ウマ娘 シンデレラグレイ 1

(As a note/disclaimer, the only thing I knew about Uma Musume before reading this is that it's a franchise about horse people)

A sports manga set in an alternate world with a race of people that inherited the name and spirit of old Japanese race horses from our world. The end result is people with horse ears, horse tails, and superhuman speed. The setting for this manga is at a school that doubles as a training center for these people to hone their skills.

This volume is focused on 3 characters in particular: a coach, a very skilled student, and an average student who is pretty much just on narration duty. The main 3 characters are very endearing, and their interactions are enjoyable. The art is great, and the races are drawn in a dynamic way that works well to express just how fast the students are. There is some solid character development as they all learn from each other and interact with the major and minor antagonists.

As far as more negative things go, a bit of the drama is reduced early on b/c the skilled MC is truly just leagues better than everyone else. The only reason the races are even close at this point is because outside influences keep sabotaging her. It does make for very cool scenes where the MC just blasts off at the last moment to catch up, but it feels a little bland when looking back. Not even the primary antagonist can keep up at this point, but hopefully that changes as the series progresses.

Language-wise, there's a decent amount of racing terminology that would be uncommon in the average manga, but outside of that it's no more difficult than any of the other dime-a-dozen series focused on girls in high school.

Overall, it was very enjoyable and works well as a standalone series. Ended up downloading the phone game afterwards, so it's a pretty good commercial too, lol. Looking forward to the next volume.