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Wondering if I should start a whole topic or not since Saki did not seem to have one that went very long, but I'll do it. So the word Saki in the name, and being about mahjong I first thought it would be a sequel to Saki. But since there was different characters and the encyclopedia did not put any connection between the two anime I thought it was just some sort of new series that played on what we had before, with no connection to each other. Imagine my surprise when very early on we see a strangely familiar pink haired young girl, which is revealed to be a younger version of Nodoka Haramura, which placed this as a prequel. Though I could not pick any other characters, not that Saki had a small cast list.

Anyway, first episode seemed to acted as a way to show more about Nodoka old friends and having fun as a kid. Thing is that it goes very quickely with them spoiler[going into and through middle school ending with Nodoka moving.] But we have our main character for this spinoff see spoiler[the announcement of Nodoka winning] what we often heard about in Saki. And it seems that we will be moving into about the same time period that we saw in that series name I keep mentioning.

Been since 2009 that I have had the yuri show of the girls playing the game that I still have no idea, but the characters can somehow influence their luck. But we did get to see the character we were familiar with in the ED, and Yuuki talking to Nodoka at the end, that is who I really wanted to see the taco lovin loli.

By the way, since when did Saki have Alice in Wonderland as a theme?

I actually liked Saki and was hoping to see the main character face off against her renowned older sister. Which one was Nadoka? I only remember the big busted blond, the captain, the taco girl and the vice captain. I'm color blind and I don't remember any one of the girls having pink hair. I also don't see a pink haired girl in the picture above? From left to rigth, which one is she?

Saki introduced a bunch of interesting characters in the regionals and was hoping to get more of a backstrory from them. Especially the captain and dichromatic eyes girl.

bllanosr wrote:

I actually liked Saki and was hoping to see the main character face off against her renowned older sister. Which one was Nadoka? I only remember the big busted blond, the captain, the taco girl and the vice captain. I'm color blind and I don't remember any one of the girls having pink hair. I also don't see a pink haired girl in the picture above? From left to rigth, which one is she?

Saki introduced a bunch of interesting characters in the regionals and was hoping to get more of a backstrory from them. Especially the captain and dichromatic eyes girl.

Nodoka is the big busted one in the original series; she definitely has pink hair, but maybe that's hard for you to see. She doesn't appear in the series image above, this story is about a different set of girls who happen to know Nodoka.

I'm a little surprised at how prominently Saki's sister is featured in the opening. They're really playing her up for this series.

bllanosr wrote:

I actually liked Saki and was hoping to see the main character face off against her renowned older sister. Which one was Nadoka? I only remember the big busted blond, the captain, the taco girl and the vice captain. I'm color blind and I don't remember any one of the girls having pink hair. I also don't see a pink haired girl in the picture above? From left to rigth, which one is she?

Nadoka is the girl in the far right of the bellow picture.

This is how she appeared primarily in the first episode of this.

She is not in the picture in the opening post.

That was great. It had everything I loved about the first season, while still being original. The only thing this episode lacked was some real hard-core Mahjong action, but with so much back story to fit in, I can't blame them. Even the back story parts went by at a very brisk pace. Maybe someday we'll get a bonus episode of their carefree middle school years; that'd be fun.

The show really resonates emotionally with me. Meeting friends through gaming, and the helpless feeling as those friendships drift apart...I think a lot of people have experienced that. I miss the Gaming club at my college just like Shizuno missed playing mahjong at Achiga. On the subject of emotional resonance, I gotta give props to the soundtrack composer; it really makes the scenes work.

So does Shizuno wear anything under her track suit? In the scene where she watched a mahjong match from the couch, it's like the animators were purposely teasing us.

So far at least, the yuri subtext is quite restrained. It's just friendship...either that, or an awesome 4-way. Time to tune up those yuri goggles. The scene in the OP at 23:24 has lots of potential, though.

Saffire wrote:

I'm a little surprised at how prominently Saki's sister is featured in the opening. They're really playing her up for this series.

Which character is Saki's sister? And how did you know it was her?

Blood- wrote:

Saffire wrote:

I'm a little surprised at how prominently Saki's sister is featured in the opening. They're really playing her up for this series.

Which character is Saki's sister? And how did you know it was her?

Saki's sister is Miyanaga Teru. And it's not surprising that she's featured in the OP considering that this is "side a" of the national brackets, which includes Teru's high school Shiraitodai.

Anyway, I'll copy/paste a few sentences from my blog post on the first episode.

Megiddo wrote:

With that in mind, was Saki Achiga-hen’s first episode any good? Well, yes and no. As far as story and writing go, it was terrible. We barely get to know Ako, Shizuno, and Kuro by the time the mahjong club is resurrected at the end of the episode. And it is so [expletive] cliche how those three all got together (after so many years) in the clubroom. However, Saki is not Chihayafuru. It does not rely on great writing and story to carry the series. So would I have rather gotten a 3-episode flashback like Chihayafuru had to setup the characters and their ambitions? Honestly, not really. While the first episode is a mess in terms of pacing and is cliche, it allows the story to progress at a quick pace and get to the part of the franchise that is most important, the mahjong tournaments. The manga author obviously knows her strengths and so I can’t blame her for wanting to speed up this spinoff to get to the part that the audience wants to read/see.

Pretty much sums up my thoughts. I'm looking forward to see how Achiga does against Bansei.

Blood- wrote:

Saffire wrote:

I'm a little surprised at how prominently Saki's sister is featured in the opening. They're really playing her up for this series.

Which character is Saki's sister? And how did you know it was her?

From the first series. I didn't consider it a spoiler since she's introduced quickly as such (it's never a secret), but maybe it is? I'm trying to censor myself as much as possible.

Megiddo wrote:

Saki's sister is Miyanaga Teru. And it's not surprising that she's featured in the OP considering that this is "side a" of the national brackets, which includes Teru's high school Shiraitodai.

It's not surprising that she's in it (I know why she's there, and she's in the original as well), but she gets much better billing in this one.

The first episode did what it needed to, and I liked it well enough, but I'll be happier when we get more into the mahjong action.

Saffire wrote:

The first episode did what it needed to, and I liked it well enough, but I'll be happier when we get more into the mahjong action.

That means girl on girl right?

I kid, I think. I am a bit worried that one of the main draws was the personalities of the ones playing the mahjong games, but I am not sure if I main cast here have interesting enough personalities.

Last edited by ChrisH8 on Tue Apr 10, 2012 9:08 pm; edited 1 time in total

Megiddo wrote:

As far as story and writing go, it was terrible ... However, Saki is not Chihayafuru. It does not rely on great writing and story to carry the series.

Wait, are you saying that Chihayafuru has great writing? I think that Cross Game has a better plot, dialogue, romance, and character growth than Saki and Chihayafuru. Saki beats Cross Game in terms of action and humor. (Besides the straight humor, Saki has lots of campy humor.) IMO, the only writing Chihayafuru has better than Saki is character growth.

Quote:

So would I have rather gotten a 3-episode flashback like Chihayafuru had to setup the characters and their ambitions? Honestly, not really. While the first episode is a mess in terms of pacing and is cliche, it allows the story to progress at a quick pace and get to the part of the franchise that is most important, the mahjong tournaments.

Even so, episode 1 needed a bit more mahjong. Chihayafuru's 3-episode flashback was a chore. Sorry, but I think that animating pre-schoolers (or elementary school students, same difference) is lame. Chihayafuru's strengths are its likeable female characters and the karuta. Twisted Evil

The characterization in Saki is more geared towards developing the playing styles of the characters. Prime examples being Saki, Nodoka, Momoko, and Koromo. While Kanade loves classical things, Nodoka is the online champion and carries a penguin around. While the karuta meijin examines his earwax, both of Koromo's parents died tragically, her personality is deliciously erratic and is influenced by a full moon.

Hopefully we'll get to see more mahjong when spoiler[Achiga practices and competes in further episodes. Famishly little of those matches are shown in the manga.]

Edit: removing some of a manga spoiler.

DuskyPredator wrote:

Saffire wrote:

The first episode did what it needed to, and I liked it well enough, but I'll be happier when we get more into the mahjong action.

That means girl on girl right?

There is a lot of overlap there, said Misaka with a straight face.

Quote:

I kid, I think.

I suspect that there will be a bit less yuri ... well, at least later than it occurs in side-B.

Quote:

I am a bit worried that one of the main draws was the personalities of the ones playing the mahjong games, but I am not sure if I main cast here have interesting enough personalities.

Side-B had a lot of interesting personalities and recently got a couple more (by which I mean Toyone and Kasumi, not Kasumi's chest), drawing upon Japanese mythology. The original creator seems to be holding back on revealing some of the side-A personalities until later, as that may also reveal which teams will advance deeper into the tournament.

Thanks for the info, Megiddo, but I'm still a bit confused as to how some of you recognized her from the OP. I watched (and enjoyed) the original Saki, but I didn't think that Saki's sister was ever shown, just referred to. But my memory is pretty awful, so I could be wrong.

Blood- wrote:

Thanks for the info, Megiddo, but I'm still a bit confused as to how some of you recognized her from the OP. I watched (and enjoyed) the original Saki, but I didn't think that Saki's sister was ever shown, just referred to. But my memory is pretty awful, so I could be wrong.

I seemed to remember there was a part where we saw Saki's sister being asked by a team mate or reporter about Saki getting so far, but she said that she had no sister.

Blood- wrote:

Thanks for the info, Megiddo, but I'm still a bit confused as to how some of you recognized her from the OP. I watched (and enjoyed) the original Saki, but I didn't think that Saki's sister was ever shown, just referred to. But my memory is pretty awful, so I could be wrong.

She appears for a bit in episode 20 (I think?) as part of her school blowing through the prefectural qualifier.

Teru is also featured heavily in the first OP of Saki. Link she is shown from about 00:35 to 00:39.

Though she is strangely absent from the second OP. I do believe that we see her a number of times, mostly when Saki starts speaking of her.

@ChrisH8: I'm saying that Chihayafuru is written to be character and story focused. While the karuta matches can sometimes be intense, no effort is made to focus the viewer's attention to them. Whereas in Saki almost all the effort goes into making the mahjong games over-the-top special effects to get the viewer to focus on them. Any effort spent with the characters is either in them acting moe (like Nodoka with Etopen) or teasing a lesbian relationship (like Hisa/Everyone, Saki/Nodoka, Yumi/Momo, Kyaptain/Kana, Touka/Hajime, etc) Perhaps Chihayafuru was a bad example, but it was what I just finished watching so it was fresh in my mind.

The short version is that I didn't mind that Achiga-hen rushed through the first episode because I know that Saki's strengths are always in the mahjong tournaments. Not to mention I find Nodoka to be the worst Saki character. The less time she is on screen (referring to when she's alone and not with the rest of Kiyosumi) the better in my opinion.

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Saki: Episode Side A (TV).