Umamusume: Cinderella Gray
Japanese manga series about Oguri Cap
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Umamusume: Cinderella Gray (ウマ娘 シンデレラグレイ, Umamusume Shinderera Gurei) is a Japanese manga series written by Masafumi Sugiura and illustrated by Taiyou Kuzumi. It is a spinoff entry in the wider Umamusume: Pretty Derby franchise created by Cygames, and is based on the career of Oguri Cap.[3] The series was serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Young Jump from June 2020 to December 2025, with its chapters having been collected in 23 tankōbon volumes. An anime television series adaptation produced by CygamesPictures ran from April to December 2025.
| Umamusume: Cinderella Gray | |
Final tankōbon volume cover, featuring Oguri Cap | |
| ウマ娘 シンデレラグレイ (Umamusume Shinderera Gurei) | |
|---|---|
| Genre | |
| Created by | Cygames |
| Manga | |
| Written by | Masafumi Sugiura |
| Illustrated by | Taiyou Kuzumi |
| Published by | Shueisha |
| Imprint | Young Jump Comics |
| Magazine | Weekly Young Jump |
| Original run | 11 June 2020 – 25 December 2025 |
| Volumes | 23 |
| Anime television series | |
| Directed by |
|
| Written by | Aki Kindaichi |
| Music by | |
| Studio | CygamesPictures |
| Licensed by | |
| Original network | JNN (TBS) |
| Original run | 6 April 2025 – 21 December 2025 |
| Episodes | 23 |
Both the anime and manga received strong reviews from critics, with the anime winning, amongst other awards, the Anime Trending Awards' Anime of the Year.[4] In Japan, a collaboration event between the series and Kasamatsu Racecourse, the real Oguri Cap's hometown course, led to a record number of visitors visiting the track, and the series being credited with the racecourse's revitalisation after its reputation had been tarnished from a race-fixing scandal the year prior.[5]
Plot
Oguri Cap is a young, stoic racer with an insatiable appetite who starts her humble beginnings as a regional racer in her hometown of Kasamatsu. Her surprising prowess catches the attention of up-and-coming Umamusume trainer Jo Kitahara, and he aims to train her to the best of her abilities with the help of her friend Belno Light. Oguri Cap eventually transitions to the high-profile Twinkle Series races, where she makes her mark as a national idol while competing against the best domestic and international Umamusume of her generation.
Media
Manga
Written by Masafumi Sugiura, produced by Junnosuke Itō, and illustrated by Taiyō Kuzumi, the series was serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Young Jump from 11 June 2020,[6] to 25 December 2025.[7] The first collected tankōbon volume was released on 19 January 2021.[8] As of March 2026[update], twenty-three volumes have been released.[9][10]
Volumes
| No. | Release date | ISBN |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 19 January 2021[8] | 978-4-08-891705-4 |
| 2 | 19 February 2021[11] | 978-4-08-891795-5 |
| 3 | 19 May 2021[12] | 978-4-08-891896-9 |
| 4 | 18 August 2021[13] | 978-4-08-892050-4 |
| 5 | 17 December 2021[14] | 978-4-08-892077-1 |
| 6 | 18 February 2022[15] | 978-4-08-892223-2 |
| 7 | 18 May 2022[16] | 978-4-08-892302-4 |
| 8 | 19 August 2022[17] | 978-4-08-892401-4 |
| 9 | 19 December 2022[18] | 978-4-08-892533-2 |
| 10 | 17 March 2023[19] | 978-4-08-892657-5 |
| 11 | 19 June 2023[20] | 978-4-08-892785-5 |
| 12 | 19 September 2023[21] | 978-4-08-892824-1 |
| 13 | 19 December 2023[22] | 978-4-08-893104-3 |
| 14 | 18 March 2024[23] | 978-4-08-893121-0 |
| 15 | 19 June 2024[24] | 978-4-08-893239-2 |
| 16 | 19 September 2024[25] | 978-4-08-893379-5 |
| 17 | 18 December 2024[26] | 978-4-08-893583-6 |
| 18 | 18 March 2025[27] | 978-4-08-893476-1 |
| 19 | 17 April 2025[28] | 978-4-08-893649-9 |
| 20 | 18 June 2025[29] | 978-4-08-893694-9 |
| 21 | 19 September 2025[30] | 978-4-08-893797-7 |
| 22 | 18 December 2025[31] | 978-4-08-894028-1 |
| 23 | 18 March 2026[9] | 978-4-08-894089-2 |
Anime
An anime television series adaptation was announced on 23 August 2024. It is produced by Cypic and directed by Yūki Itō and Takehiro Miura, with Aki Kindaichi handling series composition, Takuya Miyahara and Keigo Sasaki designing the characters, and Kenji Kawai composing the music.[32] The series aired in two split cours on TBS and its affiliates, with the first cours airing from 6 April to 29 June 2025,[32] and the second cours airing from 5 October to 21 December 2025.[33] For the first cours, the opening theme is "Koeru" (超える; "Surpass"), performed by Alexandros,[34][35][36] while the ending theme is "∞" (Infinity), performed by Oguri Cap (Tomoyo Takayanagi). For the second cours, the opening theme is "Spurt Syndromer" (スパートシンドローマー), performed by 10-Feet, while the ending theme is "Futari" (ふたり; Us), performed by Oguri Cap (Tomoyo Takayanagi) and Tamamo Cross (Naomi Ōzora).[37][38][39] Remow licensed the series for streaming on Amazon Prime Video (North America), the It's Anime YouTube channel (select regions), Anime Onegai (Latin America), ADN (Europe), and Netflix (Asia-Pacific).[40]
Episodes
| No. | Title [41][2] | Directed by [41] | Storyboarded by [41] | Original release date [42] | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part 1 | ||||||||||||
| 1 | "Finally, a Star" Transliteration: "Koko ni Iru" (Japanese: ここにいる) | Tetsuya Akutsu & Ryūta Kawahara | Yuuki Ito | April 6, 2025 | ||||||||
| 2 | "Let Me Race" Transliteration: "Watashi o Rēsu ni Dashite" (Japanese: 私をレースに出して) | Kenta Hayashi | Takashi Sakuma | April 13, 2025 | ||||||||
| 3 | "View from the Top" Transliteration: "Itadaki no Keshiki" (Japanese: 頂の景色) | Takashi Narikawa | Yuuki Ito, Tetsuya Akutsu & Takashi Sakuma | April 20, 2025 | ||||||||
| 4 | "The Junior Crown" Transliteration: "Junia Kuraun" (Japanese: ジュニアクラウン) | Takehiro Shimizu | Takehiro Shimizu | April 27, 2025 | ||||||||
| 5 | "What's Best for Her" Transliteration: "Ichiban no Sentaku" (Japanese: 一番の選択) | Kazuki Horiguchi | Kazuki Horiguchi | May 4, 2025 | ||||||||
| 6 | "The Beast" Transliteration: "Kaibutsu" (Japanese: 怪物) | Takehiro Miura & Haruka Hirota | Takehiro Miura | May 11, 2025 | ||||||||
| 7 | "Tracen Academy" Transliteration: "Toresen Gakuen" (Japanese: トレセン学園) | Yūsuke Kurinishi | Ryūta Kawahara | May 18, 2025 | ||||||||
| 8 | "The Right Stuff" Transliteration: "Tadashiki Shishitsu" (Japanese: 正しき資質) | Hidetoshi Watanabe | Shoko Shiga | May 25, 2025 | ||||||||
| 9 | "The Japanese Derby" Transliteration: "Nippon Dābī" (Japanese: 日本ダービー) | Motomasa Maeda | Tetsuya Akutsu | June 1, 2025 | ||||||||
| 10 | "The Top" Transliteration: "Saikyō" (Japanese: 最強) | Yorihiro Tanimoto | Yuki Ishimatsu | June 8, 2025 | ||||||||
| 11 | "The Star of Kasamatsu" Transliteration: "Kasamatsu no Hoshi" (Japanese: カサマツの星) | Yuki Morishita | Yuki Morishita | June 15, 2025 | ||||||||
| 12 | "The Fall Tenno Sho" Transliteration: "Tennōshō (Aki)" (Japanese: 天皇賞（秋）) | migmi | Takashi Sakuma | June 22, 2025 | ||||||||
| 13 | "Japan's Best" Transliteration: "Nippon Ichi" (Japanese: 日本ー) | Takudai Kakuchi & Daisuke Tsukushi | Takudai Kakuchi | June 29, 2025 | ||||||||
| Part 2 | ||||||||||||
| 14 | "Another Peak to Climb" Transliteration: "Aratana Yama" (Japanese: 新たな山) | Shōgo Ono | Shōgo Ono & Tetsuya Miyanishi | October 5, 2025 | ||||||||
| 15 | "Our Story" Transliteration: "Bokutachi no Monogatari" (Japanese: 僕達の物語) | Yūsuke Kurinishi | Yūsuke Kurinishi | October 12, 2025 | ||||||||
| 16 | "The World's Best" Transliteration: "Sekai Reberu" (Japanese: 世界レベル) | Haruka Hirota | Kurimanjū | October 19, 2025 | ||||||||
| 17 | "The Japan Cup" Transliteration: "Japan Kappu" (Japanese: ジャパンカップ) | Yūto Nakamura & Takashi Narikawa | Takashi Narikawa | November 2, 2025 | ||||||||
| 18 | "Wild Joker" | Motomasa Maeda | Shintaro Matsui & Kengo Matsumoto | November 9, 2025 | ||||||||
| 19 | "A Zone Yet Unknown" Transliteration: "Michi no "Ryōiki"" (Japanese: 未知の"領域") | Yorihiro Tanimoto & Hidetoshi Watanabe | Yorihiro Tanimoto & Hidetoshi Watanabe | November 23, 2025 | ||||||||
| 20 | "The Answer" Transliteration: "Kotae" (Japanese: 答え) | Ichirō Tanaka & Takehiro Shimizu | Takehiro Shimizu | November 30, 2025 | ||||||||
| 21 | "The Arima Kinen" Transliteration: "Arima Kinen" (Japanese: 有マ記念[a]) | Ryo Asahi & Zhe Liu | Seiji Ishigami | December 7, 2025 | ||||||||
| 22 | "Gray Phantom" Transliteration: "Gurei Fantomu" (Japanese: 灰の怪物) | Jun Fujiwara, Kōhei Kido & Takehiro Miura | Jun Fujiwara | December 14, 2025 | ||||||||
| 23 | "A New Era" Transliteration: "Atarashī Jidai" (Japanese: 新しい時代) | Haruka Hirota, Motomasa Maeda & Takuma Suzuki | Yoshinori Nakano | December 21, 2025 | ||||||||
Reception
The manga series was nominated in the seventh Next Manga Awards for the Best Print Manga category and placed second of 50 nominees after Oshi no Ko.[43][44][45]
Between April and June 2025, the anime series was ranked number one in the world in the AniLab Global Weekly Anime Rankings a total of four times.[46] In the spring 2025 season, it took first place in the weekly rankings of Anime Trending, a major voting site for overseas anime fans, in its seventh week, beating out Weekly Shonen Jump's Witch Watch, and continued to hold the top spot until the final episode.[47][48] Uma Musume Cinderella Gray took first place in the weekly rankings of Anime Trending for the fall 2025 season, and won the Best Anime of 2025.[49]
The series later won the Spring Anime Award on Anime Corner.[50] It was described as a "true Cinderella story" as the first time in history that a series topped the final ranking despite not having topped the weekly rankings.[51] Overseas fans and viewers commented on the series' late-stage comeback, saying it was "just like Oguri Cap (from the series)".[50]
Awards and nominations
| Year | Award | Category | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Anime Trending Awards | Anime of the Year | Won | [52][53] |
| Girl of the Year (Oguri Cap) | ||||
| Sports Anime of the Year | ||||
| Supporting Boy of the Year (Jo Kitahara) | ||||
| Supporting Girl of the Year (Belno Light) | ||||
| Best in Adapted Screenplay | ||||
| Best in Animation | ||||
| Best in Character Design | ||||
| Ending Song of the Year ("∞" by Tomoyo Takayanagi) | Nominated | |||
| Best in Soundtrack | ||||
| Best Voice Acting Performance — Female (Tomoyo Takayanagi) | ||||
| Drama Anime of the Year |
Notes
- The eponymous race is rendered as 有馬記念, but with the character for horse (馬, uma) written with two legs instead of four.