neko's thinkbox

Yes for Mihoko, no for Nodoka. Yes for sandwiching, though.

Yes for Mihoko, no for Nodoka. Yes for sandwiching, though. …did I say that out loud?

Saying all of this pretty much implies that, had I not caught interest in Mahjong while watching Saki, it would have been dead boring, borderline annoying, since there was fanservice et al. But obviously, Mahjong is only one of the merits of this anime. Another facet is the sheer variety of characters, and their screen time longevity.

As I said in an earlier C.U.T. post, I found it impressive that this series managed to squeeze so many teams and girls into the limelight, without dismissing them right away after their appearance – even better, they kept showing them over and over again, particularly focusing on internal relationships. We could have been blessed with tons episodes of the usual Saki-Nodoka yuridere-fest, and seen Tsuruga and Ryuumonbuchi come and go as temporary nemeses. But instead, we saw how Mihoko cared about her team; how Yumi wanted Momoko to join her club; how Hajime got attached to Touka, how Amae grew up, and all the other small details that filled the large painting with variety. Character development, especially in recent anime, often is difficult enough to realize for a very small group of main characters – but in Saki, it has been fairly well executed, dozens of girls notwithstanding. And within the fierce competition that were all these qualifiers, one thing was made clear: they all remained friendly and solidary amongst each other. Rivals on the field, best friends off it. This moral often has gone missing in sports/fightan/competition anime, which is why I doubly appreciate it in Saki.

Of course, it would have been impossible to focus on EVERY character. But apart from the less pretty characters (like those from Kazekoshi), most girls were well covered. We ended up with a very long seiyuu cast which is great, once in a while. A lot of quality and variety, I liked it. As long as it doesn’t become a Battle Royale of who’s the better voice…

But I have to admit, it wasn’t all perfect. I felt a little let down with Kazue Nanpo. Her late introduction in the Individuals, her general presence felt a little too ephemeral. She was a little mysterious indeed (so was Koromo when she was introduced) but apart from knowing that she played in her Grandfather’s style, we know barely nothing about her motivations or her past, which is quite odd in comparison to the amount of information we have about all the other big players. And since she won’t play in the Nationals, I question even the reason of her very existence. We had so many great players with many different styles, and they only had three episodes to show the entire individuals – so why, why did they exhaust the available time with an incomplete character? Unless she reappears and makes a difference in S2, I strongly think she shouldn’t have been, no matter how lovely I found her.

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For the rest, well… The story was pretty straightforward. Intro, training, competition, training, competition. It focused mainly on Mahjong. Only Yuuki’s stupidity (out of all things) caused a small tidbit of school life to be incorporated into the mix, which was surprising. It didn’t feel as if they all were high schoolers at all, they were either playing Mahjong or on a training camp/vacation somewhere. They certainly aren’t all whiz kids, aren’t they…

Ah, I forgot the predominant yuri subtext. As much as it gave food for imagination and speculation^[1], I wasn’t particularly fond of it. It’s definitely not because I don’t appreciate love between girls (I highly approve of Aoi Hana, which I still have to clear yet), but it gets just too repetitive. Perhaps because there are so many pairings in here, but they are all beating around the bush, and it gets outright embarrassing in the end. When I see Saki fall into Nodoka’s boobs, I can’t help myself but roll my eyes. When I see them holding hands, I frown. When I hear them calling each other by their first names, I facepalm. Just seeing them blush furiously in their usual generic fashion, I cringe. I don’t know, just can’t handle this level of embarrassment, especially if it happens ALL THE TIME. I almost expected them to go all-out in the last onsen scene or later on as Nodoka chased after Saki, as a teaser for S2… but yeah. Similar patterns with all the other couplings… too repetitive imo. The only straight one, surprisingly, was Yuuki. Although I’m sure she would hump her Tacos rather than Kyoutaro.^[2]

My preferences? It has cycled a lot (mainly because of my lolicon impulses rising ever so rarely) but my final pick would be Mihoko and Hisa. Oh and Wa-ha-ha~ Satomi is awesome too, but only for her laughter. Her facial expression always looked… odd. I dunno. （のヮの）＜わ・は・は～

Best possible pairing, hands down. I'll chop them off personally if they aren't down.

Best possible pairing, hands down. I’ll chop them off personally if they aren’t down.

…yes, I haven’t forgotten the ending.
Obviously, it is an open ending. But the general plot, and preview in the last episode has made it more than clear that it is set to continue. All the many new teams and Mahjong monsters are just waiting to play, and since it’s the teams + individuals, there will be a LOT to cover yet. Not to mention the whole Saki x Teru shebang about their past and stuff, and Nodocchi’s screen-filling input.

Apparently, the manga hasn’t even made it past episode 20 or something, so it might take a while until there is enough inspirational content, provided that Gonzo gives a shit about it. Speaking of which, and it’s been the controversy of the last half year, rumor has it that Gonzo isn’t doing so well. Debt, bankruptcy and shit, well I don’t know, and I don’t care. I usually don’t give a damn about studios so I don’t know the specifics. In any case… as long as they don’t die entirely before Saki S2, it should be fine. Saki itself has been pretty popular (if not the most popular(-to be) of Gonzo shows), so that might be incentive enough to continue.

Incidentally, looking at this year’s Saimoe, no less than half of the 8 finalists (Nodoka, Mihoko, Yuuki and Koromo) are Saki characters. Could have been more, but Momoko and Kana didn’t make the cut, even though it was very close. So much for the popularity of the characters.^[3]

So, here’s to Saki season 2. And a lot more Saki merchandise, heh. Anyone interested in a Etopen plushie?^[4]

JYE! SOROSORO DA JYO!

MADAMADA IKU JYE! SOROSORO DA JYO!

tl;dr: Saki: I enjoyed it. I gave it a Pretty High Grade out of Many Facetious Grades, fill in the numbers yourself.

Oh and, I’m planning to move away from animeblogger very soon, like, end of the week. As much as I’ve loved being with them for almost 3 years now, their service has been simply execrable in the last month, and the new servers are equally slow and unresponsive. Any alternatives? Should I go notcliche? Dasaku? Wordpress? Or whatever other free service? Keep it coming.

1. complemented by fanfic, doujin & co [↩]
2. Which reminds me of Habanero girl… :3 [↩]
3. Then again, looking solely at the NEETs’ and trolls’ opinions doesn’t really reflect much about the effective popularity… But who gives. [↩]
4. Funnily enough, there isn’t a Saki-inspired Riichi Mahjong set yet. – Spoke too soon. [↩]