Umamusume: Pretty Derby Season 3

Name: Umamusume: Pretty Derby Season 3
Genre: Sports
Released: 2023-10-05

ウマ娘プリティーダービー Season 3 (Uma Musume: Pretty Derby Season 3)

7.7(37,888)

MAL Score

Ranked #1468

Popularity #3041

Sports
Anthropomorphic
Racing

Episodes: 13
Duration: 23 min per ep
Aired: Oct 5, 2023 to Dec 28, 2023
Status: Finished Airing

Synopsis

Kitasan Black and Satono Diamond have looked up to the celebrated horse girl Toukai Teiou since they were young, dreaming of following in her footsteps. With their sights set on the sport’s biggest stages, they enter Tracen Academy, where horse girls train for the legendary races ahead. Before long, Kitasan Black earns a spot on Team Spica—Teiou’s own team—and throws herself into competition with bright determination.

Her early streak of victories is tested when she falls short in her first Grade 1 (G1) race, the league’s most prestigious class. Refusing to be discouraged, she pushes to draw out the full extent of her ability. At the same time, Satono Diamond carries the weight of a family legacy: despite generations of remarkable talent, the Satono line has never captured a G1 win, and she is determined to be the one who finally changes that.

Otaku Consensus

Season 3 confirms Umamusume as more than a game tie-in: Kei Oikawa and Studio KAI keep the franchise’s race-day momentum, idol-adjacent spectacle, and earnest sports psychology working at a reliably entertaining level. The standout appeal is the Kitasan Black/Satono Diamond dual focus, but the most persistent criticism is that it echoes Season 2’s emotional shape without matching its peak intensity, with several viewers finding the final stretch less gripping.

Why You Should Watch

Watch Season 3 if you want a sports anime built around pressure, ritual, rivalry, and comeback psychology without the cynicism or bruising machismo that often comes with the genre. It scratches some of the same itch as Chihayafuru’s formalized competitive world and Love Live!’s performance-driven character appeal, but filters both through the uniquely strange logic of horse-girl athletics. Viewers already invested in idol energy, race-day tension, and ensemble warmth will get the most from it, especially if they enjoy seeing a franchise treat a merchandising-friendly concept with complete sincerity. It is also one of the easier later entries to sample: multiple reviews note that Kitasan and Satono fans can follow this season without needing every prior connection.

Key Characters

K
Kitasan Black(VA: Hinaki Yano)
Kitasan Black is the season’s emotional engine, a heroine fans often discuss through her contrast with Toukai Teiou and the debate over whether her arc successfully recaptures Season 2’s dramatic charge.
S
Satono Diamond(VA: Hina Tachibana)
Satono Diamond gives the season its quieter counterweight, with reviewers singling out her presence as part of the Kitasan/Satono pairing that makes the third season feel more focused than a simple victory-lap sequel.

What Makes It Stand Out

1
Studio KAI handles all 13 episodes, keeping the production under one main studio rather than splitting the season across a long committee of animation houses.
2
The season leans into hybrid spectacle: AniList’s CGI tag sits at 79%, reflecting how strongly the race presentation and performance staging are associated with CG-supported sequences.
3
Kei Oikawa returns as director, while series composition is credited to both Shingo Nagai and Tetsuya Kobari, giving the season a staff structure built around continuity rather than a total creative reset.
4
The reception is unusually polarized for a 7.7-scored sports sequel: user reviews include passionate 10/10 defenses calling it peak sports anime alongside 6/10 critiques that label it the weakest Pretty Derby season.
5
Its tag profile is broader than a straight sports entry: Athletics is listed at 98%, but Idol reaches 70%, School 76%, Urban 79%, and Yuri 62%, which explains why the audience overlap extends beyond racing fans.

Fun Facts & Trivia

Fun fact 1: Cygames is credited as the original creator, so the anime is part of a multimedia franchise rather than a manga-first adaptation.
Fun fact 2: The character-design pipeline is unusually layered: Yousuke Kabashima and Tomoko Tsuji are credited for character design, Minami Kiyonaga supervises character design, and Kabashima also serves as one of three chief animation directors.
Fun fact 3: The season’s chief animation direction is shared by Yousuke Kabashima, Satoru Fujimoto, and Manabu Nii, a notable credit spread for maintaining consistency across a cast-heavy sports/idol production.
Fun fact 4: AniList records an audience score of 78/100 and 804 favourites, closely matching the MyAnimeList reception pattern of solid approval rather than breakout consensus.
Fun fact 5: Fan criticism repeatedly compares Season 3 to Season 2, not Season 1, which shows how the franchise’s second season became the benchmark for emotional stakes and race drama.