I'm not entirely sure where to begin with this one, honestly; I think the best place to start is in July 2025, when my
weird relationship with Umamusume: Pretty Derby began
At this point, Umamusume: Pretty Derby's global release had been out for a few days; I had very vague knowledge of its
existence through my friends and, weirdly enough, CTWC player Koryan; all I knew is that they were horse girls, and that
said horse girls were based on real-life Japanese racehorses. At the time I downloaded the game, I was on my way out of town
to a friend's wedding, and I was bored as hell in the car; I thought to myself, "Y'know what? I'll bite. If I like it, cool,
and if I don't like it, I gave it a shot."
I think you can tell where this went.
Lots of playing the game later, watching (and tearing up at) all of the anime seasons and adaptations, and I've become a big
fan of this, quite frankly, utterly ridiculous franchise. Given Umamusume's huge global launch, I definitely wasn't alone,
but a lot of my friends at my college (or uni, if you're British) didn't quite get into it. However, some of them
worked with the university's anime club, and when I mentioned this new obsession to them, they suggested that I make a
presentation for the anime convention that the club hosts; I initially brushed it off, but after a certain point I started to
consider the proposition. After asking for confirmation if I could actually make a presentation for the con (and getting the
subsequent green light), I started making what would later become Umamusume: A Masterclass in Character Design.
Making the presentation wasn't all that bad, all things considered. The information I needed was easy to find, the assets I
wanted to use were already online, and the structure of the presentation was pretty easy to slap together.