Saki - Episode of Side-A - Episode 16 (Completed)

After taking what might have been a million years, we finally reach crunch time and the final rounds of the national mahjong tournament semi-final to bring Episode of Side-A to a close.

As things kick off in this instalment, it's Awai Oohoshi who is the real threat as she rolls out double riichi win after double riichi win - a particularly problematic set of circumstances once she becomes the dealer and attempts to set herself up for a seemingly never-ending stream of victories.  It takes the best that Shindouji's Himeko Tsuruta has to offer to put an end to this run, while Himeko also has some powerful hands up her sleeve thanks to her symbiotic relationship with Mairu Shirouzu to give herself a fighting chance of ensuring her team to progress to the final.

With Ryuuka channeling Toki's ability to see into the future, it seems as if Shizuno is about to be overwhelmed by the talent and assembled oddities facing her, but that would be to assume that Shizuno doesn't have an ability of her own, which manifests itself around the "mountains" of tiles which make up the wall in mahjong.  From the seeds of a small victory grows something far more substantial, as Achiga come from seemingly nowhere with a view to marching on towards the final...

As per my complaint with all of the previous few episodes, it's really tough to warm up to Episode of Side-Aafter a long break between instalments, as you find yourself forgetting who is playing, what they're capable of and (perhaps more importantly still) even the score.  Once you're settled back in to the show's rhythm however, it's a whole lot of fun, and although at times this final episode felt liable to run away with itself on account of its break-neck pacing it managed to summon enough tension and fascination to be enjoyable as it took us through to the climax of Achiga (and their tutor) achieving their dream.  Taken as a whole, Episode of Side-A has never managed to match mainline Saki in any way, shape or form, but as a side-story it still served up a sufficiently delicious snack to leave me smacking my lips for the main course of a full second season of Saki itself.  It might not be Chihayafuru by any stretch of the imagination, but who says it even wants to be?

Saki - Episode of Side-A - Episode 15

It's very much crunch time in Episode of Side-A as we reach the show's penultimate episode, and its final round of matches to decide who reaches the national team final.  Can Shizuno really hope to hold her own against the "monsters" she's been pitted against?

Certainly, things don't look like they'll be easy for Achiga, and right off the bat Awai Oohoshi makes life difficult by effectively slowing down all of her opponents hands - add in Shindouji school's Himeko Tsurata and her double-act with previous match-up star Mairu Shirouzu and it's no surprising which individuals dominate the early play.  However, don't underestimate Ryuuka's part in proceedings, as it seems that some of Toki's abilities have finally rubbed off on her - or more precisely, they've rubbed off on her thighs.  Stop looking at me like that, I don't come up with this stuff.

Things only get worse still when Awai demonstrates what you could call her "real" power - the ability to produce a double Riichi, which she duly does while in the dealers seat, first to create a bonus round, and then to try and win that round.  While nobody else seems to have sufficient data to really know how to handle this turn of events, it's finally Shizuno's time to shine thanks to some handy hints and top coaching by Harue.  There's still something of a mountain to climb during the second half of this match however.

After once again suffering simply from the huge gap in time between episodes, which again has left me taking quite some time to acclimatise to this show's rarefied air, the second half of this episode in particular came along nicely.  Yes, its special powers and abilities are becoming ever-more ludicrous by the episode, but somehow it never reaches the point of imbalancing the match in progress too far or draining the unfolding events of their tension.  It's perhaps this ability to list the sensational and the mundane which is Saki's own superpower, and even though it would be enjoyable in a more concentrated form without months between episodes, it still has quite a lot to offer.  Then again, surely the fact that we only have one episode left to go with the semi-final unfinished is in itself something of a spoiler for how things are going to end in Achiga's case....

Saki - Episode of Side-A - Episode 14

Another long break between episodes has once again made it difficult to get back into the swing of Episode of Side-A (this series really isn't suited to big gaps between instalments, sadly), but let's see if we can remember what the Hell is going on in the Nationals semi-final.

This fourteenth episode begins with the final hand in Ako's match - not the most successful of hands for the Achiga girl, but it still marks a broadly profitable outing for the club's third player to keep them in second place in preparation for the fourth and penultimate pair of games to see who has what it takes to make it all the way to the final.

Inevitably, this means that a whole new world of mahjong madness is rolled out to meet Arata (as Achiga's representative for these hands), who has some rather particular tricks up her sleeve thanks to Harue's tutelage.  But is it enough to meet a series of rivals including one girl who can effectively pre-determine the results of her team's next player at Shindouji, and another who can effectively "fish out" tiles to build her hands to speedy perfection.  Arata's biggest threat might well be Senriyama's data-hungry Hiroko however, who is initially baffled by Arata's blending of her own style with Harue's, but is she on to this little trick already?

As I mentioned in the introduction, it's really tough to get fired up about this series when there are long breaks between episodes that destroy the natural flow of watching these high-stake games play out, but once you get back into the heat of the action it's hard not to enjoy the ebb and flow of the match even when its participants are boasting ever-more ludicrous "special powers" that are now beyond the realm of the subtle and safely into "bonkers shounen" territory.  Considering how ridiculous parts of the show are, it's hard to put a finger on exactly why it works so well - I'm not obsessed with the relationships between characters or anything like that, so I suppose it's just the expertly crafted tension imbued in the matches that keeps me coming back for more, and hopefully the final two episodes of this series will bring me back to the point of sitting on the edge of my seat or punching the air with glee, for that is what Saki at its best is all about for me personally.

Saki - Episode of Side-A - Episode 13

It's been a long time - too long, July in fact - since we were served up a dose of mahjong action from this Saki side-story, but here we are at last to begin the climax to Achiga high school's time at the Nationals as they look to achieve their goal of meeting, and playing against, Nodoka Haramura at said competition.

If you've forgotten what had happened by the climax of episode twelve, then... me too!  However, with a little time my memory pieced together Toki Onjouji's virtual life or death intervention to stop Teru Miyanaga's aptly terrifying rampage across the scoreboard, in turn bringing that round of the semi-final match-up to an end.  As Kuro is put straight into special training to "revive" the Dragon-based ability upon which she relies, sister Yuu takes the hot (although not hot enough for her) seat to try her hand at taking on some of the brightest mahjong stars.

In particular, her focus is upon Shiratodai's Sumire Hirose, a veritable "archer" within the game who selects her target and takes her out with precision.  However, knowing Sumire's trick and the signs that she's about to deploy it allows her not only to dodge such attacks but also then go on the offensive to win some hands, keeping Achiga in that all-important second place as their opponents fail to make any real impact.  This brings us on to Ako's turn at the table, which looks to be overshadowed by the tomboyish Sera Eguchi - however, Ako is well aware that the most dangerous player at the table could just be the quiet, bespectacled Takami Shibuya of Shiratodai, who might just have something substantial up her sleeve for the final round of their match-up....

After almost a six month break, I could really have done with a recap or something to ease me back into Episode of Side-A and where everything stood within the series and its national tournament; without it, the early minutes of this first special episode were rather a hard slog until my brain caught up with everything that was going on.  Once I did get back up to speed, I was soon returned to the Saki I love - ridiculously overblown "special powers" and secret moves somehow served up in enough of a believable fashion to make a tile-based game into edge of your seat all-or-nothing fare.  It's an oddly heady mix whose power rarely wanes, even if Episode of Side-A's characters largely have nothing on the wider Saki cast - hopefully after this long wait it can deliver a fitting finale from it's last couple of episodes without running into any further hitches.

Saki - Episode of Side-A - Episode 12

As her past quite literally flashes before her (and our) eyes, the aptly named Toki Onjouji continues to push herself to the limit as The Girl Who Leapt Through Tenpai in a desperate big to stop Teru Miyanaga's onslaught.

Despite her physical exhaustion, Toki finds the strength in both her body and mind to break all of the rules surrounding her ability yet further, allowing her to see not two but three turns into the future.  This finally gives her the opportunity she needs to steer the game in the right direction and away from the fearsome Teru, even if she needs to employ this skill one final time using almost the last of her energy to ensure that she's capable of doing so.

However, Onjouji can't change the fate of this game alone, and while Hanada's tactics in trying to break down Miyanaga's game are clear to see Toki has no choice but to rely on a massive change of heart and tact from Achiga's Kuro.  Can she really discard one of her much-loved dora to put herself into tenpai and declare riichi along with it?  Initially, no, but ultimately she realises that now is the time to say "au revoir" to one of her favourite tiles for the greater good, which in turn sees Teru playing right into her hand and landing a big win for Achiga to finally finish the first match-up of these semi-finals.  Although Kuro gains the plaudits, it's Onjouji who has quietly saved the day - but at what cost?  As her illness comes back to bite her, we're already preparing for the next match, with a chance meeting between the Achiga girls and Nodoka in the foyer only strengthening their resolve to make it all the way to the final.

Come the end of this week's Episode of Side-A, I slumped back in my seat much like the players of its mammoth game - exhausted, slightly tearful but utterly satisfied with what had just taken place.  This episode was a distillation of everything that works about Saki at its best - minimal flashbacks, and lots of incredibly intense mahjong that drew you into its grasp with almost terrifying ease before leveraging the fact that you've started to care about not just the game but the characters within that game to boot, which made for some heart-rending stuff towards the end of the instalment.  Thank goodness we still have three episodes left to go - ending things here would have been too cruel, although it still feels like three more weeks won't be enough to cover everything.

Saki - Episode of Side-A - Episode 11

While it increasingly feels like this series should be subtitled The Rampage of Teru Miyanaga, someone is going to have to do something quickly to halt the run of victories building up for Shiratodai's ace, and it's Toki Onjouji who seems to have the best opportunity of doing this as she pushes her ability to the limit.

After failing to gain an advantage from looking two turns into the future, Toki feels compelled to do it again despite the risk that it poses to her body - even then, she can do nothing but watch on powerlessly as Teru continues to rack up the points.  In the meantime, we take a look into the back story of Shindouji's Hanada - a girl placed as the first player for her school's team as a "sacrifice" to allow the other members to do their thing, and also an individual who is more than happy to play such a role, making her aim to minimise losses and avoid going "bust" and nothing else.

Not that this is proving to be an easy task with Teru Miyanaga set across the table from her, and eventually it comes down to Onjouji playing against type that finally puts an end to the tyranny of Miyanaga (whose sister is trying to avoid watching her play at all costs).  Even this still only serves as a temporary respite, as Teru has one final shot at playing as the dealer left - lo and behold, that means another round of ever-increasing victories for this terrifying player.  As Toki all-but passes out in a blaze of memories of the actions of her friends which allowed her to be at the tournament, are those thoughts enough to give her a second wind and a further upgrade to her powers to allow her to turn the tide in this one-sided game?

Although I should probably be bored of all the focus on Onjouji by now... I'm honestly not.  After spending so much time with the largely uninteresting Achiga girls, it continues to be a breath of fresh air to take in the show's more interesting characters and their circumstances in a little more depth.  This is complemented nicely by the ever-increasing sense of dread as the seemingly unassailable Mahjong Terminator that is Teru Miyanaga continues her rampage, which also continues to be fascinating to watch no matter how one-sided.  This is certainly a far, far cry from those stilted early instalments of Episode of Side-A, and the show is almost infinitely better for it.

Saki - Episode of Side-A - Episode 10

This week's instalment of Saki - Episode of Side-A begins with Nodoka dreaming of her former friends Shizuno, Ako and Kuro - could this be a sign?!

Not if the current goings-on at the mahjong table are anything to go by, no.  Despite managing to interrupt her winning streak as dealer in the first half of their opening semi-final game, Teru Miyanaga shows no signs of letting up following that solitary lost hand, and when Teur is drawn to be the last dealer for the second half of the game things certainly don't bode well for her opponents.

Lo and behold, Teru continues to win hand after hand, with any attempts to stop her only becoming more desperate as she gets hold of the dealer's position and looks all set to embark upon a run to obliterate all before her.  With close to a 100,000 point lead already opening up over the second-placed school in this match, can anybody stop Miyanaga?  Although Kuro and the Achiga girls now understand a little more about Teru and the way she plays (which is similar in a certain sense to Kuro's own style), actually doing something to block her progress seems to be beyond her, which leaves us once again looking towards Toki Onjouji for inspiration.  Can she extend her ability to look one turn into the future to take in a second turn?  Despite the risks, she seems willing to give it a try in this desperate situation.

Although its pace has slowed down a little (partly because of the importance of this semi-final, but partly because of the additional episodes now afforded the series I would wager), Episode of Side-A continues to be pretty compelling stuff now it's focus is firmly planted on the nitty-gritty of its mahjong tournament - sure, it's as utterly ridiculous as ever in terms of the "mahjong super-powers" of its girls, but somehow that doesn't make it any less exciting to watch, while the introduction of more interesting characters like Teru Miyanaga and Toki Onjouji have breathed new life into a series that has suffered on account of featuring some pretty dull main characters prior to this point.  With a cruel, and crucial, cliffhanger in place to close out this week's episode, I'm once again left hanging for my next weekly dose of mahjong catnip.

Saki - Episode of Side-A - Episode 9

Episode of Side-A may have been granted some additional episodes to play with (the series has now been extended out to fifteen episodes in total), but that doesn't change the fact that it's very much crunch time for the girls of Achiga high school as they kick off their semi-final against some ferocious opposition.

While Kuro is up first for Achiga, this episode prefers to keep its focus on two of the other individuals at the table for the first round of the semi-final.  Unsurprisingly, up front and centre here is one Teru Miyanaga, although the first hand seems to suggest that her fearsome reputation is overblown.  This single hand is, however, the only real respite the other players get to enjoy, as Teru simply uses this time to stare deep into the mahjong-playing souls of her opponents.

From that moment forth, it's a case of seeing Teru racking up victory after victory, with an ever higher score with each hand she unveils to her despairing rivals.  It's at this point that Toki Onjouji's own special abilities look ready to come to the fore - the ability to see a single turn into the future, thus allowing herself to influence the game by changing that future.  Unfortunately for Onjouji, it seems that even this isn't enough to stop the Teru juggernaut, as she simply shifts her strategy to win by another means.  With Teru enjoying the benefits of winning as a dealer and the additional hands that provides, can anyone stop her before she destroys the opposition in the first round of the match?  Just as Toki despairs, the plucky Kirame Hanada steps up to the plate to break Teru's flow with the pluckiest of hands.  It's only as the episode closes that we return out attentions to Kuro - can she retrieve anything from this most difficult of match-ups?

With such a major match to cover, this is once again an opportunity for Saki to do what it does best - deliver compelling, tense and exciting mahjong action while somehow making its most ridiculous sporting superpowers (seeing the future, looking into the soul of opponents and so on) weave into the narrative to the point of seeming natural... well, almost.  Regardless, it's great fun and more enthralling to watch than it probably should be, and after such a slow, slow start to the series I'm suddenly more than happy that we'll be able to enjoy a few additional weeks of Episode of Side-A beyond its initially programmed run.

Saki - Episode of Side-A - Episode 8

After a one week break (or us as viewers at least), we return to Episode of Side-A with Achiga's semi-final still a shade over a day away - having bumped into some rival mahjong players during the long wait for their match, they might just have found themselves the leg-up they need to progress as well.

Although there are rules surrounding not being allowed to play practice matches if you're a part of the individual tournament, there are no such rules in place for team matches, giving Achiga's girls the perfect opportunity to test and improve themselves, as they find themselves under the tutelage of not only the girls of Tsuruga Academy's team, but also a top individual player in Kazekoshi Girls School's Mihoko Fukuji and a couple of her comrades.  It's quite the baptism of fire for our girls, but they come out of it feeling more confident than they went in, which can only be a good thing.

Carrying on this sense of progression, the girls spend their final free day finding others to practice against, with only limited success, but still enough to build their abilities further.  The final potential silver lining for the team is news regarding overseer Harue, who it seems is neither going to leave her young charges in the lurch nor use them as a launchpad for her own professional career.  In other words, we're all set for a rip-roaring semi-final against some of the best players in the game....

It certainly can't beat actual tournament play in terms of drama, tension and so on, but there was still some enjoyment to be had from watching Achiga's practice matches (however briefly) this episode - then again, it does once again prove that the main character roster of Episode of Side-A are simply nowhere near as striking or interesting as those from mainline Saki, which is a real shame to be quite honest.  Still, with all of the necessary plot points which required tackling nicely wrapped up, I'll be waiting very impatiently for the semi-final kick-off next week.  Never mind Euro 2012, high school mahjong is where it's at!

Saki - Episode of Side-A - Episode 7

It really is crunch time for the Achiga Girls mahjong team in their second round tie - Ako's hard work have put them in an all-important second place position, but with two games still to go everything is still very much up for grabs.

Up next then is Arata Sagimori, sporting a bowling glove to represent her grandmother's bowling alley (or possibly just because it looks kind of cool - more so than bowling mahjong tiles, which could have somebody's eye out... bad Arata!).  Although Sagimori seems to have a jump on some of her opponents on account of her hard to fathom playing style, making her more of an enigma than Achiga's other players, things don't quite go to plan, and with the final game on the horizon Achiga slip into third place as their semi-final credentials fade.

Thus, we move on to the final game for this round, and it's up to Shizuno and her never say die attitude - an attitude that she's going to need in spades as, with the final hand of the round coming up, Achiga find themselves in third and with a hefty disadvantage over second-placed Kentani school.  With plenty of opportunities to win the hand, but without the points required to qualify, passing her buy, Shizuno is determined to sit it out until the match comes to her - and come to her it does, making for a famous victory and a semi-final place for Achiga.  Any celebrations are short-lived however as the full weight of their semi-final challenge dawns upon the girls: a match featuring Senriyama (once again) as well as the fearsome Shiratodai schools.

Despite having another "fast-forward moment", with Arata given little time at the table before we moved onwards, this was made up for by the nerve-wracking tension of Shizuno's game.  Much like watching a football match where a single goal will make all the difference, it was surprisingly gripping stuff that played its cards (err, tiles) right from start to finish.  It looks like we'll have a little more forced drama and a whole bunch of character introductions from the original series to come next episode (which airs the week after next, incidentally), but now Episode of Side-A is well and truly in the swing of things I can't wait.

Oh, and I wasn't the only one to get a kick out of Stealth Momo's appearance, was I?

Saki - Episode of Side-A - Episode 6

Kuro might have had a disastrous hand in the first match of Achiga's vital second round game, but there's still a long way to go as sister Yuu steps up to the plate... err, I mean table... as she vows to win back the points her sister has lost to pay her back somewhat for all the times her sibling has helped her in the past.

Yuu certainly gets off to a good start, but this looks set to be short-lived as the other teams, and Senriyama in particular, confirm that just like her sister Yuu has a very clear and easy to counter playing style.  Or does she?  While a cursory look at her statistics seems to tell her rivals everything they need to know, her decision-making is actually stranger than it first seems as she targets only "warm" tiles.  Thus, come the end of her match nobody has quite nailed down Yuu's methodology, allowing her to claw back at least some of the deficit left by the first match.

With two players down, it's up to Ako to lead the charge next - and what a fine job she does of it too, racing away to win a number of hands and pick Achiga up off the bottom of the match leaderboard.  Although she eventually meets her match, once again courtesy of Senriyama as they look set to run away with the lead, come the end of match-up number three we see Achiga promoted all the way up to second place in a game where you could throw a towel over three of the four contenders.  Proverbially that is, not to hide the fact that they aren't wearing underwear.

Given how many weeks I was calling for it and complaining about the decided lack of it, I can only rejoice once again at an episode of Saki that prostrates itself almost solely at the altar of mahjong action.  It still doesn't match the original series in terms of drama and tension, in no small part due to having less interesting characters and individuals with less fascinating gameplay characteristics, but it's still good to watch and fun to follow so I can't help but get excited at it.  This is, after all, what I've been tuning into this series each and every week for, so it would be churlish of me to complain once it finally provides it in spades.

Saki - Episode of Side-A - Episode 5

After breezing through the first round of the Nationals at a ridiculous (and I do mean ridiculous) speed, episode five brings us to the second round of matches, and a place in the semi-finals up for grabs for Achiga as they go up against some potentially fearsome opposition, including a seeded side who didn't even play in the first round.

More specifically, much of this episode focuses upon Senriyama school's sickly Toki Onjouji - after a brief flashback which fills in a little of her history and what led her to where she is today, we join the first match in this particular second round line-up, with Onjouji up against Kuro Matsumi amongst others.  While Kuro's insistence on hanging on to her dora tiles and throwing out weird discards stood her in good stead last time around, it seems that it's going to be a different story on this occasion.

Indeed, it seems that nobody can even touch Onjouji's play as she shows an almost psychic knowledge of what tiles are coming next, and once she declares riichi there's a whole new level of fear to be experienced from her abilities as she wipes the floor with the opposition.  Kuro in particular suffers the most heavily from Toki's torment, leaving Achiga bottom of the leaderboard after the opening match of the round.  Next up is sister Yuu, but can she really do anything to turn the tide as she swears she is going to?  Given that other teams already seem to be tuned into her manner of play, it's going to be tough for her.

At last, we finally seem to have reached the "proper" stage of Saki - Episode of Side-A, with a focus heavily on the national tournament and mahjong being played within it while using gaps in the play to fill in slices of character's back stories and build up characters rather than the other way around.  While it's yet to really ramp up the tension as we might be used to from the original series, it's already a huge improvement and far more enjoyable and fascinating than pretty much anything we've seen from Episode of Side-A prior to this point.  Hopefully now we can keep our focus tightly on the tournament and its players, as the series will surely only thrive because of it.

Saki - Episode of Side-A - Episode 4

We've made it there in rather a hurry, but Episode of Side-A has at last brought us to its national mahjong tournament, and the girls of Achiga High School have already glimpsed a taste, however slight, of the power that resides within Saki Miyanaga.

That brief taste is all they'll have to sate themselves with for now however, as the draw for the tournament sees Achiga and Kiyosumi places on entirely opposite sides of the draw, meaning that the only way for our group of young hopefuls to achieve their dream of playing against Nodoka will be to make it all the way to the final.

After a day of watching videos of their first round opponents in action, we finally get to see a bit of Achiga's team going through their mahjong paces - more specifically, we get to see Kuro Matsumi's strange, unique and decidedly harsh way of playing the game applied perfectly as she does her beat for the team as their opening player.  Sadly, that's all we get as we dart away from the action again only to return after Achiga has already won their first match.  If that all seemed a little easy however, the next round gives them a far more dangerous opponent to play against, with Achiga pitted against the ultra-powerful Senriyama High School together with some other newcomers to the tournament.  Can they prevail against this well-established team?

I hate to sound like a broken record, but once again Episode of Side-A is leaving me frustrated by giving little more than lip service to the drama and tension that is this show's game of choice - by far the best part of an otherwise slightly dull episode was getting to see Kuro in action, while the rest of her team-mates had their own games skipped over entirely in favour of chit-chat and focusing on other teams.  While I'm not advocating that the whole series should have wall-to-wall mahjong, I still don't feel like I know or care enough about any of Achiga High School's characters, and not seeing them in action isn't exactly helping with that.  I seem to be ending each entry for this series with something along the lines of "it looks like we'll get to the real action next week", but it's fast reaching the point where I simply don't think it's going to happen any more.

Saki - Episode of Side-A - Episode 3

With their team assembled and a suitably talented advisor in place, the rejuvenated Achiga Girls Academy is ready to roll for their initial qualifying tournament.

As if that isn't an exciting prospect enough, Achiga's team arrive to find themselves drawn against deadly rivals and hot favourites to qualify, Bansei High School, in the very first round, giving rise to a sense of panic that soon turns to enthusiasm - with good reason as well, after an impressive start leads to them wiping the floor with their opponents to win their opening round with relative ease.  What's more, they effectively breeze through the entire tournament, achieving their goal and setting themselves up for a trip to the National finals and possibly their fated meeting with Nodoka.  So much for all of the tension built up around those qualifiers...

Having sealed their qualification, the Achiga girl's obvious next concern is preparing for the Nationals themselves, which they do by travelling and playing as many of the runners-up from the various qualification tournaments as they possibly can.  At the top of their list is the defeated finalists against Nodoka's side Kiyosumi, where we meet some old faces in the form of Ryuumonbuchi High School's mahjong club - the only side with the ability to defeat Achiga's best in these practice matches.  Still, with some time remaining to hone the group's teamwork, it's off to Tokyo we go, where we soon get a fleeting glimpse of Kiyosumi's real powerhouse - a certain Saki Miyanaga.

Although part of me is grateful to Episode of Side-A for getting on with things at a fair clip, I can't help but feel that this episode has missed the point of the series entirely.  After spending its first two episodes building up the intense rivalry between Achiga and Bansei, and what victory means for both schools, why on earth did we breeze over the matches between the two teams in five minutes flat?  Similarly, there was plenty of room to explore Achiga's abilities against Ryuumonbuch, but once again we're treated to basically no actual mahjong action at all.  The only benefit of this is that we're now ready for the Nationals and the "serious business" it represents to begin in no time at all, but I can't help but look over my shoulder and wonder where all the promise of intense mahjong action has gone with the series thus far.  Saki might have been a little too slow in taking twenty-five episodes to reach its National tournament, but I'm not sure that Episode of Side-A managing it in three is particularly preferable either.

Saki - Episode of Side-A - Episode 2

After a period of hiatus, Achiga Girls Academy has a mahjong club again!  Well, kind of, assuming said club can find the requisite five members to officially become one.

Thankfully, and compared to a lot of shows of this ilk, finding those five members turns out to be really rather simple.  With hizuno and Ako already on board and joined by Kuro, only two more members are required, and before we know it we find them both.  First up there's Yuu, Kuro's sister with a reasonable amount of mahjong talent despite a penchant for wearing warm clothes, scarves and so on even in the height of summer.  To round out the club, Kuro also recruits Arata Sagimori, a girl who idolised Harue Akado during her time of competitive success but fell out of love with the game once Harue gave up playing it competitively.

Ironically, it's Miss Akado who proves to be the other major driver for this episode - after being recruited to join a professional, corporate team, a high-profile defeat sees those corporate sponsors pull the plug on the side, leaving her without a mahjong outlet even if she gets to keep her job with the company.  It's this state of affairs perhaps that pull her back to look in on Achiga school, where she finds the new mahjong club in session - a discovery that makes her determined to go to the national tournament one more time, only this time around as the girl's teacher and advisor.  Can she really repeat the trick of many years previously and lead them on to beating their rivals at Bansei High School?

While not a lot happens in this episode if you're waiting for some hot mahjong action (aren't we all waiting for that?), and although as a result it feels a little like another lost episode in a series which is pretty short as it is, I do still have some kudos to spare for this week's Episode of Side-A for building its team up so quickly without any messing around and putting the show right where it needs to be at this juncture.  The big question is now is whether its characters and the events around them will prove to be entertaining enough to match the franchise's first season - at the moment all of the main characters are really rather dull, so it's going to be up to their mahjong prowess to build them up into something a little substantial, which I really hope and pray that they manage to pull off.  Until we get to the real meat of the series, the jury is out for the return of Saki for now.

Saki - Episode of Side-A - Episode 1

After going into it with low expectations, I was amazed at how heavily I got into mahjong anime Saki by the time its original series came to a close, beginning a bit of a love affair with the game that has never fully dissipated since.  Although it isn't the second season of the series proper that we've been craving, this spring does at least fill that tile-sized hole in my heart courtesy of this Episode of Side-A side-story, written by the same author as the series proper.

Indeed, the link between this series and Saki itself takes no time to emerge, as we're introduced to a transfer student who goes by the rather familiar name of Nodoka Haramura.  Despite being a little aloof and with a rather unique dress sense, Nodoka soon strikes up a friendship with the energetic Shizuno and her buddy Ako.  The fun these girls have together is only amplified when Nodoka is introduced by the others to the mahjong club at Achiga Girls Academy - well, I say club, but "former club" would be the correct term, with its existence only continuing thanks to a legendary former player for the club Harue Akado, who keeps it running as "rehabilitation" for a particularly distressing defeat.

Of course, Harue isn't going to run the club forever, and her departure signals its ultimate demise, which in turn breaks up our group of friends with Ako choosing a different middle school to pursue her love of mahjong while Nodoka eventually finds herself transferring away on account of her mother's work.  The story seems to be over at this point, until a chance snippet of television viewing from Shizuno reveals Nodoka's new place as a middle school mahjong champion - a shock which fires up Shizuno to rekindle her love for the game and reform Achiga's mahjong club with the aim of meeting and playing against Nodoka once again.  But can she really build a club capable of qualifying for the national tournament when the area's neighbouring high school has such a fearsome reputation within the game?

If I were to have one criticism of this first episode of Episode of Side-A, it's that it covers too much too soon.  I realise that everything we see here is simply setting the stage for the important stuff to come, but it still feels rushed to the point where it's difficult to really enjoy or get to grips with the main characters or their emotional attachments to both one another and mahjong.  On the positive side however, I did feel that familiar Saki tingle when it came to the (admittedly brief) mahjong playing time itself, firing up my love of the game once again regardless of the daft and crazy but fun "superpowers" sported by the show's better players.  It's this that I'll be looking forward to more of from the rest of this series, and hopefully Episode of Side-A can deliver it in spades.