*Note: This review contains moderate spoilers for Uma Musume Pretty Derby: Beginning of a New Era.

The basic concept of Uma Musume is that "horse girls" are reincarnations of racehorses from our world who find themselves with an instinctive drive to run. Beginning of a New Era uses this concept to explore the differing goals of professional athletes. Pocket, for one, runs to prove that she is the best—the fastest horse girl of her generation. This drive is shared by her contemporaries, Manhattan Cafe and Dantsu Flame.

Tachyon, however, is different. She runs not to win or be the best but to reach her ultimate potential. She wants to push her body to the absolute limit—perhaps even beyond it. Rivalry and friendships mean next to nothing to her. Her goal is all-consuming. The only person she is racing is herself—and this drives the other racers crazy—especially the hot-blooded Pocket.

The central conflict of Beginning of a New Era is centered around Pocket's need to be the best means she needs to defeat Tachyon in a race. However, before she can do so, Tachyon achieves her goal of reaching her potential and promptly retires. After all, racing holds no meaning for her from that moment on.

Without Tachyon around, even as she wins big, Pocket finds herself breaking down mentally. Everyone treats her as the best—as if her goal in life has been accomplished—but how can she be the best without defeating Tachyon? She's left chasing a ghost, feeling like an impostor to the world and herself. It's a solid emotional conflict and one without any simple resolution. It adds weight to the story and is the basis for an excellent little coming-of-age tale.

All this ties into the other major aspect of the film: its connection to real-world horse racing. This film takes the very real events of the 2000-2001 Japanese horse racing seasons and forms an emotional narrative around it. All the races we see in the film happened along with the wins, losses, and even key character moments.

For example, the scene where Jungle Pocket wordlessly yells repeatedly at the crowd after a big win? The actual horse did the same thing. The film takes that memorable moment in horse racing and fills it with pathos and emotional complexity. Simply put: the more you know about the real-world events the film adapts, the better it gets. And frankly, I've had as much fun researching what really happened as I did watching the film.

Of course, this connection to the real world also has some negatives. Manhattan Cafe and Dantsu Flame appear throughout the film as sub-rivals for Pocket and Tachyon. However, their character arcs are barely existent, and they come off as characters who only appear in the story because they were there in real life.

While the film stands quite well on its own, it's obvious that your enjoyment of it will only increase depending on your knowledge of both Uma Musume and Japanese horse racing in the late 90s/early 2000s. Even as someone who had seen none of the previous Uma Musume anime before this nor played the game, I could see that there were dozens of cameos throughout that would likely excite longtime fans. But more than that, I feel that I should have watched the recent OVA, Uma Musume Pretty Derby: Road to the Top before going into this film as it has more than a few major character crossovers—including one that is especially important to Beginning of a New Era's final climax. Everything still works without seeing the OVA, but added character development in the supporting cast is never a bad thing.

What can I say about the animation side of things? The film looks fantastic. From top to bottom, it feels like no expense has been spared. We get amazing first-person scenes and awesome distorted visuals during the racing segments, along with excellently realized visual metaphors showing both Tachyon and Pocket's mindsets at key moments. Simply put, it's a feast for the eyes.

The music, on the other hand, is a mixed bag at best. While the actual background music for the races highlights the drama and heart-pounding action of what's happening on screen, we also get a few uninspired idol songs as well. In fact, the film randomly ends on a literal idol concert sung by our main characters just before the credits roll. It just feels out of place—unconnected to everything else we've seen in the film.

Ultimately, I came out of Uma Musume Pretty Derby: Beginning of a New Era more than a little impressed. The film presents solid sports drama and psychological drama along with a truly interesting pair of leads. Better still, the film's connection with real-world racing kept me engaged long after the film itself ended. I've spent hours reading articles on the various horses and watching their races on YouTube—and each thing I learn only makes the film better in retrospect. This may have been my first dive into Uma Musume, but it certainly won't be my last.