Summary
Is nothing sacred in our modern world? Not even anime horse girls? Taking over the hearts and minds of gamers everywhere over the past month,Umamusume: Pretty Derbyis pretty dang wholesome. Starry-eyed equine youths, chasing their dreams literally and figuratively, all with an earnest but never creepy attitude towards the player.
That’s you,Trainer-san. The player is positioned as an authority figure for each horse girl, a coach that brings them to the finish line by any means necessary. Naturally, this allows many players to interpret things from a romantic perspective if that floats their boat.
Like a lot of anime featuring teen girls achieving lofty competitive goals (Idolmaster, K-On!, Bocchi The Rock, and more), the Umamusume series has a dedicated, albeit intense, fan community. After all, a wide selection of waifus with different personalities is rife with obsession. That’s the point, right? To have a favorite you can stan until the very end?
But there’s a difference between tearfully watchingHaru Uraraachieve her dreams and being so obsessed with a cartoon teenage girl that you create a self-inserted manga about marrying her. And that example is atthe tame end of thingsif theUmamusume subredditis any indicator.
Can’t a guy just enjoy something carefree and fun without part of the internet asking “Yes, but can I do the nasty with it?”. No. you’re able to’t. Or… you shouldn’t, for a lot of reasons. Please stop trying to makeUmamusume: Pretty Derbyinto a dirty thing - the community cannot continue to be this off-putting to fans if it wants to grow.
Umamusume Should Run Free, Not Run Away In Terror
“When you told me about this game, I figured they’d be horses with girl features, not teenage girls with tails.” This was my wife’s reaction upon me first downloading Umamusume: Pretty Derby and going down the proverbial anime horse girl rabbit hole. Thinking back on her reaction now, I think she has a point – especially regarding how quickly Umamusume has been turned into the newest internet sensation for all the wrong reasons.
There’s a massive difference between being a fan of characters in an anime, enjoying their personalities, or celebrating their story to conjuring up cringe-inducing fan art where you call a teenage girl your wife and make memes where she talks about wanting to start a family. Please go outside and touch some grass.
Does it offend me? No, not really. I grew up in the late 1990s and early 2000s on the internet, where you were likely to stumble across far worse things. That said, it does bother me that this type of fan content and shipping obsession is the thing that ends up gatekeeping a series for many potential fans.
Horse Girls And The My Little Pony Problem
This isn’t about shaming people for creating something risqué. The problem is when that element becomes the main association of a series and how the average person perceives it.
Take the best example of this, My Little Pony. As someone who watched a good chunk of the 2011 animated show but wouldn’t call himself a ‘Brony’, a tipping point occurred. There are only so many internet threads about which pony is your favorite or why the show is so well-written before the topic inevitably turns creepy.
At one point, this shipping and adult-tinged ecosystem ultimately makes it impossible for the average fan to enjoy something like My Little Pony. There’s only so many body pillows of Fluttershy one can see at their local anime convention before you tap out completely. And I desperately do not want that to happen with Umamusume: Pretty Derby. One of the reasons series has become so popular is their underlying themes of tenacity, believing in yourself, and challenging those around you with the same aspirations.
But it’s those same characteristics that draw in the worst types of fans.
Are The Waifus To Blame? No, It’s The Most Obsessive Fans
A series with cute girls will always have folks who get really into the characters. I get it: I literally have five different horse girl figures sitting on my Amazon wish list as we speak. But there’s a difference between me wantinga figure of Silence Suzukaon my desk and sharinga smutty comic on a mainstream forum, which is not an uncommon occurrence in this game’s fanbase right now.
If you’re a kid or a normal gamer and decide to check out the Umamusume subreddit today because you love it so much, what will you see? Right now, it’s mostly pervy comics, memes about dating horse girls, andone guy who keeps posting about Gold Ship.
That’s going to be an instant nope for a lot of potential fans. It sucks, because something like Umamusume should be for everyone. Much like the My Little Pony series, I’m sure a lot of this R-rated content started off as a joke before becoming an inseparable part of the fandom. See: “Clopping” (don’t see it).
To quoteJenny Nicholson talking about MLPand how 4chan influenced the show’s popularity: “Look at us! Aren’t we edgy! We’re going right in the sin dumpster!” That joke eventually stops being a joke, and you’re just left with a fandom indelibly tied to adult content.
Umamusume: Pretty Derby already sits on a dangerous line of being easily droppable due to it being a gacha mobile game. It wants you to have fun, get drops, and feel excitement about the game as fast as possible.
But like other forms of gambling, you can’t sustain that feeling. Eventually, you just uninstall the game from apathy, boredom, or both. What message are we sending to vulnerable gamers when they find a cool game with well-designed characters, and it not only has stronggacha mechanics, but also has a fandom that can’t bonk itself with the horny bat?
Something will give, and that means one less potential horse girl fan. I hate that. Horse girls should be for everyone, and all anime featuring women shouldn’t be boiled down to a sad guy on the internet asking why he can’t sleep with her.
