So far, I’m enjoying Saki, but I’m a sucker for tournament stories. Angelic Layer, Princess Nine, and Fighting Spirit have all been on my Top 10 list. What can I say, I like the bittersweet. I don’t know if Saki is on that level and I’m still neutral on the possibility — fan service and a good story are not mutually exclusive. Still, it’s laid down the groundwork for a good tournament show. Saki works as a lead character for this type of show. She’s carrying a weight on her back, and so does her friend Nodoka, but Nodoka carries that weight elsewhere.
One area I’m not so hot on is the Mahjong. Whenever the characters start playing Mahjong, I start to glaze over a little. If it weren’t for low angle tease shots during play, I’d be wandering during the club meetings. The occasional tile slam helps to keep me awake, but I just don’t know what’s going on other than relying on character commentary on the game — side note, the President is awesome. It’s not like Go, where a casual observer can make a visual assessment even if they don’t know the rules.
I’m curious how they’ll be able to keep the excitement going when we finally get to some tournament play. Will they make the mistake of trying to teach us Mahjong and getting overly involved with the actual game itself, as they’re kind of doing now, or will the center of action be on the characters and letting good camera work tell us what is significant in the game?
I have no idea the rules of Stud Poker, but I’ve seen plenty of Stud Poker in movies and television that have kept me tense and invested. I didn’t need to know the game. The camera work and the editing told me when to worry, who won, who lost, who was in control, and who was lost in the forest. I’m hoping this is the route they’ll take.
So while the Mahjong tutorials so far are sort of okay, it’s really just filler. Hopefully, it gets dropped quickly. After all, it’s taking up time that could be filled with more character drama, almost a panty shots, and obvious yuri if you want it to be fodder. It’s also funny that in a yuri if you want it to be show that Yuuki, the spunky side character, is obsessed with munching on tacos. That right there is genius.
I lol’d a little when I read about the munching on tacos part XD I’m interested in where this show is going too. I find the mahjong parts somewhat interesting but I can’t keep up with what’s going on that well since I’ve never played mahjong outside of stacking tiles in a game that comes with computers by default. I think this could go a couple different ways if they dropped the tutorials, but I have my doubts about whether or not they’ll be doing that. We’re likely to get exposed to new rules during the tournament. I am enjoying the anime thus far, but I’m not sure how long it’ll keep me interested.
Have you ever watched Hikaru no Go? I wonder if you might like that one. Although it doesn’t feature anything as awesome as taco munchage
I saw about 20 episodes of Hikaru no Go. That was a fun series. The release got kind of messed up and I have to go see if they ever finished releasing it here. But, that’s kind of what I was thinking about during the Mahjong tutorials. With Go, it’s a territory game and you don’t even have to know the rules to make an assessment. The rules are easier to grasp, so the teaching portions are actually effective in HnG.
With Mahjong, not so easy to do it quick and painlessly, so they either need to slog through it to increase understanding or proceed knowing most the audience doesn’t understand the game and present accordingly. I still like Saki so far, after all, it’s still a tournament show with cute characters.
I would watch it mostly because of the cute girlies in sailor fuku than for the mahjong, but who knows..
[...] be able to enjoy this series much more than tjhan if the episodes unfold as per super rats’ suggestion: Will they make the mistake of trying to teach us Mahjong and getting overly involved with the [...]
I tell my friends about Mahjong that it is a form of Gim Rummy. Aside from that, it takes a person who has some knowledge or have played a couple of games to understand the nuances of what they are doing. If anything some of the cards/tiles they pull borderlines on the impossible. I’ve been told that playing mahjong involves 70% skill and 30% luck, and by all accounts Saki is both skilled and has incredible luck.
I don’t know if you would want to but check out Akagi, as it’s a grittier way of seeing how Mahjong is played.
I believe Yuuki would correct that assessment with 60% skill / 30% luck / 10% tacos.
Can’t argue with the taco equation. Mmm…. Tacos…
I rather like the Mahjong bits. If you want a quick & dirty overview of Riichi Mahjong, check this out. http://mahjong-europe.org/filer/riichisheet.pdf
It’s very helpful.
Thanks for the cheat sheet. Hopefully it helps makes their declarations seem less random. I need to catch up though. I’m a few episodes behind already. May was a blur to me. >.<