Saki - The Nationals - Episode 7

It's been a fraught start for Hisa in her own national tournament campaign, but now that she's settled down and gotten her feet under the table things are beginning to shift, if only a little, in her favour.

Given the quality of the opposition on show, even her abilities and patented technique of using bad waits isn't going to power her into the lead however, and with Hiroe once again taking the lead by posting up a positive score to take Himematsu to the top of the match's leader-board all Hisa can really do is end on a high note with a solid hand to ensure that Kiyosumi go into the fourth match of the game in second place.

From here, it's time to pass the baton on to the famous Nodoka Haramura, although she too has some fearsome opposition to face off against, from Eisui's Hatsumi Usuzumi - who literally teleports into the arena, much to Nodoka's terror - through to monocle-sporting Sae Usuzawa, and of course not forgetting Hiroe's sister Kinue.  While she normally takes a whole to "warm up", Nodoka shows no intentions of wasting any time here and slips straight into her terrifying "Nodocchi" phase... but is this enough to counter the immense and quite literally God-like power of Hatsumi?

Unlike Haramura, I'm not yet in my own fully-fledged Saki "zone" - I'm not yet sat on the edge of my seat gripping the armrests on account of the tension - but there was some fun to be had from this week's episode as it ramps up its characters to ever-more bizarre levels, from monocles through to teleportation.  This should be the point where the actual action at the table should start ramping up significantly, so I'm hoping that this is the point where my enjoyment of the series is completely rekindled rather than just reveling in one or two of its dafter moments.