Mejiro Ardan
Mejiro Ardan is a character in the Umamusume Pretty Derby franchise. A high school student residing in the Miho Dormitory at Tracen Academy, she is a highborn lady from the renowned Mejiro family and the younger sister of Mejiro Ramonu, the historic first Triple Tiara winner. Born with extremely fragile legs that earn her the epithet of having glass legs, she refuses to succumb to pessimism. Instead, she harbors a deep pride and unwavering determination to burn brightly on the turf, possessing a refined, gentle, and dignified composure.
Overview
Mejiro Ardan is a character in the Umamusume Pretty Derby franchise. A high school student residing in the Miho Dormitory at Tracen Academy, she is a highborn lady from the renowned Mejiro family and the younger sister of Mejiro Ramonu, the historic first Triple Tiara winner. Born with extremely fragile legs that earn her the epithet of having glass legs, she refuses to succumb to pessimism. Instead, she harbors a deep pride and unwavering determination to burn brightly on the turf, possessing a refined, gentle, and dignified composure.
Appearance
Mejiro Ardan features long translucent light-blue hair with a katyusha braid headband and purple eyes. Her right ear is adorned with a ring featuring red frills. Her primary racing attire, Crystalline Line, is a frilled black dress incorporating white and green Mejiro family colors, complemented by a chest brooch modeled after a necklace given by her father. Her right leg is wound with multiple layers of green ribbons serving as bandages. In her Neige Émeraude ensemble, she wears a white and green swallow-tailed pantsuit with her hair styled in a chignon and a cherry blossom pin attached to her collar.
Personality
Raised in a sheltered environment due to her delicate health as a child, Mejiro Ardan possesses a polite, gentle, and noble demeanor. Having spent much of her youth isolated from common activities, she finds immense delight in everyday experiences such as after-school chats, visiting cafés, viewing colorful bargain flyers, or gazing into kaleidoscopes. Despite her soft-spoken nature, she harbors an unyielding passion for racing and a resolute inner strength to prove herself despite her physical limitations. She dislikes disputes and instinctively covers her ears at the sound of breaking glass.
Abilities
Mejiro Ardan is an intellectually sharp runner endowed with outstanding race intelligence, meticulously analyzing opponent data, course positioning, and flaws to craft winning strategies. Her preferred racing style involves maintaining a forward position in the lead group to capture victory. Because she suffers from extremely delicate legs—a condition known as Glass Legs—consecutive race entries pose a high risk of severe physical breakdown, requiring carefully scheduled race intervals alongside exceptional mental resilience to recover from frequent physical setbacks.
Background
Growing up in the distinguished Mejiro household, Mejiro Ardan chose to pursue the Classic racing route to define her own legacy rather than follow the Tiara path of her formidable older sister, Mejiro Ramonu. After enrolling in Tracen Academy, she formed close ties and rivalries with her classmates. She finished a narrow second in the Japanese Derby after a fierce duel with Sakura Chiyono O, but the intensity of the race inflicted serious leg injuries, forcing her into prolonged medical rehabilitation. Overcoming recurring fractures and tendonitis, she repeatedly fought her way back to the track, securing notable victories such as the Takamatsunomiya Kiai.
Relationships
Mejiro Ardan holds profound respect for her older sister, the legendary Mejiro Ramonu. She shares a deep friendship with her roommate Sakura Chiyono O, who also serves as her fiercest rival from their intense battle in the Japanese Derby. She frequently gathers for tea and race viewings with her classmates Yaeno Muteki, Super Creek, and Oguri Cap. Furthermore, younger relatives within the Mejiro bloodline, such as Mejiro Ryan and Mejiro Bright, look up to Ardan as a warm and reliable elder-sister figure.
Trivia
Her name is derived from the Mejiro prefix and the 1944 French racehorse Ardan. While her character design features translucent light-blue hair to evoke the motif of glass, the actual racehorse was a dark bay. In real life, the horse was exported to China for breeding duties after retiring from racing, leaving behind a successful lineage of champions, and was affectionately nicknamed Heavy Tank by fans due to his substantial body weight during his racing career.
