Umamusume: Fairly Derby, the Japanese cell recreation wherein you increase anime horse-girls, has introduced Japan’s most unsuccessful racehorse a second increase in recognition following its western launch on Steam — together with her optimistic, never-give-up perspective inspiring a complete new set of followers abroad.
Cygames’ Umamusume: Fairly Derby franchise facilities round a solid of anime ladies with horse ears and tails. Each is predicated on a actual racehorse, with the personalities, designs and stats of every character reflecting their IRL counterparts. With the 2021 free-to-play cell recreation lastly getting its English-language debut this June on Steam, extra worldwide followers have been discovering the charms of Umamusume’s characters.
Pink-haired Haru Urara appears to have struck a specific chord with some gamers. To say she has a bubbly, optimistic, can-do perspective can be an understatement. Although she usually loses races, she is sweet mates with the opposite horse-girls and sometimes buys them souvenirs. Like Umamusume’s different characters, plucky Haru Urara is predicated on the actual life horse of the identical title, who’s now 29-years-old and having fun with her retirement at Matha Farm in Japan’s Chiba Prefecture.
Everybody loves an underdog, or an underhorse on this case. Haru Urara raced from 1998 to 2004, nevertheless she didn’t win a single one of her 113 races. Though she made it to second and third place a handful of occasions, she spent most of her profession actually lagging behind (supply: JBIS Search). A lot in order that she grew to become well-known for dropping, changing into a form of nationwide image of perseverance within the face of adversity.
In 2004, Junichiro Koizumi, the Japanese prime minister on the time, even praised her in his official email magazine, saying: “I consider that Haru Urara’s perspective of not giving up regardless of being crushed race after race is one that’s clearly an inspiration for us all.” In her final years of racing a “Haru Increase” was underway (supply: CBS News), with followers travelling throughout the nation to look at her lose races and shopping for up Haru Urara merch. Even the betting slips together with her title on had been getting used as charms to ward towards site visitors accidents (the phrase “ataranai” or “didn’t win” stamped on dropping betting slips is a homonym for not being hit, by a automotive for instance). In 2018, Haru Urara grew to become a native celeb once more when she was featured on Chiba police’s site visitors security posters, getting paid 600kg price of carrots (supply: Sankei News).
Quick ahead to July 2025, and customers posting actual life Haru Urara content material on X observed a sudden uptick of likes and follows, probably the Umamusume impact in motion. X consumer animal_love_kaz, a self-confessed fan of retired racehorses who regularly posts images and updates famous that their Haru Urara birthday publish immediately received 1000’s extra likes in a single day, with their abroad account gaining 400 new followers. In a July 3 post, below, that includes a photograph of the horse with a flower on her head that has since racked up 2.6 million views, animal_love_kaz wrote: “I don’t know if this can attain my abroad bros and sisters however Haru Urara could be very effectively, actually, she’s in all probability more healthy and extra energetic than me!”
なぜかウララさんの今年の誕生日の時のティアラのが昨日からまた更に1万くらいイイネが増えてて通知止まらんし海外アカで昨日から400人くらいフォロワー増えてるじゃん
海外ニキネキ達に伝わるかわからないけど、ハルウララさんはとても元気で過ごしてるし、むしろ私より健康で元気なくらいだよ😆👍 (*20*)— もつご (@animal_love_kaz) July 3, 2025
Umamusume’s Haru Urara has even been co-opted into the “Why don’t you ever quit?” “As a result of she by no means did!” meme, which is now floating round a social media remark thread close to you (right here it’s on Reddit). It appears that evidently Haru Urara has develop into a image of not giving up within the face of adversity for a complete new group of followers.
In-game Haru Urara naturally doesn’t have the perfect stats in comparison with different characters. Nonetheless gamers can tackle the problem of attempting to make her a winner within the recreation, or on the very least, simply get pleasure from her infectious optimistic perspective within the Story Mode cutscenes.
Haru Urara can also be a reminder that in case your profession is not figuring out proper now, it’s possible you’ll discover success in one other subject (pun supposed) in a while. Though Haru Urara was not profitable as a racehorse, she is now gaining recognition on social media, and residing out her retirement years together with her pal Pepper the goat. Matha Farms even has official merch that includes her, from T-shirts to cushion covers and telephone straps. Some followers go to her, however with the surge in recognition of these actual life racehorses, Umamusume developer Cygames not too long ago shared pointers on the best way to respectfully meet your horsey idols in actual life.
The cell recreation Umamusume: Fairly Derby is on the market now in English by way of Steam, Google Play, and the Apple App retailer. All three seasons of the anime are at the moment on Crunchyroll.
Picture by Sports activities Nippon/Getty Pictures.
Verity Townsend is a Japan-based freelance author who beforehand served as editor, contributor and translator for the sport information web site Automaton West. She has additionally written about Japanese tradition and flicks for varied publications.