Absolutely romped every other race in her career, except for coming in second to Silence Suzuka once and having an Existential Crisis about it (that felt scripted, enough to make me wonder how the rest of the storyline even happens if she wins that one)...

... came in second for the first timestream and all three available time loops in the Arima Kinen and immediately retired.

Maybe I should run it again now that I've three-starred her. At least she'll be wearing the cool outfit.

OTOH, Taiki Shuttle...

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

There are certain races and certain careers where a specific NPC racer is REALLY hard to beat, usually the horse that historically won that race. Doubly so if you're playing the horse that was the favorite on that race and historically was upset.

... sweep!

A near-flawless career that somehow was still only good enough for a B ranking.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

The dance number thing is just part of the business. They're used to it. :)

(Nice Nature even lampshades it a little. She's convinced that she's a side character in the anime of life, and even refers to more prominent peers like McQueen as "protagonists".)

Getting back to football for just a moment, and apropos of nothing to do with horse girls, I only know one English football joke, which I'm pretty sure I heard Stephen Fry tell on some show or another, to wit:

Q. Name the three English football clubs with an obscene word in their names.

A. Arsenal; Scunthorpe; Manchester Fucking United

>"You used to be Steve! You used to be Ste-eve! You're Meguri
>now! You used to be Steve!" -- football chant for any woman named with
>the last name McQueen

There's a social event that comes up when you're training McQueen where you go with her to a movie theater, and she leaves it up to you which film to see. The two choices are thinly disguised parodies of The Towering Inferno and The Great Escape, both films starring Steve McQueen.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Yeeeeeeeeeeeep. Well, unfortunately, it's an anime (adjacent) fandom so they know how to make their money, and that means hitting every target demographic.

That really fits with the way she's depicted in-game, which is that she's not trying to "be the best," but instead is just trying to gain recognition by doing the best she can. Three goals are just reaching a set number of fans, and the final is just appearing in the Arima Kinen. Not winning the race as many of those who have it as their last goal are required to do, so she completes it even if she places dead last with a big grin on her face.

For other girls, winning the race is the goal you spend their entire career working towards. For Haru, just appearing is the goal. The rest of the time, she's just living her best life.

--------------------------
CdrMike, Overwatch Reject

Good thing, too, since she's a dirt sprint specialist and the Arima Kinen is a 2,500-meter race on turf. It's like showing up to a NASCAR event driving a mud pull truck. :)

That said, I'm sure some minmaxing genius or another has figured out a way to build her so she can succeed in her normal career and yet somehow also win the AK. That always happens eventually with stuff the devs intend to be impossible, and the JP version of the game has been out for what, eight years? Plenty of time. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I love that one of the replies to that tweet simply reads, "Escape will make her god."

--G.
FATVM IVSTVM STVLTORVM
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

"We put our faith in BLAST ONEPIECE!"

>Oh hey, Kiryuin, Meek. Have you met my new trainee, Big McLargehuge?

Crow: Slate Fistcrunch!
Mike: Buff Hardback!
Tom: Bob Johnson! Oh, wait...

--------------------------
CdrMike, Overwatch Reject

It's either that, or something Monkey D. Luffy does in the final movie.

Peter Eng
--
Said final movie has not been released yet, but is projected to come out some time this century. Probably.

As a related note, the ear for each of the girls that has a decoration on signifies what gender the actual horse they're representing is IRL.

The one notable exception is Fine Motion who has decorations on both ears, as the RL Fine Motion was pronounced a mare at birth but was later discovered post-retirement to actually be intersex and (sadly) sterile as a result.

--------------------------
CdrMike, Overwatch Reject

Not sure exception is the right word here given that both ears would be 'appropriate' for being intersex.

I meant in the sense that Fine is the only recruitable character with two decorations.

And that's only because Yayoi and Tazuna refuse to remove their hats.

--------------------------
CdrMike, Overwatch Reject

"One of her pranks on McQueen is also tying a pink ribbon to her tail."

(reads on)

"Pink: Mare in estrus."

... yikes, Golshi. Surely that's between McQueen and her trainer.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Presumably one of the other characters associated with the Symboli ranch/clan, but they're not in the international version of the game, so I don't know enough about them to guess which one. :)

--G.
"Here's a hint."
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

The people involved in licensing promotional stuff for Maverick must have been so confused by this application.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

bury me 'til I confess

--G.
also, I was told elsewhere that the Japanese render the actress's name as "Yuma", so the joke wouldn't work. too bad. maybe there's one in there about the town in Arizona? ... nah.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Yeah, the Uma really attached to another Uma relationships are often like that, such as Symboli Rudolf and Tokai Teio (father and son).

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I promise I won't rant about the bowl of stupid that is his later books
"This is probably a stupid question, but . . ."

She is one of the girls I could most believe would turn around and join Tracen as a trainer/teacher. The goofball teacher that the freshmen laugh at until she gets them out on the track and then runs circles around them.

--------------------------
CdrMike, Overwatch Reject

:glances at Maruzensky: I don't think people graduate from Tracen per se...

There's Little Hello whose scenario is far off in the future and she's confirmed as a graduate of Tracen. And don't forget Taz *flash*...sorry, what was I talking about?

--------------------------
CdrMike, Overwatch Reject