So let’s shift the focus to the scenario characters and talk about fun trivia related to them.
Mei
I’ve mentioned her a lot, and it’s hard not to given that she’s basically the main character of the scenario.
Mei Satake (佐岳メイ) is the URA representative in charge of scouting Europe, her main goal is to show to the world the might of Japanese horsegirls and to achieve that she has her eyes on winning the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
Mei has known chairman Yayoi Akikawa for a long time, while it’s not explicitly stated how long, it IS stated that Mei used to tease the chairman by calling her tiny only for her to not end up growing up that much taller.
A fun connection between both of them is that the chairman’s name is Yayoi (弥生,), which is the old name for the month of March. So we have March and May together.
Mei is a woman in the Uma Musume world with no visible ears and a hat, so as you might rightfully suspect, she’s most likely a horse girl with a human name. We don’t know why they do this, and honestly, if they don’t talk about it it’s just rude to ask… But she’s partially based on Dictus, a French horse, a topic I brought up in another post.
Now, the choice of Dictus was an interesting one, because Dictus didn’t actually race in the L’arc that the scenario is based around. Dictus was, however, active in racing when Japan started to challenge the L’arc. In fact, he basically debuted the same year that Speed Symboli challenged the cup.
My current theory is that they picked Dictus because they made a character that wants to show the might of Japanese horsegirls so it stands to reason she saw when Japanese horsegirls started to challenge France. It also has one of those nice bits of synergy since Dictus’ offspring was always noted to have surprisingly good compatibility with Northern Taste’s offspring (Northern Taste being the horse that the chairman is based on).
Some of you might have noticed I said “partially“ and that’s because fans have noted many similarities between Mei and the story of Zenya Yoshida.
For those not aware, Zenya Yoshida is the founder of the Shadai group, and for those not aware of that, the Shadai Group is kind of a big deal in Japanese horse racing what with owning Sunday Silence, that horse thart I need to talk about soon because they keep adding girls and every girl they add is VERY LIKELY descended from it it adds an extra 20 words when I finally get to it.
Zenya Yoshida was also frequently touring Europe and the US to buy horses, and a glance at his biography certainly gives flashbacks to specific elements of Mei’s story.
Like how his “dog and monkey” (Japan’s version of the “like cats and dogs” jingoism) relationship with Tomohiro Wada of the Symboli Ranch can be seen in a more playful way with chairman Akikawa, or how his backstory pushing to make his dream of having a ranch happen mirror how Mei travelled far and wide selling her dream of Project L’arc, or for that matter how Yoshida famously broke down crying after accomplishing his childhood dream of winning the Nihon derby thanks to Dyna Gulliver just like how Mei starts tearing up and ALMOST takes her hat off to you after you win the L’arc.
Back to the fictional girl, however. Mei refers to herself as “atashi-sama” which is super amusing. For those not aware, Japan has a number of different personal pronouns (what in english would be saying “I” to refer to oneself). Adding “-sama” (the honorific you use for people in stations above you) is seen as a way to act really cocky… except that said appending is usually accompanied by the more boisterous personal pronouns like “ore” (a traditionally male personal pronoun that’s also “rougher” than others like “boku”).
“Atashi”, meanwhile, is the girliest traditionally female personal pronoun you could use short of “Watakushi” (which is more classical/refined). So you have this girl referring to herself as “Ya girl” basically.
Notably though, when the plot gets rough, Mei tends to drop the “-sama” part which is a neat detail.
Mei loves theater and the arts and is very VERY effusive and expressive. And fittingly enough all the descendants of Dictus are known to be very moody in one way or another, something you even see in game with those that carry the original’s blood, from Gold Ship to Narita Top Road to Hishi Miracle.
One of my favorite things about Mei, however, is the fact that it gives us a bit more about the chairman. Chairman Akikawa is a character I don’t write about often but is easily amongst my favorites. She has a very childish behavior most of the time but every so often there’s this “grandma-like” warmth that seeps through (fitting given how many girls in the cast are related to her in some way). And also how when you start wondering how she’s kept the job she has a moment where she shows how deceptively perceptive she can be about reading people.
Also seeing two grown ass ladies that look like children bicker like children about things that happened at least two decades ago is amusing like you have no idea.
Venus Park
The first rival in the story. Venus Park is as heroine-like as you get. She’s cheerful, spirited, cute, willing to make friends, you can just imagine a spin off of Uma Musume in france where she’s the Special Week of that cast.
Though according to her secret, she’s apparently very messy, which I kinda love given her outwards demeanor.
Her name is really clever too. You might remember from me talking about the history of the L’arc that I mentioned how when French horse racing started, they used to run in the Champ de Mars, the park that the Eiffel Tower is close to.
Champ de Mars means Field of Mars, so just invert it because we’re talking about a girl. Instead of a Field it’s a Park, and instead of Mars it’s Venus.
Venus Park!
Venus Park is based on Treve, a french Filly that, as I explained before, not only won the L’arc twice, but beat both Gold Ship and Orfevre while at it. She’s also Montjeau’s granddaughter, which is why in the game Venus Park is Montjeau’s disciple.
Rigantona
Sorry, that keeps happening.
Rigantona appears on the third year when you challenge the L’arc again. She’s described as being the world’s strongest horse girl and that, right there, is your immediate hint as to who she’s based on.
Dancing Brave was a colt considered to be “Europe’s strongest horse”, a title that wasn’t just good advertisement but was based on the fact that he won against basically every other European country during its time. Not only that, but it was his victory in the L’arc that cemented him with the title.
Dancing Brave was the one that got first place when Sirius Symboli challenged the L’arc, he’s also the real life father of King Halo. Dancing Brave actually showed up in the first chapter of Star Blossom too, though as “Sundance Blaze” in that one.
Rigantona herself in-game is basically…
Yeah, that.
No I don’t have a type what makes you think that?
“Rigantona” is actually a fun name. It means “Great Queen” and it’s another title for the goddess Rhiannon, a Celtic goddess of the moon, forgiveness, rebirth, fertility, and… get this: horses.
Rhiannon is also known as, get this: Epona.
She’s also very, get this:
Ok I’ll stop now. To be honest she doesn’t get that much screentime so it’s kinda tricky to squeeze too much info to talk about.
Boy does she make an impression though.
Montjeau
OKAY so, let’s talk about season one of the anime real quick.
That storyline eventually gets to the part where El Condor Pasa loses against a horse in France. At the time they didn’t actually have the rights to use the name of that horse, so they made Oscar François de Jarjayes from The Rose of Versailles, gave her horse ears and called her Broye.
Why Broye? Because the original horse was named Montjeau after its owner’s Chateau, said Chateau was located in the region of Broye in Autun.
So imagine everyone’s surprise when Team Sirius’ story in-game finishes the first half of Special Week’s chapter and leaves everyone with a teaser of El Condor Pasa at the L’arc and the announcer is calling the iconic line of… Montjeau catching up all of a sudden.
Not Broye.
Montjeau.
I love Montjeau, so much.
As I’ve described many times in this blog, Uma Musume is built around the idea that any girl can be the main character. While this is a great approach and even refreshing, it can result in things being a tad limiting from time to time.
It’s not like you can’t have antagonists with this approach, indeed Rice Shower’s storyline is all about the media trying to peg her as a villain when she has as much right to as anyone else. But this also means that it’s harder to just make someone that exists solely to stir up shit, solely to be a thorn on the side, a big obstacle on the road.
That’s understandable though, by carrying the real name of a real horse it also carries the honor of those associated with the horse. So you can’t really say real life horse Pay The Butler is an expert in Psy Ops that controlled the flow of information in order to make everyone lower their guard while exploiting their weaknesses…
…original character Obey Your Master on the other hand…
Montjeau is the closest thing that the game currently has to someone fitting this role. While she’s named after a real horse, she’s also not playable (and unlikely to be anytime soon) so they can make her edge towards the heel side of things more.
And to be fair, even “heel” is too harsh of a word for Montjeau. She’s just a really spirited competitor that gets excited once she sees a worthy oponent. No, Montjeau’s hype is less that she’s gonna talk shit, and more that her presence means shit got very real.
So imagine my excitement when she shows up in the intro cinematic of the scenario.
She says nothing, she’s just looking at the horizon, you’re not even worth her time yet, but that back cannot be anyone else’s.
So I play the scenario, I win, but I don’t see Montjeau.
Victory is cheap, the game is taunting me, sure I won in the end but Montjeau is somewhere out there taunting me with her absence and I need to find her.
Long story short, she only shows up if you win the first L’arc against Venus Park. She’s part of the alternate scenario where you winning once and coming back for more is something she takes personally.
The real Montjeau is kind of a big deal in French horse racing, with six G1 victories to his name. It was also said by its staff also said that had the horse arrived at least three days earlier to Japan, the transport fatigue wouldn’t have been there and he might’ve won against Special Week also. But that’s one of those nerdy what ifs.
Montjeau is the real life grandfather of Treve, so in game this reflects with Venus Park being Montjeau’s disciple. Speaking of ancestry one funny detail is that Montjeau is a direct descendant of Sadler’s Wells, while El Condor Pasa was the maternal grandson of Sadler’s Wells.
Speaking of El, the scenario link characters aren’t too essential to the scenario so I’d rather talk about each of them individually eventually. As such let’s leave it to here today and next time we’ll talk about the gameplay of the scenario.