Oops the new one is already out, oh well.
This will be an update to the contents of the last one, so feel free to use the last post there as reference.
The profiles section, predictably, has every character that released from the first gacha rotation with TM Opera O right until the first anniversary gacha where both Machikane Tannhauser and Kitasan Black were added.
For those not aware, the anniversary usually adds one girl plus a girl that’s 2 stars or lower (a rare and an uncommon or common, basically).
The new addition this time around, however, is the alt versions. In this case it spans from the Teio and McQueen alts released for season 2 of the anime until Mihono Bourbon and Eishin Flash’s Valentine’s Day alts.
They only get a single page and no extra trivia like the other profiles but they’re still good because, for example, I didn’t notice until just now how Creek’s shoes have frills, which in turn makes me realize her outfit is more like a lolita dress torn by the ravages of time.
This is followed by a couple of pages with the NPCs of Aoharu Cup plus the crazy lady from the June Bride events (this is the first time we’ve had a full picture of her, actually, since she doesn’t have a profile on the main website as of this writing.). Then the 3D chibis of all the newly added characters and other chat stamps.
Next comes the Support Card section and this is the bulk of the book. About 160 pages compared to last volume’s 102 or so. This makes sense because it includes all event SSRs for the year (both the freebies for completing the event and the ones released in the gacha for it) which means there’s three extra cards for every event. They actually also add the full ilustration of some of them.
Whoever’s in charge of Sirius understands the assignment perfectly by the way.
The official illustrations section actually opens up with images for the scenarios before going to some promotional images they used for things like Famitsu.
From there it goes to main story illustrations, specifically Chapters 3 (the one I haven’t finished the writeup for) 4, and 5. The two-part finale only came out after a year (more like a few months, but the wait was still longer than between the other ones).
Then it goes through the event CGs of the year plus the ones for the training scenarios. The format means my wife is left out of it but Volume 3 is already on the way so I’ll let it pass…
…this time.
Next comes the section with the illustrations on Twitter (Currently: X) and not only was my wish for the commemorative race illustrations heeded (albeit until 2021, but to be fair there’s LOT of races they promote) they even included other promotional illustrations, notably for me a 2017 Christmas one that I didn’t know existed.
For those just tuning in: The first season of the anime released in 2018 so things from before then are both scant and curious whenever they crop up.
Lastly, this volume’s interview is all about what goes into making alts and what they try to preserve with each one compared to the main design, bringing a couple of specific examples as reference.
Notably, it include’s Tosen Jordan’s summer alt despite the fact that it wasn’t released in 2021 and is thus not included in the book.
All in all, this book is more of the same, but don’t take that as an insult. It’s exactly what it needs to be and does a really good job while at it.
Rather than a wishlist of things I want included, I’m more curious at what the next book might include, because things like social media illustrations and CD covers have already been done by this volume and the last one. I kinda wonder if they’ll just cram more characters to push things up to speed.
One detail that some might not be aware is that Uma Musume ran on a scary schedule of releases for its first year or so and it wasn’t until later that new girls stopped releasing every month, so if you made a graph of new unique releases there’s a downwards trend as the years go on.
This isn’t bad mind you, I actually remember being scared in a “THIS PACE IS NOT SUSTAINABLE” sort of way.
In the end next volume will include both My Wife and My Precious Baby so it could honestly just be the two of them and I’d be happy.
Oh also, for those curious, the copyright in this one says it released in January 1st.