Gonzo may be going completely bankrupt in addition (and likely because of) to recently making mostly crappy shows, but they’ve scored one hit at least. Superficially, Saki is about mahjong, but it’s actually more about yuri, power levels, and not wearing panties…and is a surprisingly solid entertainment experience.
Yuri Goggles Unnecessary
The central brilliance of this show is taking the very subtle yuri undertones in the manga and dropping a massive bomb on them. The only males in this show are for comic relief or made to look rather stupid, and the yuri yuri girls are constantly blushing over anything and everything related to their BFF+. Usually when Gonzo goes off on their own the results are quite disastrous, but for once they’ve done something wickedly awesome.
You’ve got plenty of pairings to choose from, some more subtle then the others. The main ship is Nodoka and Saki, who do everything from holding hands blushing while, to resting on one another, and to sleeping half naked together. Perhaps some of it is wishful thinking, but all of the emphasis is definitely deliberate on the part of the studio.
Moejong Powerlevels
One of the most hilarious parts of Saki is the mahjong powerlevels, something that is hardly an accurate portrayal of how mahjong is played, but is amusing nonetheless. Massive amounts of luck, seeing through tiles, and other 6th sense silliness is quite pervasive. If you want an actual portrayal of something a bit more realistic you should definitely watch Akagi instead (although it has a tad of its own, but it’s much rarer and not as overbearing). In fact, Saki is a rather poor way to learn about the game of mahjong, as they don’t explain things very well and there’s actually a couple of mistakes here and there. Everyone should watch Akagi without such a prompting, but it’s important to note. I think regardless of your experience in mahjong, if you get into the show as much as everyone else you’ll be yelling out “OH SHIT SHE JUST BUSTED A RINSHAN KAIHOU IN HER FACE!” like the rest of us, even if you aren’t totally sure what it means.
Embellishing a bit on the foundation laid in the manga, the anime version shows scenes of the characters’ avatars in some fantasy world (Nodoka flashes a bunch of cleavage, gets wings and flies around, etc.) In the “real” world you also get the Geass eye from the Kazekoshi capitain (Yui Horie’s character) and Hisa’s demonic hand, among others. Some have rather stupid abilities, like the invisible girl (although that one has hilarious yuri action to it with her captain), while others are much more awesome (Hisa’s hell waits are pretty wicked). Mahjong itself is a very long and strategic game that generally doesn’t lend itself to short bouts of excitement, so they have to be given a bit of a creative license here. It’s all rather overdone and a bit hamfisted, but then again so was the erupting burning finger.
Panties Optional
There’s no coincidence that one of the 2ch nicknames/memes for this show is “Saki is not wearing any.” The pure amount of low-angled shots and impossibly high skirts that leave little to the imagination is something else. Gonzo manages to somehow come up with new ways to lay on ultra-thick fanservice (I thought they had reached the end when the entire female cast of Strike Witches never wore pants). The best example of this was the first episode, which had full body shots of Nodoka in wet clothes, and then a well-designed shot from below as pictured above. Needless to say I was impressed with how far they were willing to go, and glad that there wasn’t a bat or something obscuring it and making it look stupid.
If you haven’t yet this is the perfect time to marathon and catch up on the first 15 episodes. We’ve just started the final match of the tournament with Saki going up against the demonic little loli. I admit I’m pretty weak for tournaments, even if they are a bit cheesy and you know who is going to win (I’ve read the tourunament volumes in Negima way too many times). If nothing else, watch it for the all-star seiyuu cast, just about everyone who is anybody has some part. In conclusion, if you can handle fanservice, yuri, over the top power levels, and don’t take your anime too seriously, you may just really enjoy this one.
14 Comments
I think I read somewhere that starting with ep 15, the series is being done by someone else. Gonzo no longer appears in the credits as being responsible for animation production.
I wonder if they’ll maintain the yuri power.
This post speaks truf. Saki has been one of the most surprisingly entertaining shows of the year in terms of comedy and other stuff. Gonzo has surprisingly outdone themselves with this one, scoring a huge hit out of nowhere. And the tournament is just getting exciting.
Saki’s one of those shows that’s best watched in chunks because it delivers the mahjong at a more consistent pace rather than having to wait week in, week out for the 2 hanchan per person to finish up.
Yuri for Yuri’s sake = garbage.
This series is garbage.
I usually just watch Saki raw because it doesn’t really make much sense even when subbed anyway. But putting aside all those jargons and strategies that doesn’t really make sense, it’s a pretty fun show to watch XD
It was funny in the beginning, but it got boring. It doesn’t have the “draw you in” factor of Hikaru no go or Hajime no Ippo, the sex appeal of Maria Holic, nor does it have the silly factor of Sengoku Basara. It’s quite hollow.
Gonzo made some great animes, though I never liked what the way they used CGs or modified some stories. But one must admit the things they’ve been making were barely watchable. It’s sad to see a studio think though.
On the other hand, Shaft seems to be going strong, and as I liked Maria holic, I like Bakemonogatari (I’m praying for some romance there though, hopeless me).
Nemo, I have to agree with you. I was quite hooked at the beginning, but the languid pace at which they’ve unrolled the tournament has lost me. I haven’t watched the last three episodes because I’ve pretty much gotten bored with it.
I think episode 16 is a much-watch because of amazingly bad it is. Unless there is some deeply hidden humor in all this, I find this show extremly proud of itself ; I never could stand those characters explaining their every move, and worse even, those that cower in awe at the simple sight of a loli taking a majong tile. Are you serious ? I mean, Saki almost pukes when that oh god amongst lolis take the tile. NANNNI ? SONO KANJI ! MASAAAKA. Plus – not only does that tournament takes quite a many episodes, but ridiculous attention is given to it ; there are commentators that seem to be amazed at every single detail, every little girl is on the edge of its seat because frankly majong has such an amazing momentum you know.
The mahou loli battles could have been fun, but right now they are just used to look cool. I’m sorry, saying something looks cool / skilled / horrible doesn’t make it so… In the same way there is in fact very little majong in this anime, there is very little character interaction, thought processes, or anything else for that matter. It’s amazing to me that I could like say Shion no Ou yet hate Saki, for they are not much different in what they depict(if you exclude the pseudo crimi in Shion).
I just had to repost my rant after watching episode 16, I was facepalming the entire 24 minutes… And don’t get me wrong, I’m not critizing it because it lacks “realistic majong” (what do I care..), but because it has no plot, no humor, no chara dev and because everything in it is annoying. But we should all have been warned when they introduced the classic cast of character that makes up the “ennemy”, with the “one-eye closed” girl, the “rich almost tsundere” blondy, the babyloli with mock tattoos, the evil loli of death that exsudes a consuming aura, the tomboy “my hair is stylish” tall girl, so on so forth. Gawwgh.
Goddamn, why did I drop this instead of K-on?
;_;
@Steven
I saw that on ANN as well, I think they are trying to outsource stuff to save money. However, I’ll still consider it a Gonzo show since they put it together and did the first half at least, and I saw little difference in production between earlier episodes and 15.
@Panther
Out of nowhere describes it pretty well, I didn’t think I’d have any interest in this show at all, not knowing anything about mahjong (since then I’ve actually taught myself the basics). Turned out to be a pleasant surprise.
@Zzeroparticle
Well the last match is going to be drawn out for quite a few episodes. I can imagine them adding an entire episode to focus on the past of each girl as a way to make the match last 8-9 episodes or whatever is left.
@Thingle
Oh please, I’d hope most hot blooded males don’t have a problem with two chicks being hot for each other, no matter if the reason is contrived. Damn, all of those girl on girl scenes in porn, it’s lesbians for lesbians sake, garbage I tell you!
@Nekonron
Yeah, definitely not a real way to learn mahjong terminology, so don’t sweat it~
@Nemo
It’s not supposed to be anything but silly entertainment with yuri and DBZ powerlevel appeal. If you are so incensed at the silly way it explains what is happening that you must not have watched a lot of shounen anime. The primary audience of a show like this is young males, so it’s not really a surprise that they take some cues from shows like that. Instead of swords and spells it’s mahjong, but they do the same thing basically, explaining everything and acting surprised.
If you were looking for something deep with a powerful plot you are certainly looking in the wrong place. Think of it as DBZ/Bleach with mahjong. It’s a show for /a/ trolls like me.
@Salsk
I dunno man, they are both pretty entertaining moe shows~
Any show with Yu Kobayashi = win
Any show with Yu Kobayashi & Shizuka Itou = epic
I’m probably the only person watching this show who’s actually pulling for Tsuruga Academy’s Captain, Yumi Kajiki, to destroy the psycho loli with mommy/daddy issues, the underdeveloped yuri who nearly orgasms if you so much as look at her, and the boringly dull NEKO Fang-tan.
Chibi Koromo and Fujita Pro was the best scene so far. That and Chibi Koromo and Etopen.
The stuff in Akagi is great, Akagi is actually a spin off itself and a prequel. The main story, Ten is even more insane than Akagi in terms of tricks. Whereas in Akagi, the focus is usually on 2 people aka Akagi god stomping the other, this series actually has for the most part, 4 All-stars duking it out, and Akagi has been nerfed by age aka god luck but now has even more schemes and tricks. It is much more competitive in the “trick league” so to speak, and is much more rewarding if you understand MJ.
That being said, it’s sad that it’s limited to manga and not possible in RL, because most of the damn tricks are insanely hard to pull off even if you don’t factor in the illegality of it. The only moves I’ve ever taken and applied are the mind games, are those are kinda cliche and not very usable if you don’t know your opponent’s mindset.
But then again, Yahoo ladder was a joke =] though the competitive scene in HK and Tokyo are very very different in meta-game from my experience in both. But at least it’s more fun than the stupid slots in Vegas >.> and I can’t handle the card tables if there are smelly fat guys.
To me, the OVER THE TOP mahjong is a big reason why I’m watching it, so I pretty much enjoy Saki for the reasons why someone like Nemo dislikes it. And I don’t think of the pace of the recent matches as slow, but maybe it’s just because I don’t mind things that are slow paced.
PANTY SHAAAAWT!
Ya gotta love Ecchi moments, in any Anime.
Hilarious Ecchi Moment.
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