Please note that the word “Hero” is gonna be used a lot in this post. In this context “Hero” is 英雄 (“Eiyuu”) which is more along the lines of “Hero of Legend”, this isn’t to be confused with ヒーロー (“Hiiro”) which is often used for Rice Shower and means a more conventional “Hero” as in “Main Character”, it also shouldn’t be confused with 勇者 (“Yuusha”) or “Brave Hero” which is the one that is meant to be used with Agnes Digital’s idea of being a Hero.
As usual I’m gonna open up with something that will lead into this theme, but this one should be familiar to anyone familiar with anime and manga.
In boys manga, particularly in Shonen Jump, there’s this recurrent plot device of the protagonist being a mountain of potential, be it in some skill they had or because they’re a massive battery of magic. It’s such a recurrent element, in fact, that just the act of a story not using this sort of device is enough consider it subversive on its field.
It’s such a recurrent plot device because the fantasy it sells is really universal. Especially for teenagers, it’s super enticing to believe in the idea that “you had it in you all along” or that as it turns out you were always this good despite thinking otherwise. That you got discovered because someone thought an unassuming trait you had would break a sport open, that all you needed to be beautiful and popular was the right effort put into your looks.
Of course, in the real world things aren’t that easy. Self improvement and improving at skills takes time and effort and you might go all the way only to realize you were doing things wrong for what you actually wanted to achieve all along (note to self: King Halo post before too long).
But the fantasy exists because in the end life is a constant battle to externalize the version of ourselves that we believe we are or we can be.
Zenno Rob Roy was often described before its debut as an “honor student since birth”, it was also pointed out by Yasuyuki Kawagoe (the assistant trainer and stablehand in charge of Rob Roy) how when he ran there was an underlying energy and strength that you didn’t notice on his regular exterior.
While we’re talking about the horse, I need to point out that explaining the correlation between the training campaign and the real horse’s career is gonna be tricky. While the race rotation is basically the same, Uma Musume decided to focus Rob Roy’s journey in relation to her rivalry with Symboli Kris S, where her story ends in their last showdown. But in the real world, that showdown happened at the end of her debut year of 2003 so the real Rob Roy’ had two more years of running.’s race against Kris S was just its first chapter.
This change improves the narrative a lot though, and does so while keeping a lot of the rest of the record. So it’s more like they moved WHICH Arima Kinen they faced at rather than making up a new one entirely.
But we’ll get there.
So, we have our keywords: “honor student”, “hidden potential” and “named after a folk hero”.
Yeah, her design screams all of that. However, it doesn’t tell the whole story. The way they represented the “hidden potential” is actually quite interesting.
Her Bond Story opens with her future trainer looking for a Horse Girl that he saw in one practice, he’s been obsessed since then with the “heroic glow” that the girl had while running. So going to the library the trainer meets with Rob Roy who is the librarian there. And upon mentioning heroic tales, the meek Rob Roy that acted as if she was a stain in the sole of the world is suddenly more extroverted and talkative and proactive. But as if catching herself she pushes back and tries to reel herself back in.
Note: I keep slipping and calling the trainer “he” but the player can pick the gender and the narrative isn’t really gendered in one particular way. “They” will be the one attempted to be used but if “he” is used just remember that the gender is up to the player anyways.
She decides to help this trainer look for this “hero-like” girl they saw and her first idea is that it’s Symboli Kris S, a senpai that was running the day the trainer said.
Spoilers: Turns out Rob Roy was practicing with Kris S that day, and the Hero that the trainer was looking for was Rob Roy all along (that day she had a different hairstyle it seems), and she kept this a secret fearing that knowing this the trainer would stop talking to her. Where’s ponytail Rob Roy you cowards.
Now, the thing isn’t just this “underlying energy” that Rob Roy seems to constantly want to push back when she gets too excited, this talkative and energetic girl that feels like a world apart from the meek and unassuming one. But it’s also the motivation behind it.
After all, what good is is a car with a full tank if you don’t feel like taking a roadtrip? And this is where Rob Roy shines even brighter. While she constantly dismisses that she’s anything special and talks about giving up, the trainer finds her notebook and in it not only has Rob Roy chronicled Kris S’ training, but it’s filled with declarations about not giving up and being left behind.
It’s then that the trainer takes a permanent marker and scribbles “Zenno Rob Roy’s Heroic Chronicle” on the cover, declaring everything until now just the Prologue to her tale that they (the trainer) will keep track of. Rob Roy lost that latest practice against Kris S, but what good hero starts at the top?
Please, PLEASE note how the cover of the notebook actually changes in the last few screenshots.
Even beyond her story, I remember in the first Halloween event, we see a freshman Rob Roy excited about her new school life, having so many fantasies about how she’s gonna make ALL the friends… only to have her timid nature kick in and have her retreat into her shell. And just like how her trainer gave her someone she can be confident in putting all her dreams of standing out and having all eyes on her, her roommate, Rice Shower, gave her someone she could have those moments of weakness and just show her more extroverted side when she felt she could.
Her training story actually extends this to her racing career also.
In the real world, Rob Roy was poised to be the successor to the ranch’s then-current ace horse Symboli Kris S, and then when they faced at Arima Kinen (which was Kris S’ retirement race), Rob Roy lost but his performance set him up as the promising successor to Kris S. In the game this is similar, but that race isn’t Kris S’s retirement. This is a necessity though, if you want to sell in the game the narrative of how Rob Roy is following Kris S’ path you need more time to set that up.
Instead of that, Kris S is set as someone that Rob Roy is following on the steps on, which also mirrors the way that the real Rob Roy was set to be Kris S’ sucessor. Their first encounter as “rivals” happens in a hill when Rob Roy is out for a jog and has a fateful encounter with a jogging Kris S.
Quick sidenote, but I kinda like the idea that Kris S has these weird silences expressed through em-dashes rather than ellipses because she’s a foreigner that needs to think about what she’s going to say. It might also be me having direct experience communicating through fragments of phrases that sorta kinda form the idea of the phrase when together. Her Voice Actress, Meiku Harukawa (who has also worked on Ultraman Ginga) gives her this… very slight accent, not Taiki Shuttle levels but kinda like “she’s not a native Japanese speaker” sort of cadence which is great.
Oh also, the real Rob Roy McGregor (the folk hero that Rob Roy is named after) had to restore his clan’s honor, and it’s not hard to see Rob Roy’s tale of rising to the top as a parallel to this.
ANYWAY, in the real world after that defeat, Rob Roy kept running and wasn’t able to keep up with the expectations. In his next four races he was stuck at best at second place. In the game this is shown as a similar emotional rut (obviously the player can win all those races) as she felt like she just wasn’t able to keep up with her now dear friend. She knows she can be better and do better, but she just doesn’t have the means to properly externalize this.
A breakthrough happens on both stories. First place in the Autumn Tenno Sho, first place in the Japan Cup, and then… another upcoming Arima Kinen, the same race where Kris S won last time.
In the game THIS is the Arima Kinen where Kris S announces her retirement, leaving Rob Roy distraught during summer camp that she might not have another chance to run against her again. Not able to catch up to her.
And then a beautiful moment happens. Rob Roy confronts Kris S about why she must retire now, to which Kris S only replies that her duty is done. She ran her races and with one last Arima Kinen her mission is complete. Rob Roy is completely outraged by this, she once admired that cold and objective way of doing things of Kris S, but now all she could see was someone seemingly dismissing all the emotions that went into the race as just something to be done.
It is then that Rob Roy tells her that she was lying, it’s all a lie, she doesn’t want to just run against Kris S. She is going to WIN against Kris S in her retirement race and become her biggest regret, and if Kris S didn’t have any regrets before then Rob Roy will become her one and only regret.
While not explicitly stated in the scene, regret is a theme in Rob Roy’s story as far back as her first bond chapter where she’s afraid of never being able to become a Hero, and you can easily see the underlying element of “become your only regret” being a boisterous way to say “I don’t want you to forget me like just another objetive done”.
Another sidenote: Rob Roy’s campaign has her talking and thinking in very dramatic novel-like ways, with the shot often leaving only one girl in the screen for extra emphasis and it’s a really good touch.
Kris S is distraught after this encounter. She actually runs into Rudolf and while we don’t see what happens afterwards, Rudolf can clearly tell that Kris S is distraught and offers her a cup of coffee to talk things out. They probably had a heart to heart of some sort, however, as we’ll see.
Right before the last race, Rob Roy and Kris S meet in the same place where they first met, where Rob Roy became surprised by Kris S’ natural physical skill, but this time it was Kris S that was looking for Rob Roy, telling her how she’s always kept an eye on Rob Roy, on her progress. Because Rob Roy has this… “light” to herself that she sees come and go, ebb and flow, and at that moment she declares her intent to face Rob Roy at Arima Kinen because she wants to see this light closer to her. The same “heroic light” that her trainer saw ages ago before they even knew Rob Roy’s name.
The light finally takes the form of an actual buff for that race that boosts your stats to the point where it’s impossible to lose short of self-sabotage.
In the game, this is framed as the girl that finally lived up to the potential she knew she had, pushed outwards by the threat of not being able to meet up with her friend in a race.
In real life, this string of victories means Rob Roy, despite all of his many past losses is, to this day, the second horse in HISTORY to achieve the “Old Horse Autumn Triple Crown”, a specific Triple Crown title that has only been won by Rob Roy and T.M. Opera O.
There’s actually a really interesting moment after the race that made me realize why Kris S’ character felt so… familiar. Cold and objective-based belying a more insecure inner core that prefers to not think about those emotions. Kris S is basically the anime version of Mihono Bourbon in season 2 of the anime.
For those that haven’t seen it or don’t have game and anime to compare, while the general beats of Bourbon in the game remain the same, anime Bourbon was… too smart, especially when compared to how she is in the game. Kris S feels like a way for that iteration of Bourbon to live on in a way after the game’s bourbon branched slightly differently (as in: her brain became smoother and smoother).
This became evident in that last race, where Kris S proudly declares in her defeat that Rob Roy is her Hero, which are basically the same words that anime Bourbon used after Rice Shower’s race with Mejiro McQueen. To add to this parallel, Rob Roy IS Rice Shower’s roommate.
…fine, Bourbon used ヒーロー and Kris S used 英雄, but the point remains.
Oh! I should also point out that Kris S and Rob Roy’s dynamic outside of racing is great. On the outset you have imposing big girl and the meek small girl, but in practice Rob Roy is the talkative and active one while Kris S takes a more passive and quiet role instead.
Funnily enough, that Arima Kinen that Rob Roy won, she won against Tap Dance City in real life instead of Kris S. Tap Dance City was just announced in the second anniverssary stream alongside other horses from the early 2000s like Hishi Miracle, Jungle Pocket and Neo Universe.
OH BOY I need to talk about the Uncle Miracle story sometime.
The real Rob Roy ran for another year. This is framed in the game as her and her trainer going for an overseas expedition, and a new chapter of her legend to be written. But in real life he had already peaked. He actually lost his next race, the 2005 Takarazuka Memorial to Sweep Toushou. The game actually lets her story end with a bang.
And what a bang it is, accomplishing something only one other horse achieved, and said other horse was T.M. Opera O, being literally written in the history of the sport despite the preceding races painting a different picture.
Speaking of endings. Rob Roy’s has a neat detail where she’s congratulated by a bunch of the girls. All of them girls whose original horse was a direct descendant of Sunday Silence. The only one missing in the sequence is Admire Vega but she shows up for her self-training event instead.
The real Rob Roy was the youngest direct descendant of Sunday Silence, in fact, both Sunday Silence and Rob Roy’s real mother died shortly after Rob Roy was born. So this sequence feels like all the other famous descendants of his in the game are congratulating the youngest among them for her accomplishments.
Oh boy I also need to talk about Sunday Silence one day, but that’s… a long one.
