So Scarlet’s design has a really interesting detail.
The moniker of “Scarlet Clan” was already recognized by the time she was born, and the biggest element about them was specifically Scarlet Ink’s descendants and not just Scarlet Bouquet.
These descendants include: Scarlet Blue, Scarlet Ribbon, Scarlet Rose, Scarlet Lady and Scarlet Bouquet. And these are all elements you can find in Daiwa Scarlet’s Uma Musume design. The Blue main color (which is the Daiwa racing outfit, to be fair), the Lady-like behavior, the Roses in her animation. While it’s most likely incidental (or indeed coincidental) it does make her feel like she’s carrying the Scarlet Clan’s hopes, which wouldn’t be too far away from the truth considering she’s the last “Scarlet” in the Scarlet Ink bloodline… or at the very least the last one so far to go directly from Scarlet Ink.
No wait, there’s also Scarlet Poppy that was born in 2010 and was the actual last descendant from Scarlet Bouquet, it was a second attempt pairing her with Agnes Tachyon incidentally.
Scarlet’s voluptuous design is an interesting interpretation of the original, since not only was the real horse noted to be more muscular than usual, but it was actually overdeveloped in the way a horse would be.
So “that body is unrealistic for a middle schooler” befits “that body is unrealistic for a 2-year old filly”.
Oh yeah many of the girls are in middle school, not high school. I keep forgetting to point those details out sometimes.
The eye injury during the training for the Dubai World Cup race was actually referenced in the anime. Where during the BNW OVAs Scarlet had an eyepatch and McQueen asks if she’s suddenly gone Chuunibyou, only for her to clarify she got debris in her eye.
Curiously, the reaction is the same one in the game if you fail Power Training Lvl1 with a training companion.
It’s also not the first time in season one alone that this happens which suggests the idea of that animation during failed training was possibly already a thing by then.
Bonus fun fact: If a girl has big glasses while training, she won’t roll in pain, but she will stop now that she can’t see.
It’s safe to say that Scarlet’s mom IS Scarlet Bouquet, and the idea of Scarlet Bouquet as a workaholic overachiever is great. Not only because you can see how it shaped Scarlet herself through the pride she shows in her “working mother” and how she wants to follow in her steps, but also considering how Scarlet Bouquet worked as breeding mare for at least 16 years (first descendant born in 1994, last one in 2010) it certainly paints that image.
If you need extra proof, Scarlet’s profile states that her phone’s wallpaper is “A photo of the bouquet my mom gave me on my birthday”.
Scarlet Bouquet died at age 30 by the way, out of old age.
Speaking of parents, Scarlet’s relationship with Agnes Tachyon is lovely. While Tachyon is a nutcase most of the time, when near Scarlet she actually behaves herself.
You can actually see why both have grown so close to each other. On Scarlet’s side Tachyon IS still one if not THE smartest people in the academy on scientific knowledge alone, an exemplar in her field regardless of ethics.
Meanwhile Tachyon is someone so aware of how her running days are counted that’s basically become all but aware she exists in a work of fiction so she feels compelled to protect and care for Scarlet both as quite the specimen and as someone that wishes to prevent others from suffering her impending fate.
Also because Scarlet is the only person in the whole cast that actually buys into the idea that Tachyon is cool and collected.
Speaking of buying into an image, it’s interesting that Scarlet seems to be the only one that buys into the idea that Vodka might be cool.
While she doesn’t take it seriously at first, after a bit Scarlet gets constantly frustrated at how Vodka puts so much effort into looking cool, it’s the thing she will constantly quote as being one of the most annoying details about her… yet for all the smack that she talks about Vodka, she never really attacks that part specifically. Especially noteworthy because the rest of the cast thinks Vodka is acting cute rather than anything else.
This is indicative of one of two things: Either Scarlet won’t hit Vodka where it truly hurts because she truly does care that much about her… OR she doesn’t argue with the perceived coolness on some level.
Or maybe both.
Makes you think nonetheless.
I mentioned in passing that Daiwa Scarlet has a brother called Daiwa Major, and one interesting detail about him is that he’s descended from Scarlet Bouquet AND Sunday Silence, while Daiwa Scarlet is descended from Scarlet Bouquet and Agnes Tachyon, who himself is descended from Sunday Silence. So it’s a case where both aren’t quite from the same pairing but Daiwa Scarlet carries at least like 75% of the same blood.
For those curious, there’s been no noticeable mention of Daiwa Major in-game that I could find. Mind you, details about the girls’ lives are always added and revealed, so this could always change.
One relationship the game teased one time but hasn’t done much with is actually with Eishin Flash.
In Make a New Track there’s an event called 同じ傘の下で (“Under the same umbrella”). In it, Scarlet and Flash share an umbrella to go cheer on a mutual friend of theirs that is going to have their selection race (the race where trainers scout for new girls).
Flash and Scarlet get along shockingly well, which is helped by the fact that Flash is the type to be more assertive and Scarlet is better at following instructions, creating a fun dynamic where Flash will tell very matter-of-factly that Scarlet should get closer to her or she’ll get wet while Scarlet makes note that it sure is hot for a rainy day.
They both make it to the race and cheer for their mutual kouhai as she has a really impressive debut.
By the by, the whole event is a reference to the fact that in real life Daiwa Scarlet and Eishin Flash did have a child together.
Called Umbrella Date.
Scarlet has actually had a subtle but noticeable shift of personality amongst incarnations.
In Starting Gate, Scarlet was more emotional, her introductory arc with Vodka involves her storming off in anger and walking the streets alone at night until Vodka finds her. Her Dere side is also shown to be even more pronounced. I guess the best way to describe it is that she pretended to be more like what might come to mind when she’s described as “Little Miss Perfect”, where she’s all smiles and everyone admires her, she’s the center of the world with that facade. In fact, the opening lyrics of her image song “Rising Girl” are “世界の中心がどこだか知ってる？” (“Do you know where the center of the world is?”).
Incidentally, her bust size went from 93cm to 90cm in her profile at some point. Also, incidentally, in the event with Eishin Flash mentioned earlier, Flash comments that Scarlet’s shoulders are still 3cm out and she’ll get wet.
Am I overthinking this? Yes!
In the anime, she’s just a side character alongside Vodka so elements like her good grades and anxieties are secondary to having her hang out with Vodka (though she was painted as an eager-to-please honor student in the BNW OVAs). My favorite bit of characterization, though, is how in Suzuka’s leg cast you can see Scarlet’s writing in massive letters (she WAS the first one to sign it, though. So she had the whole canvas for herself).
Compared to both of these, the game’s version has more layers. She’s still an honor student, but she’s not the center of attention like she used to be, her rougher side with Vodka is also no longer some discreet element, it’s easy to see them arguing about anything and everything for any reason at any time of day to the point that many treat it as an event. In fact, there’s many events across the game that suggest that unlike the Starting Gate version, Scarlet dislikes being the center of attention and gets anxious constantly.
Or to contrast it another way: The current Scarlet wouldn’t skip appointments like anime Scarlet did, and she also wouldn’t storm off angry into the city like Starting Gate Scarlet. Game Scarlet is still a popular girl but she’s less “primadonna of the classroom” and more “reliable girl everyone turns to”.
Another interesting change is related to something I always thought curious.
Scarlet’s voice is provided by Chisa Kimura (木村千咲), and personally I love her rendition of the character since she sounds exactly how you’d expect Scarlet to sound at a glance. Kimura is also so far only known for her role as Scarlet with a resume that’s still on the thin side.
That resume does include GalGun 2 but I’m the only weirdo that takes GalGun seriously I’m sure.
I love the idea of someone just starting getting their big break in this sort of role, but it always struck me as curious because being a “main girl” (being there from the start, being given top billing, etc) you’d expect an even bigger name to be attached to her. Indeed Vodka is voiced by Ayaka Ohashi who, without going too far away, is Uzuki Shimamura in Cinderella Girls.
Turns out once upon a time Scarlet DID have a bigger name attached.
Before season 1 of the anime, Scarlet’s voice was actually Sumire Uesaka. For those that don’t recognize the name, she’s done everything from Nonna in Girls Und Panzer to Nagatoro in Ijiranaide Nagatoro-san.
Now, we could speculate a million reasons why the role changed hands, but here’s the funniest part.
Sumire Uesaka is still part of Uma Musume.
As Agnes Tachyon.
It’s hard to find examples of Sumire Uesaka as Scarlet though, and I doubt they actually released anything. Even the Starting Gate drama CDs by 2018 already had Chisa Kimura doing the part.
Sidenote to all this, Rising Girl (Scarlet’s image song) is fun to compare to other later songs like Grow Up Shine!. You can tell Rising Girl was designed as the sort of song to not push too hard someone with less experience singing and then in Grow Up Shine! you can appreciate her range more.
Some of you might’ve noticed that one thing I try to do (though I’m admittedly not that consistent at) is that I use the full name to refer to the real life horse and a nickname for the Uma Musume version. So Agnes Digital is the horse but Digitan is the girl, Sakura Bakushin O is the horse, but Bakushin is the girl.
Daiwa Scarlet is often shortened to “Daska” (ダスカ) by fans, but I personally prefer “Scarlet”.
The reason isn’t really that deep though, I like “Scarlet” because it feels like a name, while “Daska” is shortening two separate names, something that you usually only do with objects, like Remocon (Remote Controller), it’s not even like with Machitan (the short form of Machikane Tannhauser) where the “tan” is a common suffix for nicknames anyways.
I do get the appeal of “Daska” tho, especially in Japanese where “Scarlet” is usually one katakana too many.
Has anyone else noticed how nicknames tend to never be longer than 3 syllables? or is that just me?
I mentioned briefly that the player can choose if Scarlet runs the Oaks for her triple Tiara, or the Nihon Derby to show Vodka up. Beyond the narrative side, this is an interesting choice from a gameplay side.
The Nihon Derby is a harder race in general, so from the outset this is basically a difficulty modulator, harder race for better rewards or easier race for safe rewards. It’s also as if the game world is punishing you for trying to fight against fate.
The fun thing is that even if you’re at the power level that would allow you to not even think about how hard the race might be and are more concerned with scenario-specific mechanics, there’s still a valid reason to choose the Oaks.
Long story short, if you choose the Nihon Derby, Scarlet faces Vodka and that’s it. But if you run the Oaks, Scarlet will see Vodka winning afterwards and get a motivation boost. And considering how close to summer training this is happening, the reasons to go for the less rewards in the Oaks for that boost ARE many.
Scarlet has, as of this writing, three alts.
First there’s her base version. It should be noted that since she’s a 2 star girl, you need to upgrade her to 3 stars for her to get her proper racing outfit. The racing outfit doesn’t have any specific esoteric details in-game but she does comment a lot on how much she loves it and how she wants to live up to its grace and majesty.
Scarlet actually got a swimsuit version in the first ever summer event (long story short: Maruzensky ropes Special Week and other stressed girls into a bubble era-themed club). That said, the swimsuit isn’t actually modelled in 3D, you only see it in an event CG which is also the image used for the freebie Support Card of the event.
Afterwards, she got a playable alt in the second ever Christmas event. Alongside Vodka of course.
There’s many details I could point out about this alt, like the small blue ribbon on the back of her hair, or how it flips the difficulty curve of her scenario from an easy start to an easy end stretch (by lowering Miles aptitude while rising Long Distance aptitude). But I wanna point out the flower in her hip.
That’s a magnolia.
Despite her many motifs of roses in her animation and such, Scarlet’s favorite flower is actually the Magnolia, something she actually reveals to you in her Christmas event long before the alt was created.
White magnolias symbolize luck, joy, and stability; they’re often gifts to indicate that the recipient is a strong woman. Ironically though, they’re very delicate and don’t stay in bloom for too long.
Magnolias also feature heavily in the American south, as such they also feature prominently in Gone With The Wind, which features Scarlett O’hara, which is the namesake of Scarlet, and her mom, and her mom’s mom.
Lastly she got an alt during the third June Bride event. Like with the Summer one, this one isn’t modeled or playable, but it’s instead a Support card. Notably it’s a gacha support card instead of the event’s freebie.
Oh yeah there’s also her basic, reliable SR support card and her SSR in her casual clothes, but I don’t know how much of an “alt” I’d consider those.
Some interesting details about her profile:
In the “Things I’m bad at” field it just says “Compromising”.
She apparently keeps a journal where she writes goals in red ink, and thoughts in blue ink. So red facts and blue possibilities like in Uminek- So you could say her goals are set in Scarlet Ink.
She also prefers it if before a race, her trainer walks behind her. This last one is interesting because the real Scarlet needed covers behind her for the longest time because if the metal of the gate touched her she would get anxious.
Her secrets are that she can draw straight lines without a ruler and she often sends fan letters to her favorite mangaka. Now, secrets tend to be based on real facts that also add a bit of depth to the girls, but as of right now I cannot find the reason behind these two secrets (though the first one might be based on the real horse’s skill in running in straight lines)… though like usual, I’ll find out about it when I least expect it.
The last secret did catch my attention though, specifically because there’s an event in Sakura Bakushin O‘s story where she catches Scarlet lending a romance manga to Mejiro Ryan and I wonder if it’s that same one.
Both of her playable version skills actually reference how the real horse was described as “a very competitive frontliner rather than an escapist horse”.
Her regular version’s text says “Show your ability to be number one by being at the front during the second half of the race”, and her christmas version skill says “If you’re in the front during the last straight line of the race, your speed increases, and if you have a girl behind you, the effect increases even more”.
Last assorted thing I wanted to talk about is how Scarlet was what basically hooked me to this whole franchise.
The way things went was that the game released and the discourse was still in the “oh, this actually released finally” stage. Then I saw a clip of Rice Shower’s skill animation (where she dashes while holding her dagger before it goes back to the race) and I was curious.
Then I start the game and I see Scarlet and I go “Oh no”.
And then she’s the first one I trained and I went OH NO.
You see, if you were to pull one of the many Lists Of Things That Make Fer Act Funny, there’s one that literally just says: “hourglass figure, big boobs, even bigger twintails, reddish or brown hair, visible fang, tsundere personality”.
There’s also one that just says “DRAPH” in big black sharpie, but that one’s not for this blog.
There IS overlap with a different set of traits that make me act up, though.
The thing about that list though, is that it’s one that has existed since… god knows when, probably since around 8th grade. It’s a very nostalgic set of traits, so much so that I distinctly remember a moment where I remembered the existence of Mio Naruse (from Shinmai Maou no Testament) long before I got into Uma Musume and I had a moment where I just went “Oh right! This is My Thing”.
And this feels weirdly fitting because if there’s a word I’d constantly use to describe Uma Musume as a whole is “Nostalgia” but not of the “Remember X” variety but of the “Man, they don’t make them like this anymore” kind. Almost like a game that’s at once displaced into the wrong period of time and top of the line for its time of release. So starting with Scarlet isn’t great not only because her training campaign is the best vertical slice of the experience (not the easiest or the most challenging but the most representative), but because it gets you into the right mindset.
In other words, this blog’s existence is her fault, so thank you, Scarlet.