Jun 2, 8:23 PM
Spring 2025 Mini Blog Part 2
Anime Relations: Kidou Senshi Gundam: GQuuuuuuX
Heya otakus! This will be continuation of the previous Spring anime blog and I just have four more new anime impressions that I really wanted to get done so let’s get right to it!
— Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX (Pronounced “Gee-Kwahks”) —
Streaming on Amazon, GKids did release the preview movie in theaters but not confirmed if they will be releasing the TV series to a wider digital and/or home release.
Animated by both studio Sunrise (has been producing every “Gundam” production since April of 1979!)
and Studio Khara (made of ex-Gainax animators founded by famed “Evangelion” series director Hideaki Anno! Produced all of the “Rebuild of Evangelion” movies)
Directed by Kazuya Tsurumaki (“FLCL” in 2000, Top o Nerae/Gunbuster 2, “The Dragon Dentist”, all “Rebuild of Evangelion” movies)
Written by Yoji Enokido (“Revolutionary Girl Utena”, “Ouran High School Host Club”, “Redline”, “Bungo Stray Dogs”)
Feat Character designs by artist “Take” (original art designer for the “Katanagatari” series)
With music by composer Yoshimasa Terui (all “Jujutsu Kaisen” TV series and movies)
Based off of the original 1979 sci-fi TV series “Mobile Suit Gundam” directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino: The year is “Universal Century” 0085, five years after the end of the famed “One Year War” between the forces of the Principality of Zeon and the Earth Federation, HOWEVER….. this is NOT the same story you may have known. WHAT IF….. the famed “Red Comet”, Char Aznable, took control of the experimental “Gundam” unit instead of Amuro Ray and used it to bring Zeon toward it’s ultimate victory!? Char does mysteriously vanish within a bright flash during the final grand battle of the war and Zeon have been searching for him ever since, that is until five years later when his famed “Red Gundam” unit has suddenly appeared near the space colony of “Side 6” and Zeon launches a prototype “Psycomu” unit (mainly made for “Newtypes”) named “gMS-Omega GQuuuuuuX” in order to capture it along with it’s rumored pilot. This retold story follows female high school teen Amate Yuzuriha whom one day somehow get’s caught up within a smuggling deal of Zeon mech parts, yet shortly afterwards the “GQuuuuuuX” crashes into the space colony while chasing Char’s Gundam, the Zeon pilot ejects after the crash yet being at the wrong place at the wrong time Amate just so happen to be able to get herself into the cockpit of the new unit and is able to control it! After fending off local police forces and allowing the Red Gundam to escape Amate is met by a group of mech pilots that use discarded units for “clan battles” that call themselves the “Pomeranians” and makes a deal to use the GQuuuuuuX in their matches with her as the pilot! Amate is then introduced to pilot Shuuji Itou but we then find out he was the new controller of the famed Red Gundam after all!
Usually Gundam vets are well fairly used to watching series done within “alternate universes” (although thanks to “Turn-A Gundam” they are actually all within the same timeline yet in different eras of history) but definitely pretty damn weird to have one that’s within a whole alternate time-line of the original 1979 anime! At least the series did fully explain what exactly happened to set it’s new timeline for the series in episode two and very cool the animators and design team made it somewhat look like an episode of the original ’79 TV series, complete with it’s original eye-catches (SHOW!!!). After watching episode four it’s really way too early to tell where the story is heading but does seem to mostly revolve around the mech “clan battles” yet I just know it will move toward much more serious dilemmas, hell, with the last series “Witch from Mercury” the story didn’t really get all interesting until it moved toward it’s entire second half, however there are no set amount of episodes planned for this series as of yet. Even from what I’ve seen so far it is already making a couple jaw dropping shockers, especially in episode four that I really don’t want to mention anything about it. However the biggest highlight is the show’s quality and if you have seen the more recent Evangelion movies then you definitely know studio Khara are the masters of their craftwork and is giving everything at the most minute level of details and even though it’s not perfect the CG work on this is absolutely sublime! Yet I kind of wished the characters looked a bit better and not too “FLCL-ish” but this is yet another Tsurumaki production and he definitely has his more preferred styles, although thumbs up for giving that “haro” a black beanie. :) The opening theme….. eh….. could of been better, could of been worse, it’s another tune from well known singer Kenshi Yonezu, whom did the “Chainsaw Man” opening and is titled “Plazma”, the visuals are pretty good and like the graphic effects but really not a big fan of it’s overall techno rhythm. The bigger song highlight is for it’s ending theme, “Mou Dou Natte mo Iiya” from famed virtual “Hololive Productions” idol singer Suisei Hoshimachi, and while the visuals aren’t all too special to watch, just the two main females doing some things in one room, that beat man is just banging and definitely one of the most able toe-tappers for the entire Spring anime season, I can’t stop listening to it! Overall it definitely gave me a pretty great first impression and really hope it’s quality remains top-notch throughout it’s run yet really crossing my fingers the story will keep us more and more engaged as it continues and I have high hopes this will be a really high competitor for 2025 anime of the year! All Gundam fans need to watch this if they can.
— Lazarus —
Streaming on MAX, Hulu, Amazon and AdultSwim.com, also airing Saturday late nights on Cartoon Network’s Toonami.
Animated by MAPPA (the “Jujutsu Kaisen” series, Chainsaw Man, the final season of “Attack on Titan”)
Directed by Shinichirou Watanabe (famed directer of “Cowboy Bebop” along with “Samurai Champloo” and “Terror in Resonance”)
Written by Shinichirou Watanabe, Tsukasa Kondo (“Super Crooks”), Takahiro Ozawa (“Mazinger Z: Infinity”), and Dai Sato (“Eureka Seven”) among others yet revealed.
Character Designs by Akemi Hayashi (“Banana Fish”, “Peace Maker Kurogane”, “Fruits Basket” from 2001)
Action Supervision assisted by Chad Stahelski (the “John Wick” movies)
Music done by “Bonobo”, “Floating Points” and Kamasi Washington. (Sadly, Yoko Kanno was not involved)
Produced by Jason DeMarco of Toonami U.S. and Joseph Chou of Sola Entertainment (both were involved with “Uzumaki” last year)
In this original sci-fi action series set in the near future of 2052 a genius scientist that is only known by the name “Skinner” develops a miracle narcotic drug called “Hapuna” that has the power to ease practically any pain instantly without any harsh side-effects and was also found to give people somewhat of a euphoric high (think fentanyl but you cannot easily die from it). Two years and 11 months later after the drug was released Dr. Skinner makes an announcement that shocked the entire world: anyone that takes Hapuna will die in three years due to how it affects the human DNA, however he has found a cure but in order to release it someone must find him before the month’s end and the clock is ticking fast! Now enter “Lazarus”, a special task force made up of five agents each with experts in various skills and they are dead set to be the first to the finish line in finding Skinner and his antidote. One of these agents is young adult male Axel Gilberto whom Lazarus released him from multiple life sentences in prison due to his immense skills in speed and parkour.
Video games, movies, TV and pop culture news and reviews website “IGN” posted an early review for only the first five episodes of the series and gave it a dismal 5 out of 10! Their final review jist states: “Lazarus creates an interesting world and huge stakes but lacks inventiveness to do anything with them”, but also stated “there’s always a chance that things could turn around” which I highly agree to. As for myself after watching just the first four episodes if I were to give it a rating it would be right about an 8 out of 10. I’ll be brutally honest, this is NOT the reimagining nor a spiritual successor to “Bebop” even though it seems to really try it’s hardest to be with it’s highly stylish action and jazzy soundtrack. It more reminds me of the 2000’s “Ocean’s” movies with George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and such where these ragtag group of “experts” gang together to pull off the ultimate Vegas heist but in this case the ultimate game of “hide & seek” in order to save the whole freaking world! Even the opening theme has that whole “Ocean’s” vibe going for it with it’s very jazzy instrumental jam and it’s visuals does somewhat have a 60’s retro feel to it, albeit I wished the ending theme was just as good and frankly it’s somewhat disturbing. While the overall story may not live up to Watanabe-san’s classics the quality and animation definitely do so and all four of the 1st episodes are a literal “sakuga” lovers dream each with amazing animated sequences that even made me go “whoa shit!” On the flip-side this is another Jason DeMarco and Sola Ent. production and if you have seen their little attempt in bringing Junji Ito’s famed horror manga “Uzumaki” to animated life…. well….. things can change really damn fast and really freaking hard! (Same going with “Ninja Kamui” too). I have no clue how episode five went down but maybe that was IGN’s “mood killer” for the series, who knows, and maybe the overall quality did dip a whole bunch for it. The anime is set to air, so far, just one season of 13 episodes and I honestly really, really don’t want to give this the 2025 “Golden Shit Emoji” award and damn praying Watanabe-san will pull off a very enjoyable and able jazzy action romp.
— Moonrise —
Streaming on Netflix
Animated by Wit Studio (Isekai Suicide Squad, “The Grimm Variations”, the 1st three seasons of “Attack on Titan”)
Written and Directed by Masashi Koizuka (“Attack on Titan” seasons 2 & 3 and assisted on 1st, will be doing “The One Piece” anime remake in the near future)
Feat. original character designs by famed manga artist Hiromu Arakawa (Fullmetal Alchemist)
Based on the sci-fi novels written by Tou Ubukata, best known for his work on the “Psycho-” series as well as “Bye Bye, Earth”, in the far future the citizens of the moon have all rebelled against the people of Earth and plot a huge terrorist attack onto the planet during a milestone celebration of technological advancement. Young adult male Jacob “Jack” Shadow was one of those unfortunate Earthlings that got caught within the attack and sadly had lost both of his parents as a result with him just barely surviving the onslaught. Soon later Jack, along with some personal friends that survived, all enlist into the Earth’s army and was able to a special scout squad in order to investigate the plans of the moon rebel’s leader, Bob Skylum, however visions of Jack’s long lost friend Phil Arch seem to suddenly haunt him.
I do want to start this with a warning: Please DO NOT watch this English dubbed! I did it for the F* of it mainly due to the fact all of the characters have English names (and “Bob Skylum”! God, I just chuckle every time I hear that) but those first three episodes were done really subpar with pretty lazy writing, also it’s done by some company that I never heard of called “The Dubbing Brothers” (wonder if they did that ass-tastic dub for AICO) so just stick with the Japanese track. Before I was able to check into this been hearing the series was getting some highly mixed reviews, now currently scoring a 6.7 on MyAnimeList.com, and also heard some people on SM saying it was a “letdown” to even someone saying it’s “painful to watch”. I’ve currently only seen the first four episodes of the series as I’m writing this and so far will gladly say I was not disappointed, the story isn’t going to knock your freaking socks off and it’s characters are kind of “been there, done that”, but Wit definitely has made a pretty damn nicely looking anime here and they are really flexing their animation muscles on this one for sure. Even that instrumental opening theme just wows me every time I watch it’s highly detailed and super smooth CG visuals, almost brings a tear to my eye, wonderful stuff! The ending theme is pretty meh’ with just some hand drawn art shots and also, sad to say, has a pretty weak song from the highly talented singer “Aina The End” whom did some amazing work for “Gundam: The Witch from Mercury”. Much like with “Lazarus” above while the overall experience seems to be more visually pleasing than having more engaging and creative plot-lines there is still a whole lot more time for it to improve story-wise and really crossing my fingers it will have much more “oomph” to make it a highly able one as the series progresses. All aired 18 episodes are streaming on Netflix but unsure if any more will be made, yet I’m going to give this a recommendation toward all sci-fi anime fans out there.
— Uma Musume: Cinderella Gray —
Streaming on Amazon, Netflix and YouTube via “It’s Anime Powered by REMOW”
Animated by Cygames Pictures (“Brave Bang Bravern!”, also did “Beginning of a New Era” and “Road to the Top” for the “Uma” series)
Directed by Yuuki Itou (“Takt Op. Destiny”) and Takehiro Miura (debut work, assisted on “Brave Bang Bravern!”)
Written by Aki Kindaichi (debut work, also doing “Bullet/Bullet” airing this Summer)
Feat. music by Kenji Kawai (the “Mob Psycho” series yet most famed for his work on the “Ghost in the Shell” movies)
In this “soft reboot” based on both the popular Japanese mobile game from Cygames and the manga series created by Masafumi Sugiura, this story follows newly entered “Uma-musume” academy student “Oguri Cap” whom was raised from the quiet and humble countrysides and has a huge appetite for both winning races as well as eating immense amounts of food! Even with her rather clumsy and aloof attitudes this ashen-haired “beast” will be taking on daunting challenges that will lead her from lower-tiered junior races all the way up to the highest stages of the Japanese circuits!
Yep, it’s more anthropomorphic cute teen horse girl racing action in which we have already gotten three full TV seasons, a four episode OVA and one movie! Also the official English release of the mobile game will be coming out in late June, wooooo!!! \o/ However technically you can watch this all by itself due to the fact no knowledge of any past series is needed to get into this, also it does just slightly introduces you to the world of the “Uma-chans” but frankly all they say is “they have just been here on this Earth since the dawn of history.” (yet still, where are the “Uma-dudes” and who births them!?) While much of the past TV series are more or less mainly fan-service for the game nerds this one more seems to be a much more dramatic and serious series, sure there are some dumb and comical moments sprinkled in here and there but overall this is the real deal and more get to see the blood, sweat and tears these racers have to get through. Older characters such as “Symboli Rudolf” and “Maruzensky” do make an appearance but again they aren’t really essential to the main story. Plus the overall quality and animation are pretty top-notch with so far zero use of any CG work and it’s all hand-drawn which really impressed me in the 3rd and 4th episodes, and that idol stage dancing at the end, good lord! The opening theme is done by the J-rock band “Alexandros”, titled “Koeru”, whom (I believe) did songs for the later Gundam series and movies (sorry, not sure which) and hot damn this is already becoming one of my favorite anime openings of 2025 and it immensely bleeds in very stylish shots and effects and that song just plain rocks, you gotta turn that up to 11, man! \m/ However, I apologize, I have no info on who did the ending theme at this time, it’s not a bad one but nothing really all too able. Now earlier in my last blog I mentioned that episode 4 was not available on YouTube for U.S. regions but recently that was fixed and as of now all episodes up to #9 is available to stream (for now). Overall I still will say this series is not for everyone yet I hoping this “soft reboot” will bring in more fans toward the series, and of course make people more interested in playing the mobile game, I think this may turn out to be the most interesting and impactful “Uma” entry made for TV yet and crossing my fingers it will be a well ed one.
— Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX (Pronounced “Gee-Kwahks”) —
Streaming on Amazon, GKids did release the preview movie in theaters but not confirmed if they will be releasing the TV series to a wider digital and/or home release.
Animated by both studio Sunrise (has been producing every “Gundam” production since April of 1979!)
and Studio Khara (made of ex-Gainax animators founded by famed “Evangelion” series director Hideaki Anno! Produced all of the “Rebuild of Evangelion” movies)
Directed by Kazuya Tsurumaki (“FLCL” in 2000, Top o Nerae/Gunbuster 2, “The Dragon Dentist”, all “Rebuild of Evangelion” movies)
Written by Yoji Enokido (“Revolutionary Girl Utena”, “Ouran High School Host Club”, “Redline”, “Bungo Stray Dogs”)
Feat Character designs by artist “Take” (original art designer for the “Katanagatari” series)
With music by composer Yoshimasa Terui (all “Jujutsu Kaisen” TV series and movies)
Based off of the original 1979 sci-fi TV series “Mobile Suit Gundam” directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino: The year is “Universal Century” 0085, five years after the end of the famed “One Year War” between the forces of the Principality of Zeon and the Earth Federation, HOWEVER….. this is NOT the same story you may have known. WHAT IF….. the famed “Red Comet”, Char Aznable, took control of the experimental “Gundam” unit instead of Amuro Ray and used it to bring Zeon toward it’s ultimate victory!? Char does mysteriously vanish within a bright flash during the final grand battle of the war and Zeon have been searching for him ever since, that is until five years later when his famed “Red Gundam” unit has suddenly appeared near the space colony of “Side 6” and Zeon launches a prototype “Psycomu” unit (mainly made for “Newtypes”) named “gMS-Omega GQuuuuuuX” in order to capture it along with it’s rumored pilot. This retold story follows female high school teen Amate Yuzuriha whom one day somehow get’s caught up within a smuggling deal of Zeon mech parts, yet shortly afterwards the “GQuuuuuuX” crashes into the space colony while chasing Char’s Gundam, the Zeon pilot ejects after the crash yet being at the wrong place at the wrong time Amate just so happen to be able to get herself into the cockpit of the new unit and is able to control it! After fending off local police forces and allowing the Red Gundam to escape Amate is met by a group of mech pilots that use discarded units for “clan battles” that call themselves the “Pomeranians” and makes a deal to use the GQuuuuuuX in their matches with her as the pilot! Amate is then introduced to pilot Shuuji Itou but we then find out he was the new controller of the famed Red Gundam after all!
Usually Gundam vets are well fairly used to watching series done within “alternate universes” (although thanks to “Turn-A Gundam” they are actually all within the same timeline yet in different eras of history) but definitely pretty damn weird to have one that’s within a whole alternate time-line of the original 1979 anime! At least the series did fully explain what exactly happened to set it’s new timeline for the series in episode two and very cool the animators and design team made it somewhat look like an episode of the original ’79 TV series, complete with it’s original eye-catches (SHOW!!!). After watching episode four it’s really way too early to tell where the story is heading but does seem to mostly revolve around the mech “clan battles” yet I just know it will move toward much more serious dilemmas, hell, with the last series “Witch from Mercury” the story didn’t really get all interesting until it moved toward it’s entire second half, however there are no set amount of episodes planned for this series as of yet. Even from what I’ve seen so far it is already making a couple jaw dropping shockers, especially in episode four that I really don’t want to mention anything about it. However the biggest highlight is the show’s quality and if you have seen the more recent Evangelion movies then you definitely know studio Khara are the masters of their craftwork and is giving everything at the most minute level of details and even though it’s not perfect the CG work on this is absolutely sublime! Yet I kind of wished the characters looked a bit better and not too “FLCL-ish” but this is yet another Tsurumaki production and he definitely has his more preferred styles, although thumbs up for giving that “haro” a black beanie. :) The opening theme….. eh….. could of been better, could of been worse, it’s another tune from well known singer Kenshi Yonezu, whom did the “Chainsaw Man” opening and is titled “Plazma”, the visuals are pretty good and like the graphic effects but really not a big fan of it’s overall techno rhythm. The bigger song highlight is for it’s ending theme, “Mou Dou Natte mo Iiya” from famed virtual “Hololive Productions” idol singer Suisei Hoshimachi, and while the visuals aren’t all too special to watch, just the two main females doing some things in one room, that beat man is just banging and definitely one of the most able toe-tappers for the entire Spring anime season, I can’t stop listening to it! Overall it definitely gave me a pretty great first impression and really hope it’s quality remains top-notch throughout it’s run yet really crossing my fingers the story will keep us more and more engaged as it continues and I have high hopes this will be a really high competitor for 2025 anime of the year! All Gundam fans need to watch this if they can.
— Lazarus —
Streaming on MAX, Hulu, Amazon and AdultSwim.com, also airing Saturday late nights on Cartoon Network’s Toonami.
Animated by MAPPA (the “Jujutsu Kaisen” series, Chainsaw Man, the final season of “Attack on Titan”)
Directed by Shinichirou Watanabe (famed directer of “Cowboy Bebop” along with “Samurai Champloo” and “Terror in Resonance”)
Written by Shinichirou Watanabe, Tsukasa Kondo (“Super Crooks”), Takahiro Ozawa (“Mazinger Z: Infinity”), and Dai Sato (“Eureka Seven”) among others yet revealed.
Character Designs by Akemi Hayashi (“Banana Fish”, “Peace Maker Kurogane”, “Fruits Basket” from 2001)
Action Supervision assisted by Chad Stahelski (the “John Wick” movies)
Music done by “Bonobo”, “Floating Points” and Kamasi Washington. (Sadly, Yoko Kanno was not involved)
Produced by Jason DeMarco of Toonami U.S. and Joseph Chou of Sola Entertainment (both were involved with “Uzumaki” last year)
In this original sci-fi action series set in the near future of 2052 a genius scientist that is only known by the name “Skinner” develops a miracle narcotic drug called “Hapuna” that has the power to ease practically any pain instantly without any harsh side-effects and was also found to give people somewhat of a euphoric high (think fentanyl but you cannot easily die from it). Two years and 11 months later after the drug was released Dr. Skinner makes an announcement that shocked the entire world: anyone that takes Hapuna will die in three years due to how it affects the human DNA, however he has found a cure but in order to release it someone must find him before the month’s end and the clock is ticking fast! Now enter “Lazarus”, a special task force made up of five agents each with experts in various skills and they are dead set to be the first to the finish line in finding Skinner and his antidote. One of these agents is young adult male Axel Gilberto whom Lazarus released him from multiple life sentences in prison due to his immense skills in speed and parkour.
Video games, movies, TV and pop culture news and reviews website “IGN” posted an early review for only the first five episodes of the series and gave it a dismal 5 out of 10! Their final review jist states: “Lazarus creates an interesting world and huge stakes but lacks inventiveness to do anything with them”, but also stated “there’s always a chance that things could turn around” which I highly agree to. As for myself after watching just the first four episodes if I were to give it a rating it would be right about an 8 out of 10. I’ll be brutally honest, this is NOT the reimagining nor a spiritual successor to “Bebop” even though it seems to really try it’s hardest to be with it’s highly stylish action and jazzy soundtrack. It more reminds me of the 2000’s “Ocean’s” movies with George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and such where these ragtag group of “experts” gang together to pull off the ultimate Vegas heist but in this case the ultimate game of “hide & seek” in order to save the whole freaking world! Even the opening theme has that whole “Ocean’s” vibe going for it with it’s very jazzy instrumental jam and it’s visuals does somewhat have a 60’s retro feel to it, albeit I wished the ending theme was just as good and frankly it’s somewhat disturbing. While the overall story may not live up to Watanabe-san’s classics the quality and animation definitely do so and all four of the 1st episodes are a literal “sakuga” lovers dream each with amazing animated sequences that even made me go “whoa shit!” On the flip-side this is another Jason DeMarco and Sola Ent. production and if you have seen their little attempt in bringing Junji Ito’s famed horror manga “Uzumaki” to animated life…. well….. things can change really damn fast and really freaking hard! (Same going with “Ninja Kamui” too). I have no clue how episode five went down but maybe that was IGN’s “mood killer” for the series, who knows, and maybe the overall quality did dip a whole bunch for it. The anime is set to air, so far, just one season of 13 episodes and I honestly really, really don’t want to give this the 2025 “Golden Shit Emoji” award and damn praying Watanabe-san will pull off a very enjoyable and able jazzy action romp.
— Moonrise —
Streaming on Netflix
Animated by Wit Studio (Isekai Suicide Squad, “The Grimm Variations”, the 1st three seasons of “Attack on Titan”)
Written and Directed by Masashi Koizuka (“Attack on Titan” seasons 2 & 3 and assisted on 1st, will be doing “The One Piece” anime remake in the near future)
Feat. original character designs by famed manga artist Hiromu Arakawa (Fullmetal Alchemist)
Based on the sci-fi novels written by Tou Ubukata, best known for his work on the “Psycho-” series as well as “Bye Bye, Earth”, in the far future the citizens of the moon have all rebelled against the people of Earth and plot a huge terrorist attack onto the planet during a milestone celebration of technological advancement. Young adult male Jacob “Jack” Shadow was one of those unfortunate Earthlings that got caught within the attack and sadly had lost both of his parents as a result with him just barely surviving the onslaught. Soon later Jack, along with some personal friends that survived, all enlist into the Earth’s army and was able to a special scout squad in order to investigate the plans of the moon rebel’s leader, Bob Skylum, however visions of Jack’s long lost friend Phil Arch seem to suddenly haunt him.
I do want to start this with a warning: Please DO NOT watch this English dubbed! I did it for the F* of it mainly due to the fact all of the characters have English names (and “Bob Skylum”! God, I just chuckle every time I hear that) but those first three episodes were done really subpar with pretty lazy writing, also it’s done by some company that I never heard of called “The Dubbing Brothers” (wonder if they did that ass-tastic dub for AICO) so just stick with the Japanese track. Before I was able to check into this been hearing the series was getting some highly mixed reviews, now currently scoring a 6.7 on MyAnimeList.com, and also heard some people on SM saying it was a “letdown” to even someone saying it’s “painful to watch”. I’ve currently only seen the first four episodes of the series as I’m writing this and so far will gladly say I was not disappointed, the story isn’t going to knock your freaking socks off and it’s characters are kind of “been there, done that”, but Wit definitely has made a pretty damn nicely looking anime here and they are really flexing their animation muscles on this one for sure. Even that instrumental opening theme just wows me every time I watch it’s highly detailed and super smooth CG visuals, almost brings a tear to my eye, wonderful stuff! The ending theme is pretty meh’ with just some hand drawn art shots and also, sad to say, has a pretty weak song from the highly talented singer “Aina The End” whom did some amazing work for “Gundam: The Witch from Mercury”. Much like with “Lazarus” above while the overall experience seems to be more visually pleasing than having more engaging and creative plot-lines there is still a whole lot more time for it to improve story-wise and really crossing my fingers it will have much more “oomph” to make it a highly able one as the series progresses. All aired 18 episodes are streaming on Netflix but unsure if any more will be made, yet I’m going to give this a recommendation toward all sci-fi anime fans out there.
— Uma Musume: Cinderella Gray —
Streaming on Amazon, Netflix and YouTube via “It’s Anime Powered by REMOW”
Animated by Cygames Pictures (“Brave Bang Bravern!”, also did “Beginning of a New Era” and “Road to the Top” for the “Uma” series)
Directed by Yuuki Itou (“Takt Op. Destiny”) and Takehiro Miura (debut work, assisted on “Brave Bang Bravern!”)
Written by Aki Kindaichi (debut work, also doing “Bullet/Bullet” airing this Summer)
Feat. music by Kenji Kawai (the “Mob Psycho” series yet most famed for his work on the “Ghost in the Shell” movies)
In this “soft reboot” based on both the popular Japanese mobile game from Cygames and the manga series created by Masafumi Sugiura, this story follows newly entered “Uma-musume” academy student “Oguri Cap” whom was raised from the quiet and humble countrysides and has a huge appetite for both winning races as well as eating immense amounts of food! Even with her rather clumsy and aloof attitudes this ashen-haired “beast” will be taking on daunting challenges that will lead her from lower-tiered junior races all the way up to the highest stages of the Japanese circuits!
Yep, it’s more anthropomorphic cute teen horse girl racing action in which we have already gotten three full TV seasons, a four episode OVA and one movie! Also the official English release of the mobile game will be coming out in late June, wooooo!!! \o/ However technically you can watch this all by itself due to the fact no knowledge of any past series is needed to get into this, also it does just slightly introduces you to the world of the “Uma-chans” but frankly all they say is “they have just been here on this Earth since the dawn of history.” (yet still, where are the “Uma-dudes” and who births them!?) While much of the past TV series are more or less mainly fan-service for the game nerds this one more seems to be a much more dramatic and serious series, sure there are some dumb and comical moments sprinkled in here and there but overall this is the real deal and more get to see the blood, sweat and tears these racers have to get through. Older characters such as “Symboli Rudolf” and “Maruzensky” do make an appearance but again they aren’t really essential to the main story. Plus the overall quality and animation are pretty top-notch with so far zero use of any CG work and it’s all hand-drawn which really impressed me in the 3rd and 4th episodes, and that idol stage dancing at the end, good lord! The opening theme is done by the J-rock band “Alexandros”, titled “Koeru”, whom (I believe) did songs for the later Gundam series and movies (sorry, not sure which) and hot damn this is already becoming one of my favorite anime openings of 2025 and it immensely bleeds in very stylish shots and effects and that song just plain rocks, you gotta turn that up to 11, man! \m/ However, I apologize, I have no info on who did the ending theme at this time, it’s not a bad one but nothing really all too able. Now earlier in my last blog I mentioned that episode 4 was not available on YouTube for U.S. regions but recently that was fixed and as of now all episodes up to #9 is available to stream (for now). Overall I still will say this series is not for everyone yet I hoping this “soft reboot” will bring in more fans toward the series, and of course make people more interested in playing the mobile game, I think this may turn out to be the most interesting and impactful “Uma” entry made for TV yet and crossing my fingers it will be a well ed one.
Posted by Add a comment