I don't really like Umamusume Pretty Derby: Beginning of a New Era
(this is an aggregation of a discord conversation I had with a few close friends of mine, so a lot of the words are taken verbatim. I thought I'd compile my thoughts into a post just for fun.)
I took the time to watch Beginning of a New Era again last night and i think i realized my biggest issue with this film is that there was no real point in it where i cried or got really swept up by the emotions of what was happening. There was no point where I empathized so hard with the characters on-screen that it made me experience the same thing that they’re experiencing. Granted, this could largely also be just because I didn't personally find jungle pocket to be too enjoyable of a protagonist, but honestly if you ask me it's not like they give you much to latch onto in the first place.
This aspect of being 'swept up by the experience' is one thing that seasons 1-3 and road to the top have, but not this film, and i think a lot of it is in part due to the fact that cygames decided to make this film feel more like a psychological thriller than a sports anime. A lot of the deep-rooted character conflicts are really compelling on paper, and in a lot of ways they're really well presented in the film, with its stunning visuals and really engaging dialogue, but beyond that I can't really say they compelled me much at all personally. It feels like they deliberately kept a distance between what characters on screen are experiencing and what you are watching, which is honestly really cool in a way that makes it feel more like something like Monogatari for example, but it sort of goes against the spirit of Umamusume i feel like? It's a very particular decision that i think could have worked out in any other series other than this one.
I didn't like tachyon at all the second time around honestly, mainly because the movie refused to give her any sort of deeper emotional insight. Instead the film was so pokke-centered to a fault that you don't even really get a chance to understand much about tachyon, who by all means is supposed to be a pretty important character. namely, tachyon is ALSO struggling with her own crippling insecurities regarding her health and her slow and painful realization that she might not be able to be the one to reach the 'peak' of her physiology. These are all extremely important parts of her character that are just weirdly hinted at it with the hope that you fill in the blanks.
I couldnt really grasp what i didnt like about this film until the second time around and i still don’t quite get it honestly. I actually feel like BNE is worse than season 3 in a lot of ways (and to be clear, I still like season 3), but the main difference is BNE is just sort of carried by its directing and its visuals. It feels like the film wants you to think it's really deep until you actually peel open the first layer and realize they forgot to write the actual subtext. Like I somehow feel like the weirdo in-game career mode incarnation of tachyon is more interesting and more representative of her character than this because at least they WROTE her there. It fumbles its secondary characters like dantsu flame and manhattan cafe so hard, so if you don't even like pokke that much what can you even latch onto? You call a film "Beginning of a New Era" and then it follows basically none of the other horses that define the 'New Era', it's honestly quite baffling to me. BNE doesn't really have rivalries, it doesn't have camaraderie, it doesn’t really have much of Anything that makes Umamusume what it is other than good animation and fanservice.
I really want to say i like this film but i actually can’t really justifiably say i do. It does a lot of things right because it's really spectacularly directed, its really amazingly animated, its paced so much better than road to the top was... but fuck, you do all that for a film that has close to zero staying power and whose actual substance is so minimal? They got Concepts of a film here man, they got Concepts of a narrative but instead I feel like they just sorta gave us a nearly 2-hour long AMV.
Many people in the Umamusume community love this film, and I respect everyone that loves this film! I love that for a lot of people this film was their first insight into the Umamusume franchise; on its own I can see it as being an extremely enjoyable watch! but I honestly just can't really sit with it much personally.