Umamusume: Pretty Derby - Beginning of a New Era

Umamusume: Pretty Derby - Beginning of a New Era, directed by Ken Yamamoto and adapted from a popular mobile game franchise, opened in Japan on May 24, 2024, as an animated film. It earned 354 million yen on its opening weekend, selling 226,600 tickets, and passed 1 billion yen by June 16. Nearly all the franchise's characters are based on real racehorses; notably, most of the real life counterparts, including Special Week and Silence Suzuka, were male horses, while their game and film counterparts are depicted as female characters. The race depicted in the series' first episode is based on the real Valentine Stakes, run at Tokyo Racecourse on February 14, 1998. Who it's for: anyone curious about a mobile game franchise's film adaptation, whose characters are based on real racehorses with genders swapped. Who it's not for: viewers wanting a realistic horse racing documentary, since the film rests on a fantastical premise turning real horses into female characters.