(CR) Saki

[paraalso]

Originally Posted by einhorn303

It's just psychology. Like she said, she declared her riichi 100% properly. It's just her opponents faults they weren't paying attention to her.

It's pure magic, and one of the more impossible abilities in the entire series. Most of the other hax abilities just work like super luck, while stealth mode is more like limited mind control. I like Momoko's character, but I can't stand her playstyle. It's also clearly something that she actively does to her opponents, as some opponents require more time for it to work on than others. Also remember that her tiles become completely invisible too, so it's not just a case of people not hearing her Riichi.

[orangejuicetang]

judging from the preview, I'm all for a Mihoko Hisa rematch, which should be awesome.

As far as Momo's ability goes, I can sort of understand it working for 1-2 hands, but after that, when people are specifically focusing on her, she should lose here ability. Because based on what she said, her power makes people not focus on her/ignore her. But if they are making a special case to concentrate on her, it should be different.

[ThoHell]

Finally Saki is starting to pop out of her annoying phase, I hope she stays out of it for good now. Whether you're a Momo fan or not, that whole going invisible bs is just stupid. Anyways, looking forward Saki doing some crazy stuff with the up coming episodes! HAha, this is sad. Everyone against Saki, literally. Saki is quite diverse and is like "loved by the tiles" yet they make it seems like she only has one style and is a simple person.

[Proto]

Whether you're a Momo fan or not, that whole going invisible bs is just stupid.

You forgot to add a "in my very humble opinion" to that, but whatever. It's what makes the show interesting (differing opinions)

[BBOvenGuy]

Originally Posted by ThoHell

Whether you're a Momo fan or not, that whole going invisible bs is just stupid.

Actually, it's been a very successful plot device in the past. It's the same power that was used by The Shadow, one of the most popular characters during the "Golden Age of Radio," and most recently portrayed by Alec Baldwin in a 1994 movie version.

"Who knows... what evil... lurks in the hearts of mahjong tiles? Momoko knows... hahahahahahaha...."

Okay, I'm betting absolutely no one gets that reference...

Edited to add: It's also similar to the "Somebody Else's Problem Field" in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books, and has also been used on Doctor Who and Torchwood.

[orangejuicetang]

I kinda get the reference, but only because I've once seen another reference of the same thing from the discworld series. Not too sure on the original reference though.

*Is the only thing Saki can do is make Kongs? I mean, she seriously has no other way of winning?

[einhorn303]

Originally Posted by BBOvenGuy

Edited to add: It's also similar to the "Somebody Else's Problem Field" in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books, and has also been used on Doctor Who and Torchwood.

I was actually thinking of the SEP Field exactly while typing up my post about "sensory input." I just didn't post about it because I thought the reference might be too oblique, wwwww.

I was also thinking about the Ted Chiang (one of the two most popular foreign SF writers in Japan, I here, next to Greg Egan) short story "Understand" which features artificially hyper-intelligent beings who are able to carefully compose sensory input so as to "hack" the minds of other people, like you would sending 1's and 0's to a computer.

Originally Posted by orangejuicetang

*Is the only thing Saki can do is make Kongs? I mean, she seriously has no other way of winning?

It's her demonic power. But also, keep in mind that all her opponents are specifically going against her...they're probably all reading her discards and playing defensively against her, preventing her from getting strong hands. Also, when you're winning via an open hand instead of a riichi (as all three are), it allows you to change your waits even when your tenpai, so it gives you even more opportunity to discard defensively.

[ThoHell]

Originally Posted by einhorn303

It's her demonic power. But also, keep in mind that all her opponents are specifically going against her...they're probably all reading her discards and playing defensively against her, preventing her from getting strong hands. Also, when you're winning via an open hand instead of a riichi (as all three are), it allows you to change your waits even when your tenpai, so it gives you even more opportunity to discard defensively.

I can't recall all the details from all the previous episode, but I got to ask: How "demonic" was is before that match with Korom?"

[Anh_Minh]

Well, that was easy. The resolution between Nodoka and Saki, I mean.

[einhorn303]

Originally Posted by ThoHell

I can't recall all the details from all the previous episode, but I got to ask: How "demonic" was is before that match with Korom?"

I don't quite understand your post.

[orangejuicetang]

Koromo could pull off her demonic power even when everybody was teaming up against her. And plus, it was noted that the hyotei w/e wasn't the only move she had in her bad of tricks. But in this match, everytime it flashes to Saki, she's constantly going "What's this? I can't get any kongs". I mean, we get it after the first time. No need to express your surprise after 6 hands.

Momo's powers kinda reminds me of that that one guy from Prince of Tennis. You know, the final boss person?

[ThoHell]

Originally Posted by orangejuicetang

Momo's powers kinda reminds me of that that one guy from Prince of Tennis. You know, the final boss person?

Momo is goes invisible, while the final boss from PoT just completely messes up ALL of your senses, however that was conquered by loosing the fear and ENJOYING the game.

[einhorn303]

Originally Posted by orangejuicetang

Koromo could pull off her demonic power even when everybody was teaming up against her. And plus, it was noted that the hyotei w/e wasn't the only move she had in her bad of tricks. But in this match, everytime it flashes to Saki, she's constantly going "What's this? I can't get any kongs". I mean, we get it after the first time. No need to express your surprise after 6 hands.

It was, after all, the full moon :P

I think the difference is that one of Koromo's powers is "preventing opponents from getting to tenpai," which is completely impossible to defend against. You just get bad draws...not much you can do about that. Saki's affinity for kongs can be planned for, though. Like how Yumi set up a Robbing a Kong/Chankan.

Though of course, these Demon-type powers are blatantly magical/supernatural, so they can't be expected to conform to any sort of logic.

[bayoab]

Originally Posted by paraalso

It's pure magic, and one of the more impossible abilities in the entire series. Most of the other hax abilities just work like super luck, while stealth mode is more like limited mind control.

It's not really pure magic or anything. It's just she has absolutely no presence and is somehow able to move that even into the match room. People without any presence are perfectly realistic. It's just that it's so unlikely that you would suddenly stop noticing someone with 4 other people in the room.

Originally Posted by orangejuicetang

*Is the only thing Saki can do is make Kongs? I mean, she seriously has no other way of winning?

No, she has other ways of winning. It is just that Saki was completely oblivious to what was going on. The other players were preventing 4 of any set from being available on the field. They would attempt to make sure that one of every set was either called or discarded and thus locking her kans.

Since Momoko broke off though, it's very likely that the plot is going to go that Saki isn't affected by Momoko and gets hit with a called kan (with the sekinin barai rule in effect) thus giving Saki some absurd number of points and putting her realistically in the chase..

[orangejuicetang]

Actually, I think Hisa has a good chance of coming out on top of Saki in this match, if only for the sake of having a nice, dramatic match next episode. It'd be more climatic if Hisa still had a chance rather than being completely knocked out of the running when she faces Mihoko.

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by orangejuicetang

Actually, I think Hisa has a good chance of coming out on top of Saki in this match, if only for the sake of having a nice, dramatic match next episode. It'd be more climatic if Hisa still had a chance rather than being completely knocked out of the running when she faces Mihoko.

Hisa's sixth. It'd be easier for her to recover from a loss than for Saki.

[orangejuicetang]

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

Hisa's sixth. It'd be easier for her to recover from a loss than for Saki.

But there aren't that many hanchan's left.

[Jiyuu]

just so its clear the only reason saki didn't win was because they all ganged on her (as hisa planned) and because

Spoiler for reason:

she still had her socks on :P

[Peanutbutter]

Spoiler for Ep 22:

And Yuuki got taken home by South Girl. That's it for her?

Fascinating as well, 3 vs 1. It shows that to be really strong in Mahjong, one has to be adaptable. Though someone decides to break off their "silent agreement".

And it looks like Saki will win in the end because of that. Oh well.

[bayoab]

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

Hisa's sixth. It'd be easier for her to recover from a loss than for Saki.

The only thing about not coming in first place is you don't get the +20 point bonus (or whatever the bonus for the tournament is). She can still gain points and come in second as long as her score is >30000