Sunday 5 July 2009

Saki - Episode 14

After leaving us hanging part-way through Nodoka's round of the final qualifying match, you'd be forgiven for thinking that said round would be completed in this episode. Well, you'd be wrong, as come the end of this instalment we still aren't yet at the end of that portion of the game.


While the last episode focused on the intense and bitter (in one direction, anyway) rivalry between Touka and Nodoka, we get side-tracked here by the appearance out of thin air of Momo - A girl with so little physical presence that everybody else involved in the game seems to forget that she's there entirely. After Touka celebrates (and grandstands somewhat) after snatching some points from Nodoka, she then finds herself twice bested by Momo as she misses the danger signs from this particular opponent on both occasions.

Away from this, we naturally spend a big chunk of the episode on Momo's life story, as she all but gives up communicating with anyone as it's simply too much effort for someone that nobody ever notices. Of course, the wonderful powers of Mahjong are what save her from this life of loneliness, as she's picked up as a decent player via an online game run by her school's Mahjong club, although of course actually tracking her down to find her and persuade her to join the club is an altogether more difficult proposition.

As implausible characters with "superpowers" go, I actually quite like Momo for some reason (despite her annoying proclivity for pluralising entirely too many words), and I suppose if nothing else it's nice to see something other than Ryuumonbuchi and Kiyosumi in the rivalry stakes for once - Maybe her quiet, unnoticed nature just strikes a chord with me (believe it or not, I'm not the most vocal person in the world when I'm not filling this 'Blog with ridiculous amounts of content). Anyhow, roll on the end of Nodoka's round next episode (I'm positive it will end next episode. No, really I am), so that we can finally get to the Saki versus Koromo match-up that the series has been pushing for what seems like an eternity now.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

hmm, where do you get the episodes so early? do you watch with english subtitles or not?

Hanners said...

I'm a premium member on Crunchyroll, so I get the simulcasts as soon as they're released.

Anonymous said...

thats what i thought, because thats the only place i could find it. bleh i dont like how they charge for anime.

bic said...

pay for what you use, tight ass!!

Unknown said...

man, it's almost 12 hours after they aired, and http://www.onepieceofbleach.com/ still doesn't have them subbed yet!!! I'm so pissed off!!

Anonymous said...

i know JC :( i keep refreshing all my sites but its not appearing :(
:(

K3yb0ard Samurai said...

You can watch it now with Eng Sub

http://www.animeshout.com/saki-episode-14.html

Sergio said...

Well, technically she can't pluralize anything, since in Japanese there's no plural (Hon can mean either book or books). She's actually adding -su (desu), the, so to speak, verb to be, for some, probably deeply-psychological, reason.

Anyway, if it wasn't for the dragging on of the game, it would have been really enjoyable. I guess it also strikes a chord here, since I'm not too keen on "communication"

She reminded me a lot of that guy in Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei who is ignored by everyone, or rather, invisible, except when the fact that he's balding becomes apparent (when his hair parts, etc), and he becomes instantly conspicuous

Detective Kitty said...

Ok I probably would have adored this episode if they hadn't showed the one seen where momo gets up from her laptop and her arm is in wisps like 5 times in the episode.
By the end of that I was like...ok I get it!!!!!
I do find it very touching but I don't think that, even if your really uncommunicative, you would dissappear. If you focus on the game rather than the people you should be able to win no matter what...but what do I know about mahjong...I just don't like how much they exaggerate Momo's power...but if there are people who have such little physical presnce on earth then come see me...i'll make you noticed for sure!!!!!

Anonymous said...

@detective

They've already foreshadowed how and who will beat her given the limitations of her power.

Anonymous said...

Well, beat in the sense of stopping Momo. I think Momo is going to end up doing the best individually but not in the overall game.