Promotion of the upcoming Tom Cruise vehicle about vehicles Top Gun: Maverick is in full swing, and that includes one anime crossover that’s worthy of examination. The official Twitter for Uma Musume tweeted out a promotional visual of Mayano Top Gun, a girl based on a racehorse named for the franchise. The collaboration was initially revealed last September, but it was postponed along with the film due to the global pandemic.
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For those not in the know, Uma Musume Pretty Derby is all about an alternate world where great racehorses of the past are reborn as “horse girls.” One of the horses to gain this great honor is Mayano Top Gun. As seen in the poster, his anime girl avatar shares an aviator jacket, a parachute harness, and a cocky attitude like Top Gun protagonist Maverick.
Outside of movie promotional appearances, Mayano Top Gun makes sporadic appearances in the Uma Musume anime and mobile game. The show follows Special Week, Silence Suzuka, and Tokai Teio in their training for anime horse girl supremacy. The show has finished two regular seasons on Japanese airwaves and will move to streaming platforms for new episodes later this year.
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Unfortunately, Mayano Top Gun the horse could not live to see himself represented in movie promotional material as an anime racing girl. The stallion died on November 3, 2019, at the age of 27. Top Gun‘s Japanese social media still acknowledges the legendary horse on his birthday, and the anime collaboration makes it clear that he’s a key part of the film’s legacy in the land of the rising sun.
