Hey, you're in my seat!
Though there wasn't much Mahjong action that happened in this episode, there's still something we can learn from the chibi ending credits we were treated to in the end. In the series of animations, we see Ako reprimanding Shizu for being in the wrong seat.
Spoiler Alert! Click to show or hide
In the last frame, we see that Arata is seated in the
east seat, but Ako points out that the
north seat is on the opposite side of the table from where Shizu is seated. If we stop and think about this for a second, it seems a bit off. On a typical compass, you'd expect north to be on the RIGHT of east, but apparently it's BACKWARDS in this case. What's going on?
Spoiler Alert! Click to show or hide
Answer - Believe it or not, the Chinese view of the cardinal directions of NORTH, SOUTH, EAST and WEST is not related to the magnetic poles of the Earth as seen on a compass; rather, it reflects the direction of "winds" as a part of their Eastern Mysticism. I'm not familiar with the Feng Shui of it all, but suffice it to know that east and west ARE, in fact, backwards on the mahjong table. Mahjong is, for what it's worth, an extension of this eastern mysticism, so it comes as no surprise. To minimize the confusion, we simply refer to the winds in reference to the east seat. By default, south is always seated to the RIGHT of east. It follows, that the position of dealer moves to the RIGHT as the round progresses, and when the prevailing wind changes it moves to the RIGHT as well. In other words, the south round follows the east round.
Confused? Don't worry, looks like Shizu pretty much shares the same sentiment. :)
Counting the dragons
It's amusing how much we can learn from these Chibi animations, because now we come across more
dora madness from Kuro. In these frames, we see Ako calling out a
Kan, after which a shot of the
dora indicators shows that there are TWO tiles flipped right-side up instead of the typical single tile. The last frame shows Kuro panicking due to the fact that she now has 7 dora!

Spoiler Alert! Click to show or hide
Indeed,
doras are powerful point multipliers, but remember that there can be AT LEAST 8 dora in a given round. These include the four
dora that are indicated by red tiles, and the other four that are selected at the start of the game with the
dora indicator. The cool (and sometimes scary) thing about it, though, is that for every
kan called during the round, the tile ADJACENT to the
dora indicator is flipped over, thus adding
an additional FOUR dora to the board! Whoa!
Pop Quiz Time!
You might think that sounds crazy, but what do you think is the MAXIMUM number of
dora that can go into play during a single round?
Spoiler Alert! Click to show or hide
Answer - 24 dora. Remember that each kan declared adds an additional dora indicator on the board - but in any given game, only FOUR kans can be declared. On the call of the fourth kan, the match is automatically called a draw. This means that only 3 additional dora indicators may be flipped in addition to the original one at the start of the game. Add this to the four red dora tiles and we get: [4 (dora indicators) x 4] + [4 (red dora tiles)] = 20 dora. Now how does that become 24? Surprisingly, there's an exception to the four kan-only rule. If all four kans declared in a game were by a single player, then the game is considered a draw ONLY at the call of a FIFTH kan. This is the only time wherein 5 different dora indicators will come into play, resulting in [5 (dora indicators) x 4] + [4 (red dora tiles)] = 24 dora!
The number of
doras possible sounds nauseating, but take note that with that many
han points in a single hand, the hand is called a "counted yakuman" (
kazoe-yakuman), and is thus awarded the maximum number of points as a
yakuman. This happens for hands having 13 or more
han points. Looks like having as many
doras as that is simply too hot for Kuro to handle. :D
Suu Kantsu
In
Counting the Dragons, we mentioned that a player would need to have called four
kans in order to boost the number of dora to that ridiculous amount. Sadly, though, it doesn't mean much because if the player DOES win, they would have completed a
yakuman anyway called
suu kantsu (four quads). The interesting thing about this
yakuman is that it can be completed as either an open or CLOSED hand. Completing this type of hand by opening up our melds sounds easy enough - but how are you supposed to complete 4
kans without stealing any tiles, while at the same time maintaining a CLOSED hand?
Spoiler Alert! Click to show or hide
Answer - There's only one way, and it is ridiculously hard to do because it involves a tremendous amount of luck… Godly luck, even. It requires having a hand consisting of three quads and a pair. Take note that this is not a complete hand (a complete hand requires FOUR melds). The player declares a kan and draws a supplemental tile from the dead wall which must match their pair tile, thus creating a triple meld. The player then declares ANOTHER kan and draws another supplemental tile from the dead wall. If the supplemental tile drawn from the dead wall matches the triple meld already in the player's hand, it will complete a fourth kan. However, this is still not complete - the player needs a pair to complete their hand. In order to do this, the player must declare the remaining two quads in hopes that the two supplemental tiles drawn from the dead wall will complete the needed pair. By doing this, the player would have completed four quads with a pair - a hand containing 18 tiles - all without having to rob any tiles from another player: a CLOSED Suu Kantsu.
Given the amount of effort and sheer luck involved to perform this, I feel that it isn't doing it justice to award it the same number of points as an OPEN
suu kantsu. Either way, both open and closed forms of this
yakuman are awarded the same number of points, so all that luck goes to naught. Sure, keeping it closed is a very elegant way to do it - but it looks to me like a one-in-a-buhjillion kind of probability. But hey, it's still possible.
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