This sh*t is so ridiculous, and yet so good... It should *not* be possible to get totally caught up in the drama of a race between cute as f*ck, honest to god *horse girls* (as in, girls with horse ears and tails and stuff, not girls who merely *ride* horses)... And yet, here we are.

The premise is pretty much exactly as per the summary, except it's not quite as random as one might assume - the protagonist drunk tweeted (xitted?) one night about how he wanted to be a cute... more>> fluffy horse girl and make his/her trainer fall for him/her (not quite sure what pronouns to apply there, to be honest), and got exactly what he wanted. So yeah, that happened. Makes it hard to say it's totally random, even if it's the kind of thing you might find a bit *surprising* if it happened to you... Fortunately our protagonist is of the opinion that girls are cute, cute as f*ck horse girls are even cuter, and this is all a good thing.

I do not know why anyone would want to become the greatest stayer the world has ever seen, but I can accept that this is a legitimate life goal for a young horse girl.

So yeah, the whole premise of this story is just bonkers (even if it *does* seem to have made for an astonishingly successful game and spin-off franchise - I'd make snarky comments about that, too, only I'm already over quota), but somehow it works *really* well. This is mostly to do with the quality of the writing - the pacing in particular (appropriately for a horse racing setting), but also the balance between exposition and plot (always an issue with game-adjacent or sport-adjacent stories), the character development, and the characters themselves.

Note: this is all written as of chapter 12, out of a total main story length of 151 chapters - quite early on, but far enough in to get a decent feel for the writing and the main characters, and some sense of the plot.

The setting and underlying premise are what they are, but for all the jokes that can be made, this gives the author a very simple way to build a story: just follow along with the MC's career progression. The masses of background material that already exists for the game and associated media could be a curse, bogging the author down in minutia; instead, they've taken a very light-handed approach, floating over the top and lightly touching on the bits and pieces that matter at any given point in time. There's basically zero mention of game mechanics or anything like that - this is very much the MC living in a real world with real world mechanics and logic; this is helped quite a lot by the direct analogies with the real horse racing industry.

The simplicity of the core storyline is convenient, but it leaves the author solely responsible for making something compelling enough to be worth reading. Following the MC's career has advantages and disadvantages - the big advantage is the natural flow and progression, which is easy for most readers to relate to (because it's just how life goes, broadly speaking) ; the big disadvantage is that it can make it difficult for readers to really engage with the characters and the struggles they face. Here, the nature of the MC (now going by Apollo Rainbow - gotta love racehorse names) is critical: she's absolutely all-in on pretty much everything, but in such a naive and genuine way that it avoids being annoying. Naive doesn't mean s*upid, though - she has a good head on her shoulders, learns quickly, and is willing to put the work in; this means that her growth is generally believable, and the ups and downs of her life are generally relatable. The reincarnation/transmigration aspect of the setting has been a nice added component in her progression - going from waking up in a new body (and almost immediately going "HOLY sh*t I'M CUTE?!") to being an up and coming (potential) future champion both mirrors and is driven by an ever growing commitment to living this new life the best way she can. And for all that it's built into the very premise, the romantic sub-plot develops naturally from the same character progression and growth.

So far at least, the weakest part of the story is probably the dearth of well-developed side-characters - for the most part the side-characters have all pretty much existed to help the MC's career progress. This may well be due to it being early in the story though, and there are a number of characters that have been incidental so far that would be good candidates for becoming more important; we'll just have to see where that goes. But this is also one of the big risks of this type of story, so it'll be interesting to see how well the author handles it.

The translation is excellent - not being able to read the original I can't comment on the accuracy, but it's extremely readable and seems to be capturing the pacing and feel of the original really well (alternatively, if it's the translator that's responsible for all that rather than the original text, they should just write their own stories - I'd read them). I wasn't joking when I wrote earlier about getting totally caught up in the racing scenes - capturing that sort of thing in translation is *difficult*, and I genuinely found myself completely engaged by all the big moments; there were even attacks by the onion ninjas at several points.

One last thing that I'm enjoying about this story: although it's definitely not a story about gender stuff and the MC isn't trans-coded or anything like that, it's really rather nice to see a genderbent character who's clearly quite comfortable with accepting, even *embracing*, the changes they've gone through. Whatever the author's thinking was in creating this character (and there are many words that could be written about that), it's refreshing to see.

So yeah.... utterly bonkers in so many ways, but really good none the less. Hard to recommend unequivocally because of how ridiculous it is, but very easy to recommend trying out the first few chapters to see if it clicks. <<less

This is a fanfiction set in the universe of Uma Musume Pretty Derby, a multimedia franchise by Cygames that exists primarily as a mobile gacha game and anime. It also has manga and IRL Idol concerts. The mobile game is set to release officially in English on June 26 2025 - over four years since it first debuted in Japan. I have not watched the anime (*3 seasons so far by the way), and I can't officially play the game yet, but I am familiar with some of the music.... more>> The horse girls are so cute, I love watching them dance.

Like the first review, I will also offer my praise for the translator's impressive work on this series. Not just their high competence in the English language, but also with how accommodating they are for unfamiliar readers. Lots of TL notes on names of characters, places, and events relevant to the world of Uma Musume and horse racing in general. They even offer conversions of metric values to imperial (wtf is a kilometer amirite), and prize pools of Japanese Yen in other currencies. They go above and beyond for the reader and for this, I believe they are worth supporting. I can't stress enough how much I appreciate a TL's familiarity with the subject of the novel they work on, especially when it comes to fanfiction.

MZ Novel also has a bunch of other fanfic works, particularly around the Blue Archive and Honkai universe. There are a lot of other novels I wish received the same, or even half the competence and care that MZ has put towards this novel. This is how high I hold their TL work, and how starved I am of anything actually readable on this website. And, best part, this is NOT a Novelpia title, so I can bet on the novel links still working a year after I post this review. (Unless some other funny business happens with the TL, but eh)

Now, background of the fanfic setting and translator glazing aside, I wish I had as many good things to say about the actual text of the work.

First thing I'll note is just how LONG each chapter is. Typically not something I would complain about, but my progress of 13 chapters you see declared up there? That took like 7 hours, in part because sometimes I scroll through and just kinda zone out. The text could be dry and boring like that at some points. I parse the words but the meaning of the sentences just pass by me and I often have to reread paragraphs. Perhaps thats a *me* issue, but I personally can't find much of an interesting thread to latch on to so I could continue reading past where I am. I would just put this on and off when I have nothing else in my list. Each chapter just feels bloated... which is oddly appropriate considering the little I had seen of the Uma Musume anime.

Anyway, second thing. The Gender Bender aspect resolved kinda early, like around 11 chapters in. It's still significantly better than a lot of the other novels cosplaying under the Gender Bender tag without any real Gender Bending™️. I am satisfied and have no issues with how the MC adapted to their new circumstances.

The first review described the novel as ridiculous yet fun, though to me I do not see where the disconnect for that ridiculousness is. Considering how much more absurd it could have been (see: Honkai lore), I would say the setting that we get here is pretty normal. Refreshingly simple and straightforward, even. Though, I am not as immersed with the world of Horse Racing as I think the first reviewer is. In the earlier chapters on the TL's site, they comment how real successful horses live the rest of their life breeding. I'm like, ok...? Neat, I guess. This is this, that is that.

Overall, I'm still giving it full stars just out of sheer respect for the TL, though I am not particularly moved by the text. I was not on the same wavelength as the first reviewer, a real shame. I wanted to enjoy it as much as they did. <<less