Behold, the Anime that will never get licensed in the US!

I don’t play Mahjong, but I decided to pick up this Anime for the wrong reasons. ^^;

Lolicon Nopan fanservice ecchi Anime Saki is a show about Mahjong. There’s hardly much of a story, consisting of some girl called Saki [Pictured Above] that contains some kind of a childhood trauma, and because of that, she has some godly power that allows her to always end with ±0 points at the end of each game. She is forced into a Mahjong club, [although she willingly joins it in episode 2.] and looking at the way things are going, there might be a championship later on.

Every time she played Mahjong with her family, she wouldn’t get any candy if she lost, but if she won too often, her family would get angry with her. Solution? Always end with ±0 points. Brilliant.

Say what you want, but there’s no way you can win a game like that, and the Anime’s about a championship… Putting story aside, the Mahjong club is composed of six members: [five in the beginning, before Saki joins.]

• Yuki Kataoka, an annoying little loli that reminds me of Satoko from Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. Voiced by Rie Kugimiya?
• Nodoka Haramura, a quiet, pink-haired girl with huge, huge melons.
• A guy that sucks at Mahjong. None of the girls seem interested in him.
• Mako Samoya, her family owns a Mahjong place.
  
• Takei Hisa, the president of the Mahjong club. I think I like her the most.
• Saki Miyanaga, the protagonist, a first year student who hates Mahjong, yet pwns everyone at it, somewhat… Voiced by Kana Ueda, who is a hardcore Mahjong player.

And for some weird reason, most of the characters are panty-less in both the Anime and the Manga.

Saki in episode 12. Showing us that the laws of physics can be broken. Nopan FTW.

That’s your loli, Yuki Kataoka. Rie Kugimiya’s voice never sounded so annoying. She loves tacos, saying that they help her do better in Mahjong. That’s a first. [Le gusta las de asada con Horchata, ^0^] An incentive to get Hispanics to play Mahjong? Maybe not, but that would be interesting, though.

Mako Samoya. Don’t know much about her, but it doesn’t seem like we can tell if she’s another nopan character or not.

The president of the Mahjong club, Takei Hisa. Can you find the naughty little mahjong tile?

Nodoka Haramura. Fanservice as expected from Gonzo, the Japanese company responsible for Strike Bitches. Since Saki is secretly a yuri character, some fans of the show will often get these two together in suggestive positions. Of course, we’re not complaining. =]

From Konachan. Get the 1920×1200 version. Looks beautiful on a 52-inch plasma TV.

Saki again:

Here’s the original version of the image that got Photoshopped by the nerds at 2ch:

>>Full Size<<. You can probably guess what they did to it.

Brand Names:

This is the screenshot that got me into the show, I’m not kidding. It wasn’t the yuri fanservice, it wasn’t the nopan characters, and it certainly wasn’t Mahjong, but this:

This image made me laugh, hard. DFLL? C’mon, it’s only missing a stick that turns the F into an E.

Vindows Wista. The logo got a horizontal flip makeover.

The Actual Review:

Art/Animation: It’s pretty well done. Nodoka’s breasts weren’t always convincing, but animation fixed that a bit. There’s plenty of use of 3D, mostly for objects like the tiles and the umbrella in episode 1. There’s good use of motion blurring. The overall work is pretty clean.

Character Design: Nothing special about it, they’re all students at a school, so don’t expect any RPG-style outfits. No tsunderes, but you do have a quiet, well-endowed yuri girl that resembles Kotonoha from School Days, except for the Nice Boat part. You have a loli character that resembles Satoko from Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. You also have a few quiet computer geeks in the Anime. Saki, well… Her story is just as ridiculous as that of He is My Master!

Sounds/Music: The usual, but it’s actually pretty good. Great use of sound effects, especially in dramatic exaggerated situations.

Enjoyability: Saki is an Anime that is good at generating excessive drama over something trivial, just like Yu-Gi-Oh. They’re very similar, except Saki is Mahjong with the occasional ecchi nopan. Saki brings in the Moé factor. However, Saki does nothing to help you understand Mahjong however, so I’m left clueless with what’s going on during each game, but the rules seem very confusing.

Summary: Saki is an Anime about: lolicon, nopan, ecchi, boobs, tacos, yuri, DFLL, yuri, nopan and Mahjong. Most likely, you’ll be watching this Anime for one or more reasons above, but except for Mahjong. Seriously speaking, this Anime’s pretty bad. Nothing innovative about it, yet it may be so bad, it actually turns out to be good, just like Strike Bitches. Well, this is Gonzo we’re talking about, a huge name that pretty much doesn’t have many good titles but manages to stay up because of the tricks they pull, like in Strike Witches. That Anime started off horrible, but now it’s the perfect service show. Stay tuned for a DVD release for Saki, see what’s in store for you.

Download the first episode here

Sorry, couldn’t resist.