10 Second Anime - Saki - The Nationals - Episode 11

Saki - The Nationals - Episode 11

We've not only got a mahjong monster, but a boobie monster too. Saki turns on her monster power, with some new twists.

Sorry, ladies. Your chasing riichis, naked waits, demonic possession for single suit wins, and your 3 person isolation tactics are all very nice, but the name of this anime is not Toyone, Kasumi, or Kyouko. It's Saki, and she's going to make you remember that. She'd been very quiet after winning a couple of times with her patented rinshan kaihou, but she's been busy figuring out how all the players' styles work. Remember, she comes from a family of mahjong monsters, her sister is the reigning national high school champion, and to avoid fights in the house, Saki figured out how to always score zero points by the end of the match. This means, not only with her gift of attracting 4-of-a-kinds to her hand, but she knows exactly how to win, with which tiles, and with how many moves to get her desired point total. Now that she has confidence in herself, watch out.

And so it begins in this match. She let the "normal" player Kyouko figure out a way to stop Kasumi's single-suited wins, and supported her with that. She played into Toyone's chasing riichi, but just used that winning discard to make a 4-of-a-kind, and drew her own winning tile from the dead wall, and it wasn't even a rinshan kaihou. And while Kyouko was skipping over Kasumi with her 3 person isolation game, Saki figured out that Kasumi's demonic possession gifts do not extend to the dead wall. Saki's got them all figured out. Which is why in the last hand, when they felt her power-up was at its maximum, they were all surprised she discarded instead.

I figure this is where Saki's true gift is going to shine next episode. She's figured out what point total she wants, she knows how many hands are left, and she's going to get the score she wants this hand to make it add to the blowout score she wants in the final hand. That would be Saki-style monster mahjong! However it turns out, I'm excited we're seeing Saki back in some real mahjong play. It's been 2009 since the last time we saw this for real.