Umayon - Episodes 1-3 (Review)
With the summer season underway, I immediately knew I had to check out Umayon. A comedy about horse girls? Count me in!
Episode 1
Three horse girls need to make up a language test. They are El Condor Pasa, Glass Wonder, and Special Week. While El Condor Pasa and Glass Wonder seem confident in their knowledge, Special Week is struggling to keep up. Suddenly, Special Week whips out a die-pencil and begins rolling it and writing down the answers that the pencil lands on. This leap of faith allows Special Week to pull into the lead and take first place. Unfortunately for her, tests are graded based on the number of correct answers, not who finishes the fastest. Better luck next time, Special Week!
Episode 2
Episode 2 of Umayon treats us to a new trio: Air Groove, Symbol Rudolf, and Tokai Teio. The three are watching the new promotional video for their school, Tracen Academy. Tracen Academy happens to be a renowned horse girl school, boasting many state-of-the-art training facilities. As the video ends, the three notice one small problem with the video: Tokai is in too many shots! This proves that even horse girls can only stand their cuteness in small doses
Episode 3
Mayano Top Gun and Yukino Bijin gush over Gold City’s modeling career. The model in question happens to walk by, and invites the pair to her next photo shoot. During their break, Gold City encourages the two to follow their dreams of becoming models. Later at school Mayano and Yukino are shocked to find that a photo of the three of them sitting on the park bench made it into the magazine. Their career in modeling starts now!
The Review
So far, Umayon has exceeded all my expectations of a comedy anime. I went into Umayon thinking it would be similar to A Centaur’s Life, and was totally wrong. Umayon seems to take the world it’s establishing less seriously than A Centaur’s Life does. I doubt the show will go into detail about the delicate relations between species. Umayon seems content showcasing the world through comedy.
Besides having its comedic moments down pat, Umayon has mastered the pacing of the show. I normally hate bite-size anime episodes. I find that any continuity the show is trying to establish falls to the wayside because there simply isn’t enough time to become immersed. Surprisingly, it works for Umayon.
The only downside I’ve noticed so far is I haven’t been able to establish any connections with the characters. It’s a definite con of having 3 minute long episodes and a lack of an established plot. My hope is that as episodes progress we’ll start seeing more of their personalities develop.
Be sure to check out Umayon every Tuesday on Crunchyroll and VRV!