Saki - Episode 22

Episode twenty-two of Saki takes us to day two of the individual prefectural qualifying round, with Yuuki a run-away leader at the top of the scoreboard. But can she keep up her incredible run of form on a day where the rules change to a mix of East and South wind rounds?


While things start off well enough for our diminutive, taco eating friend, with another flurry of victories, everything changes as the wind turns from East to South, and Yuuki comes up against what I suppose you could call her nemesis - A girl named Kazue who dominates South wind rounds. Thus, all of Yuuki's early points are lost as Kazue breezes into a lead in that game, and during the course of the episode rises through the ranks to challenge for those top three qualifying spots.

Also amongst the top three is Nodoka, but elsewhere it appears that Saki is up to her old tricks, with a number of consecutive ±0 scores. This leads to a stand-off between the two girls, with Saki admitting that she's holding back on Hisa's account as it's her last chance to qualify for the individual national tournament. Nodoka's strong words convince her to give her all once again though, and in no times she rises through the ranks... only to find herself in a match-up against Hisa herself, as well as Momoko and Ryuumonbuchi's Tomoki.

Of course, after playing her heart out in the team tournament everybody around the table knows Saki's style only two well, and so her three opponents all work hard to block off her usual route to victory, leaving her floundering. Add in Momoko's transition to "stealth mode", and the star of the series is looking in for a torrid time...

As per usual for this series, I simply find myself delighting in the simple pleasure of Saki's mahjong action, which remains as entertaining to watch as ever. While the tension felt at the team tournament isn't quite there this time around, it remains highly enjoyable watching snippets of various games despite some of the insane "special powers" demonstrated by the (admittedly mostly likeable) featured characters. I get the feeling that as the individual qualifying tournament comes to a close over the coming episodes I'm going to be back to shouting and cheering at my monitor again...