On August 8, Grass Wonder, a real-world racehorse which gacha game Umamusume: Pretty Derby based one of its anime horse girls on, died at the age of 30. According to the official obituary, the horse (who is male in real life) passed due to multiple organ failure. The official Umamusume social media accounts paid tribute to Grass Wonder upon news of his death, and fans decided to pay tribute to the horse through a piece of pixel art on Wplace, a world map that users can paint and collaborate on. However, things nearly went awry when fans realized the art they were attempting to recreate was AI-generated, until the community rallied to change things up and pay a more honest tribute to Grass Wonder.
If you’ve never heard of Wplace, it’s an interactive world map that lets you paint over any location, and people use it to create some pretty incredible digital art. It’s a living canvas that anyone can draw on, and that includes making a tribute to race horses who are no longer with us. A group of Umamusume fans started creating a piece on the map around Dolores, Quezon in the Philippines, where many of the organizing fans are based. The artwork depicts Grass Wonder walking through a field with a bouquet of sunflowers in hand. The text “Farewell, Grass Wonder” is shown above her in a blue sky. While it’s a lovely gesture, the group project got a bit more complicated when it was discovered that the original reference art was AI-generated.
The project began on a Philippine Facebook fan page, and once people realized the original artwork was AI slop, the group’s admin put out an apology statement.
Message of the admin from the group of where the collaboration idea started!
Truly, I apologize on behalf of the group alongside the admins.
This wasn’t meant to trick people, we genuinely wanted a community that works together.
Again,I apologize. I hope everyone gets along https://t.co/wmSdYQA2sY pic.twitter.com/mnVAZebZ1g
— Neeshaaaaaa~ (@Neshaa_3450) August 10, 2025
Following this, the group consulted artists to help finish the project, and added more recognizable features to the final piece to pay a better tribute to Grass Wonder, including her armband, hair tie, and patterns on her skirt.
The initial group responsible for the startup of the project has contacted an actual artist regarding adding details, and here’s he finished version! pic.twitter.com/E0l95o9iMp
— Neeshaaaaaa~ (@Neshaa_3450) August 10, 2025
While I’m sure everyone would rather that the final image not have AI-generated origins, at the very least, fans were able to give it a human touch. Grass Wonder is one of 114 playable horse girls in Umamusume, each of which you train to race in a run-based, almost rogue-like fashion. The game originally launched in Japan in 2021 before rolling out in other Asian territories over the following years. Umamusume: Pretty Derby finally launched worldwide back in June, and has become a viral sensation after big streamers like Ludwig and Northern Lion played it on their channels.
