Uma Musume Characters Are Outranking Real Horses in Google Search Results

Anime fans have recently reignited discussions about a strange yet growing trend: anime girls inspired by real-world entities are dominating Google searches, even surpassing the original people, animals, or objects they were based on.

Uma Musume Characters Are Outranking Real Horses in Google Search Results

A perfect example? Daiwa Scarlet, a once-celebrated racehorse that won the 2007 Oka Sho. Today, a quick Google search for “Daiwa Scarlet” brings up image after image of her anime counterpart from the multimedia franchise Uma Musume: Pretty Derby—a series where retired racehorses are reborn as horse girls.

The “Kancolle Effect” Is Back

This isn’t new to seasoned otaku. Some fans refer to this phenomenon as the “Kancolle Effect,” which began with Kantai Collection, a game that turned WWII warships into cute anime girls. Ever since then, a simple search for historical ships like the Yamato or Akagi often results in fan art or images from Kantai Collection or Azur Lane instead of real-world photos.

In the case of Uma Musume, this “takeover” has spread beyond Daiwa Scarlet. Searching for horses like Rice Shower, a well-known thoroughbred, now also brings up pages filled with anime girl imagery from the show—making it increasingly difficult to find actual pictures of the animals themselves.

Here’s what fans are saying about this strange but amusing online trend:

• “Uma Musume has so many neat little details. They even say the girls are reincarnations of the horses that died in our world.”

• “Isn’t that the reason why they’re so strict about NSFW content? You don’t want people searching the horse and getting… the wrong kind of results.”

• “Now horse lovers can feel the same pain as ship nerds did when Kancolle took over.”

• “Anime wins again. Total domination.”

• “Wealthy horse racing fans must be so confused.”

• “Same thing happens when you search for warships—you just get anime girls from Azur Lane now.”

Some fans also mentioned Surtr from Arknights, a character inspired by Norse mythology. Searching “Surtr” now pulls up fanart of the anime-style character rather than the mythological giant himself.

While it may seem like a lighthearted quirk of fandom, this trend raises interesting questions about the power of anime culture to reshape digital spaces. What started as a niche trend has now become so widespread that even historical figures and animals are being “replaced” in online visibility by their anime counterparts.

Whether it’s racehorses, warships, or mythical beings, it seems anime girls are becoming the new default on Google.