A 72 year-old man who goes by Macchan is going viral for his love of Umamusume. He’s been a fan of the series for years, with videos about it from years ago resurfacing with millions of views.
Even to this day, he’s showing love for the series, drawing some of the Umas in his free time and discussing the history of the real race horses he’s loved for over 40 years.
The character designs are so expressive that he’s able to guess which anime girls correlate with real-life race horses. And, though he’s not 100% accurate by any means, he was able to see the vision behind how these horses got translated to characters in-game.
While Umamusume has done a lot to expose new audiences to horse racing, it turns out that people who actually love the sport also have a soft spot for the gacha game.
Japanese elder builds YouTube following with Umamusume
Umamusume’s popularity has exploded all over again with its Western release. Though it was already one of the world’s biggest gacha games when it was exclusively available in Japan and a few other countries, the global release has sparked a fervent love for the game in many new fans.
Those fans now have years and years worth of content to get through from passionate fans of the series overseas. One of those passionate people making content is Macchan, an elderly Japanese man who’s garnered almost 10 million channel views talking mainly about Umamusume.
A video from 4 years ago that features him guessing the names of Umas has gone viral all over again, complete with English subtitles so a whole new audience can watch him.
It should come as no surprise he was able to guess Gold Ship pretty much instantly based on her design, and he had great success with a few other horses. And, though he got the majority of the guesses wrong, he was able to see the logic and dropped some lore on other horses in the process, mentioning legends like Kitasan Black before he even knew they were in the game.
In the years since this video, he’s been making more Umamusume content. Whether it be more guessing games, playing the actual gacha, or physically drawing new Umas himself based on horses he likes, he’s still making content to this day.
Some of the horses he loves have inevitably made it in game, like Haiseiko for instance.
Fans from Japan have come back to that video years after it was originally uploaded to comment on how accurate his concept seemed to what the devs went with, saying that Macchan captured the real spirit of the original race horse.
“I knew it was a Haiseiko the moment I saw it. I feel a strong connection to the real thing. I think it was well done, drawing it well before it was released,” one fan said.
Despite the game having been out for a while now, hype hasn’t died down in Japan or in other global markets. And, with years of content in store for Western fans that are catching up on the series’ long history, that hype isn’t set to die down any time soon.
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