Initial Derby
| Initial Derby | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Kanji | ヤマヲカケル！ |
| Romaji | Yama o Kakeru! |
| Air Date | November 27, 2022 |
| Director | Seiya Miyajima |
| Songs | |
| Ending Song | Dance 2 Endless Beat |
| Episode Guide | |
| Previous | Otonashi's New Scoop |
| Next | Curse of the Umamusume |
Initial Derby is the 9th episode of the Umayuru anime.
Summary
In an Initial D homage, four Umamusume race on a winding mountain asphalt road closed off to traffic.
Plot
Maruzensky and other Umamusume watch Twin Turbo, Daiwa Scarlet and Air Shakur, with Happy Meek behind them, race at night on a mountain asphalt road with uphill and downhill portions and turns closed off to road traffic.
Going into the last turn, Happy Meek uses 
Rushing Gale!Rushing Gale!
一陣の風
Increase acceleration on a straight. and takes the lead, but Maruzensky points out that it is meant for straightaways and puts her in danger of not making the turn. Happy Meek then executes an inertia drift (Scandinavian flick) to take the corner to Maruzensky's shock, and then Twin Turbo, Daiwa Scarlet and Air Shakur also execute the same drift behind her, refusing to concede.
At this point, Maruzensky loses control and proclaims, "We're all winnin' girlies! Fever night!", and it cuts to a disco stage with a crowd in front of it and them in bodycon dresses with fluffy fans, save for Air Shakur, who is in her Magic Number DJ outfit at a DJ booth.
Characters
Image Gallery
Trivia
The episode includes a large number of Initial D references:
- The track being similar to an Initial D touge track, as well as the use of the inertia drift.
- Most of the Umamusume bib numbers are references to major Initial D characters' cars:
- Happy Meek – 86 – Toyota Sprinter Trueno AE86 (Takumi Fujiwara)
- Air Shakur – 7 – Mazda RX-7 FD (Keisuke Takahashi)
- This also references the gap between the real horse and the victor of the Japanese Derby, Agnes Flight, being 7cm.
- Twin Turbo – 32 – Nissan GT-R V-Spec II BNR32 (Takeshi Nakazato)
- In real life, the R32 has a twin turbo for its newer variants.
- There is also a reference for Daiwa Scarlet's #12 with the Delorean DMC 12, a car which was shown briefly in the Initial D series. It also reference the real horse not being placed 3rd or lower on its entire career.
- Others have said that reading 1 and then 2 in Japanese produces something similar to "Initial", meaning this together with the first letter of Daiwa Scarlet's name would create a pun.
- The Umayuru font being similar to that of Initial D.
- Dance 2 Endless Beat being a Eurobeat song, which is the genre that the Initial D soundtrack is known for.
- Para Para was a dance style for the Eurobeat genre. However, it does not connect to Initial D itself.
- Predates the official Initial D arcade collaboration starring Special Week, Silence Suzuka and Tokai Teio by 3 1/2 years.