down all previous assumptions and screams "I will stand at the top!!!" And it shakes everyone around her.

And it immediately breaks the "cool" demeanor Sugar had. She's genuinely bothered by Sweep's display, she feels blatantly outshined.

And she was...!

Sweep's claims take center stage, people are talking about her all over social media, and the race commentators take interest in her immediately. This upsets Sugar, and so on the day of the Japanese Oaks she makes it known.

She stakes her claim as Sweep's rival on everything that she is.

She shouts from the tops of the rooftops that her dreams are important too. And she refuses to be outshined.

It fires up every racer competing, and they all move for the crown alongside Sweep Tosho. And when the Oaks are done, and everything's calm, Sugar actually agrees with Sweep.

She agrees with what she said, she wants to break down these lame assumptions too. Everyone competing in the Oaks does. Sugar stands at the center of a movement caused by Sweep. She serves as the embodiment of the narrative shifting to meet Sweep Tosho's own ideals.

And in the Shuka Sho...The final leg of the Triple Tiara...

Okay This One Doesn't Have Much Relevance I Just Think It's Really Really Cute.

Sugar Nymph throughout her entire story(and she has a lot) is constantly complimenting and admiring Sweep Tosho. Sweep is the shining light that stands at the forefront of their generation. And when she wins...

Sugar's crying.

It upsets her beyond belief

Sweep Tosho was arrogant and loud, standing at the top of a mountain she hadn't even climbed yet.

But then she did it. She showed the entire Tiara tour how powerful she really was.

So Sweep flies through the Tiara tour, flies through the Queen Elizabeth II Cup, and every single race she comes through.

The world is looking up to Sweep now, and yet... Someone's missing.

And Kawakami Princess immediately bursts through the door and throws her at Sweep...!

Kawakami begs for Sweep to help her. To give her some of her racing magic. And it's because she had a horrible accident and desperately wants to make up for it.

This is something that really happened. In the irl race, Kawakami Princess obstructed Sucre and multiple horses were injured including Sucre herself. And because of that injury...

She had to retire.

But Umamusume isn't like that.

When a character is met with the harsh realities, they aren't facing it alone. And Sweep has had enough of reality'

She pushes Sugar Nymph to watch her next race, and when it does come...

Sugar Nymph asks to talk with Sweep's rival.

Zenno Rob Roy had seemed so timid. So... small. Meek. Until she wasn't.

Until she was powerful. Incredible. She rose to the top, Umamusume Of The Year. And she kept climbing. But of course...That's not entirely true... Afterall, she never stopped being timid. She never stopped being scared... Even if it looked like it, she still...

Rob Roy shows Sugar exactly what she needs to hear. Sugar Nymph is shown again that Sweep can do amazing things. That Sweep's dreams shape the world around her, and she won't stop at just the world. People's expectations shatter because she breaks through them.

Sugar is pushed along, she's held up. The people around her want the best for her, want her to run. They want her to be able to stand beside Sweep Tosho.

But she's done. Surely, right? She can't even stand on the same ground as Sweep. She declares that after Sweep's next race she'll retire. And yet after the race...

EHGehgheehehhee....ehehee...

The rivalries in Umamusume are so romantic it makes my heart explode. The admiration is beautiful, really. It aggravates Sugar. Sweep is so so incredible, it feels almost suffocating. But there's a burning feeling that won't go away. That she needs to stand beside her. That she needs to beat her.

She turns to Kawakami Princess, the very uma who accidentally pushed her to want to retire.

Together, with the very person who made her feel weak. Standing next to the people she sees as so much better than her. The very walls in front of her, stopping her from achieving what she wanted.

She stands together with them all. Choosing to make her own path, carve her own story.

And so...

Sweep Tosho immediately wraps the two of them up in apprenticeship.

And in a really cute moment, she challenges them to a race

And Sugar Nymph is excited. She's no longer timid and too scared to run, she's immediately picking the exact race she wants to compete with Sweep in.

And when they get to that race together, Sugar's welcomed onto the turf once more.

Sweep Tosho comes first. She beats the two of them, but no matter what, Sugar Nymph won't consider herself too weak anymore.

Her story doesn't have to end here. Of course, these are all the important story beats to me and she doesn't appear anywhere else, since she's...y'know...a mobuma... But Sugar Nymph represents someone who thought the world took everything from them, and with nothing, Sweep gives hope to fight to achieve something.

In the beginning she's a simple Tiara uma. Representing one of the many who were inspired by Sweep to fight harder for the title. And that's how she continues. She represents the people inspired by Sweep. Everyone who fell under her spell. Everyone affected by the magic of Sweep Tosho, the Tiara Tour's little witch.

...I intended for this post to be a lot shorter but the problem is I really wanted to show the parts that make me love Sugar Nymph and I got really carried away... She's a wonderful character and I'm surprised she's even a mobuma at all considering how much character she has! Although it's likely it's just because she has no major story outside of Sweep Tosho...

Her name is pretty clear Sugar-wise. Yamanin Sucre(Sucre means Sugar) -> Sugar Nymph is a pretty clear pipeline, but the Nymph part stumped me. The Yamanin part is a crown name referring to the Yamaninbe Ranch Sucre came from, but if you read Yamanin as 山人 it's simply mountain person, Which like. I guess a nymph could be a mountain nymph.... I imagine the name simply comes from her relationship to Sweep Tosho. She's the nymph to Sweep's witch. Both magical beings in their own right, but while Sweep creates magic, Sugar lives magic. A miracle born from Sweep.

Her design is fun too, the ribbons and hair design make her look youthful, although she's still 10 centimeters taller than Sweep...! (Shorter than Kawakami though)

The ribbons are also unique in that they're blue! Every single mobuma before Sugar's release used a limited color pallet and her's is the first to break out of that. (Her hair color, the value that controls all her non racewear colors is 26, which is completely unique! The previous only Special Mob, Brusquement, used hair color 4 which is shared by 64 other mobs!)

That combined with her actual story compared to Brusquement simply being a goalpost for Kitasan Black shows this is where Cygames started experimenting with mobumas. She's different from Brusquement in nearly every single way!

It's heartwarming to see a horse who's career had to be cut short due to a mistake live through that and come out stronger. Sugar Nymph is a lovely lovely story...

After reading it, I've undeniably become Swymphcess's #1 fan, if you draw ship art of Sweep and Nymph or all 3 of them please tag me I love them so much they're so dear to me.....

And with that, the post is done!!!!!!! I hope you learned something from my...very long rambling. Or read it at all... Sugar Nymph's story was a REALLY fun read, and you can see for yourself by going through Sweep Tosho's career stories! They're both wonderful characters, reading through this made me genuinely appreciate Sweep when I didn't get her before, I loooove Umamusume.....