Saki - The Nationals - Episode 10

Toyone Anetai has been towering over her opponents - both literally and figuratively - as part of the final set of matches in this current game, but with the object of her attacks focused upon Himematsu's Suehara Kiyosumi find themselves not too far behind in second place as the first half of this game comes to an end.

Given Toyone's propensity for "chasing" the riichi calls of others, it seems as if her ability can be easily mitigated however - or at least it would be if that were her sole ability.  Any assumptions that she won't be able to call on any tiles discarded by others are soon blown out of the water in spectacular fashion however, as she starts calling on every discard to leave herself with a so-called "naked wait" before pulling the winning tile to emerge victorious once again.

In a breather from all of this, we flash back to see Toyone's first game with her current teammates (who unsurprisingly are unable to best her), and how she was head-hunted to transfer into Miyamori Girls' School on account of her talents.  The big question in the here and now is whether anyone can stop her as she propels her team to the top of the table, relegating Kiyosumi into third place in the progress.  Although it isn't what she was positioning within the team for, Eisui's Iwato is going to at least give it a shot...

Perhaps I'm a horrible person for thinking so, but I'm being increasingly frustrated by Saki's flashbacks to fill in backgrounds of characters - it never ceases to break the pacing and tension of the match and would be far better slotted in before each game, particularly in instances such as this one where it doesn't seek to explain or give any more details on said character's powers.  As a result, my interest in proceedings was broken once again this week, leaving me needing to draw myself into the match again just in time for the end of the episode.  Maybe we can focus on the mahjong itself next week, but I somehow doubt it.