So after the whole Pretty Grand Prix of her introductory chapters, there’s a moment where Tazuna barges into the trainer’s office comically fast.
This has no bearing to in anything in particular, I just find it amusing.
It’s interesting that Curren is the only other girl to be introduced as a transfer student aside from Special Week. While others are inferred to be transfers like Kris S and Fine Motion (who are both foreigners), they’re not introduced as they arrive to the academy for the first time.
Curren does mention a real life sibling in past tense more than once, though with how unchanging her expression can be is hard to determine the precise state of those affairs. But the underlying implication is that calling the trainer oniichan/oneechan isn’t just a cheeky nod to how she first met them as a kid (as would thus refer to them that way as the generic way to call out to a young person) but that she’s adopting them as a replacement sibling.
Just in her introduction alone, for example, there’s comments to how her real sibling was the first one to comment how Curren’s smile makes everyone happy, and then the story makes a point to comment that the trainer calling Curren “cute” is the only time she’s felt that way again.
In real life, Curren Chan had a brother called Spring Song from the same mother (reminder: horses are only considered siblings by sharing the same mother), but sadly Spring Song died early before retiring. Notably Spring Song was also a sprinter (as befitting someone descended from Sakura Bakushin O) and if he hadn’t died it’s very possible his path would’ve crossed with Curren Chan’s. As it stands though, Spring Song actually died before Curren Chan won her first major prize.
In-game Curren once comments that her brother loved songs about spring. It’s notable both how unsubtle the nod to Spring Song is, but also the fact that she’s speaking in past tense. And I’m reminded of my favorite moment in Final Fantasy 8, where they believe Seifer to have died and Squall has an emotional moment where he’s overwhelmed by the fact that everyone is talking about Seifer in past tense so suddenly.
I should note that it’s not uncommon for a girl to refer to a real life sibling that isn’t a horse girl in-universe. Sakura Chiyono O also mentions her brother in a similar vein… though Chiyo-chan’s brother is alive.
That said, if you told me said sibling is alive and Curren just speaks in past tense because she’s annoyed with them… I’d believe you.
Something I was thinking about while writing these two posts is how girls that are based on fillies/mares tend to be the ones that feel like they draw the most from Visual Novel heroines and archetypes.
In particular you notice that when comparing Curren with Rice Shower. Like Curren, Rice calls her trainer Oniisama/Oneesama, but with Rice the tone isn’t that of “flirty sister that’s not actually blood related” but that of “kouhai in high class school from some classic shoujo manga”.
Of course, Rice is also a meek and gentle girl that will cry for days if she steps on an ant while asking for forgiveness from “arinko-san” (note: this hasn’t happened…….. yet) while Curren will drag her trainer around to do stuff, so obviously characterization means it’s not a symmetrical comparison, but you get the point.
One detail that I find fascinating… in no small part over the fact that it disturbs me, is how Curren is so manipulative. In fact this quality was present even before her implementation. Her first proper appearance in the game was in Daiwa Scarlet’s training scenario, during the Fan Thanksgiving event there’s pageant and Curren tries to get Scarlet’s Trainer’s vote by crying crocodile tears and asking for a pity vote. The result of the event is ultimately dependant on Scarlet or Curren winning.
Another example that comes to mind is strongarming some Magical Girl props out of Sweep Toushou only for her to immediately make a post promoting the upcoming photos the second she gets Sweepy to agree.
The thing is that for as mischievous and chaotic as the girls in the cast can get, none of them lie or try to manipulate others, so the fact that Curren does so even if it usually amounts to faking crying and getting something they want out of someone else is… surprisingly out of place, but in a way where it really builds up to her whole character. After all if you want to sell someone as charismatic to the point of manipulative, making her the only one in the cast to pull that sort of thing on others is a good way to do so.
…I guess Machan did strongarm a surprise party out of Scarlet and Vodka, though. But that makes sense, after all, Curren and Machan are part of the Chanchan Alliance.
Curren is roommates with Admire Vega, a combination that sounds very random at a glance… unless you buy into the implication that Curren’s real sibling that she always speaks of in past tense died in which case they both have a LOT in common. But the more likely reason is that Admire Vega had Yutaka Take as his main Jockey, and Curren Chan had Kenichi Ikezoe as hers.
Kenichi Ikezoe has an (in)famous love/friendship/obsession with Yutaka Take, which perfectly mirrors how despite her best attempts at keeping her facade, Curren is suspiciously obsessed with Ayabe.
Speaking of Ikezoe. One interesting quality of his career as a jockey is how he’s had quite the luck in getting involved with horses that are historically hard to handle, like Sweep Toushou. And yet, surprisingly, Curren Chan was one horse that he described as being really easy to handle.
That said, horses are a heavily heirarchical species, and it’s not uncommon for a heirarchy of command to develop amongst racehorses after retirement. And indeed, it’s often theorized that Gold Ship’s real life constant animosity towards Tousen Jordan is a case of two “bosses” clashing with each other.
Why do I bring this up? Because despite her calm demeanor when racing (To the point Ikezoe even commented once he wanted to marry Curren Chan), Curren Chan is currently the top “Matriarch” of the Fillies and Mares of Shadai Farm.
While I glossed over a little over it, the story with Lord Kanaloa in real life is actually quite fun. As I mentioned Lord Kanaloa couldn’t win against Curren for the longest time before he became a force to be reckoned.
But one detail I skipped was how it seems like Lord Kanaloa always showed an interest in Curren Chan, so the “story” painted is one of a kouhai that sought to improve in order catch the attention of their love interest. Culminating in said kouhai becoming generally accepted as the WORLD’S second best sprinter right behind Black Caviar and then both giving birth to a daughter.
Humans are funny creatures, building narratives around things with no care for the human concept of narrative… or perhaps the world just likes to keep us entertained from the dread of existing with those.
I mentioned ages ago how when Nishino Flower’s story came out it became evident that every girl’s trainer is a different character. The emphasis I always try to put is in “became evident”.
Curren was one of the earliest additions to the game (April of 2018, so 2 months after the game went online) and her trainer (and by extension her story) has a very specific cadence to itself.
Her trainer spends a lot of time reminiscing and keeps to themselves a lot, you get this image of someone that speaks very little but ruminates over everything before they say anything, which isn’t just a very unique voice amongst the rest that compliments Curren’s character perfectly (since you have the girl that smiles no matter what with the trainer that will only speak after knowing what to say) but it certainly helps add a lot to the specific Visual Novel vibe that Curren’s story has. Playing very strongly to the vibe of the outgoing girl pushing the main character out of their shell.
In the last post I described how Curren is a Sprinter “like Bakushin“. What I didn’t mention is that Curren is generally considered “Bakushin for experts” or “non-free to play Bakushin”. Long story short, her proficiencies peg her as a sprinter unless you invest heavily in proficiencies, because otherwise her race selection (only short distance sprints) makes her feel like you’re training a dirt racer (read: trying to build up skill points and races with a smaller selection). Of course this is a game where the difficulty curve is designed so that if you overspecialize your results are even better so in a way she’s very high risk high reward like that.
…that makes her very similar racing-wise to Machan, actually. Though Machan is more flexible while training.
Curren belongs in a category I like to call “standalones”, which refers to characters that even now as the roster has evolved, still remain with no contemporaries.
Curren started running in 2009 and retired in 2013. This is already a scarcely populated timeframe in the game (especially compared to the early 2000s or 1998), but even more so when you specify that you’re focusing on sprinters.
Bringing up another name I’ve brought up twice now, it’s not unlike how Aston Machan, despite being contemporary with Daiwa Scarlet and Vodka, by focusing her career on sprinting means that she doesn’t have any notable rival or connection from that period.
Of course, inside the game Curren has a lot of relationships, be it with Admire Vega, with Mayano Top Gun, with Yukino Bijin, and many more. However, these are relationships exclusive to Uma Musume, without Lord Kanaloa Curren doesn’t really a contemporary neither from her era nor her specialty.
And it’s always fascinating to find those and how the writers try to adapt to it, like Shinkou Windy, or more notably Symboli Rudolf.
Oh right, I mentioned it in a different post but “Curren” is actually meant to be “Karen”, because the horse is named after Karen Suzuki, the daughter of Curren’s owner Takashi Suzuki.
This is actually a really neat nuance that is tricky to translate. Curren’s name is often written as カレン (Karen) and is accepted to be her name just like how every other name is written in Katakana. More specifically it’s like… first name カレン last name チャン, which makes her insist people call her カレン and not be too formal.
So the fact that her online handle is “Curren” is meant to be both a nod to how her name is officially romanized but also as if she picked a “cool” way to stylize her name for an online handle.
Like many things in this game, best of luck to any localizers in charge of it.
Some interesting details of her profile page:
She says she’s good at selfies and piano but bad with dim sum. I like the idea that she’s good with Piano because that is such a Heroine thing to be good at, but I REALLY like the idea that she admits she’s bad at dim sum because it’s probably the one food she cannot remain cute and clean eating or make look cute in a photo.
Related to that last point, she says her rule is that if she’s gonna take a selfie with food she’s gonna eat all of that food (as seen in the pic I used as a header), which is a nice detail to show that despite her less savory moments she still has good enough sense to not waste food for a photo.
Her ritual before a race is to check her cuteness AND her horseshoes, and I like to think that the Grand Prix left her with a paranoia to make sure they’re not loose before going out.
Kinda related to that last point, when asked about her phone’s wallpaper there’s a quote and she says: “You remember this one? Yeah! From that time!” Which is probably referring to the end of her introduction, where she meets with her trainer in the roof and sneaks a photo with them out of nowhere.
Oh and according to her secret, Curren knows Aikido.
This has no bearing to in anything in particular, I just find it amusing.