Fanfic / They are born to run (and love)

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Uma Musume. They are born to run, chasing the dream of glorious races at the end of their unknown destiny. A truth the world accepts with pride. Lesser known? They’re all giant dumbasses. Nutcases, every single one. Degrees vary, but the madness is universal.
Trainers. The vital partners who support those dazzling dreams. Also: long-suffering souls tasked with preventing suicide via training exhaustion, teaching basic common sense, and defending their own human rights from girls who could shoulder-check them into another prefecture.
Yet somehow, the bonds they share are real. Each varies, sometimes like mentor and pupil, sometimes like family, and often… dangerously close to developing rom-coms or full-blown romance.
So, when their Uma Musume inevitably does something unhinged, what can a Trainer do?
Be the stern adult? The exasperated straight man praying for divine intervention?
…Or just get dumber in return.
This is a collection of short stories — of those bonds and such nonsense that unfolds when the world’s most powerful girls meet the only people brave (dumb) enough to try and guide them.

Summary on Archive of Our Own

An anthology series depicting scenes with various Umamusume and their trainers, usually showing them getting into some shenanigans. Most of the trainers are OCs that play off their trainee’s quirks quite well and all love them in their own way. From the (metaphorical) Struggling Single Mother to the ragebaiting childhood crush to the mean Fairy Godmother. The stories occasionally have references to each other but it’s been Confirmed that they aren’t necessarily in the same setting and therefore are open to things that’d otherwise cause a Continuity Snarl. 

Tropes

All SPOILERS are unmarked!

• Accidental Pun: Marvelous Sunday, in reference to a similar event in Nice Nature’s career, didn’t realize why talking about “a truly marvelous Sunday morning” was so funny.
• Actually, I Am Her: Riko’s deductions about Akikawa not actually being Northern Taste’s “teenage daughter” were almost on point, except for one key detail: Akikawa is Northern Taste.
• Adaptational Explanation: 
  • The fic establishes that Taiki Shuttle’s gun is fully functional but only ever filled with rubber bullets.
  • Maruzensky is still at Tracen because she keeps getting new degrees just for an excuse to stay there, having lost count at four or five in a chapter that takes place before the Golden Generation’s debut.
  • The circumstances behind how and why Tokino Minoru and Northern Taste have adopted their new identities as Tazuna Hayakawa and Yayoi Akikawa respectively are described in the former’s chapters. 
• Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Sunday Silence, while possessing Manhattan Cafe, has a habit of doing this to their progeny like Special Week and Fuji Kiseki.
• Affectionate Nickname: Several, some canon and some original to the fic.
• All There in the Manual: The character notes give quite a bit of information about them, especially the OCs.
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Tina’s reaction to learning about Special Week’s harem? Giving her full support in the most embarrassing way possible.
• Ambiguous Gender: Sunday Silence has Past-Life Memories from when they were male and, while they’re likely close enough to an Umamusume to be part of the One-Gender Race, their lack of a physical body makes it unclear how much this matters in terms of their gender identity. Them claiming to be both Manhattan Cafe’s mother and father adds to the ambiguity.
  • The narration would later go on to refer to Sunday Silence as female but whether this is simply due to them using Cafe’s body or representative of their gender identity is still unknown.
• Ambiguously Related: A variant. According to a dubiously canon omake, Ryusei is either 1/64th or 1/32nd Mejiro.
• Amicable Exes: Zig-Zagged with Genta and Tazuna, who still care about each other but are Vitriolic Best Buds who an outside observer would think are mortal enemies.
  Character notes: Best friends, partners, lovers, bitter exes, amicable exes, all of those terms describe what Genta and Tazuna have and had.
• Ascended Fanon: Quite a few common theories are presented as fact in the fic, most notably the true identities of Tazuna, Akikawa and Manhatten’s “Friend.”
• Ascended Meme: A good portion of the chapters are inspired by various memes, though it’s sometimes Downplayed like when Grass Wonder ended up not actually being a Yandere.
• Bait-and-Switch: 
  • At first it seemed like Ryo’s Look Behind You ploy was just Blatant Lies but there really was something resembling a “spontaneous parade” in TM Opera O’s honor: a group of elementary school students who recognized her.
  • Kaoru was terrified that Grass Wonder was leading her behind a rock to… take out her frustrations on her but it was actually just to talk about their feelings in a mature manner.
  • Downplayed. The list of things McQueen seemed likely to ask Shinnosuke wasn’t exactly short, but him petting her was certainly not one of them.
  • At the start of Agnes Tachyon’s second chapter, Shinji seemed like he was piecing together that she’d fallen in love with him… only to misinterpret her embarrassment as her being ashamed to have him as a trainer.
    • And before long Tachyon seemed like she was going to make a confession to him but instead concluded that she’s merely in heat.
  • What did the being possessing Manhattan Cafe do when pouncing on a terrified Spe? Pat her head.
  • What grand mission is Sunday Silence pushing their spirit to the limit for? Excessive Gifting for their children and something to do with their love for McQueen.
  • Red Desire sensed two “demonic presences” following her, which initially seemed to refer to Ryusei and Tachyon, but it actually was Sunday Silence and Neo Universe.
• Big Eater: 
  • Oguri Cap and Special Week, as per canon.
  • Sunday Silence, while possessing Manhattan Cafe, spent over an hour eating like a wild animal that hadn’t eaten in years… which is probably not that far from the truth given the circumstances.  There’s also some hints that this has some sort of supernatural significance.
• Blatant Lies: Even if it wasn’t an observed fact, Ryusei’s claim that he didn’t love Manhattan Cafe back still wouldn’t fool anyone. “My feelings aren’t mutual” isn’t something you say about someone with unrequited love towards you, after all.
• Boyfriend-Blocking Dad: Miho may not literally be Urara and King Halo’s mother, but she very much is their mother figure, and she outright says that she’s “not ready to give [her] baby away” whenever they seem like they’re about to get in a relationship. This manifested in her being paranoid that Kenta (a middle schooler) was in fact a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who was trying to manipulate Haru Urara and scaring off a trainer asking King Halo for advice.^note Though in her defense, the trainer is implied to be an Early-Bird Cameo from a canon character who will go on to have genuine Ship Tease with her.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Shinnosuke doesn’t take anything seriously unless it’s the day of the race or he’s discussing pranks with Gold Ship. Despite this, Mejiro McQueen has absolute faith in his abilities as a trainer… even though he gets on her nerves.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: It’d be easier to list the trainers who aren’t this. And even then, they’re likely to prove Not So Above It All like Miho.
• Butt-Monkey: 
  • Both of Mejiro McQueen’s chapters detail the misery that comes from having to deal with two people who show their love by ragebaiting her on a daily basis.
  • Poor Spe, always getting caught in the crossfire of crazy situations like unwittingly gathering an Unwanted Harem and a Sunday Silence-possessed Manhatten Cafe scaring the living daylights out of her.
• Call-Back: Himeno noted that Haru Urara was the person who needed the prize of quality running shoes the most, in reference to Miho’s Struggling Single Mother portrayal in her first chapter.
• Can't Hold Their Liquor: 
  • Riko Kashimoto, being both a girlboss and a girlfailure, couldn’t bring herself to refuse a toast from Director Akikawa… and passed out drunk from “a single, delicate, almost microscopic sip.”
    Maruzensky: She… she’s not just a lightweight… she’s a… a one-sip wonder.
  • And then Maruzensky, despite her claims that she’s a champion drinker in comparison to Kashimoto having merit, learned that hard way that that doesn’t disqualify her from this trope; drunkenly calling out for her wife who’s been gone for less than 48 hours.
• Can't Spit It Out: 
  • Smart Falcon, as per canon. It’s a constant source of misery for her.
  • Riko Kashimoto can’t approach Inui Ren in a way that’s unrelated to work, leaving him completely oblivious to her affections. 
• The Casanova: 
  • Isamu, prior to promising to “get his act together” for Nice Nature.
  • Genta’s reputation as a trainer is matched only by his reputation for flirting. 
• Central Theme: The relationship between a trainer and their trainee is one of love, romantic or otherwise. 
• Childhood Friend Romance: Deconstructed. While Smart Falcon may be in love with Makoto, her trainer/producer sees them becoming romantically involved as an impossibly in no small part because they’ve had this steady connection for so long. This is best exemplified by Eishin Flash’s many plans for Falco being impossible because they’d already been done.
  • Same to a lesser extent with McQueen and Shinnosuke, as the former thinks her feelings for the latter are remnants of her childhood crush on him when she really does love him in the present.
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: 
  • Most of the OC trainers are this to some extent but Ryo (TM Opera O’s trainer) takes the cake. When he’s not too swept up into her hype, anyway.
  • Tazuna, as per canon, seems to have dedicated her life to being this for her friends.
• Clueless Chick-Magnet: Special Week apparently has a harem without even realizing it and just one line from her had the French Umamusume squeeing and asking to keep her.
• The Comically Serious: Neo Universe’s Lame Pun Reaction was to explain in great detail why Sunday Silence’s joke does not work with a completely deadpan expression, which is ironically funnier than said joke.  
• Cool Car: According to Maruzensky, Genta’s car is second only to her “beloved Tata.”
• Cover Innocent Eyes and Ears: A dubiously canon omake depicting Agnes Tachyon’s “research” into estrus cycles had several onlookers but when Daiwa Scarlet was about to show up they knew that they had to keep her from seeing… whatever Tachyon was doing.
• Covert Pervert: The biggest obstacle to Kaoru’s attempts to maintain her image as a Yamato Nadeshiko is her tendency to ogle the beautiful Umamusume she spends time with. She also has a massive stash of dirty GL magazines.
• Crazy Cat Lady: Discussed in a (dubiously canon) omake. According to Sunday Silence, Manhattan Cafe would be one if it wasn’t for dorm regulations.
• Crazy-Prepared: Eishin Flash, as per canon. She has emergency backup plans in case her emergency backup plans fail and created a plan for what to do just in case she ever met someone she wanted to date.
  • According to Smart Falcon, Makoto is a close second to Flash.
• Cuteness Proximity: Shinji inspired this reaction when Tachyon de-aged him into a child, in contrast to his normal appearance.
• Cutting Off the Branches: Team Sunny Runners is established as the one that beat Riko Kashimoto in the Unity Cup and ended Operation Oversight.
• A Day in the Limelight: Each of the chapters primarily focus on one trainee/trainer pair.
• Deadpan Snarker: 
  • Kiriko’s sense of humor is “dry enough to desiccate fruit.”
  • Ryusei is no slouch either, as shown by him dryly calling science Tachyon’s “one true love” while inwardly smirking about her obvious feelings for Shinji.
• Deal with the Devil. Well, not really, but Sunday Silence played into Red Desire expecting this to Troll her.
• Demonic Possession: Sunday Silence mixes this with Familial Body Snatcher by possessing Manhattan Cafe and trapping her soul in a mirror.
• Did I Say That Out Loud: Eishin Flash didn’t realize that she’d vocalized her reaction to Falco’s describing of the situation with Makoto until the latter responded.
• Disco Dan: Maruzensky thinks that Dexter's Laboratory is a “new foreign show that everyone was apparently into these days.” What makes this strange is that her age is later listed as “28+” and as such she’s unlikely to even predate the show.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Shinji’s physical training may have made him a physically better guinea pig for Tachyon… but it also made her struggle to focus on her research when he was around. Her first chapter, which detailed an attempt to diminish that went catastrophically wrong, was literally called “Distraction.” 
• Doting Parent/Doting Grandparent: Sunday Silence. When they got to spend a day in Manhatten Cafe’s body they spent most of that time engaging in Excessive Gifting, headpats and other forms of pampering their progeny. 
• Dramatic Irony: It’s pretty easy for the audience to figure out who and what Sunday Silence is as well as what they’re talking about, but Ryusei and Agnes Tachyon couldn’t possibly understand any of it.
• Drowning Her Sorrows: Both Riko and Maruzensky thought they were just going out for some drinks with some work friends… only to be drunkenly wailing about their romantic issues.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Several characters that the author plans on including in a later chapter have made brief cameos, such as Nice Nature’s Sneeze Cut before playing a major role in Urara’s second chapter and getting her own chapter.
• Epic Fail: 
  • Agnes Tachyon tried to create a concoction that would make Shinji less… distracting, only for things to go catastrophically wrong when he was de-aged into a child whose cuteness that left her acting even more irrationally.
  • Shinji’s attempts to figure out why Tachyon got so flustered around him showed just how much of a Kindhearted Simpleton he truly was.
  Tachyon: Trainer-Kun. You have, with spectacular inaccuracy, managed to misinterpret every single data point and arrive at a conclusion so fundamentally incorrect it loops back around to being a fascinating case study in flawed logic.
• Everyone Can See It: 
  • Nice Nature might as well have a tattoo on her face saying “I love my trainer.” 
  • Ryusei was shocked to learn that just about everyone knew he had feelings for Cafe.
  • Ryusei Implied that Tachyon’s feelings for Shinji are an open secret.
• Everyone Has Standards: 
  • Ryo considers it his duty and pleasure to be TM Opera O’s butler^note Going so far as to receive the required training just to Invoke The Jeeves. who follows her commands, “rejoices” people whose greatness she wishes to be recognized and extols her beauty. But he draws the line at rejoicing Meisho Doto’s curves, as he’s a man pushing 30 and she wouldn’t appreciate it in the slightest.
  • There were several onlookers to Agnes Tachyon’s “experiments” into estrus cycles, but they all knew better than to let Daiwa Scarlet see them.
• Excessive Gifting: Thanks to Neo Universe, Sunday Silence could get things from just about anywhere. Even ones that don’t exist in their universe like personalized ASMR from a version of Vodka who wouldn’t be too embarrassed to do so. Naturally this led to their family getting extravagant gifts like a mountain of puppies for Admire Vega, a stack of rare books for Zeno Rob Roy and a massive collection of Vodka merchandise for Red Desire.
• Expy: Well, it initially was unintentional, but the author eventually decided to run with the fact that Ryusei looks and acts a lot like Leon Kennedy.
• Freudian Slip: 
  • Spe was too caught up in the revelation of her Unwanted Harem and her parents being in a relationship to think on it, but Akikawa mentioning that she was a student at Tracen made it pretty clear that she was an Umamusume and not a teenager.
  • Sunday Silence frequently lets slip information about people’s non-Umamusume counterparts when they don’t mean to. Downplayed, since it only leads to them smirking at how the others wouldn’t understand it anyway. 
• Foil: 
  • Each of the Original Character trainers are this to their trainee in some way. 
  • Kiriko and Maruzensky’s relationship parallels that of Genta and Tazuna, being what they could have if their lifestyles weren’t so incompatible.
• Foreshadowing: Red Desire sensing two “demonic presences” hinted that there was supernatural being besides Sunday Silence nearby, which was later revealed to be Neo Universe.
• Gratuitous French: The French Umamusume being trained by Genta speak primarily in French. El Condor Pasa also spoke some and taught Special Week a certain phrase from Dexter's Laboratory.
• Gratuitous Spanish: El Condor Pasa, as per canon. 
• Heroic RRoD: The circumstances are still unclear but Sunday Silence’s spirit seems to be suffering the longer they use Manhattan Cafe’s body. Despite this, they refuse to give it up until they’re done with their checklist for the day. 
• Hidden Depths: Shinnosuke is apparently a fantastic baker, if he ever bothers to make something.
• Hypocrite: 
  • Symboli Rudolf’s attempts to disparage Tokai Teio for her crush on Aruto Godai fell flat when it became clear that her relationship with him was Not So Different when she was her age. Downplayed since the crux of the issue (him being taken and her being unwilling to share) was very much not hypocritical.
  • Tazuna’s attempts to disparage Genta for his… activities fell flat once it was established what she was doing at those “morale-boosting dinners” with various trainers.
• I Gave My Word: Exaggerated. Isamu was blackout drunk when promising not to date anyone until he and Nice Nature are ready to get together, but his inability to break a promise ensures that he’ll keep it despite not even remembering said promise.
• I Know Your True Name: Discussed. Sunday Silence claims that this is why they introduced themself as “Shizuka.”
• Implausible Deniability: Poor Special Week’s attempts to deny the existence of her Unwanted Harem tend to have this result but the worst of them was right after a certain… experience with a trio of French Umamusume that left her unable to do anything but pretend.
  Tazuna: It means you may have more complicated social dynamics than you realized.
  Spe: I don’t have dynamics! I have friends! Normal friends! Who don’t jump out windows or give me scary smiles or call me a pet on the internet.^note To make matters worse, she literally just described how her friends did just that.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: Exaggerated in a dubiously canon omake, where Riko drank some alcohol to knock herself out so she didn’t have to deal with Spe’s harem declaring war on France.
• Informed Attribute: The character notes describe Makoto as “a snarky little shit” around those she’s close to but her portrayal so far has been that of a Consummate Professional. Justified, since (barring a brief flashback) all of her scenes are in a professional setting.
• It Never Gets Any Easier: Haru has been confessed to several times but she isn’t ready for a relationship and therefore has to turn them all down. And no matter how many times someone cries because of it, she’s miserable as a result.
• Insane Troll Logic: Agnes Tachyon believes that she never could let romantic feelings distract her so she must simply be in heat. A mere biological reaction, nothing more.
• Insecure Love Interest:
  • A rare mutual case. Nice Nature sees herself as side character who won’t get the guy and Isamu sees himself as too much of a playboy to be trusted with her heart.
  • Ryusei has had nothing but messy relationships in the past and therefore rejected Manhatten Cafe solely because he believed that she’d be better off without him. Agnes Tachyon and Sunday Silence disagree with this assessment. 
• Insistent Terminology: Eishin Flash did not make a “manual” for romantic circumstances. She made “a structured analysis of social bonding behaviors with… potential romantic outcomes.”
• In Vino Veritas: Nice Nature’s chapter focused around Isamu drunkenly confessing to various things he wouldn’t admit when sober.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Discussed in Smart Falcon’s chapter, where she said she’d accept if Makoto ever found someone who made her smile “in a way I never could” and would even sing her happiest song at her wedding… even if she knows she’d be miserable if that happened.
• I Will Wait for You: Nature pressured Isamu into making this promise after learning that he felt the same way as her. A promise that he’ll keep despite not even remembering it.
• The Jailbait Wait: Aruto Godai and Symboli Rudolf started developing feelings before the latter turned 18 but only started dating afterwards.
• The Jeeves: Ryo appointed herself as TM Opera O’s butler (and received the required training) entirely to Invoke this trope.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: 
  • The first half of the chapter focusing on Himeno Seki was a stream of supposed Kick the Dog moments… and the second half revealed that most of them were in fact quite the opposite.
  • There’s a reason why Sunday Silence called Ryusei a “snarky bastard with a heart of gold” in a (dubiously canon) omake. He may act like he doesn’t care about the people around him but has nonetheless dedicated his life to protecting Cafe from various supernatural threats and once yelled at a visiting official from the URA that “if you try to take her from me, I will make your career disappear.” 
• "Just Joking" Justification: Tokai Teio and Aruto Godai both had to resort to this to placate Symboli Rudolf after seeing her reaction to their suggestion to share Aruto and transfer Teio to a trainer that’s single respectively. 
• Kid-anova: Haru Urara was this as a kid. Apparently she was confessed to almost every week and went on dates with several boys and girls. Deconstructed since she just wanted to be friends with them and her kind nature made it hurt every time she had to confirm that she wasn’t ready for a romantic relationship, as she was just a child… but Reconstructed when it became clear that this led to her being good at finding ways to let people down gently.
• Kindhearted Simpleton: Shinji is not the brightest tool in the shed, but he’s a Nice Guy with Undying Loyalty to Agnes Tachyon.
• Large Ham: TM Opera O (as per canon) and Ryo love to “rejoice” people they see as exceptional, especially the Overlord of Century’s End herself.
• Like a Daughter to Me: 
  • It’s not for nothing that Miho fits the Boyfriend-Blocking Dad and Struggling Single Mother tropes for Urara and King.
  • Tokai Teio was pretty much immediately “daughter-zoned” by Aruto Godai.
  • Averted with Sunday Silence, who’s well aware of thsir real life counterpart’s blood relation and sees the Umamusume counterparts of their progeny as blood relatives.
• Look Behind You: Played with. When TM Opera O was pressuring Ryo into “rejoining” Meisho Doto’s physique, he distracted her by pointing out a “spontaneous parade” that’d been formed in her honor so Doto would be able to escape. Naturally, despite Narita Top Road Lampshading that this is one of the oldest tricks in the book, Opera O fell for it… and was delighted to see a group of elementary school children that’d recognized her.
• Love at First Sight: Isamu fell for Nice Nature day one and thought that treating her professionally would help him get over it. He was wrong.
• Loving a Shadow: One of the main draws of the fic is how far it goes to Defy this trope.
• Loving Bully: Gold Ship, as per canon, is this to Mejiro McQueen but Shinnosuke takes it a step further by making her wait a whole week for the rare dessert he’d promised her and then claimed that he was going to eat it himself, just to mess with her. Being her Childhood Friend means he knows just what buttons to push to make her furious.
• Luminescent Blush:
  • Unfortunately for Kaori, no amount of Yamato Nadeshiko behavior can prevent her face from turning red. 
  • Special Week being told that she’s a Clueless Chick-Magnet made her a blushing mess.
  • Genta and Akikawa asking a certain question about Tazuna’s hat left her crimson.
  • Ryusei’s face went through every shade of red through Sunday Silence’s "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
  • Sunday Silence made Red Desire into a Meaningful Name by turning her red with what she desires.
• Mad Scientist: Agnes Tachyon, as per canon. Being her guinea pig has left Shinji “poisoned, inflated, shrunken, electrified, and dyed every shade of the spectrum.” Probably much more. 
• Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex: Inverted. Due to their superhuman strength, having sex with an Umamusume is… dangerous. Kiriko was hospitalized on her honeymoon with Maruzensky and Genta looked like he’d been beaten black and blue after his night with Tazuna.
• Meaningful Name: Well, meaningful alias, but Sunday Silence called themselves “Shizuka” which literally means “silence.”
• Money Dumb: Akikawa, as per canon. One of Genta’s first lines was to comment on how Tracen Academy is full of expensive stuff nobody needs and Tazuna had to tell her not to buy a vineyard just because Riko Kashimoto Can't Hold Her Liquor.
• My Sister Is Off-Limits: King Halo is Implied to see Haru Urara as a little sister figure and had the same reaction to her date with Kenta as Miho. 
• Mythology Gag: 
  • Oguri Cap’s chapters are chock full of Cinderella Gray references.
  • Rudolfs/Teio’s chapter isn’t the first time Marvelous Sunday made an Accidental Pun off of her name.
  • The first step in Eishin Flash’s plan for Smart Falcon to woo Makoto was a dinner with her parents, which she did at the start of her career with her own trainer.
  • Tazuna and Riko’s romantic escapades were both in reference to their recreation events.
• Named by the Adaptation: 
  • The trainers generally are OC Stand Ins for characters with no canon name.
  • Special Week’s parents are unnamed in canon (albeit based on real people) but in the fic they’re named Tina Price^note Which is indeed the name of her real life counterpart and Amazing Week.
  • Downplayed with Maruzensky, who has a family name (Tomari) that she eventually plans on adopting the same way Tazuna/Tokino Minoru and Akikawa/Northern Taste changed their names after retiring.
  • A variant. Manhattan Cafe’s “Friend” is confirmed to be Sunday Silence and has “Shizuka” as an alias.
• Never Bareheaded: Tazuna and Akikawa, as per canon. Tazuna apparently takes it a step further by keeping her hat on during her… engagements with various male trainers.
• Noodle Incident: Genta has several.
• The Not-Love Interest: While all of the trainers love their trainees and vice versa, this does not necessarily refer to romantic love.
• "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer: Since Neo Universe (as of writing) isn’t in the global server, the author felt the need to confirm that they did not make up her powers for their story.
• Not Me This Time: 
  • In the omake detailing the declaration of war Special Week’s harem made against France, Seiun Sky was crucified alongside El Condor Pasa despite having no part in what occurred.
  • Manhatten Cafe becoming a Big Eater while possessed by Sunday Silence was easily explained away as the result of an experimental drug by Agnes Tachyon, even though that wasn’t the cause.
• Not So Different: Symboli Rudolf’s relationship with Aruto Godai was quite similar to what Tokai Teio had envisioned with him. It started as a Precocious Crush that led to a five year Age-Gap Romance when Teio is ten years younger than him, they hid their feelings for arbitrary reasons^note Rudolf and Godai had been hiding it for so long that they simply hadn’t thought about going public and Teio was just awkward saying stuff like that around her. and the jokes about Teio becoming a Yandere fell flat when the Emperor looked ready to murder her for suggesting they share. Word of God confirms that this is very much intentional.
• Oblivious to Love: 
  • Shinji’s attempts to understand Tachyon’s feelings were “a fascinating case study in flawed logic.”
  • Special Week apparently garnered a harem and a reputation as a “womanizer” without even realizing it and somehow didn’t realize that her moms were a lesbian couple.
  • Subverted. At first Urara seemed to be completely oblivious to Kenta’s Precocious Crush on her but her acting like he just wanted to be friends was actually her way of letting him down gently.
  • Exaggerated with Makoto Hoshizora, who goes beyond being “unaware” of Smart Falcon’s affections by outright saying that dating Smart Falcon is “an impossibility.” On national television.
  • Inui Ren, Matikanefukukitaru‘s trainer, is woefully oblivious to the affections of a certain girlboss/girlfailure due to her inability to approach him in a way that isn’t professional.
• Older Than They Look:
  • Narita Top Road was very surprised to learn that Ryo was pushing 30.
  • Turns out that Akikawa, despite looking like a literal child, is in fact one of if not the oldest character in the story.
• Only Sane Woman: 
  • When Miho and King Halo decided to follow Urara and Kenta on their date, Nice Nature had to go with them so they wouldn’t do anything stupid. She then spent the whole time Lampshading how ordinary the date is whenever the other two tried to paint something as suspicious. 
  • Once Riko and Maruzensky got drunk, Tazuna was the only one in the group who had a modicum of self-control.
• OOC Is Serious Business:
  • Genta knew Tazuna was going to reject him when her reaction to his proposal was kissing him instead of punching him.
  • Manhattan Cafe normally is quite the opposite of a Big Eater so when she spent an hour eating like a girl possessed, everyone was absolutely baffled.
• Open Mouth, Insert Foot: Kaoru’s attempts to maintain her Yamato Nadeshiko image led to her accidentally telling off Grass Wonder in a way that was neither deserved nor wise.
• Precision F-Strike: “When are you going to stop being a pussy and fuck my daughter already?”
• Perennial Loser: Deconstructed. Haru Urara’s attitude may make her beloved all over Japan but that love doesn’t translate to actual yen and as such Miho is forced to play the part of a Struggling Single Mother. 
• Perpetual Frowner: Ryusei. 
• Precocious Crush:
  • Both Rudolf and Teio had this on Godai when he became their trainer, with a five a ten year age gap respectively. Unusually for this trope Rudolf actually did become his partner after she became of age… but Teio got “daughter-zoned” as per normal.
  • Kenta is a middle schooler who asked Haru Urara on a date. Downplayed, since the latter is still barely young enough to qualify as a Kid-anova. 
• Punny Name: According to a (dubiously canon) okake Manhatten Cafe’s favorite coffee mug, which she talks to when she thinks nobody is around, is named “Toren-Nya-San.”^note Trainer-San
• Rage Breaking Point: Both of Mejiro McQueen’s childhood friends show their love by ragebaiting her and it shows in how both her chapters end:
  • First Shinnosuke makes her wait a whole week for the rare dessert an promised her, then opens a box she naturally assumed it was in… only for it to contain knives and finally claimed that he was going to have it all to himself when she “accidentally” got to see it. Her queenly demeanor shattered as she violently attacked the “lazy, promise- breaking, cake-hoarding bastard who dared call her ‘Queenie’ in that infuriatingly casual tone.”
  • Then when she finally relaxed by eating cake in Shinnosuke’s lap while he pet her, Gold Ship showed up and snapped a picture of them together. Leaping through the window, she demanded the photo in a voice that was “neither human or Umamusume” and when Goldshi said she wouldn’t make it public but would show it to everyone, she was quite literally homocidal. Shinnosuke had to call Gold Ship’s trainer and ask for her to tranquilize his poor trainee.
• Really 700 Years Old: Well, assuming the narration saying that Akikawa/Northern Taste having witnessed “a century of human history” is literal. Word of God states that they don’t think the “age like elves” thing is literal… but that Akikawa is just built different. To add to the ambiguity, her age is later officially listed as “40++++.”
• Really Gets Around: 
  • Tazuna accuses Genya of “collecting STDs like they’re souvenir pins” and she’s implied to not be much better.
  • Subvered with Isamu. While he certainly has earned his reputation for being a massive flirt, his character bio confirms that he “doesn’t actually sleep around that much.” 
  • Sunday Silence, due to their real life counterpart having so many children, is this by the standards of the other characters.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Sunday Silence gave Ryusei a scathing one about how poorly he’s handling the situation with Manhatten Cafe’s love for him.
  Boy, you’re not just lacking in balls. You’re lacking in brains too. The complete package of uselessness. […] You follow her around like a shadow. You carry her halfway across campus when she’s tired. You stand guard when she talks to spirits like some kind of grumpy watchdog. And don’t think I didn’t notice that. Cafe noticed too. She notices everything you do, because she’s completely gone for you, and you’re over here acting like some kind of long-suffering saint who’s just doing his job. A Trainer’s duty, my ass. You do things for her that no contract requires. You worry about her in ways that have nothing to do with racing. You look at her like she hung the moon and then turn around and pretend you don’t feel a thing. It’s pathetic. Honestly, genuinely pathetic.
• Related in the Adaptation: While they canonically have a father daughter relationship that’s not quite figurative, it’s stated that Rudolf and Teio are distant cousins here.
• Retired Badass: Maruzensky, who keeps getting degrees just for an excuse to stay at Tracen despite having officially retired as a racer.
• Rule of Funny: This is the law of the land, to the point that the most serious scenes are the result of the author unintentionally writing it that way because it makes more sense.
• Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: 
  • To get out of Ryo “rejoicing” her curves, Meisho Doto did something that countless people, including her, thought was impossible: outrun TM Opera O.
  • Nice Nature could only handle 6 compliments from Isamu’s Unishment before fleeing in embarrassment.
  • Eventually Agnes Tachyon couldn’t deal with the Sunday Silence situation anymore and subsequently retreated to her lab.
• Shipper on Deck: 
  • Pretty much all of Isamu and Nice Nature’s friends (except Twin Turbo) ship the two of them. Especially Gou^note Mejiro Ryan’s trainer, who purposely set up a situation where Isamu would drunkenly confess his feelings to Nature.
  • Hoshizora Makoto’s parents and Eishin Flash are supportive of Smart Falcon’s wish to be with Makoto.
  • Exaggerated with Sunday Silence, who quite literally asked Ryusei when he was going to “fuck [their] daughter.”
• Shout-Out: 
  • Rudolf and Godai’s relationship is largely inspired by Idonum’s fancomics depicting such domestic situations.
  • What meme French line did El teach Special Week? Omelette du fromage. It even had the same effect as in the show.
  • When describing how Himeno was partially inspired by Caster Gilgamesh, the author outright stated that Heroic Myth is their favorite fanfic. 
  • Sunday Silence compared themself to a Heroic Spirit, with Ryusei Lampshading the obvious reference.
  • The dubiously canon omake after Manhattan Cafe’s second chapter was loaded with references to Resident Evil.
  • Sunday Silence compared Neo Universe to D4C… with a terrible pun about their “Dutiful Dependable Daughter’s Dimensional Ctravel.”
• Shout-Out Theme Naming: All of the Original Characters are named after Toku characters, usually from Kamen Rider or Super Sentai. 
• Skeptic No Longer: Played for Laughs with Agnes Tachyon, whose exasperation with Sunday Silence’s antics involved this.
• Sneeze Cut: When Tokai Teio asked if it’d be too much to ask for for someone to love her, no less than three people sneezed to show that the answer was a resounding yes. This was Lampshaded by Mejiro McQueen wondering if someone was talking about her and Marvelous Sunday claiming that someone was talking about Nice Nature.
• Spoiled Sweet: Downplayed. Isamu’s character profile mentions that “it’s nothing short of a miracle” that he’s well adjusted despite his rich family spoiling him.
• Stalker Without a Crush: Miho, King Halo and Nice Nature^note Who was just there so the other two wouldn’t do anything stupid. were stalking Haru Urara’s date with Kenta just in case the latter would try something.
• Status Quo Is God: As Lampshaded in the author’s notes, Isamu forgetting his interaction with Nature was to maintain the status quo.
• Stealth Pun: Sunday Silence took 20 minutes to start explaining their situation to Ryusei and Agnes Tachyon. Or, in other words, they spent that time in silence.
• Struggling Single Mother: Miho may not be Urara or King Halo’s literal mother but she is their mother figure and fits the archetype, having had to work multiple jobs to make up for Urara not winning them enough prize money before King Halo made a deal that the writer outright called “reverse adoption.”
• Take That!:
  • When discussing Tachyon and Shinji’s relationship in the character notes, the author couldn’t resist making a jab at the common mischaracterization of the former as a Yandere.
  • When describing the one situation where someone besides Rudolf would be in a relationship with Aruto, the character notes clarified that Teio would never be that person because “this certainly isn’t Street Fighter 6.”
• Tempting Fate: Red Desire was under the impression that Sunday Silence was about to offer her a Deal with the Devil and proudly declared that there was nothing they could offer her to tempt her... only to be proven wrong when shown a bunch of Vodka merch from an alternate universe.
• There Was a Door: The doors in a trainer’s office are consistently seen as suggestions by sufficiently panicked Umamusume.
• Throw the Dog a Bone:
  • Miho being a Struggling Single Mother for someone as beloved as Haru Urara means it’s only natural that people will help alleviate her burdens, as shown by King and Himeno.
  • See Sneeze Cut. Word of God outright states that there’s no way they’d have had Teio’s heart broken like that if it wasn’t clear she’d be “spoiled for choice” later on.
• Tranquil Fury: Ikuno Dictus’ expression may have retained its usual calm when Isamu (seemingly) rejected Nice Nature, but her clenched fists and “dangerously level” tone of voice told a very different story.
• Transplant: Makoto Hoshizora is largely a Gender Flip of The Producer from Love (and shenanigans) at Hatsuboshi Academy, which is by the same author.
• Troll: Sunday Silence spends most of Manhatten Cafe’s second chapter trolling Ryusei and Agnes Tachyon. To be fair, those 20 minutes of silence were for a very different reason. They also effectively pressured Red Desire into thinking she was making some kind of Deal with the Devil just to mess with her.
• Tsundere: 
  • Mejiro McQueen is very much in denial that she has a crush on Shinnosuke, largely because he’s a Loving Bully who infuriates her.
  • Himeno’s character description outright calls her a tsundere and states that tough love in the only kind of love she knows. 
  • Tazuna, to put it mildly, treats the love of her life like he’s her worst enemy. Her kissing Genta in response to his proposal was what clued him in to the fact that, despite feeling the same, she was turning him down.
• Undying Loyalty: Generally speaking, the trainers have pretty much dedicated their life to their trainee(s).
• Unishment: Tannhauser and Ikuno wanted Isamu to say 20 reasons why Nice Nature is the cutest as punishment for making her cry… only for him to declare he could do 50. He was genuinely crestfallen when she ran off in embarrassment after just 6.
• Unwanted Harem: Played for Laughs with Special Week, who after being told about everyone’s affection for her is left constantly embarrassed by her mama’s advice to “go the harem route.” Especially when a trio of beautiful French Umamusume started showering her with affection.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Played for Laughs with El Condor Pasa, who taught Special Week a French phrase and as such is responsible for the effect it had on Genta’s trainees.
• Vague Age: Normally played straight but Chapter 20 got a marker for how old everyone was during its events.^note The Golden Generation is 16+, Maruzensky and Riko are 28+, Kiriko’s in her early 30s, Tazuna’s in her mid-to-late 30, Genta’s in his early 40s and Akikawa is “40++++.” Even then it’s just Downplayed, since some of these numbers leave more questions than answers and it only applies to a three-part story that takes place before the Golden Generation’s debut.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Tazuna acts like she hates Genta with a passion and he thoroughly enjoys angering her to the point she silently contemplates killing him. This does not change the fact that they’re Amicable Exes who deeply care about each other. 
• Wham Line:
  • Jo Kitahara mentioning that Himeno Seki had been messaging him since that morning made it clear that her actions that chapter were all part of a plan to properly reunite him with Oguri, drastically shifting the tone of the chapter as her true colors began to shine through.
  • When Nice Nature pointed out that Haru Urara handled the situation with Kenta surprisingly well for someone with no dating experience, Urara said something that painted all of her actions this arc in a new light.
    Urara: Well, it’s because I do have dating experience.
• Wingding Eyes: Red Desire’s eyes swirled when Sunday Silence was getting her to vibe into temptation.
• Won Over by Earnestness: Haru Urara needed the prize for beating Oguri more than anyone but she ran the competition seven times without even knowing that there was a prize, simply being excited to race with so many people around. Himeno sent her more than just a consolation for this, especially since she found the whole thing Actually Pretty Funny.
• Worth It: Genta’s night with Tazuna left him beaten black and blue but he was very pleased with himself. He also is perfectly fine saying things that leave Tazuna silently contemplating how to get away with killing him because there are worse ways to die.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Extremely Downplayed, as Sunday Silence was genuinely undergoing a Heroic RRoD, but they used their pain to distract Ryusei and Tachyon so Neo Universe could extract them.
• Yamato Nadeshiko: Grass Wonder is this, as per canon, and so is Kaoru. Grass is a lot better at maintaining the image.
• Yandere:
  • Subverted. When Grass Wonder was taking Kaoru somewhere private it seemed like she was going to do something bad… only for her to talk out her feelings with her trainer in a mature manner.
  • Discussed between Godai, Rudolf and Teio. When the former worried what the latter would do with her boundless confidence and years for her repressed crush to “fester” the latter denied that she’d end up becoming “some kind of… of Yandere or something. [snip] …I think.” Then when she suggested they “share” him Rudolf looked ready to kill her.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: 
  • Special Week not realizing that her moms were a lesbian couple despite everything led to this reaction.
  • After learning just how bad the situation between Smart Falcon and Makoto Hoshizora truly was, the normally composed Eishin Flash’s brain “blue-screened” as she struggled to comprehend just how they weren’t already dating.
    Flash: How in the name of all that is efficient and sensible are they not already dating?
• You Never Asked: Falco’s justification for not telling Flash that she’s Childhood Friends with Makoto until it was relevant.