Umamusume: Pretty Derby - Beginning of a New Era
ウマ娘 プリティーダービー 新時代の扉 (Uma Musume: Pretty Derby - Shin Jidai no Tobira)
- Sports
- Anthropomorphic
- Racing
- Episodes
- 1
- Duration
- 1 hr 47 min
- Aired
- May 24, 2024
- Status
- Finished Airing
Synopsis
Reaching the top tier of horse-girl racing—the Twinkle Series—is a goal shared by countless runners. Jungle Pocket, who has only competed in freestyle races, finds that ambition for herself after witnessing Fuji Kiseki claim a stunning victory on a major stage. Buoyed by unshakable confidence, she strings together early wins that earn her a shot at tougher, higher-level competitions.
Her first G1 brings a harsh reality check when she lines up against fellow up-and-comer Agnes Tachyon, a brilliant and eccentric racer whose ability exposes just how wide the gap still is. Rather than back down, Jungle Pocket turns the setback into fuel, vowing to surpass Tachyon by capturing the prestigious Triple Crown Classic the following year—fully aware that in racing, nothing comes easily or as expected.
Otaku Consensus
Beginning of a New Era earns its elite scores by treating Umamusume as a serious theatrical sports drama rather than a novelty gacha tie-in, with Ken Yamamoto’s direction, CygamesPictures’ race animation, and Jungle Pocket’s central arc carrying the film’s strongest impact. The common objection is not the production but the compression: viewers who bounce off it point to thin side-character development and a rivalry structure that can feel underbuilt outside the franchise context.
Why You Should Watch
Watch this if you want a concentrated sports-anime high without committing to a long tournament arc. Beginning of a New Era scratches the same itch as Haikyu!!’s pressure-cooker matches or Run with the Wind’s athlete psychology, but compresses that intensity into a single, polished film built around speed, rivalry, and obsession. It is also one of the cleaner entry points into Umamusume: serious enough for viewers skeptical of the horse-girl premise, but still unmistakably tied to the franchise’s mix of racing, idol-adjacent spectacle, and character-driven competition. The appeal is in seeing CygamesPictures turn sprinting bodies, stadium lighting, and emotional momentum into theatrical sports spectacle, especially if you prefer rival-focused drama over episodic training-comedy pacing.
Key Characters
- JJungle Pocket(VA: Yuri Fujimoto)
Jungle Pocket is the film’s emotional engine, framed less as a mascot-style heroine and more as an athlete whose swagger is tested by elite competition.
- AAgnes Tachyon(VA: Sumire Uesaka)
Agnes Tachyon stands out as the movie’s most-discussed rival figure, combining eccentric presence with the intimidating aura of someone who treats racing like an experiment.
- DDantsu Flame(VA: Haruna Fukushima)
Dantsu Flame gives the ensemble a grounded counterweight, though several viewer reviews note that the film’s short runtime leaves supporting players wanting more room.
- MManhattan Cafe(VA: Yui Ogura)
Manhattan Cafe adds a quieter, more enigmatic texture to the main cast, broadening the film beyond a simple two-racer rivalry dynamic.
What Makes It Stand Out
- 1
CygamesPictures produced the film in-house, giving the franchise a theatrical showcase built around dense lighting, expressive character acting, and high-speed race staging rather than TV-style economy.
- 2
The film is directed by Ken Yamamoto with Jun Yamazaki on character design, a combination reflected in how the movie emphasizes body language and competitive temperament over exposition-heavy franchise lore.
- 3
The race visuals are supported by a specialized technical team including CG Director Yoshinori Nakano and photography directors Akane Fushihara and Yuuki Kawashita, which helps explain the strong fan response to motion, speed, and lighting.
- 4
Its structure is deliberately compact: critics such as Anime Feminist highlighted it as a bite-sized entry point that captures the franchise’s core athlete-rival ethos without requiring the full TV-series runway.
- 5
The film’s reception is unusually strong for a relatively niche title, sitting at 8.64 on MyAnimeList with a rank of #93 while having a much lower popularity placement of #3186.
Fun Facts & Trivia
- Fun fact 1
- Beginning of a New Era aired as a single finished entry on May 24, 2024, positioning it as a standalone theatrical-style installment rather than another TV season.
- Fun fact 2
- The title’s production credits list Cygames as the original creator and CygamesPictures as the animation studio, keeping both the IP ownership and animation pipeline within the broader Cygames ecosystem.
- Fun fact 3
- AniList’s tag distribution identifies the film most strongly as Athletics at 96%, with Kemonomimi at 89% and Female Protagonist at 87%, which neatly reflects how the database community classifies its appeal.
- Fun fact 4
- Despite mixed user-review pockets criticizing narrative compression, the film holds an AniList score of 87/100 and 2,623 favorites, indicating strong attachment among viewers who connected with its theatrical sports-drama approach.
- Fun fact 5
- The staff credits include Odashi on prop design, Yuusuke Watanabe as art director, You Iwaida on color design, and Kashiko Kimura on editing, highlighting how many separate craft roles shape the film’s stadium atmosphere and race rhythm.
Studios
- CygamesPictures
