Saki is a manga based around the game of
Mahjong, with an anime adaptation by
GONZO. The anime has been licensed by crunchyroll and can be viewed for free on
their site
(though only in certain regions).
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 had 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: There is also a
character sheet 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 one of the most skilled members.
- Battle Aura
- Batman Gambit and Crossing The Streams: All over the place.
- Beach Episode: Episode 20, where the Kiyosumi and Ryuumonbuchi teams meet up at an indoor pool. The ending sequence for the second half of the series also shows all the teams at the beach.
- Beyond The Impossible: Somewhere, a statistician is crying. It's actually a plot point, because the rules for this year's tournament specifically favor players with outrageous luck.
- Bird Run
- Bland Name Product: The "DFLL" computer in the commentators' booth, and the book titled "Rord of the Rings".
- Cast Herd: The majority of the cast is made up of the various schools' mahjong teams.
- Censor Steam
- Cherry Blossoms: Put to good use during Saki and Nodoka's first encounter.
- Conspicuous CG: The mahjong tiles.
- 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. Needless to say, it doesn't work.
- It does work. Momoko broke from the conspiracy to try to beat up on Saki personally to avenge her sempai's loss in the team finals, which stops the rest from working together. Unfortunately, only Tomoki ends up playing into her riichis.
- Fanservice With A Smile: Mako's family's mahjong maid cafe; a nice reason to see Saki and Nodoka dress up. And play more mahjong.
- In the manga, it's actually a mahjong parlor. They changed it for the anime.
- 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
- 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 training camp before the regional tournament, and the final episode.
- I Sense A Disturbance In The Force
- Intertwined Fingers: Saki and Nodoka in the opening and in the occasionally-used second ending. Also used in-series, like when they are watching fireflies together.
- Joshikousei: But of course.
- Les Yay: Lots of it, particularly in the anime.
- Lightning-spouting Eye of Doom
- Loads And Loads Of Characters
- Love Bubbles: Saki and Nodoka have a fair amount of these scenes.
- Luminescent Blush: All over the place. Particularly used with the series' (numerous) Les Yay moments.
- Male Gaze: The anime keeps staring at their sweaty thighs. D:
- Memetic Mutation: You're gonna get tanoshii'ed.
- Moe
- My Mahjong is Stronger Than Yours: Why of course.
- 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.
- And based on the first episode, Nodoka isn't wearing any bra either.
- Pink Bishoujo Ghetto: Most episodes will leave you wondering if men ever played mahjong.
- The male and female tournaments are separated. Given that this anime's main character is a girl, it makes sense they'd focus on the girl's tournament.
- Pinky Swear: Saki and Nodoka ("No holding back?")
- Power Of Love And Trust
- Puni Plush: Everything except for the boards.
- Relationship Voice Actor: Head to the trope itself for details.
- Retraux: Flashbacks are often done in sepia.
- Romantic Two Girl Friendship: Nodoka and Saki, Yumi and Momo, and Mihoko and Kana. Whether it might be more is up for debate.
- Serious Business: Mahjong, obviously. However, the importance of having fun when playing is stressed as well.
- Sequel Hook: The scenes during the ending credits showcase new characters from other schools competing in the nationals, and hint at the inevitable showdown with Teru.
- Sinister Silhouettes: Subverted, Teru appears clearly in the first opening and during Saki's flashback. 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: Prefectural tournament in season one. Presumably, the Nationals will be covered in season two.
- The Worf Effect: Kazekoshi Girls' School has a Mahjong club membership of at least 78 people and a reputation as THE school to go to for girls who play Mahjong. They were the reigning champions 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.
- Part of the problem is that Kazekoshi plays very standard and conventional mahjong and are flustered when they meet players with unconventional playing styles. Note that in the two rounds where Kazekoshi faced conventional players (round 2 and round 4), they played reasonably well.
- Vapor Wear: Shots of Nodoka's wet uniform scene from the first episode made the fans theorize that Nodoka and maybe the other girls did not wear any lingerie.
- 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 a Captain Ersatz of Mugi, for one.
