For those just tuning in: I’ve been explaining a lot of the basic concepts of the franchise lately (as in, the entry-level stuff), and to cap off this round of that, what better way than to talk about the most basic Main Heroine of the franchise?
And I mean basic in the best and worst way both, actually.
The year is 1994 and Campaign Girl was pregnant, but started having colics around December of that year. Around February a necrosis was detected in part of her intestines, and then in May it was becoming too much.
In May 2nd Campaign Girl finally gave birth, but she was too weak, so her child was entrusted to a surrogate mother, and three days later on May 5th she died.
Thus starts Special Week’s childhood, with their surrogate mother, living a life isolated from others of their kind. Special Week was very obedient, though they were also very quiet. They had potential but it wasn’t known if they’d be able to live up to it.
Special Week debuted in 1997, but its strongest year wouldn’t come until 1998. Special Week would become part of what’s called the “Golden Generation”. The 1998 Classic Generation is famous for the many horses from so many different backgrounds fighting for titles back and forth, and Special Week was, arguably, at the center of it all, having encounters with everyone.
It all started with Special Week’s 4th ever race. After a 2nd place against Asahi Creek in the Shiraume Sho, and a 1st place in the Kisaragi Sho against Bold Emperor, Special Week had its first encounter with Seiun Sky in the Yayoi Sho where they won. But Seiun Sky came back with a vengeance in Special Week’s first G1, the Satsuki Sho, where Special Week ended third behind Seiun Sky and King Halo.
But then comes the Nihon Derby, where Special Week ended first in their first ever G1 victory. As if to show everyone so far a lesson or two, Special week had defeated Bold Emperor (2nd), Seiun Sky (4th) and King Halo (14th).
Next, Special Week got another 1st place from King Halo in the Kyoto Shinbun Hai… but couldn’t get too cocky, ending 2nd against Seiun Sky in the Kikuka Sho and 3rd against El Condor Pasa in the Japan Cup (again, not to confuse with the Nihon Derby) losing against Air Groove also.
Rivalries were being formed. When 1999 rolled around, after a first place in the AJCC (American Jockey Club Cup) against Silent Hunter, Special Week would face twice and win twice against Mejiro Bright. First in the Hanshin Daishoten, and then in the Spring Tenno Sho.
Come the Takarazuka Kinen, Special Week would fight and lose against the missing person from the Golden Generation so far: Grass Wonder. The defeat seemed to hit Special Week hard, since they then ended 7th against Tsurumaru Tsuyoshi in the Kyoto Daishoten in… a tale for another day.
But that’s when Special Week came back! A victory in the Autumn Tenno Sho against Stay Gold some random horse that feels awfully familiar, and finally claiming one last victory, finally winning the Japan Cup against Indigenous.
Before retiring however, Special Week had one last fight: One last match against Grass Wonder at the Arima Kinen, and one more loss against Grass Wonder, making them the only one of the Golden Generation that Special Week never defeated.
Some might be wondering if I was describing the game’s story or the real one’s story, the more observant and those in the know might be aware of what I was trying to illustrate and already know the answer.
It’s both.
Out of all the characters in the game, Special Week has arguably the most symmetrical parity between the real horse’s story and the game version’s story.
And here’s the thing, if you’re only taking it at face value, Special Week doesn’t feel… Special. She sounds, and looks, and acts like the same type of heroine that Cygames has made ad nauseaum by now. Kind girl with a slightly dumb streak that’s naive to the ways of the real world while being deceptively powerful and having a crazy apetite where all she can think about is eating.
Was that a description for Special Week? Lyria? Amira? Pecorine? Iruka from Dolphin Wave?
But the most appropiate part is that if you were to try and peddle the idea of an IP where racehorses are humanoids with more human-like tales, retellings of the careers of real life racehorses but as more human-like creatures that communicate as humans, then Special Week is the perfect conduit.
In fact, I’d go as far as to claim that in Special Week we see both the potential strength that Uma Musume had as a concept from its inception, and ALSO the weaknesses that threatened to make the franchise just another Kancolle.
On the more positive side, there’s the way that you can have something that looks like a really bog standard heroine tale until you realize it’s all 100% real facts about the real horse. Mother that died in childbirth, being raised by a surrogate mother in the countryside away from other horses, being sent to the Big City to finally commiserate with other horses/horse girls and try to be the Number One in Japan, and not only that, but actually achieving it! Until TM Opera O came around Special Week was the horse with the biggest amount of prize money to its name.
But Special Week had to race against so many others, and that’s when you start thinking about the others, Seiun Sky looking like a slacker only to defeat Special Week more than once, King Halo’s rut starting incidentally around the time Special Week enters the scene (and not BECAUSE of her like the first season implies but let’s not talk about that today). In fact, didn’t Seiun Sky have many encounters with Grass Wonder?
And that one last showdown, that was right before TM Opera O became “The King of the End of the Century” in the year 2000, what’s Opera O’s story after seeing the older generation’s might?
Why stop there though? The reason that Special Week winning the Autumn Tenno Sho was so impactful and emotionally charged was because the year before Jockey Yutaka Take was running that same race with Silence Suzuka before tragedy happened, so what if you added elements of Yutaka Take’s journey between Silence Suzuka and Special Week into Special Week’s story? What would Silence Suzuka’s tale look like then?
And that’s when it all unravels in front of you, the potential for engaging narrative, the way you can pay tribute to the original horses in a way that conveys to outsiders why horse racing nerds get so passionate about the tales that come up in those races.
That last point is also the one negative of Special Week that you see early on, though.
Because as I’ve explained, while on one hand Special Week being so easily translatable into the most bog standard heroine is amazing… but to anyone not familiar with horse racing, what they’re gonna see is, try to be surprised: A bog standard heroine.
If what you see is something run of the mill, the fact that it being run of the mill is impressive in a way is more damning than a positive.
I mentioned in the last post that Kancolle failed to get me interested in battleships or anything else that the MANY WW2 nerds are into, and in writing this post and the last one I’ve come to understand one possible reason why: Because it lacked a proper hook to get you in.
I’m gonna bring up Kancolle and I wanna make explicitly clear that this isn’t to disparage Kancolle, it’s just a comparison of my own experiences.
Long story short: If you read about how Kancolle’s relationships and designs are thought out, you’re gonna see a lot of stuff that I say in my posts here. On a pure appreciation level you cannot deny the passion that the Kancolle staff has. But if you’re not already into WW2 military stuff or with the sort of predisposition to get into that sort of thing, Kancolle is not gonna give you much of a reason to be interested in it all.
I didn’t get this hard into Uma Musume because I was predisposed to liking horse racing, in fact, I knew nothing about horse racing and I didn’t give a second thought to horses in any way whatsoever.
What I was predisposed to liking is tokusatsu, and anime, and narrative-heavy games, and RPGs, and literally anything else, and if many other posts where I go off about how the game has homaged and referenced many of those things isn’t making it evident, this game had me by the balls in a way where horse racing was secondary.
But then I started looking into horse racing and not only did I start being impressed by the level of detail and care that each horse’s story was translated into the game with every possible element, but in the process it led me to appreciate the storytelling that horse racing had, or its cultural impact, or the tales of the jockeys and everyone involved. It started this feedback loop where even if I suddenly forgot everything I currently knew about horse racing, I’d fall back into the rabbit hole before too long.
And the thing that sticks out so hard about the early stages of Uma Musume is that part where… yeah if you’re aware of all the references to the real world you’re getting a lot but if you know nothing you’re seeing something that will probably blend in with many similar things in your brain. Season 1 isn’t bad, but taken as a standalone product it’s clearly more aimed towards anyone that would clap that the Heisei Sankyo are having an eating contest and Super Creek cheats oh my god it’s just like the 1988 Arima Kinen!!! But everyone else is just gonna see an inconsequential section that isn’t that funny and feels like filler with names clearly hoping to evoke SOMETHING.
In fact, this evolution is so interesting that for the next post I’m gonna try to convey it all by using Special Week. And you’ll see why Special Week specifically when I get to it.