Saki

There once was a woman named Saki Who used to think Mahjong was yucky But her friends got the chills When she showed off her skills She was so unbelievably lucky Then the Mahjong club was reinstated In a manner that made it seem fated And Saki fell in love With a woman part ofThe same club and she wished that they dated So with that comes the start of our story As they all began playing for glory When the hour was nigh They held their heads up high And they joined the prefectural tourney Then the girls started showing their powers And they played like in god mode for hours There was also in store Yuri service galore They were clearly no innocent flowers But even with a blushing red face They still played at ridiculous pace While maintaining their grace With the skills of an ace They accepted no less than first place When the story was finally done And the champion eventually won I leaned back in my chair And asked the open air: 'Who knew Mahjong could be so much fun?' Yup, that's basically Saki for you ^^ If you thought moe shows couldn't be intense and action-packed, you were wrong. Saki is basically an anime about moe girls playing mahjong... with super powers. The girls all have their own (incredibly far-fetched) abilities which affect the flow of the game, their luck or even their own physical capabilities directly. However the bottom line is that the exaggerated theme of the show makes it SO much fun to watch. The mahjong games (or moejong as I like to call it here) in this show leaves most sports/game anime in the dust as far as intensity and addictiveness goes. Of course if you've never played mahjong before then it might be a bit difficult to properly understand what's going on a lot of the time, but I know countless people who have loved the show to death even despite that fact. There isn't really much of a story beyond the fact that everyone's playing in various mahjong tournaments for their own reasons, but the sole focal point of Saki lies in the gameplay itself, and that's where it absolutely shines. This is one of my all-time favorite moe shows and definitely the most addictive one. You can easily marathon the entire anime in one sitting if you have the time to spare. It's very hard to stop watching it once you've started. Oh, and as the cherry on top the entire show is also softcore Yuri... just to give it that little extra nosebleed-inducing flavor. Can never say no to that~

What do you get when you take mahjong, you shoot massive amounts ridiculous special effects, you add a huge cast of high school girls, you give them POWERLEVELS, and then you make them 90% lesbian? Does it sound ridiculous yet? Regardless of how you feel about what I just described, Saki somehow managed to take all the above points, mush them up together, and regurgitate one of the most fun and entertaining show I've seen in a while. Story: + Simple and straight through story + Easy to swallow and get into + The mahjong games are SO MUCH FUN to watch and the show has PLENTY of them -It tries to create drama that just doesn't fit in sometimes - It can get really corny when it comes to character development - Game time gets interrupted right in the middle in favour of "development" time from time to time. Art + Cute character designs + Bright and very nice colour palette + Special effects used on mahjong games are very cool to watch and greatly increase enjoyment - Animation quality can get poor at times (but not very often) Sound + An all star cast of seiyuus makes the show very fun to listen to + The background songs used for the mahjong games are upbeat and GREATLY increases the enjoyment of the matches - I wasn't a fan of the OP and ED songs but they are not bad Characters + Large cast of characters and all with different personalities. You are bound to find someone you will like. + Every character is likeable and they are all unique in skills (mahjong POWERLEVELS) + When a series is able to match up 2 or more characters in a game and make you go "OH SHI- THIS MATCH IS GOING TO BE EPIC" every time you know the show has succeeded in creating their characters - If you are not into yuri moments, you might feel ackward watching this because girl on girl moments happen.....A LOT! - Although the show succeeds in giving most of their characters reasons to move forward and continue playing. Sometimes some of those reasons can get a little corny (but its not a big issue) Enjoyment: THIS SHOW WAS SO MUCH FUN TO WATCH, every time a game was going on the show suddently became so entertaining that the episode would end and you wouldnt feel like u had just watched 24 minutes of Saki. Even though the show could have some improvements I cannot complain about the work GONZO and Picture Magic has produced here. Overall: Saki is not a masterpiece, it does not have amazing production values, nor does it have a compelling story....however what it manages to produce is a level of entertainment that just leaves you wanting to have more. The ability of taking a generally quiet game like mahjong and turn it completely over the top and extreme and yet still keep it from becoming chaotic is 1 of the reasons why Saki is a show that everyone should give a try at one point, it will surely entertain you.

Saki is exactly what you'd expect from a tournament-style "sports" game, minus exceedingly high testosterone levels, and plus lots and lots of moe. Now, Saki is about mahjong, which really... isn't a sport, but it's treated like one, and it's, as they say, serious business— every character lives and breathes mahjong. The premise is not what you would call exceptional in any case. You have your protagonist who possesses remarkable talent, and through training and perservance, will become the best of the best. Who learns lessons through trials and tribulations, deepening and strenghtening bonds with teammates as time goes along. Your standardstuff. So why should you watch Saki? I think there are various demographics who would like Saki. Let's list them out first. 1. Sports/tournament-style anime fans 2. Moe moe kyun~ ♥ 3. Yuri fans It's pretty obvious why sports/tournament-style anime fans will like this series, 'cause that's exactly what it is. If you like seeing your protagonist face off with increasingly harder opponents, learning new things and gaining others' respect slowly and surely, then this is definitely for you. I think Saki reminds me a lot of Hikaru no Go and Prince of Tennis (but, as I've mentioned, a lot lower with the testosterone level). As for moe, 99% of the cast consists of cute high school girls. I'm serious. Let's see, the only guys who get more than two lines are the commentator (for the prefectural qualifiers), someone's grandpa, and the one guy that's the protagonist's childhood friend (who is largely absent in most episodes). And if I told you that there was one guy surrounded by five girls, you'd think "harem!" right away, right? Wrong. It's remarkable how little presence the guy has in this series. Half the time you forget he actually exists. But there are a couple of gratuitous fantasy scenes from him (i.e. well-endowed girls in bikinis), so you might like it if you like harem series, but you have to remember that the guy barely exists. Now, for yuri. It's unbelievable how... yuriffic Saki is. At first I thought it was my imagination, but it's laden with so much subtext that it'll send you reeling. The girls keep blushing at each other (half the time the blushes don't even make much sense) and it's about as unsubtle as subtext can get. (If you don't like yuri, I suppose it's still possible to see it as "just" friendship, but you gotta wonder sometimes...) I think the character designs are pretty cute (it's moe, after all), and a lot of the mahjong parts are CG, which looks really sleek. (And who knew about automatic mahjong tables? I sure didn't.) Gonzo's animation quality is inconsistent though, so sometimes the characters look a little blobby, but overall I think it's fairly good. The cast for Saki is HUGE. Nevertheless, the seiyuu cast is very solid, with quite a few big names. The OP and ED are okay, but nothing exceptional. And character development is next to none, which is pretty much what you'd expect for a "sports"/tournament-style series. It's not trying to be deep or anything; it's just entertainment. People who dislike lots of confusing terminology (and who are not familiar with Japanese names for mahjong terms) probably should stay away. They keep talking about terms and giving 5-second explanations that will leave you even more confused than before. But if you can take it all in stride, I think Saki's a good guilty-pleasure that you can blaze through mindlessly.

Probably one of, if not the most intense 38 episodes I've ever seen in my life. An anime about this thing called "mahjong" where all the girls blush too many times it's already considered as a soft yuri at this point. Story : 10/10 Despite the fact that I don't know shit about mahjong ( had to watch a few videos and guides because the anime explanation wasn't enough ). Watching Saki felt like eating mapo tofu for 15 hours straight. It's so hot damnnnnn. I think I'm still burning. Art : 10/10 Eh its ok. The breasts of a certain someone is too large though.Don't really know if i should appreciate that or not. Sound : 10/10 OPs too good. EDs are even better. Yeah, it's perfect. Character : 10/10 It's pretty much OP MC. However, all the characters doesn't really feel left out so it makes the mahjong matches more unpredictable. It's still OP MC though. Saki's pretty much Goku. Enjoyment : 10/10 Really enjoyed this. Too bad season 2 and the side story was left as a cliffhanger. Why? Why? Even the manga's left as a cliffhanger. Uh, regardless its still fun. Overall : 10/10 Very fun. Very good. 10/10. Recommended to all. This CGDCT is good. Yeah, you're probably hesitating because of this "MAHJONG" thing but trust me. It doesn't matter. Eventually you'll understand and then you'll have fun watching Saki.