First Impressions / Saki

Mouse over screens for captions
 
Summary
Picking right up from where we left off, this episode starts with all-purpose butler Hagiyoshi tracking down Koromo with his handheld GPS, which immediately makes me wonder where they stuck the tracker on her. Come to think of it, all she had to do was give back a damn penguin to Nodoka and then go back to the room, but nooo she had to run out and climb up some dangerous-looking structure. That said, it’s always nice when cute girls climb up things, cuz then we can look up their skirt when they are coming down.

Anyways, Koromo was getting bored because she was just going to destroy everyone in the competition, but Hagiyoshi says there’s some pretty tough chicks, which gets Koromo fired up. Miles away, Saki can feel Koromo’s killer instinct and starts to get wet (sweat).

Anyways, more on those two later. It’s actually Touka vs Nodoka this time around, or rather, Touka vs what she thinks Nodoka is, cuz Nodoka is really quite clueless to everything around her. The thing with chicks with huge tits, they don’t notice shit, unless some other girl has bigger cans than her. It’s possible that the gorilla chick from Kazekoshi has bigger ones, but weight:cup size ratio is important.

Speaking of Kazekoshi, only two girls on their roster can be considered “cute”, which means that only two of them actually know how to play mahjong. One of them, the captain, already went, and the only reason she played well was cuz she was matched up against some useless benchers. Kazekoshi is supposed to be strong?

Anyways, the game starts off. Touka spends the entire time doing an internal monologue about how insecure she is about Nodoka’s huge boobs and how crazy turned on by Nodocchi she is. Nodoka isn’t aware of anything and just concentrates on the game, and continues to steamroll everyone as Touka continues to talk to herself in that hilarious ojousama tone (desu wa!). Touka finally does some cool tile spinning shit and throws out her riichi stick, but then nothing comes out of it and they end up with an exhaustive draw. Booooring!

Touka comes to the conclusion that Nodoka still sucks and hasn’t been able to make the transition from Nodocchi completely. At the same time, Nodoka is sitting there getting wet thinking about Saki watching her… but then they end in another exhaustive draw. fjdklafd;lasljfa

But then, almost on call, Nodoka starts thinking about the game as if she were playing online (reminiscent of Konata’s 4-bit video game during the sports festival), and goes back to steamrolling people, which apparently is a huge turn-on for her as she starts to sweat like a crazed cat in heat.

Nodoka continues to gradually build her lead, but waiting somewhere in the midst is Touka dressed up like Fate-chan, ready to strike…
 
Preview

Up next on Saki: Touka’s Counterattack??
 
Thoughts

Aw, no crazy aerial tile slam this time. I guess Nodoka just can’t gameface like Hisa, but luckily we had Touka around to keep things interesting. There’s always one of these ojousama characters in every one of these moe mode shows (Negima, Akane-iro, etc etc)… always blonde and adds “desu wa” to everything they say, but Touka seems to one-up her clones by… well, I don’t really know why. I think it’s that ahoge or how she said “HMPH! desu wa”, lol

There wasn’t as much raging yuri hormones going on in this ep, but there were plenty of under-table knee-blush thigh-glisten shots to keep us all happy, so no complaints here. In relative terms, there was a good amount of mahjong this ep to keep the story moving as well.

Seeing mahjong get the anime treatment makes me wonder, how well would poker do? Have we not seen a poker anime because it’s not as popular in Japan? Come to think of it, is poker even popular outside the US? I mean, there was Eyeshield about American Football, which doesn’t get any coverage outside the US, but at least everyone can appreciate the athleticism of those armored beasts. But poker? Maybe Casino Royale was enough to get the ball rolling. Let’s go Japan, find a way to make an eight hour game of poker exciting!

Koromo oh Koromo when will it be your turn!

38 Comments

  8. It’s amazing on how “excited” these girls can get when just playing…or even watching a game of mahjong. They are all ready to explode at any moment. I also don’t mind with Hisa’s banana obsession. That smile says it all.

    Dando008
    Reply

  12. >> One of them, the captain, already went, and the only reason she played well was cuz she was matched up against some useless benchers.

    Actually, the way Touka talked during ep. 9, it seems that Mihoko played the fukushou round last year and successfully fended off Touka and won the round. Mihoko is on Hisa and Hajime’s level. Given the performance of Touka and Nodoka so far, I’d say all of them are on par with each other. Probably would depend upon the luck of the draw and seeing who starts closer to tenpai than the rest.

    >> Touka finally does some cool tile spinning shit and throws out her riichi stick, but then nothing comes out of it and they end up with an exhaustive draw. Booooring!

    Ahhh… With all the offense and high risk hands being played in previous rounds, this was an interesting episode in terms of mahjong strategy. Like Fujita-pro says, all of the players here are very solid and skilled players. They make few mistakes and know when to back off. Although Nodoka has won hands, for the most part, they’ve been off of tsumos as opposed to winning points off of players (like Hisa did to Kazekoshi in her round). That’s pretty impressive. Pretty much a defensive masterpiece by all four players (thus far).

    Haha. All of them have more patience than me, that’s for sure! Like Jun, I’m more the type to try to bulldoze through richis — and probably lose big points as opposed to just bailing and letting someone get their tenpai points.

    Lastly, I’m amused / amazed that Momoko’s ghost ability seems to apply not only in real life but also to electronic cameras. I can’t wait to see what she pulls out next episode. She’s even East too, which means if she wins, the round doesn’t end and she’ll get bonus hands.

    kage
    Reply

  20. Poker is hella popular in the US (well, maybe two years ago), but I have no idea about Japan. A poker anime would be VERY POPULAR AND SUCCESSFUL, if done the right way

    Haha. I should check this show out. It’s obviously not a drama. 🙂 How does it feel “not-blogging” K-On?

    starss
    Reply

  21. give this battle 2 more episode then u will see your dear koromo in action i think~!
    next battle will not be touka’s but momoko’s~

    We will get to know the power of momoko~! 😛
    nodochii for the win though~

    jeffng9
    Reply

  24. >>Touka finally does some cool tile spinning shit and throws out her riichi stick, but then nothing comes out of it and they end up with an exhaustive draw. Booooring!

    Btw, jaalin, here’s the link that shows both Touka’s hand and Nodoka’s: http://mangahelpers.com/downloads/read-online/27861/60?t=1246298411

    Touka was waiting on a 2, 5, or 8 manzi (character) to win. Nodoka, as you can see, draws a 2 manzi and already has a 5 and a pair of 8 manzi. If Nodoka had been going for a win, she would have needed a 2 pin (circles) and a 2 or 5 sou (bamboo) and would have needed to discard the 2 and 5 manzi, hence giving Touka her win.

    I’m stunned that Nodoka read the river (discards) so well and managed to do so with such a small hand that she didn’t give Touka any winning tiles. In essence, she was playing with only a 4 tile discard scheme, counting the drawn tile and assuming she didn’t pick up any more 2, 5, or 8 manzi. It’s even more amazing when you consider Nodoka figured it out in “no time.”

    Jeez. No wonder she’s such a mahjong monster on the net.

    kage
    Reply

  28. Watching the sub enables me to appreciate this episode and the players. These girls don’t have monters’ luck like Koromo or Saki, but they play rock solid games.

    Well, I’m sure we’re gonna have all the fires, floods, lightnings and all kind of natural disasters when Koromo and Saki clashes, so no worries here. 🙂

    Ingram
    Reply

  31. First I really really hope they don’t spend the entire next ep on a single hand…

    Mahjong has already had a couple animes devoted to it (one of the better and more popular ones being Akagi). I could see something like a Hikaru no Go type show about poker. It could be very fun. Can’t wait for Koromo v. Saki.

    Camarilla
    Reply

  35. If anything, poker is the same or more popular in europe than in the U.S (probably concentrated in sweden), even moreso after they kinda outlawed online poker here.

    Doubt it’s popular in Japan though.

    SS
    Reply

  37. Holy Hawk: Football IS the most popular sport in entire world! I mean, it is what Americans/USA call soccer. Their “football” should be called carry-the-ball handball, they very seldom play the ball with feet! But in international football feet are used about 99% of playing time. Don`t take me wrong, i think American Football is a fine sport by it`s own way.
    About poker in Japan and anime, of course it`s well known. I recall The Poker King character in Ranma 1/2 anime and manga, but can`t recall others. But i feel there must have been more.
    By the way, USA Soccer/Real Football Team did very well just recently in Confederations Cup in South Africa.

    Savofenno
    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *