hontou ni Stripey Insists Sisters Cry Oniichan Now

Saki 4

This week's episode takes Saki down a peg. Hisa gets a pro to secretly ambush our title chara and gf Nodoka. I'm pleased that Saki's aura of invincibility has been broken; that re-introduces dramatic tension into the games. Yet, at the same time, I am incredulous that there are going to be numerous characters wielding even greater uber-powers. This might get a bit too much for me to swallow.

I find myself agreeing with tjhan when he said:

The only reason I am put-off by [Saki] is her ability to do Stephen Chow-like magical draws without ESP.

Evoking Stephen Chow resonated with me immensely. I'm not a huge fan of his earlier works because I found the slapstick to be deadly to my interest in Hong Kong movies like the way double decries moé as the poison destroying anime (though I am sure he will recover if another FMP! series is announced). I did enjoy Chow's more recent movies like Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle because they were much more ironic and poked fun at the slapstick that made Chow a star in the first place. Even though I had switched to 'mindless entertainment' mode for those old Stephen Chow slapsticks, something along the way would just flip the Reality Check switch on big time along the way.

Steven Den Beste's counter argument is that:

Sure, I know that what I’m seeing Saki do is impossible. But that doesn’t matter. Sports stories always involve a degree of super-human ability, mental or physical or spiritual; it’s part of the fantasy element of the story.

Sure they do. Perhaps that's why most sports anime don't appeal to me (unless it's something else masquerading as a sports anime like Suzuka). I did enjoy Hikaru no Go very much. And the fantasy element there was Sai as Hikaru's mentor whose existence ultimately had a Calvin and Hobbes-like certainty (to the title chara) but also ambiguity to others characters, viewers and readers. The incredible skill of Hikaru, Akira and other go players was fantastic but hardly fantasy.

ETERNAL has a slightly different take, sharing unease over how 'the characters are unreasonably strong' but due to a different reason:

What I’m talking about is the fact that the characters are good at what they do, and they’ve done precious little to earn it.

It's already been hinted at that Saki has been thoroughly trained by her incredibly skilled family. I think we'll be shown down the road, perhaps via flashbacks, that she has done precious much to earn her skills. But it's just that, in the context of mahjong, how she calls her kang is absolute fantasy.

Go is a game where the role of chance and luck is small, especially so when compared to mahjong where there is skill comes in making the best of one's luck of the draw. That's why all the games in Hikaru no Go were believable while all the games played by Saki are fantastical. When it was just Saki being able to do this, I could still close one eye. But now it seems more and more of her opponents will also be able to do this, my suspension of disbelief is being strained to snapping point. Kabitzin was absolutely right about the problems of the decreasing marginal utility of power-ups.

While Washi's advice to learn more about riichi mahjong is well meant, I'm tending towards tjhan's position:

So the key to enjoying a good sports show (assuming Mahjong is a sport) is not actually understanding it!

The problem, which I share with tjhan, I can't unlearn what I already know about mahjong. But I might still be able to enjoy this series much more than tjhan if the episodes unfold as per super rats' suggestion:

Will they make the mistake of trying to teach us Mahjong and getting overly involved with the actual game itself, as they’re kind of doing now, or will the center of action be on the characters and letting good camera work tell us what is significant in the game?

I'm with Kabitzin and ETERNAL on how I don't see the flashy moves negatively. They're a helpful reminder that THIS IS FANTASY and as long as they don't overwhelm the main show of character development and development of chara dynamics, I'm fine with the gratuitous CG.

Thus, despite my unease during this episode, I was still happy to see how Nodoka gave Saki a right kick in the arse to get her out of wallowing in the quagmire of her past pain and how Student Congress President Hisa's plan worked perfectly to motivate her two stars to FIGHTO.

The sequence leading up to the above scene was just so sweet in a Morinaga Milk sort of way. Nodoka is indeed Saki's BESTO WAIFU.

Related posts:

1. Saki expectation management session one
2. Saki Review
3. Saki 3