Fujimasa March

Umamusume: Cinderella Gray started as a manga in Weekly Young Jump, written by Masafumi Sugiura and drawn by Taiyou Kuzumi. It ran from 2020 to 2025. The anime, made by CygamesPictures and directed by Yuki Ito and Takehiro Miura, was split into two parts. Part 1 aired in spring 2025 with 13 episodes. This Part 2 aired from October 5 to December 21, 2025, with 10 more episodes, for 23 in total. Like all Umamusume stories, it takes place in a world where famous racehorses are reborn as girls with horse ears and tails who run in races. This one is based on the career of Oguri Cap, a real Japanese racehorse from the late 1980s who became a national hero. Because the manga ran in a magazine for adult men, it has a more serious and sporty tone than the cheerful idol side of the franchise. Part 1 told how Oguri Cap began. She was a girl from the small town of Kasamatsu who raced on a local, low-level track. She was quiet, a little odd, and always hungry, eating huge meals at every chance. Her trainer at Kasamatsu, Jo Kitahara, saw that she had a rare gift, and her friend Belno Light stood by her. Oguri soon left her home town for the Twinkle Series, the big national racing league, where the best racers in the country compete. Part 2 picks up with Oguri as a famous name. Her fast rise has made her a star, but she is no longer winning every time. Tamamo Cross, a small but fierce racer who is seen as the best in Japan right now, has beaten her and named her as a rival. At the same time, strong runners from other countries are coming to Japan, and one episode is titled "The Japan Cup," after a real race that brings in top horses from around the world. To keep up, Oguri has to grow past what she thought she could do, both in body and in mind. The show is best known for its races. Each one is long, loud, and tense, with close camera shots of the runners' faces, their breathing, and the crowd's shouts. It also spends time on friendship, hard training, and the people who believe in Oguri, such as her family and her first trainer. Some themes, like language barriers with foreign racers, give Part 2 a wider feel than Part 1. The series was a big hit with fans around the world. The anime ranked first worldwide in AniLab's weekly rankings several times in 2025, topped Anime Trending's weekly charts, and later won Anime of the Year at the Anime Trending Awards in 2026. Its fans like to say the show had a true Cinderella story of its own, just like its hero.