Sunday 19 April 2009

Saki - Episode 3

Another episode of Saki sees Nodoka remaining as determined as ever to stay at the top of her game in the hope of toppling Saki, even if it means numerous late nights and admonishments from her father. Meanwhile, "training" is much easier for Saki herself, with a quiet snooze under a tree seemingly enough to prepare her for another session of wiping the floor with all and sundry in the school club.


However, once again Saki's old habits appear to die hard, as she racks up another ±0 in an attempt to placate Yuuki - A move which pisses of Nodoka considerably, causing her to walk out, with Saki predictably chasing after her... hasn't this happened every week so far? Anyway, at least this time the relationship between Nodoka and Saki seems to take a more balanced and hopefully long-standing turn for the better after some strong words are spoken, as Saki explains her sudden desire to want to compete in the national championships, stemming from what seems to be a messy divorce within her family. Can mahjong save the day? This is anime, so quite probably.

Speaking of said championships, we also see the club president signing up their school to the prefectural qualifying round, and as the draw for the first round is made we get to see a few of the prospective opponents in the making, taking in the usual cliches of mean opponents or snobby rich kids from private schools - No doubt we'll be seeing plenty of them in competition later on.

I suppose this was a pretty fun episode all in all, although my ability to take it even slightly seriously is being stretched to the limit by Saki herself trying to use mahjong to reunite a split and dysfunctional family, while Nodoka's mood swings and bitchiness are starting to grate at times - The again, when you're being used as the blatant fan service object in a series I suppose you have every right to be a little bitchy. I imagine the competition segments of this series will be what make or break it - It looks ready to descend into high cliche at that point, but then again the actual mahjong sequences have been fun to watch so far even though I don't have much of a clue about what's happening, so it could actually work in its own odd kind of fashion.

3 comments:

CH Makoto said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
CH Makoto said...

Hi,I wasn't expecting much this season, but even though I don't know how to play majhong, Saki and the rest have drawn me in. Has lots of potential and is my favorite show atm.

K-On! has possibilities and Eden of the East is attractive, but living up to the just past season with Clannad AS, Toradora and Shikabane Hime is going to be tough.

Happy blogging.

Detective Kitty said...

I would like to add, because I had forgotten to in your last post, that i do agree that although Nodoka is talented and her most well known feature is her breasts. I do agree that they don't have to shove it in our faces every frame. And at times I feel that they exagerate the size too much as in certain frames her breasts are seemingly too huge for her to even be able to carry. Ok, with that out I would like to say that while I don't understand anything about mahjong. And I've tried playing it online even though i didn't know what I was doing, I still enjoy this anime. Nodoka can be "bitchy" sometimes but it also works as an exageration of how much she cares for the game. To the extent that she would turn down going to a private school ( as you will find out later on) I quite enjoy her character because of her skill but it is quite interesting that she can not feel the auras that the other pro players can feel. Which makes you think that she is not that talented at all.