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| Main | Gallery | IRL | Game | Party Dash |
Special Week is a character in Umamusume: Pretty Derby. She is the main protagonist of Season 1 of the Umamusume Anime, and the mascot for the franchise as a whole.
| Special Week | |
|---|---|
| "Ruler of Japan" | |
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| Names | |
| English | Special Week |
| Japanese | スペシャルウィーク |
| Romaji | Supesharu Wīku |
| Chinese (Traditional) | 特別週 |
| Chinese (Hong Kong JC) | 特別週 |
| Korean | 스페셜 위크 |
| Nicknames | スペ (Spe) |
| Profile | |
| Birthday | May 2 |
| Class | Junior Division |
| Dorm | Ritto |
| Roommate | Silence Suzuka |
| Height | 158cm |
| Three Sizes | B81 W56 H81 |
| Shoe Size | L23.5cm, R23cm |
| Weight | Slight decrease (pre-race nerves) |
| Image Colors | #EE6DCB #FFDEF9 |
| Emoji | 🌟 |
| Calls self | 私 (Watashi) |
| Calls Trainer | トレーナーさん (Trainer-san) |
| Solo Song | Watashi no Shirushi wa Daihonmei◎ Arigatou, Kami-sama |
| Voice | |
| Voice Actor | Azumi Waki |
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Biography
"I gotta make my moms proud! I'll become the top Umamusume in all of Japan!"
Rar'n to go! A pure-hearted girl focused on her dream.
Born in Hokkaido, Special Week is a bright and cheery, hardworking Umamusume. After losing her birth mother, Special Week was raised by her mother's friend. Now, she hopes to make both her moms proud by fulfilling her promise of becoming Japan's top racer. Though she may falter along the way, her indomitable spirit ensures that she runs ever forward.
| Likes | Detailed food reports |
|---|---|
| Dislikes | Using her train pass |
| Ears | Perks up and teleports to the kitchen when she hears the sounds of cooking |
| Tail | Moves along with her emotions, making her a terrible poker player |
| Family | She gets her eye color from her birth mother |
| Personal Rule | Remain quiet and focused when eating corn! |
| Phone Background | A selfie with mom (updated each time she goes home) |
| Before a Race... | Faces the direction of her hometown and quietly says "Here I go!" |
| Good Subject | Physical education...! |
| Secret Pride | She can predict over 70% of the daily menu. |
| Frequent Purchase | Letter sets (to send letters to her mom). |
| Secrets | She can tell different brands of milk apart from taste alone. |
| She's great at giving piggyback rides. Whoever she carries quickly falls asleep. |
Appearance
Special Week has a short brown-purple bob, with white bangs that swoop slightly to her left. She has white braids tied around to the back of her hair, and short, stubby brown ears, with a purple bow on her right ear. Her round and cheery eyes are light purple.
Her race outfit is very idol-like in appearance. Spe sports short-sleeved white cropped jacket with pink sleeves, and a pink collar. Underneath her coat is a white collar fastened with a dark purple ribbon, and a dark purple top underneath, fastened by two golden clover-shaped medals. She wears a white skirt with a prominent purple zig-zag pattern on the base, and a pink petticoat underneath. The tail-hole on the skirt has a large purple ribbon above it. She wears white thigh-high socks with pink lines at the top, with dark purple ribbons on either side. Both of her shoes are ankle boots with pink collars on the top. Her left shoe is dark purple, and her right is white. She wears two pink cuffs around her wrists.
Relationships
- Silence Suzuka - Best friend, role model and roommate. Teammates on both the anime-only team, Team Spica, and the game-only team, Team Sirius. Special Week is shown to be enamored by Suzuka's running, looking up to her. Silence Suzuka is the first Umamusume Special Week meet after moving from the countryside.
- IRL, although they never raced against each other, they shared a common jockey with Yutaka Take. Silence Suzuka competed from 1997 until his tragic death in November 1998, while Special Week raced from 1997 to 2000. They were connected as half-siblings (both sired by Sunday Silence), and were linked through the tragic 1998 Tenno Sho (Autumn); where Suzuka, ridden by their shared jockey, suffered a fatal leg fracture and was euthanized. Special Week won the same race one year later in 1999, breaking the course record.
- Seiun Sky - Classmate, friend and rival. Sky's easygoing, "scheming" personality contrasts with Special Week's earnest, hardworking nature. Despite being rivals on the track, the two share a friendly relationship off the track as classmates and friends, with Seiun Sky visiting to encourage Special Week before major races and participating in group activities with their "Golden Generation" cohort.
- King Halo - Classmate, friend and rival. King Halo seems to enjoy Special Week's company, especially due to the fact that she aims to be Japan's best Umamusume, a goal King Halo gets some inspiration from as Special Week has won the Derby and the Japan Cup with those goals.
- El Condor Pasa - Classmate, friend and rival. Despite their competitive tension, both characters share the same passionate, energetic personality and similar goals; with El Condor Pasa with her luchadora confidence, aiming to be "the world's strongest Umamusume" and Special Week with her cheerful determination, aiming to be the "best Umamusume in Japan".
- Grass Wonder - Classmate, friend and rival. Grass Wonder uses her wisdom to give advice to Special Week, somewhat orienting her in her path towards her goal's realization. She also helps her in class studies, given that she's intelligent.
- Tsurumaru Tsuyoshi - Classmate, friend and rival. Special Week often worries about Tsuyoshi's poor constitution which prevented the latter from racing.
- IRL, Special Week, Seiun Sky, King Halo, El Condor Pasa, Grass Wonder and Tsurumaru Tsuyoshi make up the Golden Generation, a group of horses that began racing in 1997 who dominated the majority of the Classics and their four year old races.
- Special Week, Seiun Sky and King Halo were rivals starting in their classic years up until the end of their racing careers.
- El Condor Pasa and Special Week only competed once at the 1998 Japan Cup, where El Condor Pasa won. El Condor Pasa is also one of the two Golden Generation horses that Special Week couldn't defeat, although he did defeat Montjeu, who bested El Condor Pasa in the Prix de l'Arc the Triomphe, so symbolically, Special Week has defeated El Condor Pasa.
- Grass Wonder won against Special Week twice (the 1999 Takarazuka Kinen and Arima Kinen), with the second race being by a four-way photo shoot and ultimately resulting on Special Week's defeat by a nose. This meant that he was one of the two horses that Special Week never defeated. On retirement, they were placed next to each other in the same farm after retirement, but Special Week purportedly did not like Grass Wonder much.
- Despite having a late start in his career, Tsurumaru Tsuyoshi triumphed over Special Week in the 1999 Kyoto Daishoten, which created an upset. Tsuyoshi also lost against Special Week in the 1999 Tenno Sho (Autumn).
- IRL, Special Week, Seiun Sky, King Halo, El Condor Pasa, Grass Wonder and Tsurumaru Tsuyoshi make up the Golden Generation, a group of horses that began racing in 1997 who dominated the majority of the Classics and their four year old races.
- Mejiro Bright - Classmate, friend and rival.
- IRL, Special Week and Mejiro Bright faced several times in their later years, and overthrew Mejiro Bright's winning titles in both the 1999 Hanshin Daishoten and Tenno Sho (Spring).
- Haru Urara - Friend. Urara helped Spe find her way around the campus upon first arriving at Tracen, enabling an early friendship. Like many other students, Spe enjoys Urara's company and admires the latter's perseverance and optimism, inspiring her to do better as well.
- Gold Ship - Friend and teammates on both the anime-only team, Team Spica, and the game-only team, Team Sirius. As "Tracen's greatest mischief-maker", Gold Ship's philosophy of "so long as it's fun" contrasts with Special Week's goal-oriented promise to become Japan's top racer. Despite the clash, the two have a good relationship.
- Mejiro McQueen - Friend and teammates on both the anime-only team, Team Spica, and the game-only team, Team Sirius.
- Tokai Teio, Daiwa Scarlet, Vodka, Kitasan Black - Friends and teammates on the anime-only team, Team Spica.
- Cesario - Cesario admires Special Week's optimism.
- IRL, Cesario was sired by Special Week and achieved a brilliant but brief career. Through her offspring, Cesario ensured Special Week's bloodline thrived, having produced several G1 winners.
- Buena Vista - Buena Vista admires and looks up to Special Week. She also witnessed Special Week defeating Montjeu in the Japan Cup.
- IRL, Buena Vista was also sired by Special Week and was the most successful offspring in her racing career, having 6 G1 wins in her belt.
Media Appearances
Anime
Manga
- Umayon
- Starting Gate!
- Cinderella Gray (Cameo)
- Anthology Comic STAR
- Umamusumeshi
- PisuPisu☆SupiSupi Golshi-chan
Others
Event Appearances
Song Discography
Trivia
- Special Week was one of the first Umamusume characters to be announced, along with Silence Suzuka and Tokai Teio. Even though she had appeared in the project before this date, her original character profile was uploaded to the official Twitter account on January 11, 2017.
- Her voice actress, Azumi Waki, was announced to be voicing Special Week through Twitter on July 20, 2017.
- Unlike the majority of Umamusume who take many of the quirks and qualities of the horses they are based on, the Umamusume Special Week drastically differs from the real life Special Week, possibly due to the fact that Special Week is considered the mascot of the franchise, and such changes had to be made to make her more marketable.
- While she is portrayed as an optimistic, idealistic, naive and silly countryside girl who is friendly with other Umamusume who makes an effort in maintaining friendships with one another, the real life Special Week was a loner who was indifferent to his own kind, only friendly to humans.
- Special Week looks up to Silence Suzuka as a role model. In real life however, the two horses never once met in their lifetime. Their interactions were based on their real life counterparts being ridden by Yutaka Take, and possibly for the reason that they were both sired by Sunday Silence, even though horses that only share a sire aren't considered siblings.
- Despite being known to eat a lot in the Umamusume universe, her real life counterpart wasn't known to be a glutton.
- "Umamusume: Pretty Derby Artworks Vol.1" explains why her character designer made specific choices when designing her in relation to her real-life counterpart, which were as follows:
- The golden four-leaf clover accessories on her race outfit references her real-life counterpart's four G1 wins.
- The same four-leaf clover accessory is present in Umamusume who are descended by Special Week such as Cesario, Buena Vista and Epiphaneia.
- Due to the real horse nicknamed the "Supreme Commander of Japan", the four-leaf clover is similar to a kamon, which shares a similar design to the Ikeda clan's family crest which is also a four-leaf clover crest.
- Retaining the white and purple color scheme, the zig-zag design at the hem of her skirt are reminiscent of the zig-zag design seen in her jockey's silks.
- Similarly, the reason her boots have purple folds at the top is because her jockey's purple racing pants and boots with a purple upper section.
- The golden four-leaf clover accessories on her race outfit references her real-life counterpart's four G1 wins.
- Despite many Umamusume whose IRL counterparts were born from Hokkaido, Special Week is one of the few Umamusume that speaks with Hokkaido's accent.
Student Introduction