With another entry down in the Uma Musume series. This might be the best one so far. As it combines a great story that focuses on Jungle Pocket, for the first time instead of multiple protagonists, we get a clear, definitive one. The story uses it to its advantage 100%. To even add the best visuals, animation, and music that the anime has shown yet.
Jungle Pocket, a.k.a. Pokke is the protagonist of this entry in the Uma Musume anime series. Though unlike the previous entries, there usually would be at least 2+ dual protagonists. While here, Pokke serves as the sole one. Though what this series does is provide both an antagonist of sorts in Agnes Tachyon & mentors in Fuji Kiseki and her trainer in Tanabe.
As the two key characters, we see that Fuji is the one that drew Pokke to racing. Ultimately got her to want to be the strongest. Unlike other Uma Musume like Special Week & Narita Top Road, for Pokke there is a bigger fire in it. The first race we see Pokke losing to Tachyon. This sets the stage for Pokke to look at her as her rival. Though of course Tachyon doesn’t even give her a serious glance despite what Pokke attempts to do with her training on top of it. In the rematch, Tachyon beats her again, and after the race, she announces her hiatus.
This is the start of an important obstacle for Pokke because she was aiming to beat Tachyon, but that is impossible if Tachyon isn’t racing. Of course it is clear that a foot injury is more than likely what brought this on for Tachyon. Of course Pokke is taking it hard, but her trainer knows what it is like to deal with such a thing. As Fuji suffered a major injury, it affected her career. In fact, it was Fuji who brought Pokke to Tanabe to let him be the winner of a G1 Uma Musume. We already showed in S2 for both Teio & McQueen how they overcame their injuries. But this offers reflection on what if you can’t overcome that injury and how others are looking at competing against those that suffer that injury. With Teio’s arc,
we can understand what Fuji is going through. Though the difficulty for Pokke is accepting this, yes, she wants to beat Tachyion, but that is out of her control.
As Pokke wins her next race, there is still a psychological barrier of Tachyon. After all, no matter how much she might win. There will still be the doubt that she never beat her rival. Her conversation with Fuji is great because she has her own psychological barriers. For her it is, what if she never got injured? And of course that is a bit different because that is also a physical obstacle. As she mentions, Pokke is trapped looking at the self that lost to Tachyon. The Pokke we see now. In racing Fuji, she remembers her inspiration that we saw at the beginning of the movie. She wanted to be the best. She didn’t want to just beat Tachyon. Of course it makes you wonder what Fuji’s goals are, but this movie is Pokke’s story.
It then proceeds to her saying those feelings to Tachyon because she truly wants to beat her. Still, it is about not letting that goal chain you, which is what Pokke learned from Fuji. She gives out a phenomenal performance to end the movie. Along with the great animation, it was able to show Pokke breaking those barriers. Though Tachyon watching her motivates her to race again. We can at least assume that her injury isn’t the same as Fuji’s. Basically there was the motivation to even race regarding her.
Now one thing with this film is that it did a wonderful job focusing in on Pokke. With that being said, 2 side characters in Manhattan Cafe & Dantsu Flame felt a bit underdeveloped. Of course, with a movie, there is only so much that can be covered.
In respect to the animation, visuals, and music, they were absolutely on point. And couldn’t be better executed. Very curious how the next movie entry matches up to it.
Overall I would rate it 9.5/10.