hontou ni Stripey Insists Sisters Cry Oniichan Now

Saki 25 (Final)

Summary:

The four schools arrive at the training camp venue and proceed to the hot springs. Hisa and Yumi-chin's attempt to get things going, training menu and intel respectively, hit several snags with various players being incapacitated due to playing around too much beforehand. A morning dip in the outdoor springs turns into an impromptu meeting. Saki is IN DESPAIR when Mihoko relates Teru's denial of her existence and leaves the scene with Nodoka in hot pursuit and proposes they pray at a shrine, exchange little trinkets and call each other by their first names - much blushing ensues. Returning just in time for training to get underway, they are joined by Fujita Pro. The National Tournament gets underway and we get a glimpse of the various school teams, including a miko contingent!

Reaction:

As a final episode of the season, it was hardly climatic in terms of mahjong - will they be having another whole 25 episodes just for the Nationals and its aftermath or just a half cour? But given how, except for the Saki versus Koromo duel, one could breeze through the mahjong technicalities, this series has really been about the girls and their relationships. So it's fitting that there was a significant milestone on the Saki x Nodoka front - though it seems they also swiftly took a step back on calling each other by their given names. Given that the friendship is still somewhat unbalanced and unstable (premonition in the form of sad souvenir facedown in the rain in the ED), perhaps that's fitting too (for a moment, I thought Nodoka was going to go Chikane on Saki). In lieu of hot lesb0r s3xx0r, the marker of coupledom will probably have to be this name calling thing.

Momo x Yumi remains my favourite couple and I was well pleased with the cute moments of Momo proposing their onsen date and Yumi-chin's embarrassment at being interrupted by Saki x Nodoka were really sweet. And never understand beginner's luck! I had a Jade Dragon tsumo on the second last hand of the North round and cleaned everyone else too. Wah~ha~ha!

Related posts:

1. Saki 22
2. Saki 23
3. Saki 14-16