Uma Musume – Episode 9 – Overcoming Fears and Worries

After Special lost another winnable race and realizing her true goal, the Trainer tries a different plan for summer training.

When Special returned to her dorm, Suzuka left her charm. She eventually answered a call with El Pasa and talked to her as she shared her experiences in Europe. The next day, the trainer reflects on what he said to Special as he waits for Suzuka who is having a checkup at the hospital. Suzuka reveals that she is fully recovered. However, she asks if she is being a burden on everyone. The trainer tells her not to worry about it.

Summer training camp starts and the trainer separates Special and Suzuka into two different teams with others split up as well. Even so, Special doesn’t put in all her effort since she still worries about Suzuka. Suzuka on the other hand holds herself back and runs alone most of the time. After witnessing what happened during training, the trainer has to do something. He entices the teams to do a triathlon with the winning team having a dessert buffet at a fancy hotel. The girls decide not to initially, but eventually changes their mind.

Unfortunately, Special and Suzuka is way behind the pack until the Trainer tells them his dream of seeing Special and Suzuka race together and fight each other for first. After hearing this, Special puts in more effort while Suzuka manages to catch up to first place. Of course, all the girls forget the turn and ends up sliding down the wooded hill and eventually ran into the ocean. The girls laughed together after Suzuka started to laugh. Despite no declared winner, the girls along with the trainer had dessert afterwards.

During the fall, the girls watched a race that El Pasa is participating in. She managed to get into the lead. However, Broye overtook her at the last-minute and won. El Pasa eventually calls Special to share her experiences. El Pasa eventually starts crying that she almost won, but still lost. Special decides to run after the phone call and Suzuka decides to join her.

From last time, Special finally realizes that she can’t keep obsessing about Suzuka and needs to focus on her goal. Despite this, she still can’t stop worrying about her. It shows during the training session and triathlon. Special couldn’t stop worrying about Suzuka despite her already being fully healed. I don’t blame her since she has a huge crush on Suzuka.

On the other hand, we also see that Suzuka holding herself back too. This is surprising since she tells the Trainer that she is fully recovered from her injury. Despite this, she is still worried that she is holding everyone back. I supposed that Suzuka noticed that she is holding Special back after witnessing her loss against Grass Wonder.

Still, it’s not a good thing to see Special still worrying about Suzuka while Suzuka holding herself back over the fear that she will injure herself again. It’s nice to see the Trainer eventually intervene and reminds Suzuka about the promise she made to Special during the Triathlon.

At least this gives the motivation for Special to put in the effort and Suzuka to run at her fastest. I find it funny how the girls forgot the turn, slid down the hill and into the ocean. Either way, it’s nice to see Suzuka laugh for the first time after she recovered. It’s not so surprising since she is able to run at her full potential, which she feared that she couldn’t at first.

Aside from that, while this summer camp is the closest we will get to a beach episode, it’s nice to see that Special kept in contact with El Pasa. It’s surprising to see her lose the same way as Special did and she cried on the phone as well. Then again, it could be that Broye is simply better than her.

Aside from that, Special decides to take a run after listening to El Pasa’s experiences. It shows that Special wants to become better so she can reach her goal of becoming Japan’s greatest horse girl. Still, it’s nice to see Suzuka joining her and being back in their game. ¶