Saki is originally a manga based around the game of
Mahjong. An anime has been adapted from the manga by the animation studio,
GONZO. The anime has been licensed by crunchyroll and can be viewed free on
their site
(depending on region).
The
titular protagonist, Saki is in her first year of highschool. One day, while sitting down by the river, she notices a very beautiful girl the same age as her pass by, a girl she's fated to meet later. After lunch, her friend Kyoutarou drags her along to play with the Mahjong club despite Saki insisting that she hates the game. At the Mahjong club, she formally meets the beautiful girl and finds out her name is Nodoka and she was the middle school Mahjong champion last year. They play a few rounds and Nodoka wins.
Hisa, the student council president wakes up from her nap just in time to see the last round of Mahjong. She notices that Saki wasn't playing to win in her last round and was just playing for a draw. She also notices that in all of the rounds Saki has scored a +/-0 score every time and to get that, a Mahjong player would need unreal skill and luck.
The next day Hisa bribes Saki by offering to lend her a series of books if she'll play some rounds with the Mahjong club. They test out her skills for another game, then, in the very next game, they also get her to play to win (by telling her to see a handicap). Saki ends up winning and even though at first she mistakenly assumed the handicap was going to count and that she lost, she discovers her love for the game. She reveals she never really enjoyed playing Mahjong with her family, as they were often sore losers and winners (the reason she always played to a +/-0 score). So Saki ends up joining the club to get to the
Serious Business of playing Mahjong hoping to soon win a major tournament.
Has nothing to do with author H.H. Munro, who wrote under the
Pen Name "Saki".
Note: This series also has a
character page for character specific tropes.
This series contains examples of:
- Absurdly Powerful Mahjong Club: When viewed from a distance, the building of the Mahjong club looks really out of place. It's a Medieval European-style house on the rooftop of a typical modern Japanese school building. The actual student congress is normal, occupying a room that's just enough to hold meetings.
- All Star Cast: Many of the seiyuu in this series are known for very famous roles.
- Authority Equals Asskicking: The president of the mahjong club is usually also in the top tier of players, if not at the top of it.
- Though it really does make a lot of sense, the president of the club would have to be among the most experienced and devoted members in order to hold the position).
- Battle Aura: The series loves showing representations of the characters' mahjong prowess.
- Batman Gambit and Crossing The Streams: All over the place. This. Is. Mahjong. After all.
- Beach Episode: The ending for the second half of the series, which gets all the schools involved this time. Also episode 20, where Kiyosumi and Ryuumonbuchi meet up at an indoor pool, which Hisa had seriously intended to use for mahjong training.
- Beyond The Impossible: Literally, as far as probability theories go. Somewhere a mathematician is crying. It's a plot point even, because the revised rules for this year's tournament favor the players with the freakiest luck [sic].
- Bird Run
- Bland Name Product: The "DFLL" computer in the commentators' booth, and the book titled "Rord of the Rings".
- Cast Herd: Easily divided by schools. Not (yet) enough to make a Loads And Loads Of Characters, though. Not yet. The first season has 4 teams including Kiyosumi, while the second season will introduce at least 3 more teams.
- Censor Steam
- Chekhovs Gun: Saki's Rinshan Kaihou was figured out and canceled by Yumi; later on Saki uses that fact to prevent the game from ended with victory for Ryuumonbuchi.
- Also,Yuuki explains in episode 18 that, according to tournament rules, whoever deals into a kan pays the hand's full amount if it leads to a rinshan kaihou. Saki uses the rule to make Koromo pay for her avalanche of kan and win.
- AndKana getting a kazoe (counted) yakuman in episode 18. The same type of yakuman Saki uses to win the team tournament an episode later.
- Cherry Blossoms: Put to good use during Saki and Nodoka's first encounter.
- Conspicuous CG: Isolated to over-the-top animation that involves Mahjong tiles, which are made of plastic/ivory anyway.
- Crowning Moment Of Funny: After the 4th tournament round "You really didn't stand out much".
- Crowning Music Of Awesome: WAI WAAAAI
- Defeat Means Friendship: Nary a harsh feeling from the lambasted. Represented best by Yumi, who provided battle data of the national monsters for the Kiyosumi. She collected the data herself.
- Enemy Mine: In one of the matches of the individual tournament, everyone gangs up on Saki.
- Fanservice With A Smile: The mahjong maid cafe, a nice reason to see Saki and Nodoka dress up. And play more mahjong.
- Flash Back
- Freudian Excuse: The unnamed king in Yuuki's omake story, who waged war with the Power of Corn and left none for making new tacos because his parents divorced when he was young over how bad tacos tasted.
- Funny Background Event: Kyoutarou and Yuuki horsing around in episode five.
- Furo Scene
- Five Man Band: The are five members in every mahjong team.
- Girls Love: Nothing explicitly stated, but a lot implied.
- Hey Its That Voice & Names To Know In Anime: See the character sheet for details.
- Hot Springs Episode: The episode is also a milder variation of Training From Hell.
- I Sense A Disturbance In The Force
- Intertwined Fingers: Saki and Nodoka in the opening, as well as the occasionally-used second ending — and also in-series, like when they are watching fireflies together.
- Joshikousei: But of course.
- Les Yay: Very much present in the series. The anime emphasizes it more (between Saki and Nodoka).
- There's Les Yay with Hisa and Mako too.
- Also Ryuumonbuchi's Love Dodecahedron of Hajime/Touka/Ayumu/Jun.
- Touka forces Hajime to wear chains on her arms. Hajime wears them even at home because they make her feel closer to Touka. Kinky. This revelation and the "I'm your personal maid" remark that follows give Touka a powerful Luminescent Blush.
- Ikeda and Mihoko are also often very affectionate toward each other. Heck, it seems everyone in Kazekoshi has a crush on Mihoko.
- One episode implied quite a bit of yay (one-sided) from Mihoko to Hisa, something of a In Love With Your Mahjong.
- During their match together, Touka shows a Psycho Lesbian level infatuation with Nodoka.
- Momoko has quite the crush on Yumi, which seems to be mutual.
- It's pretty much safe to say that this series is permeated with this trope.
- Lightning-spouting Eye of Doom
- Love Bubbles: Saki and Nodoka have a fair amount of these scenes.
- Luminescent Blush: All over the place. Particularly used with the series' Les Yay moments (and there's a fair amount of those).
- Male Gaze: More of it in the anime.
- Memetic Mutation: You're gonna get tanoshii'ed.
- My Mahjong is Stronger Than Yours: Why of course.
- Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions: What Nodoka tells Hisa. It didn't reach her. Because the superstitions actually work.
- Overtook The Manga: The last match of the regionals ended in the manga two days before it ended in anime.
- Panty Shot: Subverted; The girls look like they're not even wearing underwear.
- Pink Bishoujo Ghetto: Most episodes you'll wonder if any man played mahjong.
- Pinky Swear: Saki and Nodoka ("No holding back?")
- Power Of Love And Trust
- Power Trio: Saki, Nodoka, and Yuuki. The other schools have their own Power Trio.
- Puni Plush : Everything except for the boards.
- Relationship Voice Actor: Head to the trope itself for details.
- Retraux: As sepia is used for flashbacks.
- Romantic Two Girl Friendship: Nodoka and Saki. Whether it might be more is up to debate.
- Yumi and Momo show this level of affection in episode fourteen.
- And judging from episode seventeen, Mihoko and Kana as well.
- Serious Business: Mahjong obviously, although often the importance of having fun is stressed as well.
- Sequel Hook: The scenes during the ending credits showcase new characters from other schools competing in the nationals and there's also the inevitable showdown with Teru.
- Sinister Silhouettes: Subverted, Teru appears clearly in the first opening and during Saki's Flash Back. Played straight for most other top-tier players.
- Shower Scene
- Shout Out: In the anime, many to Akagi (much of the 'camera work' and motions during a game are straight Akagi, and the Conspicuous CG happens to look identical), and in the second episode Hisa borrows a certain someone's catchphrase.
- Sleep Cute: Nodoka and Saki in episodes eight, ten and nineteen.
- Super Deformed: Used during the exposition bits and in the ending credits.
- Tournament Arc: The Nationals.
- The Worf Effect: Kazekoshi Girls' School, with a Mahjong club membership of at least 78 people and a reputation as THE school to go to for girls who play Mahjong, was the reigning champion for years until the Koromo started attending High School. Once they reach the final rounds of the regional tournament and get ready for some revenge, every single member of their team besides the captain gets completely dominated.
- Visual Pun: The third ending sequence has an octopus (tako) holding a taco.
- What Do You Mean Its Not Awesome: Mahjong with special effects and camera angles; we're not just talking dramatic music and lighting, this goes Beyond The Impossible and then turns it Up To Eleven in ways you would not imagine. Winged creatures, transformation and lightning are only the beginning.
- X Meets Y: Akagi Meets Hitohira. Saki can be seen as an Captain Ersatz of Mugi, for one.
