The list of Team Kiyosumi's rivals for the Nagano Finals as covered in the manga and anime series Saki, sorted in order of their final placing — Ryuumonbuchi, Tsuruga and Kazekoshi.
open/close all folders
Ryuumonbuchi High School
A school in the Nagano region and one of the favorites in winning the qualifier match in the current storyline of Saki. Composed of players from the same year, its members are Touka Ryuumonbuchi, Hajime Kunihiro, Jun Inoue, Tomoki Sawamura, and "mahjong monster" Koromo Amae, all of them are second year students.
The original incarnation of Team Ryuumonbuchi was not considered a strong contender in the Nagano tournament. That is until Touka Ryuumonbuchi decided to make waves in the Nagano region by entering the tournament with her cousin Koromo Amae. With a handpicked team of exceptional players. Touka and her team defeated the original members of the school's mahjong club and went on to take last year's qualifiers by storm in their first appearance, easily defeating all those who stood in their way including 6-year Nagano representative Kazekoshi Girls' Academy. Unfortunately, Team Ryuumonbuchi would have an early exit in the National tournament semifinal round when Megan Davin of Rinkai forced another school to go bust during their match, thus resulting in Team Ryuumonbuchi's elimination.
Team Ryuumonbuchi ultimately placed second at the current story's Nagano tournament.
Tropes shared by the team
- Avengers Assemble: How team Ryuumonbuchi was formed. Touka scouted exceptional people in order to create her own dream team with the sole purpose of letting Koromo meet and befriend other strong players by going to the Nationals.
- Big Fancy House: Or in their case, big fancy clubroom. Touka and Koromo also live in an actual big fancy house.
- Defeating the Undefeatable: They manage to put a stop to Kazekoshi's six-year dominance of the Nagano prefecture.
- Family of Choice: What their relationship eventually turned into. While Touka and Koromo are actual cousins and the rest were just people employed by Touka to be Koromo's "friends," all of them have become a close-knit group. Hajime even designates roles for them in a familial structure: Touka and Jun being the parents, Tomoki and Hajime being the elder siblings, and Koromo, despite being days older than all of them, being the youngest child.
- Meido: Aside from being Touka's hand-picked players, Jun, Hajime, and Tomoki are also employed as maids in the Ryuumonbuchi household. Saki Biyori has shown them wearing maid uniforms.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: A Large Ham Ojou employing a former RTS gamer, a girl who looks like a guy, and the daughter of a stage magician to be the companions of said Ojou's cousin who is a monster at the mahjong table.
- The Worf Effect: Despite having a mahjong monster in their team, Hajime's words during the joint training camp seem to imply that Team Ryuumonbuchi never made it far in the national tournament last year in order to give Kiyosumi an idea of the competition they would likely face in the nationals. However, It was revealed that Team Ryuumonbuchi put up a very strong showing in that tournament, and the reason for their elimination was that a player from Rinkai Girls' High School forced a weaker school to go bust, taking Team Ryuumonbuchi with it when the match ended.
Touka Ryuumonbuchi
Club leader of Team Ryuumonbuchi and scion of the namesake owners of her alma mater (specifically, the daughter of the current principal, and in turn great-granddaughter of the founder). Haughty and craving for attention, she nevertheless shows concern for her teammates in her own way, and is reputed to have went to great lengths to assemble an all-star team.
Her playing style is similar to Team Kiyosumi's Nodoka, whom she treats as her rival, but in an unnecessarily flashy way. When she gets serious, she enters "Cold" state, where she suddenly becomes an emotionless board-clearer.
- Analogy Backfire: Tells Jun to take her defeat "like a man", prompting her to respond...Jun: "I'm a girl, dammit!"
- An Ice Person: The main motif of "Cold Touka" is ice, hence the name. Water is also involved.
- Attention Whore: As early as her first appearance alone the audience knows Touka's bombastic, flamboyant mannerisms are deliberately aimed to garner attention towards her (and away from Nodoka).
- Battle Aura: "Crazy Lance Wielder", where she is dressed in a black form-fitting suit and wields a spear.
- Blank White Eyes: She is prone to getting these when shocked.
- Club President: Of Team Ryuumonbuchi.
- Cool Big Sis: She took up this role for Koromo at the funeral for the latter's parents. Despite being her cousin and younger than her, she helps Koromo make friends and dotes on her.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Just because Touka is an Attention Whore doesn't mean she doesn't have the proper skills to go toe-to-toe with some of the best in Nagano Prefecture. Then there's Cold Touka.Touka: "Was that a dream?"
Hajime: "If you're talking about your consecutive victories against Koromo, Kiyosumi (Saki), and the professional Mahjong player [Fujita]..."
Tomoki: "That was not a dream." - Determinator: When she tries to do something seriously, she really means it, such as when scouting Tomoki — wanting to personally test her skills, Touka actually played the RTS of which Tomoki was a high-ranking player for six straight days to reach the higher rankings and challenge her.
- Don't Call Me "Sir": She insists that Hajime not call her "-sama" when her father is not present.
- Emotionless Girl: As Cold Touka.
- Expressive Hair: Her Idiot Hair, that is. It can even conduct lightning.
- Foil: To Momo, a Shrinking Violet who only wants to be acknowledged by the person she cares for the most.
- Full-Name Basis: Only she addresses Nodoka by her full name.
- I Just Want to Be Special: This is half her reason for playing mahjong. She doesn't even care when a teammate messes up, because it gives her a chance to go the "Big Damn Heroes" way. Although she lacks the special abilities of a Saki or Koromo, or even Momoko, she's said to be a formidable player, which does suggest she's managed to build herself into a Badass Normal.
- Informed Ability: As a former winner of the prefectural tournament, she seems to lose rather badly during both the team and individual events. Partially had to do with how she never entered Cold state mode during those events.
- Invisible Parents: She occasionally mentions her father, but her father has never been seen.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She's quite arrogant and haughty, but also caring for her friends and her cousin, which leads to quite a few Pet the Dog moments.
- Large Ham: Not a second where she's around passes without her speaking in bombastic tones.
- Loophole Abuse: Attempts this in Saki Biyori. In response to being told that she can only use the club room for club activities while she and her teammates are relaxing in it, she considers changing the name of the club for the day.
- Lovable Alpha Bitch: Haughty and boastful of her own abilities, but nevertheless has a soft spot both for Koromo and the rest of Team Ryuumonbuchi.
- Ojou: A rich and elegant girl complete with Noblewoman's Laugh.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: She denies having beaten Saki, Koromo, and Fujita as "Cold Touka" because her style is supposed to be similar to Nodoka and only through winning using that style can she claim superiority over her.
- Pet the Dog: Her interactions with Koromo, for whose sake she scouted an invincible team for the prefectural and national tournaments so she can make new friends. Earlier on, she also sets aside her one-sided rivalry with Nodoka by having Hagiyoshi fix Etopen.
- Promotion to Parent: Even without Hajime's interpretation of how Ryuumonbuchi is one big family, Touka essentially acts as Koromo's mother.
- Rich Bitch: It depends on who she interacts with. She's more hostile and standoffish with her rivals, while among her friends, she's more good-natured, if fairly quick-tempered and arrogant.
- Skewed Priorities: To Touka, one-upping Nodoka holds a higher priority than actually winning the Vice Captain match. This backfires on her spectacularly as she repeatedly plays into Momo's hands. She failed to realize that winning the match would've been the same as one-upping Nodoka, as Kiyosumi was in first place that time.
- Super Mode: Cold Touka can easily destroy any player on the table, including mahjong monsters like Koromo and Saki. Unfortunately, it seems to act on its own, without her knowledge, and she doesn't even like using it.
- Third-Person Person: When she is being particularly dramatic.
- Tsundere: A straight Type-A to everyone, haughty and competitive. Hajime is the only one who can summon her deredere.
- Unknown Rival: Nodoka is entirely oblivious to Touka's obsession with defeating her, to the point that she actually forgets her name during the training camp at the end of Season 1.
- Verbal Tic: Fitting her ojou nature, Touka finishes game-oriented declarations with "desu wa". In Saki Biyori, while writing a birthday song for Koromo, she even puts "desu wa" at the end of each verse.
Hajime Kunihiro
"I feel like we'd move apart if I let go of these chains, Touka..."
Back in grade-school, Hajime cheated using sleight-of-hand, a skill she learned from her stage magician father, which ultimately destroyed several friendships she had, causing her to bind her hands with manacles as atonement in order to make it harder for her to cheat. Nevertheless, Touka still sees some potential in her, and recruited her both as teammate and personal maid, and Hajime in turn grew affectionate of Touka.
- The Atoner: For cheating in a mahjong game years ago, she has Touka chain her hands to limit her range and thus make it harder for her to cheat.
- Character Tics: Holds both of her hands behind her head when she's in a good mood.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Towards Touka whenever Ayumu is around.
- Fashionable Asymmetry: Zettai Ryouiki on one leg only.
- Happiness in Slavery: Her relationship with Touka falls somewhere between this and Subordinate Excuse.
- Lamarck Was Right: She gained her abilities of sleight-of-hand from her father, who was a stage magician.
- Moment of Weakness: The reason she wears her handcuffs is that she was tempted to cheat in a desperate moment.
- Ms. Fanservice: Her street clothing almost leaves nothing to the imagination, and plainly shows she's not wearing anything beneath.
- Power Limiter: Her handcuffs serve as this by reducing her ability to use sleight-of-hand and thus make it harder for her to cheat in the event that she'd be tempted to do so.
- Reformed, but Rejected: She implies she felt this is her punishment for cheating years ago, as she is still having visions of her old friends walking away from her.
- Stripperiffic: The clothes she has as street wear are not very modest, making it questionable if they are actually appropriate for going out. You decide
◊. - Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Lampshaded in Saki Biyori; when Hajime worries about being seen in casual clothing at school.Jun: (thinking) "Compared to walking around with handcuffs, plain clothes should be nothing."
Koromo Amae
Koromo is Touka's cousin and the ace of Team Ryuumonbuchi. Despite her childlike stature, she is the oldest member of the team, as well as one of the most feared players in Japan, having brought an end to Team Kazekoshi's six-year domination of the Nagano tournament last year.
Amae lost both parents at a younger age, and despite being taken in by Touka, she mainly kept to herself. Touka tried to use mahjong to help her make friends, but because of her playing style — preventing opponents from reaching tenpai and scoring via Haitei Raoyue — she winds up being feared by many people, including her own teammates. As a result she only sees mahjong as a mere game for her to crush her opponent.
- The Ace: She's Ryuumonbuchi's strongest player, and is one of the "monster-class" mahjong players.
- Accidental Misnaming: Tends to call Nodoka "Nonoka".
- Badass Adorable: So cute she can barely swat a fly, huh? Well, just ask Team Kazekoshi.
- Battle Aura: Koromo has arms of destruction.
- Bird Run: Does this at times, such as when entering the boarding house for the training camp.
- Bond Villain Stupidity: She passes up several opportunities to win instantly just so she can toy with her opponents. It backfires terribly, prolonging the game long enough for Saki to make a comeback.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: She actually wears bunny ears (or rather, a hair bow that looks like bunny ears) everywhere. It is part of what surprises other players when they see her monstrous play skill.
- The Bus Came Back: She reappears with Touka in Tokyo while Team Kiyosumi is in the Nationals, and and also gave crucial advice to Yuuki at the training camp.
- Berserk Button: The mere mention of the word "family" seems to set her off, as she grew enough anger to cause a blackout upon hearing it.
- Broken Ace: Koromo is amazing at what she does, she was named the previous year's MVP for breaking the record for the most points scored at the national tourney, and she beat every single player she was matched against in said national tourney, defeating two schools in the preliminary round and then all three schools in the quarterfinals. However, her teammates are afraid of her and she has many personal problems to sort through.
- Conveniently an Orphan: Lost her parents at an early age, and has since refused to consider her cousin Touka (or anybody else from Team Ryuumonbuchi) her second family.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Subjected Kazekoshi's Kana through this twice, the first time being Ryuumonbuchi's runaway win during last year's Nagano qualifiers and the second being this year's qualifiers, which she managed to reduce Kana's score to 0 note
- Cute Little Fangs: Occasionally shows these when angry. This bunny has teeth!
- Disc-One Final Boss: The first anime season ends with Saki defeating her in the Nagano finals (and qualifying for the Nationals) but it's still a long road ahead for Team Kiyosumi.
- The Dreaded: After helping snap Kazekoshi's six-year streak, everybody in the prefecture (including her teammates) began to fear her.
- Defeating the Undefeatable: Koromo is considered a nigh-invincible player who wrecked Kazekoshi Girls' High during last year's qualifiers and ended their six-year dominance over the Nagano region. Defeating her was the reason Saki gains a reputation among the other players in the Nationals.
- Finishing Move: A haitei raoyue (going out on the last drawn tile). Also counts as her Signature Move.
- Friendly Rivalry : With Fujita. They tease each other's skills in most of their encounters, though Fujita does care for Koromo and knows her quite well, wanting her to make friends.
- Friendship Moment: With Saki at the end of the Nagano finals.
- Hypocritical Humor: She's had difficulty making friends for much of her life, to the point at which she doesn't initially recognize Touka and her teammates from Ryuumonbuchi as such. When Saki says that she decided not to join Nodoka in watching the semifinals (because she's aware that Teru and Team Shiraitodai were on play), Koromo responds as following:"Saki, you're bad at socializing as usual."
- Insistent Terminology"It's not Kodomo, it's Koromo"!
- Little Miss Badass: She's the oldest member of the Ryuumonbuchi team (if only by a few days), and a second-year in high school, but appearance wise, she fits.
- Loners Are Freaks: Embodied strongly even though it's not her fault. She is actively trying to make friends.
- Lunacy: Her luck and aggressiveness go up when a full moon is out.
- Meaningful Name: "Koromo" sounds similar to "kodomo" ("child"), highlighting her childish appearance and (sometimes) personality. Her surname also means "Dependent on others' kindness".
- Moon Rabbit: Her overall motif, as evidenced by her hair ribbon arranged to resemble bunny ears, her white clothing scheme, and the fact that her ability increases under a full moon.
- My Significance Sense Is Tingling: Koromo's lesser-known power is detecting whether her opponents are in tenpai and the approximate value of their hand.
- Older Than They Look: She is in fact the oldest member of Team Ryuumonbuchi (a few days older than Touka, who is a few days older than Jun, whose birthday is right before Hajime's), but like Team Kiyosumi's Yuuki, she certainly doesn't look or act the part.Yuuki: "No matter how you look at it, isn't she just a kid?"
Hisa: "Amae is sixteen, one year older than you." - One-Woman Army: Her power in Mahjong is so great that in the final match, Saki, Yumi and Ikeda have to work together just to survive.
- Person of Mass Destruction: Many of the characters demonstrate this; mahjong is serious after all. But Koromo overshadows them all.
- Pintsized Powerhouse: The smallest Mahjong player around, and is ranked amongst the very best.
- Put on a Bus: Temporarily disappears come the individuals and supposedly has no bearing on the story...
- Single Tear: Sheds one at the end of the Nagano finals, as she watched helplessly while Saki deals a game-winning hand that would siphon off whatever gains she had.
- Spell My Name with a "The": In the subtitles, she says "the Koromo", which can be a sign of either her pride or childishness.
- They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!: Gets slightly annoyed when Saki uses "-chan" on her.
- Third-Person Person: Refers to herself as such, befitting her childish personality.
- What Is This Feeling?: Koromo has never shown hesitation whenever she plays because nobody was good enough to make her second guess her moves. During the latter stages of the captains match, however, she begins to doubt herself and actually tries to think her way out of a predicament she had fallen in (namely, Saki's trap in which discarding one tile will lead to Saki scoring points off her). Fujita even notes that it was the first time she has seen Koromo second-guess herself.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: She's an extremely dangerous player who brutalized a six-time prefectural champion last year... but also a sad, reclusive little girl who refuses to even consider her cousin and their teammates as her second family.
Jun Inoue
A fairly masculine girl, who nevertheless tends to get annoyed when people mistake her as a boy. Her style revolves around sensing the flow of the game and calling tiles that disrupt her opponents' hands and ruin their chances of winning.
- Berserk Button: Being mistaken for a boy, which isn't being helped by her rather butch appearance."I'm a girl, dammit!"
- Bifauxnen: She looks almost exactly like the stereotype of a male teenage delinquent.
- Combat Clairvoyance: Her ability to read (and control) the "flow" of the game.
- Embarrassing Nickname: Otou-sannote and Papa
- The Gadfly: Loves to tease Koromo's childlike stature, to which others respond by calling her out on her masculine appearance, though in a friendly way.
- Meido: Not in-series, but it's shown in Otona no Maki that, like Hajime, she works as a maid at Touka's house.
- Promotion to Parent: According to Hajime, Jun falls into Ryuumonbuchi's family structure as the father, much to her embarrassment.
- Terrible Artist: In Saki Biyori, she draws a portrait of Tomoki for a class. Partly as a result of Jun's lack of skill, and partly as a result of Tomoki removing her glasses and putting on Hajime's ribbon, Tomoki is mistaken for Hajime.
Tomoki Sawamura
Tomoki is one of Touka's first recruits into Team Ryuumonbuchi to become both Koromo's friend and a member of Touka's dream team. She used to be a hardcore RTS player prior to her enrollment into Ryuumonbuchi, and Touka herself went through unique lengths to get her to even consider her offer. She's very serious except when she's being snarky.
- Creepy Monotone: Tomoki always speaks in a low and even register, even when she's snarking at Touka's foul-ups.
- Gamer Chick: As revealed in the picture drama about how Touka recruited her.
- Godiva Hair: In the bath scene, once she lets it down.
- Meido: Revealed in Saki Biyori — Otona no Maki to moonlight as maid at Touka's family mansion outside the mahjong table. She's also briefly seen in a maid outfit after the prefecturals.
- Nerds Are Sexy: It's not apparent with the way she regularly dresses, but as Miharu discovered while in the bath, Tomoki has one hell of a figure; among the Nagano finalists, her breasts are just behind Nodoka's.
- Scary Shiny Glasses: She gets these at times, such as when challenging Kaori to a rematch.
- The Stoic: With moments of being a Deadpan Snarker.
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Despite appearing aloof and disinterested, she can often show a more affectionate side, especially when Koromo is concerned.
- Super-Strength: In Saki Biyori, due to Jun and Hajime asking her to pick up Koromo, buy snacks, and bring the TV, she ends up carrying all three at once.
Ayumu Sugino
Year: 2nd
Voiced by: Yoriko Nagata
Voiced by: Yoriko Nagata
Touka's other maid and is never seen in series outside of her Maid garb (except during the Pool Episode). She has a strong crush on Touka and feels jealousy towards Hajime.
- All There in the Manual: Her surname is revealed in the PSP game.
- Canon Immigrant: Ayumu is an anime-original character, but she (or a maid who has the same hairstyle) appears in a flashback in Round 49 of the manga.
- Demoted to Extra: Initially making a handful of appearances as a comic-relief character amongst Team Ryuumonbuchi, Ayumu's appearances and lines in both the anime and manga have now dwindled down to almost nothing. (Then again, she was an extra to begin with — literally, due to being the alternate player in case Koromo didn't show up — so...)
- Expy: Ayumu shares a name and a haircut with Ayumu Nishizawa from Hayate the Combat Butler.
- Meido: Just like Jun and Tomoki, though it's implied that she's more or less full-time.
- Put on a Bus: Hasn't been seen at the Training Camp or the Nationals.
Tsuruga Academy
Hailing from one of the wealthiest schools in Nagano Prefecture, with access to state-of-the-art technology, Tsuruga's mahjong team exploits their logistical advantage by having their members train using online mahjong on laptops. Despite this, they are considered a low-tier school in Nagano. It was only in the current Nagano qualifiers that they make a quiet but impressive run to the finals alongside fellow upstarts Kiyosumi High school.
Its current incarnation consists of third years Yumi Kajiki and Satomi Kanbara, second years Mutsuki Tsuyama and Kaori Senou, and freshman Momoko Toyouko.
Team Tsuruga ended at third place at the Nagano finals.
Tropes shared by the team
- Hufflepuff House: The second upstart team from Nagano who made a quiet but impressive run to the Nagano qualifiers final round. However, since the other upstart team is Kiyosumi which is the protagonist team, Tsuruga was bound to fail.
- Privileged Rival: Averted. Despite being a rich school with access to state-of-the-art technology, Tsuruga's mahjong club is implied to be just a small club within the school, hence their small roster. In fact, the team itself is formed in the last minute, evidenced by Yumi's plan of training Kaori after they win the Nagano qualifiers, stating that there was not enough time to fully train her before the tournament began.
- Weak, but Skilled: They do not have a massive talent in mahjong unlike Kazekoshi, Kiyosumi, and Ryuumonbuchi. However, they were able to get to the Nagano qualifier finals through teamwork.
Yumi Kajiki
"I still have a long way to go, but I want to feel the tiles on this level. Whatever the situation may be, I want to continue playing on this level."
Originally a bottom-feeder in Team Tsuruga, Yumi worked her way to join the frontliners by reading a mahjong book after losing to Kanbara back in their first year. Both her hard-earned mahjong and leadership skills (which make many mistake her for club president instead of laidback Kanbara) helped lead Tsuruga to its very first prefecturals appearance. She is also responsible for bringing her close friend Momoko into the club.
While she doesn't have a special ability, Yumi can recognize players' abilities, against which she will take up defensive measures, as evidenced by her match in the prefectural finals. She was able to perfectly target Saki despite going against the "logical" style of playing and she was able to hold her own against Koromo.
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Several people assume she is the team captain because she has the best skills on the team. She's not.
- Awesome by Analysis: Yumi's penchant for researching the skills of her possible opponents was glossed upon in the first series, but the actual results of all that research is showcased beautifully in Achiga-hen, where the foreknowledge she got allowed her to play around the abilities of the Matsumi sisters.
- Badass Normal: One of the poster-girls of this for the franchise, having fought Saki and Koromo on an even footing despite not having an ability of her own. Shown again in Achiga-hen, when she is pitted against the Matsumi sisters in a friendly practice match."Sorry to disappoint, but I don't have a weird ability like Onjouji."
- Genre Savvy: She relies on strategy and research about her opponents' likely hands to plan her game accordingly.
- Graceful Loser: After losing to Team Kiyosumi in the Nagano finals (and thus barred from the Nationals), she provides them with extensive research about the styles of their likely opponents, all of which she spent months collecting. This gesture even impresses Hisa.
- Hypercompetent Sidekick: Her skill, recruitment tactics, and no-nonsense maturity make her the logical boss, right? Instead, she's the complement to laidback Satomi. Kaori lampshades this when noticing that Yumi, rather than Satomi, chose Mutsuki as the next Club President.
- I Let You Win: Gave Saki a 2000 point win in one round of the Captain's match in order to prevent Koromo from winning another big hand via Haitei Raoyue.
- Last-Name Basis: Tends to address most of her teammates besides Momo by their last names, which is part of the reason why Momo becomes jealous when she calls Hisa by her first name.
- Last-Second Word Swap: When discussing with Momoko why she chose to go to the training camp."I have to admit... I want to be together with Mo... I mean, with everyone. Not just for inter-high."
- Luminescent Blush: Sometimes gets these when Momo is concerned.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: The incident where she called out to Momo by saying "I want you!" is famous in her school.
- Running Gag: People mistaking her for Tsuruga's Club President. Interestingly enough, Hisa doesn't do the same in Saki Biyori when Yumi comes to represent Tsuruga at the meeting of the club presidents regarding the training camp.Hisa: "You came instead after all, Kajiki-san."
- So Proud of You: Says this to Momoko after pointing out that during the National finals' vice-captains' match, she had the largest net point gain, which was an impressive feat considering her competition.
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality: ...serious and no-nonsense at first glance, but often shows a softer side, especially around Momoko.
- Two-Person Pool Party: In episode 25, Yumi is shown sitting by herself in a hot springs bath, blushing furiously and barely able to talk. Moments later, Momo becomes visible next to her, to the surprise of Saki and Nodoka.
Momoko Touyoko
"I only need one person to be watching me."
Momoko is a freshman whose poor sense of social presence made her constantly ignored throughout her childhood, until an online mahjong match catches Yumi's attention, and she "appears" when Yumi calls her out during a class break to acknowledge her skills. Both girls became very close friends, so much so she gets jealous of others Yumi shows interest in, as well as becoming very anxious of what will happen after Yumi graduates. Her speech includes an accent which often adds the ending "su" and "s" any to her sentences.
Her lack of presence actually translated into the mahjong power of invisibility — the stronger her opponents, the more she becomes invisible, at which point her discards disappear and her voice will not be heard by anyone, allowing her to throw out risky tiles with abandon, causing much disorientation.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Her reactions whenever Hisa becomes too friendly with her beloved Yumi for comfort are priceless.
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Her skin is significantly paler than most other characters, although this most often is shown in the anime.
- The Faceless: Up until Season 1 Episode 14, every scene containing her is shot in such a way that her face is obscured.
- Friendless Background: Until Yumi noticed her after an online game.
- The Glomp: Gives one to Yumi after she praises her on account of her good scoring ability.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation"She [Touka] must be an outrageous self-interested showboat. And she [Nodoka] has body parts that have more personality than herself. Then there is the antithesis of such people."
- Invisibility: Instead of unable-to-be-seen, she's more unable-to-be-noticed. Even more impressive when you notice her chest is rather impressive. Even her character select box in the PSP is borderline invisible.
- In-Series Nickname: She is mostly referred to as "Momo" instead of "Momoko."
- It's Personal: In the individuals tournament, she wants to get back at Saki for defeating Yumi.
- Logical Weakness: As Momo relies on her lack of presence to pull off her plays, people who are used to playing mahjong online can still "see" her moves. This is why Momo is so surprised that Nodoka is unaffected by her ability, as Nodoka needs not see the actual person making the moves in mahjong, just the tiles themselves.
- The Nicknamer: In her internal monologues, she tends to refer to her opponents by nicknames, such as "Boobs-san" for Nodoka and "Rinshan Kaihou-san" for Saki.
- Oh, Crap!: After realizing that Nodoka has seen her discard, she panics because her trump card is useless against her.
- Personality Powers: An invisible girl who actually uses her lack of presence to conceal her draws and discards from her opponents enabling her to pull off risky gambits. Her lack of presence is such that she becomes both unseen and unheard in the table until she has already won.
- Pluralses: Momoko's verbal tic is subtitled with "es".
- Power Incontinence: She has little control over her invisibility and it takes a while to start up in a game. Even Yumi has trouble keeping track of her.
- Power Perversion Potential: In the final episode of season 1, it is heavily implied that an invisible Momo was doing something lewd to Yumi while Yumi sat naked in the hot springs.
- Red Baron: "Stealth Momo".
- Shrinking Violet: So shy and quiet that she develops invisibility because of it.
- Stealth Hi/Bye: She makes her presence known when outside of mahjong by talking to them after seemingly coming out of nowhere.
- Tears of Joy: After Yumi calls out to her, being the first person to actively seek her out.
- Verbal Tic: Momo tends to finish her sentences with "~su".
Mutsuki Tsuyama
Year: 2nd
Position: Vanguard
Voiced by: Shin Nanasawa
Portrayed by: Mari Yamachi
Position: Vanguard
Voiced by: Shin Nanasawa
Portrayed by: Mari Yamachi
Mutsuki is fairly serious but sometimes lacks confidence, and is handpicked by Momo as the next Club President of Team Tsuruga once she and her fellow third-years graduate.
- Butt-Monkey: Mutsuki always seems to take the brunt of Satomi's ideas or humor, much to her disillusionment.
- Club President: She's picked to take on this role.
- Hidden Depths: As the joint training camp in the manga reveals, Mutsuki is apparently an avid collector of Mahjong player cards. This makes her fast friends with Kazekoshi's Seika, and gives both excuses to visit their respective schools to exchange rare or otherwise uncommon cards.
- Only Sane Man: She lacks the quirks that the other members of the Tsuruga mahjong club (even Yumi) have.
Kaori Senoo
Satomi's friend, who joined Team Tsuruga so they could enter the five-girl tournament. Otherwise Kaori barely knows anything about mahjong before she's thrust into a major tournament.
She plays with an unbelievable amount of beginner’s luck, and she had the most amount of yakuman scored by the players in the series. Because of this, she is forbidden from practicing and playing mahjong before the tournament.
- Beginner's Luck: Yumi even forbids her from playing mahjong between the team competition and the individuals to keep her luck.
- Childhood Friends: With Satomi, a large part of the reason why she was recruited to the club despite her relative inexperience.
- Confusion Fu: Invoked by Satomi because she knows how veterans think. Kaori is extremely effective against players who rely on patterns and established strategies to calculate their opponent's next move, because they can't really predict what she's going to do next. She is their Logical Weakness.
- Failed a Spot Check: Normally, this trope wouldn't be anything unusual as far as Momoko is concerned, but Kaori only met Momo around the time the tournament started, despite her being in the club room at the same time, and once being in Satomi's van with her (in the latter case, Kaori even heard Momo's voice at a few points).
- Hard Work Hardly Works: A variation of this trope is in effect, as Yumi's reasons for not letting her practice before the individual tournament is that she cannot possibly improve enough in that time to compensate for the loss of her Beginner's Luck. Unfortunately for her, she doesn't make it far in the individuals.
- Mundane Utility: In Saki Biyori, she uses her incredible luck to win a mahjong table for the club, albeit while collecting the bottles needed to enter the contest from her schoolmates at Tsuruga.
- Spanner in the Works: Gloriously threw a monkey wrench against Mako's pattern-based play (and to a lesser extent affects Touka and Tomoki's plays as well).
- Strategy, Schmategy: Being a complete beginner, her discards are impossible to read, since she has no idea what's she doing.
Satomi Kanbara
"Wa-ha-ha!"
Club president of Team Tsuruga and Kaori's good friend, known for her unusual laugh. Naturally laidback, she is always seen with a wide smile, causing many to dismiss her as an idiot with an empty-headed grin — often at thier own risk. In reality, she doesn't let anything get to her and has a lot of trust in her team members. Her personality is also reflected in her driving style (she's 18, thus she's eligible), which is a bit on the reckless side. She is one of the few who can detect Momo, though only when she is upwind of her.
- Authority Equals Asskicking: Subverted; Fujita assumes that the job belongs to Yumi because Yumi is a better player than Satomi.
- Book Dumb: She's not necessarily stupid, but she's implied to not be very good at school; Yumi says that she's confident that she'll pass her exams, but there's a reasonable chance Satomi will fail. Saki Biyori often shows her trying to study, but not very able to stay focused or retain what she's learned.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Despite appearing laid-back and not thinking about things too deeply, she's more competent than she lets on, even if she doesn't do all that well against Hisa and Hajime.
- Childhood Friends: Her long-time friendship with Kaori is why Kaori was tapped at the last minute to fill the team; she was available and a friend asked her to do it..
- Cloudcuckoolander: From her weird laugh to her irresponsible driving style, she definitely fits this archetype.
- Club President: She's officially in this role, at least until she passes the torch to Mutsuki, although people sometimes mistake Yumi for the leader.
- Drives Like Crazy: Achiga-hen shows just how crazy Satomi drives that van of hers. It's also showcased in a picture drama, in which her driving has various reactions on her teammates — Mutsuki is nauseated, Kaori is horrified, Yumi desperately yells for Satomi to slow down, and Momo actually enjoys it because it gives her a chance to glomp Yumi.
- Farm Girl: Granted, Team Tsuruga is from a semi-rural region, but she is definitely from a rural area.
- The Nose Knows: She can tell where other people are, including Momo, by their scent alone. Yumi can, however, often surprise her by approaching from downwind.
- Signature Laugh: "Wa-ha-ha!"
Kazekoshi Girls' School
Kazekoshi is a known as a mahjong powerhouse in Nagano Prefecture, boasting a membership of over 80 girls and being its representative for the Nationals for 6 years. Team Kazekoshi's six-year winning streak in the Nagano tournament was snapped during last year's qualifiers by first year upstart Team Ryuumonbuchi, implied to be as their worst loss in the tournament courtesy of Koromo Amae. Now fielding their best members to date, Team Kazekoshi looks to take revenge on Ryuumonbuchi and reclaim their former place as Nagano's best.
Team Kazekoshi is coached by Takako Kubo, herself a Kazekoshi alumna and its current incarnation consists of third year Mihoko Fukiji, second years Kana Ikeda, Miharu Yoshitome, and Sumiyo Fukabori, and first year Seika Budou
Team Kazekoshi landed at fourth place at the Nagano finals, while Mihoko, champion of the Nagano individuals, qualified for the National individuals.
Tropes shared by the team
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Last year's Nagano qualifiers saw Kazekoshi get steamrolled by then first-year upstart Ryuumonbuchi high.
- Defeating the Undefeatable: Kazekoshi has been the Nagano representative to the Mahjong Inter-High Nationals for six straight years, until they were defeated by newcomer school Ryuumonbuchi last year.
- Klingon Promotion: With a membership of 80 players, Kazekoshi employs a system when one must go up in ranks by defeating those above her in ranking. The best five players are thus made into the school's representative for the tournament.
- Revenge: Basically what they intended to do in the current Nagano qualifiers by beating Ryuumonbuchi.
- The Worf Effect: While Kazekoshi has established itself as Nagano's powerhouse school for 6 years, they lost badly to Ryuumonbuchi the year prior to the storyline and ended up in fourth place during the current story's Nagano qualifiers. This is despite the fact that this year's incarnation is said to be the best team Kazekoshi has fielded in years.
Mihoko Fukuji
Click here for Mihoko with both eyes open
'"Maybe she'll tell me my right eye is pretty once again."
Mihoko is the club captain of Team Kazekoshi as well as its ace in the hole. She has had a past history of rivalry with Hisa Takei, a girl of her age and currently of Team Kiyosumi, back in their middle-school years, though nowadays their rivalry has taken a far friendlier tone. Besides this, she is also known to be incredibly affectionate and caring towards her teammates, never minding her habit of keeping her right eye closed at all times due to her self-consciousness with her heterochromia (it's bright blue, in contrast to her more naturally Asian reddish-brown left eye).
When playing, she only opens her right eye when she gets serious, allowing her to calculate the game's progression and predict her opponents' hands with extreme accuracy, as well as an intimidating aura.
- Awesome by Analysis: How her abilities work: she takes into account how people arrange their tiles as well as discarding habits to determine what they could be holding onto to such a high degree of accuracy that she can guess exactly what tiles you need to complete your hand.
- Badass Boast: After hearing about the other three schools that advanced to the Nagano finals (soon after Kubo berated her and Kana), Mihoko says she's glad Team Ryuumonbuchi made it, since they can now avenge last year's loss."To our coach, to Ryuumonbuchi, let's show them all, that we are still the strongest."
- Beware the Nice Ones: She gives Yuuki a lunch box after Jun eats her taco, and later helps Yuuki win off Jun. Yuuki is horrified when Mihoko starts winning, and realizes that she's not on her side.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Verges on this with her ignorance about technology, particularly in failing to understand how computers are used in making T-shirts (such as thinking that the shirts come out of the computer).
- Club President: Of Team Kazekoshi.
- Establishing Character Moment: She catches Kubo by the wrist before she can slap Kana, then proceeds to tell her that Kana is a strong player and that if she made a mistake, she will take responsibility for her. After Kubo leaves, Mihoko gives Kana a hug as she breaks down crying.
- Even the Girls Want Her: Every other member of the Kazekoshi club seems to have a crush on her, and she has some suggestive moments with Hisa.
- Friendless Background: As popular as she is among her teammates, she implies that back in middle school, she was thought of as "annoying".
- I Am Not Left-Handed: She usually plays with her right eye closed. She only opens it (and thus allows her to use her abilities) whenever she gets serious,
- The Last Dance: Like Hisa, this is her last chance to win the tournament, as she tells Bundou when explaining her reasons for doing the chores.
- Last-Name Basis: Calls most of her teammates besides Kana by their last names and "-san", and interestingly enough, tends to call Hisa by her old last name, "Ueno-san", until when it's recently indicated that she's started calling her "Hisa".
- Let's Get Dangerous!: She is a truly formidable player when she opens her right eye.
- Mama Bear: Nobody hurts her beloved teammates, not even Kubo, and still not sense her (righteous) anger.
- Mark of the Supernatural: A red left eye and a blue right eye; opening the latter unlocks her true ability and is a sign that she is serious.
- A Mother to Her Underclassmen: She's the oldest member of Team Kazekoshi, as well as the kindest, most motherly and most caring of the lot.
- Nice Girl: Her teammates are concerned that she is too selfless, including towards her opponents.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: She recalls that Hisa surprised her so much in their match three years ago that she forgot to keep her right eye closed out of surprise. She also opens her eyes after Kazekoshi's defeat, and when she thinks Kubo is about to hit Kana again for losing.
- Team Mom: Such as when she insists on doing laundry for them, encourages them before a match, comforts them afterward and when she protects the underclassmen from Kubo's wrath.
- Tender Tears: Frequently weeps over even the most trivial of things, such as thinking she inconvenienced her team irregulars when they compiled for her the details of Kiyosumi and Tsuruga's gameplay, as well as forgetting to tell Seika about Hisa's style, causing her to be forced into a disadvantageous position.
- Unknown Rival: She wanted to face off against Hisa one more time, but Hisa doesn't remember her until she opens her eye in their match.
- Walking Techbane: For such a skillful mahjong player, Mihoko is helpless when put against electronics, to the point at which simple tasks like trying to print out records cause the computers to crash, tangle her in their wires, and spark electricity.
- What Beautiful Eyes!: According to Hisa.Hisa: "Did you know? Red rubies and blue sapphires are made from the same element."
Kana Ikeda
"She gives us time to play even at the expense of her own. Despite her loving mahjong as much as she does. And it's all because we're such cowards."
Considered the second-best player of Team Kazekoshi, Kana is Mihoko's best friend and protectorate, with a bit of a Cat Girl theme going on with her. Despite being only the second-best, Mihoko entrusted her the position as Captain so she can personally take revenge on Koromo after last year's loss.
- Blush Sticker: Occasionally wears them, highlighting her innocent nature.
- Cat Girl: Often gives off this image, especially when she gets excited and her hair forms cat ears, complete with Cute Little Fangs and Hyperspace Ears.
- The Chew Toy: Sometimes she just doesn't deserve the psychological (and sometimes physical) trauma she's been receiving.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Kana is clingy and overprotective towards Mihoko and is angry at Hisa for being close to her.
- She does mellow out a bit in Mako Someya's Mahjong Parlor Food, but still declares to Miharu she just can’t stop disliking Hisa and gets pissy seeing her and Mihoko “on food dates”.
- Cool Big Sis: To her three little sisters in Saki Biyori.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Ends up on the receiving end of Koromo's wrath twice: the first being last year's Nagano qualifiers and the second being this year's qualifiers.
- Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: When she gets reduced to 0 points by Koromo in the final round of the team tournament.
- Family Theme Naming: With her sisters: Kana, Shirona, Hina and Nazuna
- First-Name Basis: In a flashback, asks Mihoko to call her by her first name. In the second picture drama, she vocally insists that Miharu do the same with her.
- Hot-Blooded: Puts up a show of bravade before Koromo during the Nagano finals.
- Hope Spot: During the final match of the Nagano qualifiers, she repeatedly plays into Koromo's hands and ends up with 0 points. That is until she manages to score 16,900 points from Saki as well as additional points more, bringing her back into contention. She was also able to build good hands which opened up a possibility of scoring a comeback victory. Her plans are repeatedly thwarted when Saki starts to win with cheap hands. Her hopes are finally dashed when Saki pulls off her own comeback gambit and wins the match.
- Miles Gloriosus: She's by no means a bad player, but she's out of her depth against Koromo, as much as she'd like to think otherwise.
- Plucky Girl: Despite being taken down to 0 points, and having next to no chance to come back, she perseveres.
- Promotion to Parent: Her parents are often away, and she ends up taking care of her younger sisters fairly often, especially in Saki Biyori.
- Unwitting Pawn: She draws Koromo's attention by building good hands that would've scored big if she actually won with them. Too bad for her Saki was using that to lure Koromo into a trap which ultimately led to Kiyosumi's win.
- They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!: She takes mild offense at being called "Ikeda" by Yuuki, and when her sisters copy her by calling Bundou by her last name without honorifics, she insists that they call her "Seika-onee-chan".
- The Worf Effect: She's Kazekoshi's second best player but she only got curbstomped by Koromo twice and would've completely make her team bust if not for Saki's machinations.
Miharu Yoshitome
"Even if one day we become teammates, you will always be a superstar to me, Kana-chan."
Year: 2nd
Position: Sergeant
Voiced by: Chiro Kanzaki
Portrayed by: Aya Yoshizaki
Position: Sergeant
Voiced by: Chiro Kanzaki
Portrayed by: Aya Yoshizaki
Kana's best friend and fellow player in Team Kazekoshi.
- A-Cup Angst: While in the bath during a pre-Nationals training camp hosted by Team Kiyosumi, she finds herself quite inadequate in the bare company of Mako, Tomoki and Kaori.
- Boring, but Practical: The PSP game implies she has an ability to determine which tiles will to subjected to a ron, helping her avoid playing into others' hands. It's possibly why she was able to get through her match during the Nagano finals while losing very few points (1,200), even after Kaori's yakuman.
- Nice Girl: Seen as one of Kana's friendliest companions in Team Kazekoshi.
- Stating the Simple Solution: In Saki Biyori, when the Kazekoshi girls have to do book reports, they go to the library and find all the books have been checked out. When Kana proposes two different methods for faking the report, Miharu cheerfully but decisively says..."Read a book."
Seika Bundou
"We're definitely going next year!"
Seika is a newcomer to Team Kazekoshi, who managed to climb her way into its frontlines in a mere two months. She also collects Pro Mahjong cards.
- Badass Boast: From the manga, during a call from Kubo (see above).
- The Caretaker: Assigned by Kubo (together with Sumiyo) to look after Kana's little sisters while she's away with Mihoko in Tokyo for the Nationals.
- Eyes Always Shut: Most of the time. When they open, however, her skills go up a notch.
- Hidden Depths: Seika is an avid collector of Mahjong player trading cards. When she finds out that Mutsuki does the same, they become fast friends.
- Right Behind Me: She complains about not needing Fujita's card at training camp, only for Fujita to appear behind her, slightly annoyed at what she said, although she clarifies that she already has multiple copies of the card.
- Took a Level in Badass: She was once ranked dead last within Team Kazekoshi, but after Mihoko praises her for doing chores to help her teammates concentrate, she worked her way up to fifth-place, thus earning a spot for their A-Team.
Sumiyo Fukabori
A second-year student who is very quiet and does not talk much outside her match.
- The Big Girl: Perhaps the largest female shown in the series, not counting the absurdly tall Toyone.
- The Caretaker: Assigned by Kubo (together with Seika) to look after Kana's little sisters while Kana is away at the Nationals.
- The Voiceless: She rarely speaks at all, and even then only during matches.
Takako Kubo
"IKEDA!"
Voiced by: Miho Yamada
Portrayed by: Hinako Sano
Portrayed by: Hinako Sano
The notoriously stern coach of Team Kazekoshi.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: She's quite harsh with the players, using physical discipline for even minor mistakes. How much of this is her typical approach to teaching and how much is this just her still being shellshocked over Team Kazekoshi's loss to Ryuumonbuchi last year is unclear.
- Flanderization: Inverted — in Saki Biyori, she comes off as more of a Stern Teacher than a Drill Sergeant Nasty.
- Kick the Dog: In Season 1 Episode 7, she slaps Mihoko for what she calls subpar performance, and is just barely prevented from slapping Kana as well. Particularly egregious considering that the team still won by an overwhelming margin.
- Pet the Dog: After Team Kazekoshi loses in the Nagano finals, just as she's set up and expected to beat the living hell out of Kana... she just wears a smile of resignation and tells her to go kick ass next time.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: In spite of her hard coaching, she keeps up with Team Kazekoshi, and got a hell of a kick out of Seika's Badass Boast over the phone. She even apologized to Seika and Sumiya for having to assign them to look after the little sisters of Kana, who is currently with Mihoko in Tokyo for the Nationals.
- Say My Name: See her quote, after the team's defeat at the end of the Nagano finals.
- Slow Clap: After Mihoko's victory in the first round.
- Tsundere: Implied to be one in Saki Biyori, as seen in this text message to the team."Kubo here. I know it's on short notice, but there will be no club activities today. Get yourself a nice relaxing day off. ^_^"
