Saki

Now in 2012 this series is not new anymore. Let's say something about it...

The plot tells the story of a freshman student, a girl called Saki, of the high school Kiyosumi. She's more or less forced to play mahjong. At the beginning she doesn't like it. In the end she love it and tries to win, with her high school mahjong team's teammates, the girls prefectural tournament. All of them will have to play with very strong opponents to fulfill this task.

And that's the point of the series, mahjong viewed with a sport anime style. It uses three factors to make this story catchy, "moe", special techniques, and light yuri. It has ecchi in a some scenes, keep that in mind. For me the ecchi is a bad point, but someone maybe likes it.

I love the fact this show mahjong as a game, nothing related to gambling or the japanese mafia, the yakuza. Just a board game for all to play.

The plot is the same as other sports anime, if you're old enough, maybe you know Captain Tsubasa, an anime about soccer, that has the same style. If not think on Inazuma Eleven or other sports anime of the sort, with special attacks.

Most of times the reasons for players to play doesn't go beyond " I have to win for my team/for my school/to not dissapoint my coach/for certain teammate whom I like but (in most cases) I don't say it." The series uses flashbacks to explain various things, mostly why they play, and those flashbacks are used well, so it's ok. They're enjoyable.

As is a lighthearted anime is fun to watch, it can make you to see the whole series in a night, if you have the spirit. Even if you know nothing about Riichi Mahjong (japanese mahjong).

If you know how to play you will understand it better (and maybe you'll lke it more), if not, you'll want to learn to play japanese mahjong.

All characters are lovable, funny and kind-hearted, even if when they play mahjong or doing something related to it, looks like they want to break the hands, legs, and heads of those who are playing with them.

The openings and endings are cute and you'll remember them. The first and third endings are songs about mahjong and are filled with lot of terms of japanese mahjong, For me, those are the best songs.

The BGM is Ok, enough to make you sit and watch the show. I think, its not the best out there, but it go together with the anime very well

The animation is not so good and the plot is nothing special, but I hope you like it. It's that kind of anime you can watch in a boring afternoon with nothing to do, funny, interesting, and pleasant to watch.

In this series all mahjong terms are translated to english wich I see as a bad point, as even non japanese players uses the japanese names of the "yaku", the various combinations of tiles that gives points, when playing japanese mahjong. The translator uses the term yaku as the yaku and it's values wich are "han", and should be counted as 1 yaku with a value of X han. English terms are even more confusing than japanese ones. There are various ways to translate the same yaku with a japanese unique name into english, that's why is confusing.Those errors were made because the translator probably used the info of the European Mahjong Asocciation. In Saki Achiga-hen, a spinoff series, those errors are corrected. I bet it was hard for the translator, so no complaints here.

Even with those flaws is a series worth watching.

As a final note I will say that Hikaru no Go (an anime about Igo, known as Go) and Shion no Ou (dark plot around the game of Shôgi, japanese chess), are good comparisions as all are board games. But the best mahjong anime is Akagi, wich is unconcluded, as the manga is too, unconcluded nowadays. The author keeps doing it.

Ah, yeah, someone said that was weird the players of this series coud say Tsumo, win from the wall where you take tiles, without looking at the tile. That's one of the few realistic points of the anime, the mahjong tiles are always engarved so you need only to touch it to know wich tile is. You don't need to look at them, as long as you know the patterns of the tiles.

If you ever play mahjong you'll find hard to do what those girls do. Is, as someone said, "if you complain because real mahjong is not like this series, is like complaining because real ninjutsu is not like Naruto's ninjutsu".

I hope you llike it, as I do. And I hope more people join here to watch Saki Achiga-hen, and the new announced Saki Zenkoku-hen (2014 Spring).

Stumbled across this one while looking for yuri series to watch. Nothing much to say about this show. It fulfilled its role as a light fluffy fun show for those evenings where you get home and just don't want to do anything for 30min. The ecchi wasn't excessive, and the likeable characters made the show enjoyable overall.

I'm not a very experienced mahjong player, and had no clue what richi or dora were having not played Japanese mahjong before. Was kind of tickled that the kanji for mahjong actually means sparrow in Chinese. But I think the mahjong isn't the point of the show anyway, given that most of the strong players win because of some kind of stupid luck they have to pick up tiles in some strange way. Mostly the mahjong serves as a way to keep the tension going throughout the series, and you could substitute any other competitive (or otherwise) sport for it.

Yes. Read the manga. Or you can spend forever waiting for a second season.
(Saki isn't very popular back in Japan, so there is the chance of you waiting forever.)

Anyway. Saki is one of my favorite animes. Namely because it's unique in its content. Not many animes/mangas are about mahjong, you know.
But besides the fact that I can now play Japanese mahjong because of it... it has a very heartwarming storyline.

--Not going into the storyline because you should watch it--

Music: Great.
Story: Awesome.
Lessons: Cute. Wait... I mean enlightening.
Mahjong understanding: +1000 pts (riichi!... just kidding.)

Anyway. Watch it.

This anime wasn't all that great, in my opinion.

In most animes where the goal is "aim for nationals", the main character at least has some skill, and tries to improve it. In Eyeshield 21, for example, Sena has good running speed and works to develop it. In The Prince of Tennis, all the characters are constantly getting better moves even though they already HAVE special moves. In Slam Dunk, the main character starts out new to the sport and develops various skills. It seems like in Saki, half the game is people somehow knowing that they will draw a particular tile at a particular time. They'll declare Tsumo without even LOOKING at the tile they just drew. When your play is determined by luck to that degree, there's really no way to have the characters improve.

The anime also doesn't do much for you if you're trying to learn how to play. The rules and the details of scoring are not really explained.

That said, by the time I got halfway through it did have me rooting for Saki and her teammates, and most of the opponents are likeable too.

I was a fan of mahjong before, played it a few times so naturally I was drawn to Saki. Knowing that it was a Gonzo title, I expected a fair amount of CG use. I didn't know much about the title itself other than it was a mahjong based series and that it focused around a mahjong club. The experience was enjoyable and I found myself looking forward to next weeks episodes at times. There were weeks that I wasn't too excited about the follow-up episode.

Characters I felt were good, however outside of the main characters, I did feel that there were a few that were cardboard cutout characters. Ones who didn't matter, or who felt like a copy of other characters I've seen in the past. Sometimes it's understandable. In Saki's case, the other characters weren't too bad. Perhaps the Kazekoshi school fit that description in for me, they weren't too bad, but they certainly weren't too memorable, save for the character interactions in that group.

Some of the elements in the story felt a little forced, the sequence on how Saki joined particularly didn't really sit well with me. It didn't seem natural, but what can you expect when plenty of the tiles give off electric shocks when there's a decent tsumo or ron. As a tournament style series, I found myself waiting for each sequence. Between the tournaments and games felt the weakest but still managed to make me smile.

I found myself with this series surprised by the ending sequences. Cute, fanciful, and a hundred percent enjoyable. It tied in perfectly with the aspects of the series. Besides the opening and ending sequences, I didn't notice much of the music. Oftentimes I found myself paying too much attention to the mahjong games or character interaction. By the time I finished the series, I was surprised that there wasn't a follow up season until recently albeit a side-story. Rewatching is still just as enjoyable.

I found writing this review to be quite interesting. I am the type who rather stays away from the shoujo-ai and ecchi genre, but the mahjong just got me completely addicted to this story!

Storyline:
The storyline is what gets you addicted to this story! I have never thought something I had initially believed to be so boring could turn a 180° turn into something so exciting! Mahjong never seemed like a smart theme to use in an anime, but the way it was used in this anime made me excited as though it was a sports anime. Technically, the layout is quite similar to that of a sports manga or anime with the tournament and whatnot, but the writers for Saki have created a rare jewel with the series. The mahjong gets you pumped, and every single move and action the players made either quickened my heart or stopped it in a flash. The series really gets you into the game. I didn't understand the rules at first, but the anime helps in explaining it so newbies can get an idea as to how the game is played. Even if you get lost and still don't understand a thing, the anime will still keep you wanting for more with the intense tension between the players and the exciting moves they end up playing.

There were only a few things that I found rather annoying with the series, especially during the tournament. There were too many flashbacks! Normally, I enjoy the occasional flashback as it brings us more in depth with the characters, but since there are four players during one game, it was as though the writers wanted to bring us closer to every single character. All the flashbacks made it hard to keep up with the game, and frankly, I found that it disrupted the flow. Compared to the manga, I found that the anime added too many unnecessary flashbacks to all of the characters.

I have read the manga and found that the anime stuck with the exact storyline! There are some minor differences though, but I found that the anime made it work into the series and made the differences seem very natural. Comparing the two together, I also noticed that the anime emphasized more on the shoujo-ai aspect of the series. Frankly, I don't enjoy shoujo-ai, but I found that the manga was very subtle with it. The anime was more out there with the pairings and if you're not into shoujo-ai, you may want to watch out for those types of scenes since they're much less subtle in the anime.

Music:
I found the music to be pretty average. It fit the genre of the series and didn't go into deep emotional song. Most of the music was pretty upbeat, so you can expect your feet tapping to the beat or screaming your head off from the "racket", but really, it's the typical anime song. I find the openings and endings to be easily skipable.

The background music fit the scenes. Some of the music in the mahjong "battle" scenes got me pumped up for a good fight. It helped bring in the excitement for the series. Also, the music for some of the other scenes fit the mood and brought out the scene more.

Characters:
There are multitudes of characters in this series, which is to be expected since there are four players per a game in mahjong, and the fact that they're playing as teams also plays in. The lead, Saki, seemed like the typical normal girl at first, but once everyone recognized her mahjong ability, you could really tell how special she was. Throughout the series, I found that the special light began to die out. There were moments when I was upset with how she was dealing with things, and there were times when I really wish she had more confidence with herself and her abilities, but as long as she was kicking butt with her mahjong skills, I felt that she could be tolerable.

The rest of the characters definitely arouse your interest, but due to so many flashbacks, I began to become annoyed with some of them. If I take away the flashbacks, I find that most of them can be very likable, especially Hisa whose personality definitely made her an enjoyable character to watch on the show. All of the characters have personalities and differences, although I found some characters to simply just "be there". I felt like some of them had this big build up on being special, but they didn't have enough "oomph" to show just how special they really were.

Animation:
The animation was fine. It fits the storyline being cute and all, but I found that it needed to lessen on its "shiny-ness". There were too many shiny kneecaps and too many blushing cheeks. I felt that this was one of the main reasons why it emphasized itself to being an ecchi and shoujo-ai series, but there were just too much "shiny-ness" that I felt suffocated in merely tolerating it. The manga doesn't show any "shiny-ness" at all, and if I had imagined the animation from the manga, there would be only "shiny-ness" on the hair and maybe very subtle "shiny-ness" on the cheeks and body parts.


Overall, the anime is a winner, especially because of the mahjong! Even if you don't find it interesting at first, this series will have you at the edge of your seat! This anime definitely deserves a season two, especially with the unfinished business left off at the end! Hope you give this anime a chance!