Saki - Episode 15

Nodoka's round of the qualifier might almost be at its end as we hit episode fifteen of Saki, but there's still time for one last twist in her portion of the game before she passes the baton over Saki herself.

Perhaps inevitably, that twist comes from Nodoka's online-esque style of play, which thus renders Momo's "stealth mode" useless, allowing Nodoka to snatch a few more points from the game to keep Kiyosumi in the lead before her round is up.


With that portion of the game done and dusted, it's on to the round that we've all been waiting for, and while many of the players and spectators alike focus their thoughts on Koromo as the "demon" at the table, they don't seem to have noticed that there's actually a second demon ready and raring to go and start grabbing points. That second demon is, of course, Saki herself, who wastes no time in racking up a couple of wins from her first two hands - But could it be that her style of play has been guessed at already? By her third hand, she finds herself with a new obstacle in her path, and this is before Koromo has even started getting into the game.

With everything so tightly poised going into this final round of the qualifying game, and with much-vaunted players at the table, there can be no denying the excitement and tension surrounding the second half of this episode, which really is infectious. It certainly doesn't do any harm that Saki is rather likeable in her slightly plain way compared to all these larger than life characters, so by this juncture it's all I can muster not to sit in front of my monitor while shouting "Go on Saki!! Go on!!". But that would be silly, so you wouldn't ever catch me doing that because of a simple anime series based around Mahjong. Of course you wouldn't. Honest. Ahem....