Horse girls. Racing anime. Idol concerts. Umamusume sounds like a joke until episode three makes you cry about a horse. The franchise has grown into a small universe: three main seasons, a 23-episode spin-off series, a film, web anime, and comedy shorts. And it keeps growing, with the mobile game’s global success pulling new viewers in every season. The umamusume anime watch order is straightforward once you know which entries matter, so here is the complete map.

The Umamusume Anime Watch Order at a Glance

1. Umamusume: Pretty Derby Season 1 (13 episodes, 2018)
2. Umamusume: Pretty Derby Season 2 (13 episodes, 2021)
3. Umamusume: Pretty Derby Season 3 (13 episodes, 2023)
4. Umamusume: Cinderella Gray (23 episodes, 2025)
5. Road to the Top (web anime, 4 episodes, 2023) and Beginning of a New Era (film, 2024): standalone, watch anytime after season 1
6. Umayon / Umayuru shorts: optional comedy extras

The main story is seasons 1-3. Everything else branches off.

If the full list looks intimidating, remember the franchise’s secret: every entry is designed to be someone’s first. The seasons follow different horse girls in different eras, the spin-off stands alone, and the film is self-contained. You cannot really watch Umamusume wrong. The order above is the recommended path, but the worst case of deviating from it is meeting a character out of sequence. The franchise is built for newcomers; trust the order and enjoy the races.

Umamusume Release Order: Every Anime by Year

The main series moved studios along the way: P.A. Works animated season 1, Studio Kai took over for seasons 2 and 3, and Cypic handled the film and Cinderella Gray.

Umamusume Chronological Order: The In-Universe Timeline

Each entry follows a different generation of horse girls, so the timeline is more of a family tree than a straight line:

Release order works fine. The seasons reference each other lightly, but every entry reintroduces its cast.

The Recommended Umamusume Watch Order (Detailed)

Season 1 (2018). Special Week arrives at Tracen Academy, idolizes Silence Suzuka, and the Team Spica story begins. Thirteen episodes that work as a complete sports anime even if you know nothing about the franchise. The season’s back half delivers one of the most famous emotional gut-punches in sports anime, and it is where most skeptics stop laughing. Start here, no exceptions.

Season 2 (2021). The fan-favorite season: Tokai Teio’s injury comebacks and her rivalry with Mejiro McQueen. Studio Kai’s animation steps up, and the emotional highs are the series’ peak. Teio’s story arc alone converts more non-fans than any other entry. Watch it right after season 1.

Season 3 (2023). Kitasan Black and Satono Diamond headline a slightly more divisive season. Still worth watching for the racing sequences and the payoff to long-running threads. The tone is more reflective, concerned with the end of careers rather than the start.

Cinderella Gray (2025). Twenty-three episodes adapting the Oguri Cap manga: a grittier, more grounded racing story than the main series. It stands alone completely, so you can watch it before or after the main seasons. Many fans rank it above seasons 1 and 3.

Road to the Top and Beginning of a New Era. Self-contained side stories. Slot them in whenever you want more Umamusume between seasons.

New to sports anime? Our anime watch order hub has more franchise guides, and the what anime should I watch quiz can find your next series.

What to Skip in Umamusume

The shorts are optional, not required. Umayon, Umayuru, and the Pretty Gray shorts are comedy extras. They are charming, but they add nothing to any story. Watch them if you fall in love with the cast; skip them if you just want the racing.

Nothing in the main line is skippable. Seasons 1-3 and Cinderella Gray are all story content with no filler episodes. The film and Road to the Top are standalone, so “skipping” them just means watching them later.

One thing that confuses newcomers: the franchise’s numbering. “Season 3” is the third season of the main series, but Cinderella Gray is not season 4; it is a separate adaptation of a separate manga. Watching Cinderella Gray between seasons 2 and 3 will not spoil anything, because it follows different characters in a different era. The only order that matters is watching each series’ own episodes in sequence. Everything else is modular.

Where the shorts actually fit

Optional does not mean pointless; it means flexible. The shorts work best as dessert, not dinner. Watch Umayon after season 1, when you know the cast well enough to get the jokes. Save Umayuru for after season 2, since its gags lean on the second season’s expanded roster. The Pretty Gray shorts pair naturally with Cinderella Gray: same characters, same scrappy energy, smaller portions. None of this is required, and watching them in release order works just as well; the point is only that the shorts assume familiarity, so they land harder once you have it. One more tip: the shorts are the perfect rewatch companion. If you ever revisit a season, sprinkle its matching shorts across the viewing week. Three minutes of chibi comedy between episodes keeps a long season feeling fresh, and you will catch jokes you missed the first time. Think of them as the post-credits scenes of the franchise: small, skippable, and weirdly memorable.

Where to Watch Umamusume Legally in 2026

The three main seasons stream on Crunchyroll in most regions, confirmed by listings checked in late September 2026. Cinderella Gray is licensed by Remow and streams on Amazon Prime Video in North America, with other regional partners elsewhere. The film and web anime availability varies; check the Umamusume streaming page for your region.

Note that most Umamusume entries are sub-only outside Japan, which is normal for the franchise. The racing commentary and the sheer speed of the dialogue make this a show where subtitles are arguably the better experience anyway. If Cinderella Gray is not on your region’s Prime Video, check Remow’s other licensed platforms; the spin-off’s distribution differs from the main series.

How Long Does the Umamusume Watch Order Take?

The three main seasons run about 16 hours (39 episodes). Add Cinderella Gray’s 23 episodes for another 9 hours, plus the film and Road to the Top. The full franchise is roughly 28 hours: a serious but very doable project.

Umamusume for Non-Sports Fans

“I do not care about horse racing” is the most common pre-watch objection, and it does not survive contact with season 2. Umamusume uses racing the way good sports anime always does: as a delivery system for character drama. The races are gorgeously animated, but the show is really about injury comebacks, rivalries, and the terror of peaking at seventeen.

You also do not need to know anything about real Japanese horse racing. The show explains its stakes as it goes, and the horse girls are original characters inspired by real racehorses, not documentaries. Plenty of fans arrived for the memes and stayed for Tokai Teio’s arc. If you liked the character drama of shows like Haikyu!! or Run with the Wind, the sport here is just the stage.

Cinderella Gray: The Spin-Off That Outgrew Its Name

Cinderella Gray deserves its own paragraph because it is secretly the best entry point for skeptics. Adapted from the manga rather than the game, it follows Oguri Cap, a horse girl from the countryside with monstrous talent and zero polish. The tone is grittier than the main series: less idol sparkle, more mud, sweat, and the economics of racing.

Its 23 episodes aired across 2025 in two cours, animated by Cypic, and it works completely standalone. You do not need to know Team Spica or the game. If the main series’ idol-concert framing puts you off, start here instead. It is a sports drama first and a franchise entry second, and many fans rank it above seasons 1 and 3.

The manga is still running, which means Cinderella Gray has room to continue if the adaptation proves successful. For now, the 23 episodes form a complete arc with a real ending, so there is no cliffhanger risk in starting it today.

Frequently Asked Questions