Despite that victorious hand from Saki herself last episode, it's the turn of some of her other opponents to take a bit of the limelight for a while, with Kana Ikeda in particular gaining confidence aplenty from her brush with elimination, putting together some decidedly dangerous hands while Koromo finds her concerns almost entirely obsessed with Saki.
Meanwhile, Saki finds herself unable to really hit her stride - Something still simply isn't quite right for her to unleash her full powers, but what could it be? Why, socks of course. No, I'm not kidding - It's shoes and socks that have constrained Saki's play in this game. With socks removed, Saki finally begins to pull off victory after victory, but all of these hands are cheap wins that do little to close the point gap against Kiyosumi's opponents, and indeed only serve to edge Ryuumonbuchi closer to qualification. The number of hands may be running out, but Saki seems unconcerned... Is she simply warming up for her final push?
For a while there, I thought that this episode would elongate matters without giving us a chance to enjoy any more of Saki's comeback as the focus shifted away from her, but come the second half of this episode the excitement grew as the socks came off, leaving me once again cheering at my monitor and egging on Saki to strut herself. Damn, this Mahjong anime stuff really is getting addictive... Where is all my surplus adrenaline and excitement going to go once this series is over? It's hard enough having to wait a week between episodes as the tension (and with it my enthusiasm for the series) ramps up.
Well, I watched this episode 10 min. after it came out subbed... and it didn't disappoint!
ReplyDeleteThis anime has everything: funny and random stuff (Saki's socks) and the ability to pull me in on a weekly basis! I thought that the same thing would happen like last episode. Of course, they proved me wrong! Ikeda was smoking everyone in the beginning but Saki went into her "mode" after removing ehem.... socks.
But I am sad though that I have to wait till next episode or maybe more after that to finish the qualifiers!
woah, you got that review up fast!, but im i the only one who thinks that next episode is gonna be epic? thats the feeling i got from this episode, i cant wait to see some incredulous hands
ReplyDeleteI look forward to this anime every week but this one was finally a good episode :).
ReplyDeleteThe long flashbacks and thoughts are sometimes a bit frustrating to watch.
The past 5 episodes I have been like: oh come on, just win already, lol.
But I think that the next episode will be even more interesting.
aina
I have been breathlessly awaiting this episode because of the end of episode 17...which led me to the conclusion that 18 would be something that doesn't disappoint. And indeed it didn't. The first half seemed disappointing at first but come the second half i was jumping for joy and my mouth stayed wide open throughtout the show.
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