(CR) Saki Zenkoku-hen (National Tournament Arc)

[Archaeon]

All I care is that next week our Tanoshii devil will have tanoshii.

I'm still a bit disappointed with the lack of Hiroe screen time. She is the one that pull Himematsu on top spot but we don't see how she does it.

[Subayai]

Originally Posted by tjalorak

Only when she's sitting north. She'll sit north twice in one hanchan, first during the East wind then during the South wind round. There are two hanchans for the Vice-Captain round. So she'll have (at least) 4 chances at a yakuman during the match. No blockade, 4 yakumans. You'll note that Hatsumi has been reaching tenpai for her yakuman prior to anyone else winning. It's just she then spends several turns drawing useless tiles and can never draw the winning tile because of Sae's blockade. Without it, Hatsumi easily gets her yakumans before anyone else finishes.

If Hatsumi's power was to get a yakuman every time she sits north that would make her by far the most powerful player in the series and she is not.

Hatsumi's power is that wind tiles get drawn to her when she is sitting north. With these tiles then, she may form a yakuman hand.

But as we see in this episode, sometimes the other players get wind tiles too. If the other players do not discard these tiles, she may not be able to form her yakuman.

So even if Sae wasn't blocking her, there is no guarantee that Hatsumi would get a yakuman. Most likely though, she would get at least one or maybe two and even getting a single yakuman that's already a lot of points.

EDIT: It is also possible for another player to reach tenpai (and then win) before Hatsumi has time to form her yakuman. For example, in the first hand of the 2nd match Nodoka declares riichi before Hatsumi calls her first pon (and that's with a tile discarded by Nodoka herself).

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by tjalorak

She's still around 69k, no? A yakuman still means that Hatsumi jumps to 2nd and Sae drops to 4th. What else is Sae going to do with her blockade ability anyway? She doesn't need to use it on the others, and so long as she doesn't pull a Toki and keel over, not sure why she wouldn't use the blockade so long as it helps her team.

Well, she honestly was starting to remind me of Toki. And even if she doesn't get downright hospitalized, this weakening may well undermine her ability to play hands smartly, as too much stress can easily undermine clear thinking and smart calculations, both being an important part of effectively playing mahjong.

And perhaps we're already seeing that weakening effect on her, as she doesn't seem to be putting much thought at all into the hands that Nodoka may be creating.

My issue with Sae's playstyle in this episode isn't the blockading alone, it's mainly that her focus appears to be almost solely on stopping Hatsumi.

It's a bit like a NHL team being so concerned with shutting down Sidney Crosby that they seem to be losing sight of the fact that they're behind the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-1 even with them effectively keeping Crosby off the scoreboard, and so they kind of need to open things up offensively if they're going to have any real chance of winning the game. Oh, and one of those 3 Pens goals was scored by Yevgeni Malkin, who isn't exactly a slouch himself, and yet the losing team is barely paying him any attention at all.


Sae should be at least as concerned with keeping the point distance between her and the top two scorers as minimal as possible (or, better yet, actually overtaking them) as she is with what Hatsumi is doing. If Sae wants to minimize the burden on her Captain, then shouldn't she be focusing at least some on trying to get into 1st or 2nd place herself?

[kitten320]

I really hope that one day there will be a character who can lock Nodoka's mechanical approach and make her feel dread. So far she is the only character who had it easy in that sense. Even Saki had to experience some horror and she is one of the strongest.

Otherwise good episode, loved how Saw was sealing her opponent. Animation looked nice with her just standing over and glaring. Like her Chinese styled dress there.

Actually started to like Sae, until now didn't have much of opinion on her.

[Archaeon]

Regarding Jindai's god,it is reference to any real god in Japan?

[Myssa Rei]

Originally Posted by Archaeon

Regarding Jindai's god,it is reference to any real god in Japan?

Not that I know of -- one would have to be familiar with the local shrines of Kagoshima to truly answer this question, really.

And yes, Ritz wasn't specific about this in the manga either.

[FateAnomaly]

I was amused that that miko girl is shocked that the monocle girl has an absurd sealing power when she herself has an absurd god posession power.

[The Green One]

It's not so much of a stretch to see Miko's with strange spiritual powers. Sae however is just some random girl off the street it would seem to them, and therefore far more unusual.

[fukarming]

I have been giving some thoughts on the whole Nodoka problem. To me, Nodoka's problem is not her not believing/ignoring occults: That is Nodoka's trait. Her problem is so far Nodoka never get into problems in a match, despite such glaring weakness due to luck (her non-ability counters stealth Momo, and in this match her seats, points and having Sae around). Everyone on Kiyosumi's team had had some problems in a match: Yuuki vs Jun/Mihoko; Mako vs beginner; Hisa vs Hiroe - even Saki had problems against Yumi/ Koromo but Nodoka is just cruising so far.

But to Ritz/Nodoka's defense, despite it seems Saki had been on forever, Kiyosumi had only played 2 real matches (regional final and the one playing now, with the current manga on their third match) so maybe Nodoka's suffering match is around the corner. I will be very interested to see Nodoka lose a huge amount of points (over 50k) due to not believing in occults and her reaction to it. Will she still ignore what happened and consider it just bad luck or will she go into self-doubt mode?

[The Green One]

Nodoka due to her space in the lineup can't suffer an enormous amount of damage, as that'll just force Ritz to make Saki do something even crazier to turn it around. Maybe 20-30k damage to Nodoka is doable, but 50k? That's a bit much for Saki to deal with without pulling something truly outrageous.

[fukarming]

20-30k can easily be attributed to luck. Dealting into a Yakuman once is 32k. Only having a 50k+ point loss will start prompting self doubts.
But then you are right that Saki will need to gain back all those point loss and more we will need a new description for Saki as monster is not enough

[tjalorak]

Originally Posted by night_sentinel

( Though, I agree 50k is too much. I think even Seiko didn't get damaged that much. And the chance on it happening on Nodoka, who's playstyle is to maximize gain and minimize loss is slim. )

Seiko lost 59k. There's an image of Seiko being hit in the belly by a giant red -59,400.

She lost the most points that round. Even Kirame (Subara!) did better than her at -51,800.

[relentlessflame]

I want to ask manga readers to under no circumstance correct, advise, or give any hint about any analysis by anime-only viewers since you know how things end up, and the things you do and do not say are tainted with this knowledge. If you can't hold your tongue and avoid anything that might bias the viewer in any way, it is better to avoid this thread.

Many posts were deleted.

[Archaeon]

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

I want to ask manga readers to under no circumstance correct, advise, or give any hint about any analysis by anime-only viewer since you know how things end up, and the things you do and do not say are tainted with this knowledge. If you can't hold your tongue and avoid anything that might bias the viewer in any way, it is better to avoid this thread.

Many posts were deleted.

As a anime viewer,I want to say thank you and good job moderating.

[kitten320]

Well I'm hoping for something like that to happen to Nodoka in individual matches and hopefully it will be some new character and not Saki cause that will be just anti climatic.

It is kinda hard to imagine her losing badly in team matches, unless they can still pass with second place in next round.

[Chiaki_chan]

Ep 07 and 08

Nodoka's match is intense ... from the beginning she shows her "power" like the other two.

Good episode

[Laevatein]

I have this thing stuck in my head of wanting to see the cast of Saki in Gundam Build Fighters, with their hax abilities reworked for Gunpla Battle. I wonder what Gunpla they would have?

[Requiem-x]

Originally Posted by Laevatein

I have this thing stuck in my head of wanting to see the cast of Saki in Gundam Build Fighters, with their hax abilities reworked for Gunpla Battle. I wonder what Gunpla they would have?

Man, this reminds me of when we compared Achiga to Gundam AGE and Fate/zero. Not so easy now that the powers are less flashier (sans Eisui and Sae).

[The Green One]

The more I listen to her, the more I feel that super cutesy voice just does not suit Toyone's visual aspect. It's not like it's bad, it's just....off......

A fun episode Saki got to show off a little and Toyone gets to debut her strangling skills. Looks like this match has 2 episodes left I'd say.

[HandofFate]

So what were the point total changes in Nodoka's match?
The miko loli scored a bit hit on her in the last game, but everyone was hitting on her throughout the entire match.

I know Nodoka is suppose to be the scientific player, but you think she would be more aware of her opponents hand due to their discards and tiles grabbed, that should be up the scientific method of counting tiles.