Saki Achiga-hen -episode of Side A- Discussion Thread

[strangefour]

-Fuck yeah Gibbard-chan! O__O
-Harvest time!
-Girls who remind you of girls are icky. *nods* Wait what? So girls must look girly to be enticing to you um... girl with tiny pigtails who's name I can't remember cause Achiga is the more forgettable team.
-Meanwhile, Giddard-chan is cheering! Her cheering magic is the only reason Achiga is doing so well.
-Subara!
-Bad politics girl is an odd little sheep.
-Lesbian ties. SYMBOLISM! I guess.
-Lesbian bondage is indeed Subara!
-Holy crap! The Kodomo needs to find some clothes for her friend! I do not need to see that much loli skin showing outside of a magical henshin sequence. >__<
-Nopan-chan has gears?

-Being Splashed in fluids...
-FunaQ faces...
-FunaQ licking fluids!
-Reservation Clear. ManGanKey! *waits for a super robot summoning sequence that never arrives*
-SUBARA! BaaaaaaiMaaaaaanKeeeeey!!!
-Cherry blossoms are in the air. A May September romance is blooming too.
-Flashback Gibbard-chan is giving you the power to win Arata!
-SEVEN!? Leaping lesbian libidos!
-JU-YO-HAN-KEY!!!
-Don't die Toki.

Next time: BONDAGE DEVICE RELEASE!

[elior]

the second 30 minutes special was great we was see arata power and mairu reservation was epic

[William K]

Fantastic episode again. The ending of Ako's match was sort of an anti-climax given how much they hyped up Harvest Time.

Arata's match was the highlight and there were lots of magical mahjong. We had a true monster in Mairu with her bondage mahjong, and Shiraitodai's Seiko with her watersports fishing style

FunaQ may not have special powers but she's a sabermetrician who likes to lick water from her face :D

The star is Arata though, and I'm glad we finally got a chance to see her playing after she was ignored for most of the series. Was logical that her style would be related to bowling splits. And it's confirmed that she's the club president since she's the most level-headed one. Arata learning and adapting Harue's style into her own was a nice touch. It looks like Achiga will remain in 2nd spot for the last match.

But Himeko has lots of keys in her possession which she'll convert into wins in her match including a 14-han!... And what is Awai's power that makes her so confident? (She's a 100th year student!)

Arrgh, another month of waiting...

Oh yeah. The match was so exciting that I forgot to mention Saki, Koromo and Hajime making a quick cameo appearance. Though in Hajime's case, her clothes seems to be missing a lot of parts :D

[something]

Episode 3:

- "Based on my skills, I'd be in the 100th year of high school." I love Awai.
- Surprised Ako makes adorable noises.
- Huh. Well, Harvest Time was a lot more underwhelming than I expected. They totally could have played that up more, or left more material in the beginning of the episode before it. Maybe they just built it up so well in the previous episode that anything would seem fairly most after waiting a month.
- But I'm glad Ako did so well - second most points at the table that rond. Still about 70k down on Shiraitodai though.
- Oh hey, the players actually talking to each other after a game. Why don't we get more of that? Also Sera is totally into Ako. =D
- But Ako prefers girlier girls...
- Bwhahaha, Sera made FunaQ jealous.

- Next up, Team Subara's Buchou!
- And Arata. By far the Achiga girl who's gotten the least focus. I barely even remember her playing a game. Now that we have two episodes after this instead of one, I assume her game will run this whole episode and into the next. Then an ep and a half for Shizu, plus a short epilogue?
- Awww, Arata loves you, Harue.
- So Seiko is the fisher. Doesn't sound as impressive as the sniper.
- Okay so Himeko and Mairu share an intimate sensual link via bondage. Works for me.
- Haha oh shit. FunaQ is not happy about being ignored. FunaQ is dangerous when she's not happy.
- Arata feels like she's being left out of the story. Yes, Arata, you're a member of Achiga. Sorry.

- Awww, Saki hanging out with Koromo and Hajime.
- Huh, even Koromo thinks Shizu is something special. I look forward to seeing why.

- ::lick:: ...FunaQ is creepy as fuck.
- HAHAHAHA oh god the innuendo.
- I wonder what Awai and Shizu will pull out? I mean, if we already know ahead of time how a bunch of hands will go, that limits surprises in the last match. Though I guess there are a lot of hands we don't see, so two of three aren't going to totally determine a game.
- Hooray, Arata wins a hand! You go and force them to realize you're there, Arata.
- Wow. FunaQ is taking a bit bite out of Shiraitodai.
- FunaQ reaches out for Arata's skirt (under which there are clearly no panties, of course)... and flips it!
- Arata is kinda badass when she needs to be.
- Nice little backstory about Arata and the weight of benig the club president. ...Wait, she's the club president?! I feel like other characters feel when they find out Yumi isn't president of Tsuruga. I totally forgot Arata was the president, if it's even been mentioned. Though I don't know who I assumed it was. Ako or Kuro I guess.
- Also lol Achiga has their own fanclub.
- Heh, tsundere Bansai girl is so cute.
- Awww.. yeah I realllllly like this Arata bit, short though it is.

- Holy shit only down 11k? Shiraitodai has gotten smashed. This just means Awai is going to be all the more terrifying early on in her match...
- RESERVATION SEVEN!
- OOoh the credits are starting. Will Arata take first before this ends, or will Mairu set up a truly enormous hand for Himeko in the last match? Such exciting tension~
- And it goes to Mairu. Awai is not the least bit scared. =D
- TOKI AWAKENS!

She may not get a lot of focus usually, but I really enjoyed Arata in this episode. I love the whole theme of Achiga, particularly Arata, seeking revenge for Harue's semifinals loss.

Fuuuuuuck we have to wait another month. ;_; Shizu vs Awai vs Himeko vs... oh yes, Ryuuka. This will be so fucking good.

[Fencedude]

Originally Posted by something

- So Seiko is the fisher. Doesn't sound as impressive as the sniper.
- Holy shit only down 11k? Shiraitodai has gotten smashed. This just means Awai is going to be all the more terrifying early on in her match...

Seiko is horrible. How she got onto Shiraitodai's main team is a mystery, both to us and the all knowing PROFESSOR AWAI. Seiko also has the dubious honor of the single largest point loss in the Side-A semifinals, having lost more points this round than SUBARA lost against Teru.

[something]

Originally Posted by Fencedude

Seiko is horrible. How she got onto Shiraitodai's main team is a mystery, both to us and the all knowing PROFESSOR AWAI. Seiko also has the dubious honor of the single largest point loss in the Side-A semifinals, having lost more points this round than SUBARA lost against Teru.

Heh, Seiko seems like a human sacrifice to plot arithmetic. You can't make Awai a Koromo-level mahjong monster and start her with a 70k point lead, not unless Shizu is going to land an absurd number of enormous hands. I guess a lot of Himeko's keys could be used against Awai but we need it to be at least somewhat close so everyone can pull out their crazy tricks and the math still add up.

Because we can't forget Ryuuka either, considering she's going to be out for blood to avenge Toki.

[William K]

Originally Posted by something

- Nice little backstory about Arata and the weight of benig the club president. ...Wait, she's the club president?! I feel like other characters feel when they find out Yumi isn't president of Tsuruga. I totally forgot Arata was the president, if it's even been mentioned. Though I don't know who I assumed it was. Ako or Kuro I guess.

I thought it was Kuro too since she was the one who kept the club room neat and tidy while the club was not existent, and club presidents are usually 2nd year students. The only hint we got that Arata was president was when she represented Achiga in drawing the team slot at the beginning of the Nationals.

[HitokiriShadow]

"Based on my skills, I'd be in the 100th year of high school!" Awaaaaaiiiiiiiii~ <3 <3 <3

"If Shibuyua was dealer in the last round..." I WONDER IF THIS COULD POSSIBLY HAPPEN IN THE FINALS MATCH

And then, we finally get to see lesbian telepatchic mahjong in animated form. And, at least as importantly, FunaQ finally gets to play. She's one of my favorite characters in the manga at this point. Love her evil looking faces, and I so hope that this won't be the last time I get to see her play.

Oh yeah, I forgot FunaQ was coach Atago's niece. Man, I want Senriyama to make it to the finals so bad but its just so hard to see Achiga not making it. And I so desperately want any team at that table BUT ACHIGA to make. Kinda torn between Senriyama and Shindouji, though I lean towards Senriyama for FunaQ.

Part of me is looking forward to next episode, because it will contain Himeko and Awai. And then part of me is dreading it for what the show might do with Shizuno.

[HitokiriShadow]

Originally Posted by something

- Huh. Well, Harvest Time was a lot more underwhelming than I expected. They totally could have played that up more, or left more material in the beginning of the episode before it. Maybe they just built it up so well in the previous episode that anything would seem fairly most after waiting a month.

Apparently the TV series portion covered about 60 pages per episode and this episode went through about 160.

- Holy shit only down 11k? Shiraitodai has gotten smashed. This just means Awai is going to be all the more terrifying early on in her match...

Just think: without Teru, Shirotodai would be bankrupt right now.

Fuuuuuuck we have to wait another month. ;_; Shizu vs Awai vs Himeko vs... oh yes, Ryuuka. This will be so fucking good.

I'm preparing to rage at Shizu MC hax.

[something]

Originally Posted by HitokiriShadow

I'm preparing to rage at Shizu MC hax.

I'm looking forward to it to make up for all the almost nothing she's been able to do so far. Just wish the show had a heck of a lot more time to establish it - it kinda feels like we've been shown two entirely different Achiga teams: one that didn't get to show off their skills much at all until the semifinals, and a very different one in the semifinals itself, through the end of the TV series and these bonus episodes. Much as I adore this show, nobody will ever give it an award for pacing. Two cour was absolutely mandatory for the story they wanted to tell... but we didn't get it. So I can accept that they're supposed to be very strong, and thus would be perfectly happy to see them win, but I lament that their team wasn't built up with anything like the level of detail given to Kiyosumi.

That it's still one of my favorite shows of 2012 just drives home how amazing the Sakiverse is in general.