#starting gate

BLESSED BY MANY BEAUTIFUL NICE NATURES THIS CHAPTER

Finally finished going through most Uma media in one way or another and can finally do my write up on something I noticed. One thing I noticed about most Uma Media is that most of it kinda has you as an outsider looking in on the Umas. This is most explicit in the games where almost all the interactions you have and see between Umas is through the faceless Trainer. Its only really the Monthly (bimonthly for global) events that show you how they act without the trainer present but we only see what they say out loud mostly, hardly ever any inner thoughts to themselves. Cinderella Gray also has this sort of outsider "voyeuristic" peak into the Uma's lives and characters but isn't as extreme as the game. Instead of our faceless trainer MC, we experience things through the various Trainer OCs from CG like Jo, Musaka, and Nase. We get Oguri and other's thoughts and feelings sometimes sure, but for being our protagonist, it sure feels like we don't get shown Oguri's POV as much as what we would get out of a standard sports manga/anime protagonist. Star Blossom kinda follows in CG's footsteps in the same manner, especially in the first few volumes but has kinda loosened up in the most recent chapters and let us see a bit more into the Uma characters' mindspaces and see them bounce off each other more. The Uma media that noticeably doesn't really follow this "outsider looking in" trend is the starting gate manga, the anime, and the movies. Which all put us in the shoes of the Umas. These also differ themselves from the media above by having the trainer characters be much less important characters than say, Jo or Tsubaki is, and they hardly ever are treated as our POV characters. Its kinda noticeable that these are the Uma media that have also inspired the biggest yuri ships in the fandom. With the exception of Daiwa/Vodka, OpeDoto, and Oguri/Tamamo, heavy hitter pairings like Special Week/Silence Suzuka, JMAD, Teio/McQueen, Teio/Nature, Gold Ship/McQueen, and MihoRice all have an anime that focuses more on the "Uma POV" adding extra yuri power behind them.

ハツバキ

They way that I keep thinking about your motocross Bucky Barnes 🫠😮‍💨😛