(L) Saki manga

[NeutralZero]

Will Kyouko manage to be a real thorn in the neck for Saki in the captain match?
She did receive some notes/memos from pros...
Well Kyouko was mentioned to be a cautious one so it can't be help if Saki is also cautious of her...
In this current match just hope Himematsu went down the drain
Rather have Kiyosumi and the mix race team to enter in the finals than Kiyosumi and Himematsu again...
The captain match in the finals is something that will certainly gives kyouko nightmares

[Marina2]

If Himematsu somehow get to final, Kyouko might be able to play normal Mahjong thanks to an indirect help from Shizuno's ability.

[kona~chan]

Originally Posted by NeutralZero

Will Kyouko manage to be a real thorn in the neck for Saki in the captain match?
She did receive some notes/memos from pros...
Well Kyouko was mentioned to be a cautious one so it can't be help if Saki is also cautious of her...
In this current match just hope Himematsu went down the drain
Rather have Kiyosumi and the mix race team to enter in the finals than Kiyosumi and Himematsu again...
The captain match in the finals is something that will certainly gives kyouko nightmares

if kyouko able to stoping saki making kans then yes, if she can't then no.
saki's +/- zero is Qtr final is speciall imo, because she manipulated everyone scores to somehow even tho saki got +/- zero but she still finished 1st which is ussually not neccessary in her usual +/- zero if we look at from the begining of this series as references (someone in anime thread questioning about why saki passed on 6 sou that she draw from dead wall, i believe this is the reason. if she treat this as match with regular 25000 as starting point then its necessary to bring down everyone and raised kyokou's scores) .
well its just happen kyouko come to 2nd when saki do this and its also just happen among all other 3 players on Qtr match only kyouko that once successfully disrupted saki for making kan (tho i believe she done this unintentionally ), but that alone is enough for saki to warry about kyouko right

as for the possible final match, shizono might able to stop saki from getting rinshan kaiho, and awai 5 shanten might able to slow down saki to gather her kans material, but i think as long as saki still able to make kans i believe she will able to find a way to overcome this, just like what she did when she against koromo.

[darkchez11]

let see, saki hmm... if her opponents will be able to stop her +/- zero and prevent her for making any kans what would left with saki then? (inner demon lord? lol)

Joke aside I think her +/- zero is actually like a seal blocking her true potential. about her kans it seems like she's just favoring that move because she's so attach with that yaku after all it was something that teru told her about. so if those two things will be stop by her opponents by any means its probably time for saki to show some development and open up to the readers, I mean she's like one of the biggest mystery of this series, (beside people wondering where are all the panties have gone to.)

what am I saying is that by countering saki and preventing her to do her "defense mechanism" (+/- zero, kans) sort of, might actually turnout a counterproductive moves for them later on as she might go offensive with them. remember in the art of war sun tzu said "Put the army in the face of death, where there is no escape – and they will not flee or be afraid; there is nothing they cannot achieve."

[Peanutbutter]

Just had a thought about Shizuno's ability, share it here for future comparison.

Spoiler:

Shizuno's ability only triggers when the scores of all four teams are very close. That's why in Achiga's second nationals match, we dun see it from Shizuno.

So, had a thought about how the main story will progress from where we left off.

For Saki, since her +-0 ability is the one that she's most used too, she will again try to use it, by working with Usuzan to bring down Rinhai, and then manipulating the points so that Kiyosumi will still progress in the end.

The spotlight will be on Usuzan and their ace, but she will know that she got help from Saki.

Kyouko's role will be to try to stop Saki from doing her +-0, from the short training and tips she got, but I figured she will fail. Whether Himematsu advances is anybody's guess.

Then in the finals, again, Saki will try her +-0 for a third time. But because she will bring every team's score close to each other, Shizuno's ability will trigger and start to affect the dead wall, which Saki depends on so much.

Saki will then "do something", and be that flower (Saki's name) that bloomed in the mountain (the nationals finals arena), breaks past Shizuno's control and wins the nationals for Kiyosumi.

Speculation on my end. Maybe need another 5 years to see this.

[The Green One]

Dawn of age raw is out now. Or has been. Kanna's starting to lighten up. Should be a good chapter.

[panzerfan]

Originally Posted by Flower

I completely agree that Saki's first concern was to not let the Eisui team advance, and for all the reasons you mentioned - Saki might be able to handle Kasumi, but Yuuki and Nodoka could easily have been chewed up and spit out by Jindai and Hatsumi.

Well, the hypothetical scenario of Kiyosumi vs. Rinkai vs. Eisui vs. Usuzan would be something that I'll have to put to spoiler, but it's actually worth instigating.

Spoiler for the big what if:

Tacos v. Jindai v. Satoha v. Naruka would be a case where Naruka would be squeezed on all fronts. I think that Tacos will still have significant momentum in East wind and Hisa would still advise Tacos to go for fast hand completion instead of expensive hands.

I think that things might actually relatively the same since Satoha is nothing to sneer at, and there's no Suzu explosion whatsoever. Jindai is somebody that Satoha had run into, and I wouldn't be surprised if Rinkai-Eisui two way tug of war would develop. In the Sergeant round, Hao is still likely to catch Mako completely off guard, and things would be the similar to how they are developing so far.

I actually think that Haru vs. Hisa vs. Choe vs. Yuan would have quite a different set of dynamics than what's going on right now. Haru and Hisa stand to cooperate together with quick run for that matter. I don't think that Eisui would be as secured as Himematsu is going into the centerfeld match actually.

Jindai is ridiculously cute, and very headstrong/stubborn. Blowing that swim ring by mouth is exhaustive...

Edit: Saki blooming on Shizu's turf is something that we've been waiting to see, although does that mean a win for Kiyosumi or not is another story. There's still a lot for Saki to resolve in the individuals, after all.

[eavein18]

Originally Posted by Peanutbutter

Spoiler:

Shizuno's ability only triggers when the scores of all four teams are very close. That's why in Achiga's second nationals match, we dun see it from Shizuno.

when Shizu play with Koromo

(if I'm not mistaken about the number of hands)

play 5 hand;

1-3 Koromo win with continuous haitei
4-5 Shizu nullified Koromo's haitei

if Koromo played like... Koromo
then the win on those 1-3 got to be big, thus on 4 the point gap has to be huge

so "Shizuno's ability only triggers when the scores of all four teams are very close" is kind of moot here

[Peanutbutter]

Originally Posted by eavein18

when Shizu play with Koromo

(if I'm not mistaken about the number of hands)

play 5 hand;

1-3 Koromo win with continuous haitei
4-5 Shizu nullified Koromo's haitei

if Koromo played like... Koromo
then the win on those 1-3 got to be big, thus on 4 the point gap has to be huge

so "Shizuno's ability only triggers when the scores of all four teams are very close" is kind of moot here

Well, that was a friendly and not a real tournament match as well.

But yeah, from an author's point of view, her ability is really a rabbit pulled from a hat, since there was no foreshadowing. From our point of view, the introduction also practically makes no sense.

Hopefully, Ritz has something in mind for the finals, and we can see it in some form one day

[eavein18]

I held strong in my believe that Shizu's ability is an asspull .__.
(a good explanation for it would be welcome, still won't change the asspull feeling though >_>)

ah the final... how many more year would that take..... ^^;

[Marina2]

Originally Posted by eavein18

ah the final... how many more year would that take..... ^^;

It will be many years after New Horizon reached Pluto.

[Rava]

I'm curious, is anyone else getting the feeling that Saki has a subconscious version of Teru's mirror?

[King-Slayer]

Originally Posted by eavein18

ah the final... how many more year would that take..... ^^;

probably start that next year

[eavein18]

Originally Posted by Rava

I'm curious, is anyone else getting the feeling that Saki has a subconscious version of Teru's mirror?

I'll say a similar 'knowing' power with different mechanism and is used on conscious level

Originally Posted by King-Slayer

probably start that next year

I would really love that to be true.................. though can Ritz finish the manga on time

[Marina2]

Not sure if this question was asked anywhere in this topic....

Can we assume that all monster player's power will not work if they play on computer? (Online/offline Mahjong game)

[raincrow]

Originally Posted by Marina2

Not sure if this question was asked anywhere in this topic....

Can we assume that all monster player's power will not work if they play on computer? (Online/offline Mahjong game)

That's a good question. I remember Saki having some trouble with computer mahjong but I don't remember what the problem was...because she couldn't see the others?

Figuring that Nodoka was a beast in the online world, maybe powers don't work there?

[eavein18]

Originally Posted by mhazaru

I remember Saki having some trouble with computer mahjong but I don't remember what the problem was...because she couldn't see the others?

"I couldn't see the tiles at all" read : can't feel the flow

---
Some power is just not suitable in the world of 101010

Though some that didn't directly manipulate the table might work;
like Toki's future sight, Mako's face/river-seeing

Koromo's instinct (not the no-tenpai hell) might work too
(since there are flashbacks showing Koromo winning in more then just mahjong, I assume that instinct is applicable to online too)

[XGeneral2000]

Originally Posted by mhazaru

That's a good question. I remember Saki having some trouble with computer mahjong but I don't remember what the problem was...because she couldn't see the others?

Figuring that Nodoka was a beast in the online world, maybe powers don't work there?

Saki plays by reading other players' presence and manipulating the flow of the game, neither of which are applicable to digital mahjong. Digital mahjong is all about probabilities and long-term averages, which is Nodoka's specialty.

Chances are that any power that affects flow or presence would be ineffective online (Saki's kan, Hisa's bad waits, Koromo's iishanten-hell, Momo's stealth, and probably Teru's demonic mirror and point inflation). As eavein pointed out, powers that don't directly affect the game might still work (Toki's future sight, Mako's spindle territory).

[teja208]

Originally Posted by mhazaru

That's a good question. I remember Saki having some trouble with computer mahjong but I don't remember what the problem was...because she couldn't see the others?

Figuring that Nodoka was a beast in the online world, maybe powers don't work there?

When Fujita pro referred to monsters as "Those Who were Blessed/Favored by the Tiles" I don't think she meant digital tiles.

From the anime sub, it doesn't seem to me that Hayarin ever considered Usuzan as a potentially strong contender in the tournament or anything like that. She just, you know, don't like that team.

[eavein18]

urgh my internet is so slow it took 1 minute to load 3 second of video x__x

What did Hayarin said in the anime?

add : 1/2 joking, 1/2 complementing the probability of it being true

I think she said something like

"there is one team that Hayarin absolutely did not want to face" - in the manga

combined with the scary silhouette, it create a "monster team" effect ^^;

now that we know how bad usuzan's starting player is, we might be able to translate that sentence into

-> 'Hayarin did not want to face them because Hayarin will get bored 4/5 of the time'

xD