UmaMusume Brought a Wave of Positivity

Written by Rei Caldombra 7/31/25 Video: https://youtu.be/O7hSQcW2wuU

Hello, Rei Caldombra here. I really wanna talk about the wave of positivity that I feel has come from UmaMusume’s global release. It actually reminds me a lot of when Pokémon Go first released back in 2016. I think it's really brightening up the internet right now in a time where many of us are feeling very anxious, stressed, angry, etc. And that includes me. Honestly, I have not been in a good headspace recently. I’m alive and will continue to be, nothing terrible happened, but I've been very depressed and unmotivated. So I have been leaning on getting sucked into video games more than usual as a distraction and source of joy. Which I honestly think is ok. Sometimes you need distractions from negative influences. They should not completely replace better coping mechanisms though. I’m starting to get better now and felt up for talking about how this game has been a positive influence for me during this time. I think it’s doing that for a lot of other people as well, which you can see in the kind and diverse community. UmaMusume itself feels very wholesome as a result of its endearing characters, the role of the player, and the positive messaging and feelings that come from the content of the game. I will primarily be talking about the game but what I say generally applies to the property as a whole.

The UmaMusume community has felt super warm and welcoming since the beginning. I have not seen even a single post or video that could be considered gatekeeping the game. I have only seen people encouraging and embracing people joining the community. There has been so much adorable and beautiful fanart and funny memes of the Umas. And there is a ridiculous number of guides you can find across the internet. There has also been a ton of cross-cultural contact between the Japanese-speaking and Global fandoms that has been very wholesome. Many Japanese fans have translated messages talking about their favorite characters and the things they’ve created. Global creators are doing the same and joining in on efforts to help the horses like donating to the real Haru Urara. The Global community is discovering Japanese UmaMusume memes, and the Japanese fandom is doing the same. It’s been really nice seeing creators across the spectrum of Japanese-speaking to non, young to old, and fans of Japanese media to people who have barely touched it. This is one reason why it reminds me of Pokémon Go, people across demographics are having fun and interacting with each other. All of this has been an immense joy to watch. When there is so much negativity and malice on the internet nowadays that can feel inescapable, it has been nice to spend time in this community that I feel has been almost entirely positive.

A huge part of the game being wholesome comes down to the characters and the writing. The Umas are filled with personality and endearing qualities. And every character also has a story of overcoming something and growing. Like Haru Urara’s boundless drive that resonates super well in her story, and Rice Shower learning to love herself. And you have an important role in their stories. This game really pulls you into the stories of its characters, with you having the ability to insert yourself in multiple ways. I think it’s very important that imo the game does not push you to view the Umas romantically. You absolutely can enjoy this in a dating simulator sort of way. The writing has plenty of clear coding for that. But I think it's just as easy to view yourself solely as their trainer and a guardian role; someone who just wants to see them happy and successful. I would also like to note that you can choose to be male or female, unlike many other games that can have the dating sim sort of vibe. So many people talk about the Umas like their children and that’s how I’ve felt too. The good writing really comes through in this regard. I think series that have any sort of shipping feel are best when you can view it that way but also have other ways to view the characters. But regardless of how you see yourself in the game, a big reason why this game is engrossing and brings strong positive emotions in players is because of your position in the story. You get to be the person who helps someone achieve their dream. A lot of people have the desire to be that person. And a lot of people feel like they aren’t accomplishing their own dreams. That they’re failing to do something they can or think what they want to do is impossible. This game gives you the position to help the Umas who are struggling in similar ways to how a lot of us do. You as the viewer resonate well with their struggles that you learn about through their careers, and the game puts you in the position to help them overcome those issues as their trainer. That’s why this game and others like it connect so well with people. 

Me when my precious child Winning Ticket reconnects with her friends and finally gets a URA win.

This game feels so wholesome because of the good tone and way it approached the characters and story. Anyone can fall in love with these characters. I don’t think this game being focused entirely on female characters means it is locked into only appealing to people attracted to female characters. Just look at all the female content creators having a great time with UmaMusume. Liking characters is not solely about sexual attraction, you need to get your head out of the gutter if you think so. It’s also about creating characters with great personalities that anyone can get attached to. Appreciating cuteness is a pretty unifying thing across humanity, and traits that make you want to cheer someone on or protecc them or feel cuteness aggression are universal. As far as I can tell the game is working great at appealing to the wide spectrum of people. I have seen so many posts and stream clips and stuff about people gushing over their favorites. And isn’t seeing people passionately talk about their favorite things just one of the best things in the world?

To talk more about my favorites if you’d like to hear- My favorite character is Winning Ticket, who I love for her very loud and aggressive positivity. She has infinite energy and I feel like she shares that hyped up energy she has with you. She definitely did for me, it’s hard for me not to smile when she is onscreen.

She is just so adorable, and I would sacrifice everything to make her happy. Her yells and screams are so cute and funny even if they make my ears bleed. I love that they added the detail of the characters in cutscenes often recoiling at how loud her voice is too.

Another favorite of mine is Sakura Bakushin O, I adore the exaggerated laugh she does when she gets 1st place, its part of the reward of winning. And she is well known as one of the easiest characters to play too. She gave me my first URA win and served as a nice way to get a win after repeated failures with other characters when I was still inexperienced. I will always be grateful for how much she made the earlier game more manageable and helped me feel a bit less frustrated.

I also love Tachyon and Gold Ship for being absolute freaks. Haru Urara is just so sweet and I adore her story, it genuinely hits super hard. They really put together an inspirational story with her. She deserves the copious amount of ryegrass she is getting in all the cute fanart. Would also do anything to keep her smile. Oguri Cap is another favorite, I like the beeg eaters. And Tannhauser has such a cute vocal performance, I could listen to her say mambo forever. There are so many characters in this series, with every character having diehard fans out there who will tell you about why they like them so much. Whether it be in text or video like this, doing fanart or making memes. I just love to see this kind of stuff. And this is another thing it has in common with Pokémon.

Another aspect of why the good vibe of the characters work is the lack of sexualization to the game. To be clear, I’m not fundamentally against sexualization in a vacuum, just see my post about Zenless Zone Zero. But for creating a very welcoming and universally enjoyable game, I think it is better for it to be largely absent. Which it mostly is with UmaMusume. The girls do have breasts that bounce, as people have pointed out. But yeah, fat moves when the body does, especially when it comes to activities like running. I don’t think this game has “breasts bouncing boobily”, which refers to exaggerated jiggles and the like that is very common in Japanese media. The characters also generally don’t have really exaggerated features and most of the outfits do not cater to fanservice either. The hot springs ticket is the only thing I can think of as truly fanservicey. But that is super rare as far as I know, I’ve only gotten it once and have never noticed it popping up. And even then, it’s not much by anime standards and is very short and skippable. The lack of sexualization also is reflected in the writing for the most part. I don’t personally think the girls feel objectified very much in the writing and stand strong as characters. But this is a very opinionated topic that is very much open to personal interpretation. I’m not trying to tell anyone how to feel, please feel free to share if you disagree. But from my perspective along with the people I know and have seen, I don’t think this game will offend too many people. Thanks to this and its universally endearing characters, I think anyone can enjoy this game. And it's been so lovely to see people sharing how much they love the game.

The general gameplay of the game fits with being welcoming to all and some of the game’s positive messaging. This game has a lot of depth to it when it comes to making characters, but you do not need to go all the way with that stuff. You can enjoy the game casually, just learning as you go and getting better slowly. You can be like me and take a middle ground approach, looking at guides and recommendations but still doing what you want over perfect optimization. And you can go full sweaty gamer, making spreadsheets, calculating stats and farming perfect sparks. You can enjoy the game at the pace you are comfortable with and change with how you feel. I started out not looking up guides and stuff, enjoying the natural learning experience. But once I got a few URA wins I genuinely felt the desire to learn more and moved to the middle area. It feels really great when you get better at the game and succeed where you previously failed. The gameplay is simple enough that someone very casual can enjoy but has enough depth for the people who love optimization. There’s also a lot of elements for players to focus on based on their style. You can go for the highest score possible in a career run with your favorite, you can try to rank in PvP, you can be a completionist and collect all of the race trophies (which there are already more than 100 of) and do achievements, or you can just play to increase your affection with the characters so you can learn more about them. For me I plan to stay in this middle area and consider myself a completionist in terms of goals, I’d like to get all the race trophies. Regardless of what type of gameplay you like or motivations you have, this game gives you goals you can work towards in a satisfying way. Which to me have done a great job of making you feel accomplished once you’ve completed them.

The core gameplay also fits with the themes that get brought up in the game. Runs never go perfect, which can be frustrating. Believe me, I’ve gotten genuinely very annoyed while doing career runs. But it’s worth not giving up on them, as I’ve gotten URA wins in runs where I thought it was dead. And I’ve lost runs I thought were going super well. Through persevering and gaining more knowledge and skill, you can overcome pitfalls. I had to try way harder to get URA wins with some characters than others, including my favorite Winning Ticket. Those wins actually felt the most gratifying to get. The game does a solid job of showing you that while luck can play into things, your efforts do pay off. You need patience, you aren’t getting rank A Umas on day 1. But you can get there if you keep trying. This meshes super well with how the stories of the Umas go. They all experience pitfalls or had pitfalls in their backstory. They struggle along with you. And like you do as you continue to play, you gain more confidence. At first I felt like I had to get skills the second I had enough skill points for it. Now I have a decent idea of how long I can hold onto my skill points while still ranking well enough in races. The way you slowly build up your knowledge and confidence feels really good. It’s also worth noting how when you do not fully complete a career or get a URA win, it’s not truly treated as a loss. You still have the veteran Uma after, who can be used in pvp and can serve as a reminder of how far you’ve come. The daily mission related to career is just to win a career race, giving it a try is all you need to get that. Just because you did not go all the way that time does not mean it was a total waste. There’s always room to grow. Which I think is a very pleasant sentiment. In the video for this, I have footage of a run in which (spoiler alert) I don’t win. At first, I was thinking I should record another run where I won, but I actually think it is perfect that this topic uses footage of a loss. I lost, but I still enjoyed it.

UmaMusume also has the idol side of it, which can be uplifting for people who enjoy it. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I am a true fan of idols, but I have a strong appreciation for what it can provide. I have enjoyed many idol things like Love Live and Hololive’s idol activities. Idol media can provide a lot of positive messaging and performances that lift people’s spirits. It can be hard to put into words without talking at length (which I don’t want to do here), but the energy and feeling put into the Japanese idol performances can feel like you are getting some of that positive and energetic energy. And you see that here. The struggles of the characters becoming racers has solid overlap with the traditional stories of idols, even if they don’t always factor in to the stories. But if you are one of the people who don’t vibe with it, which is very much a thing especially for people not familiar with Japanese media, it’s very easy to ignore. You can just easily skip the performances that come up in career. They come up once for the first time, you can skip it after a few seconds, then you never have to see that one again. While this positive aspect of the game does not work for everyone, it’s very easy to ignore if it doesn’t.

I want to end with one of the most important points to me about what makes the wholesome tone of the series and your ability to get sucked in so effective. UmaMusume is a series that is unabashedly itself. In modern discourse about Japanese media vs American media, for example shounen action anime vs superhero movies, people often talk about how cynical and ironic American media can be. I agree with the criticisms that media like Marvel is being brought down by how much it feels like it needs to act like it's above embracing how ridiculous these media properties are. While in Anime, I’d say it is very rare to see this attitude outside of isekai. UmaMusume is a perfect example of how much better a piece of media can be when it embraces itself earnestly. This is a world where horses never existed, and instead purely female Uma Musume exist. They use massive phones that reach from their mouths to the long ears on top of their head and have dedicated lanes on roads just for them so they can run without bowling people over. The Uma are both idols and competitive racers at the same time. It’s ridiculous. And it does none of this with any cynicism. A big part of why this series feels so warm and engrossing is because it is presenting itself wholeheartedly. It believes in itself, committing to and going all the way with its silly and unique world. You can tell that the creatives behind UmaMusume are having fun and embrace making this series be its true self without shame. You feel this as the viewer when you are experiencing this series. And it gives such a great impression and to me is so critical for immersion. This is one of the big reasons why anime is so successful, because most of the time they go all the way with embracing all their weirdness and silliness with no edge. Series like Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Delicious in Dungeon, Dandadan, One Piece, Reborn as a Vending Machine, you name it. These series are great in part because they fully embrace their quirkiness and uniqueness. UmaMusume acts this out well, and is critical to what pulls people into this world and connect with it.  

To conclude, I feel that UmaMusume has brought a lot of joy to me and to the internet recently. The community has felt very warm and welcoming, the game caters to a wide variety of players, and it has very lovable characters with well written stories that play into the positive themes of the story. I hope I can help people notice and respect the positive impact I believe this game is having, and how wholesome media can be important. Uplifting media has always been important to me. I consider myself a champion for these series lol. I want to be able to help people understand how impactful wholesome media can be. And that there is a lot that goes into making something an effective wholesome experience than just slapping cute characters on the screen. I think UmaMusume succeeds incredibly well at being a fun and heartwarming experience. Thanks for reading! Gush about your favorite Umas!

Fun Fact- When I sat down to finish writing this, I put on the Bakushin Bakushin Bakushinshin song and decided I would not turn it off until this was done. Can anyone calculate how many times I heard “Bakushin” over those 2 hours and 45 minutes :)

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Check out the Wholesome tag below if you a big fan of wholesome series like me and want to see more about how I’ve covered them!