After 87 posts (this being the 88th one), it’s funny to think this is the first time I sit down face to face with you all.
I mean, this blog is already very personal, a lot of the point is sharing what Uma Musume and its stories mean to me specifically, after all. But it just… started, I guess. No introductions, just “Oh hey Cinderella Gray is always said to take place in the Second Hore Racing Boom and I found out when the First one was.“
It would make sense in a way, though. From what motivated the creation of this website. But first, a year-long overdue introduction is in order.
Hello! My name is Fernando Damas, often known as IronicLark for “professional” stuff, and recently AsraValkyrie for hobby stuff. Most people know me for writing/programming that one Cyberpunk Bartender game where it seems that everyone has a friend that likes it a lot, but more than writer or programmer. I’d call myself a Narrative Designer first and foremost.
I obviously love telling stories, but what gets me going is analyzing and squeezing as much as possible from the medium of the story itself. I’ve fallen comfortably into games and recently novels, but growing up I was just as fascinated with comics and even paintings.
And my point in talking about this is actually to illustrate the fact that Uma Musume tickles my brain in a very special way.
It’s not just the girls, it’s not just the stories, it’s not just the real life parallels. It’s all of that plus the fact that the narrative is legitimately well-made, the character and worldbuilding consistency is commendable, and even as a game the design is so clean but deep that it feels approachable without being overwhelming.
This blog was born out of two key things:
The first was that I wanted all my twitter ramblings about Uma Musume to be safe from Apartheid Steve’s bitch tantrums, plus having the benefit of actual longform writing. Last year in expectation for the anniversary I made a lot of small infographics giving the short rundown for all the girls and I figured that if I had the energy for that, I could mantain a full blog.
And the second was that… honestly, for everything that Uma Musume does, I never see anyone talk about why what it does works so well.
Everyone loves to point out the trivia like a watchmojo listicle video, hell, I love to do that, it’s super fun to point out how an incospicuous character quirk has a deep root from the original horse. But either out of a lack of experience in the topic or just lack of interest, not that many people talk as often about that deeper personal element that makes the characters so lived-in and the whole package so easy to get invested in.
Then again, people might actually do that and I don’t see it. To be honest I stay clear of “fandom” spaces in general, they’re not my thing. If someone also likes Uma Musume and wants to talk about it I’m always super happy to oblige, it’s when you introduce forums or chat servers or whatever else that I start to retreat back into my own corner.
Point being, in my more cursory overview of things, it’s less common than I’d like for something with so much care put into that.
I’m kinda shocked not only that this blog has lasted one year but that I haven’t felt burnt out on Uma Musume at all in the process. It’s odd for this level of interest on something to remain this strong for this long, and that’s just this blog, that doesn’t account for the other TWO YEARS I was into the game beforehand.
I guess it helps that seeing how rough Uma Musume was at its start and comparing it to what it has become nowadays, has been really comforting for me. It’s no secret that despite all the writing that I do in private and all the projects cooking in the back, I haven’t had any major public project release since 2016 (and a shorter novel in 2023)… a fact some of you all love to make jokes about despite me politely asking that you cut it out because it stings ME harder than anyone else and I don’t find it funny.
Every time I revisit Starting Gate or the early character profiles for something… or hell even Season 1 of the anime, and then see something like the trailer for the new movie, it validates that all the effort that I’ve been putting for years behind the scenes will eventually pay off, that everything happens for a reason.
That topic aside before I get too sidetracked…
The name “Umadacchi Densetsu” was one that was ringing in my brain since around 2022. I basically thought that if I ever did A Thing for Uma Musume stuff and nobody else had done it I would. “Umadacchi” is part of the opening lyrics of Umapyoi Densetsu and it combines “Uma” with “Tomodachi”. So this blog’s name is basically The Legend of the Horse Friends.
Weird as it sounds, the hours of research I put into the topics I talk about here are fun for me. In a way it feels like what fan fiction probably feels like for some people. It’s the joy of typing a barrage of words with all the complicated setup part having been done for you beforehand. When writing original fiction I’ve noticed my limit is 1.5k to 2k words per day unless it’s a key scene I ws building towards… meanwhile I wrote the drafts for Vodka (over 6k words) in about day and a half.
The irony of how hardcore into horseracing my grandpa (Dad’s dad) is, also doesn’t escape me.
Oh by the way, if you type “gaiden.” before the URL of this website, you can find the sideblog I made for other ramblings. I’ve kept it mainly to the books I read so far, but this post got so sidetracked with random personal stuff I ended up deleting out, that I might just drain that specific energy over there.
But yeah…
Thank you Uma Musume for another year.
And thank you all for reading about my unfiltered passion for the silly horsegirl game for one year. May there be another one.
See you next month for another batch of posts. With a new Main Story coming it’s time we finally talked about Team Sirius. That would be seven chapters plus an introduction… If you come back on March 23rd (JST) the first one should be up.