The list of characters unaffiliated with any of the principal high-school teams from the manga and anime series Saki.
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Color Commentators
Yasuko Fujita
Portrayed by: Natsuna
A professional player and old friend of Hisa. Before the Nagano prefecturals she plays against Saki and Nodoka, in the process schooling them into taking their practice seriously. Fujita is also the color commentator for the regional tournament.
- All There in the Manual: Minor details on Yasuko are not revealed in-series, and are instead only noted on in the franchise's collectible cards.
- Big Eater: With bowl after bowl of katsudon.
- Brutal Honesty: Her assessment of Saki and Nodoka's chances."Oh? You girls are also entering the preliminaries? Too bad. I think you girls understand, but there is absolutely no way you girls can win."
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Fujita has a habit of having full dishes of katsudon while playing Mahjong or doing other professional works.
- Combat Commentator
- Cuteness Proximity: Koromo has this effect on her.
- Dirty Old Woman: Acknowledged as such, considering that her interactions with Koromo are a little... suspicious.
- Informed Ability: The fact that Yasuko plays Captain only when her team is in danger of losing, which is revealed only in the collectible cards. This leads to her moniker, as noted below.
- Red Baron: "The Reversal Queen"
- Slasher Smile: During her game with Saki and Nodoka before the regional qualifiers, she sports a truly psychotic look.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Katsudon.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: The first person to completely floor Saki and Nodoka. She tells them that as they are, they won't be able to succeed, though at least she has the courtesy to compliment their progress as players.
- The Worf Effect: She cites her loss to Koromo as proof that Saki and Nodoka, who lost to her, can't hope to win the prefecturals. She, Saki and Koromo, three of the best players in Nagano, lose to "Cold Touka", when virtually everyone else except Hisa was scared to join the game against them.
Kouko Fukuyo
A play-by-play commentator for Inter-High Radio. She was a fan of Sukoya back in high school, so she's obviously thrilled to be able to work with her as a co-commentator for the Nationals.
- Combat Commentator: Shares this role with Sukoya for the Nationals.
- Double Entendre: Kouko just loves doing this as shown in Achiga-hen, much to Sukoya's embarrassment.
- Genki Girl: She's perpetually energetic and excitable, especially around Sukoya, who finds her antics embarrassing.
- Hero-Worshipper: Kouko is a huge one for Sukoya, if it wasn't already obvious. Lampshaded by Sukoya in Saki Biyori, where she worries about Kouko's glowing praise of her always making its way into her match commentary.
- Large-Ham Announcer: She's the loudest among the commentators for the Nationals. A panel in Saki Biyori even has Sukoya hold a meeting with her in order to "calculate her excitement."
- Running Gag: Mistaking Sukoya as being older than she actually is, and her time as Inter High champion being 20 years before the current storyline instead of 10.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Otona no Maki reveals that it's apple juice, to the point where all the drinks in her fridge are either pure apple juice, or mixes where apple juice is the major component.
- Woman Child: Showcased in Biyori and Otona no Maki. Mostly in Sukoya's presence.
Sukoya Kokaji
A color commentator for Inter-High Radio, professional player, and herself the former national champion of the 61st Inter-High.
- All There in the Manual: Like Fujita and Mihirogi, details on Sukoya's track record is only found in the Saki Pro trading cards.
- Beware the Nice Ones: A pretty unassuming but Nice Girl who's also a Shrinking Violet, so one wouldn't think she's even capable of playing mahjong. She's also the same girl who is a nigh-invincible force at the mahjong table with one known case of traumatizing a player into not playing for years.
- Combat Commentator: Shares this role together with her fangirl Kouko for the Nationals.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Delivered one to Harue in the past in the mahjong Inter-High semi-finals. The match was so one-sided that Harue was unable to play mahjong for years, and even after she got her game back, the memory of Sukoya haunted her even in the pro league.
- Old Maid: She's well over the age where it's acceptable for a woman to be single, and her mother tells Kouko as much when the latter drops in to pick her up.
- Retired Badass: Downplayed. While still an active professional player, she doesn't seem to be playing that many matches anymore, and in the manga Kouko even comments that the last tournament she joined was pretty much an act of charity. Her accomplishments, as revealed on her profile
◊ in the Saki Pro trading cards show that she's above and beyond all the named characters when it comes to mahjong. To wit: she's a former national champion, once placed as high as 2nd in the world rankings (currently at 973rd, but only because she's been off-radar as of late), remained undefeated throughout her run, and the youngest player to hold eight championships — a record that stands to this day. - Red Baron: "Grandmaster", according the Saki Pro trading cards.
- Shrinking Violet: Shy, easily flustered and tends to be taken aback by some of Kouko's wilder antics.
- The Un-Smile: All of Kouko's attempts to get Sukoya to smile usually end up with... mixed results, to say the least.
- Womanchild: Despite being 27, she's single, lives with her mother, and displays childish tendencies.
Hayari Mizuhara
A professional player and color commentator for the Nationals, she's also an idol and well-known television personality. It is she that foreshadows that Team Usuzan is a school to reckoned with.
As Shinohayu reveals, she was one of the four players on the table during the fateful match between Sukoya and Harue, representing Shimane Prefecture, and also becomes the third viewpoint character, this time focusing on how she was inspired to become what she has become in the present.
- All There in the Manual: As with all the other pros, many details on Hayari are only found in the cards that were included as bonuses to the Achiga-hen blu-rays.
- Character Development: Her POV chapters in Shinohayu reveal that she was almost a completely different person when she was a young child, being actually annoyed with a "cool" image until she realized that the girl who comforted her in the hospital was the same person as the idol singer who saved her from a thug. From then she aspired to be as cool as Mafuka.
- Chekhov's Gunman: It turns out she's the one who was trying to recruit Harue, via Kumakura, for her professional team.
- Idol Player: Hayarin is a well known TV personality outside of the Mahjong arena (as far back as her grade-school days, in fact, according to Shinohayu). Ironically, this makes her a target for Team Usuzan, as they want to make Maya an even bigger idol than she is.
- In-Series Nickname: "Hayarin~", which is used more than her actual name.
- Legacy Character: To honor the memory of Mafuka, Hayari took it up to herself to carry on her desire to make people happy through music and mahjong.
- Oh, Crap!: In Shinohayu, there are two cases. The first is when she wakes up to find her grandmother choking. The second is upon seeing the "No Visitors" sign on Mafuka's hospital room door, she gets Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises, while thinking, "I've got a bad feeling about this..."
- Older Than She Looks: She's the oldest introduced female pro so far at 28... and yet, as Shinohayu shows, still looks like she was from the Nationals ten years ago (except she has larger boobs now) and even further back when she was eleven.
- Red Baron: "The Whirlwind"
- Smarter Than You Look:
Ritz confirms in a blog post that, among the three Shinohayu protagonists introduced, Hayari is actually the smartest (rather than Kanna), and notes that, had she not chosen to become an idol, she would have gone on to become a well-known medical researcher instead. - Third-Person Person: Likely to complete the more youthful image she seems to be projecting.
- Verbal Tic: Sometimes exclaims "Haya!" Shinohayu implies that she was influenced to do so by Mafuyu Kasugai's "Mafufu" Verbal Tic.
- Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises: In a few moments when she's surprised in Shinohayu, such as when she sees that Mafuka isn't able to have visitors.
Yoshiko Kainou
Hailing from Oojouin Girls' High School in Ehime Prefecture, Yoshiko is a professional player called by Ikuno to help Team Himematsu prepare for the National semifinals, as well as cousin to Team Eisui's Haru. For the purpose of the practice matches, she emulates Saki's signature playstyle.
Yoshiko appears slightly earlier in the anime, where she becomes a color commentator for the National quarterfinals between Kiyosumi, Eisui, Himematsu and Miyamori.
- All There in the Manual: Like Fujita, Mihirogi, and Kokaji, much of the information on Kainou were only revealed in the Saki Pro cards released with each blu-ray of Achiga-hen.
- Exotic Eye Designs: The reflections on her eyes are triangular points rather than the rounded ones everyone else have.
- Gratuitous English: Greets Team Himematsu in English and later says "No way!" when asked about some of the things they heard about her. Especially exaggerated in her appearance in the anime, to the annoyance of her co-commentator.
- Informed Ability: Apparently noted for her spectral playstyle. What this actually means is anyone's guess; some members of the Himematsu team suggest that she summoned spirits and used King Solomon's powers to get a Yakuman, but she denies those rumors.
- And then several chapters later, a quip from Hayari points that Himematsu's on to something. When Sawaya starts channeling the powers of elder Ainu deities, Yoshiko could actually see them. Then Hayari quips that she doesn't like whatever it is that Yoshiko summons either, which Yoshiko rebuts with that it's not really her who calls it, but the king she summoned. Oi.
- One-Steve Limit: Shares a given name with Yoshiko Yasukouchi of Shindouji
- Proper Tights with a Skirt
- Red Baron: The Spook.
- The Stoic: The most irritated she gets is showing Cross-Popping Veins while denying the exaggerated urban legends about her, without even raising her voice.
Risa Noyori
Professional player and commentator for the National semifinals Side-B. She seems to have a lot of trouble expressing her thoughts, leaving her comments on the match short and otherwise very easy to misinterpret.
An alumna of Team Shindouji, Shinohayu reveals that, much like Hayari, she was the fourth girl on the table during that fateful match between Harue and Sukoya.
- Angry Cheek Puff: Risa is a Tsundere that is so perpetually angry that her default face seems to be a puff-cheeked pout.
- Perpetual Frowner: Well not exactly a frown, but Risa's default face seems to be a puff-cheeked pout, even as a high-schooler.
- Terse Talker: Tends to give brief responses, often of one or two words at most.
- Tsundere: Commented on by Mihirogi.Uta: "She looks angry, but from what I could gather, she's just excited. I don't really know, though."
Misaki Murayoshi
An announcer who comments on matches alongside Risa.
- Deadpan Snarker: Occasionally falls into this when Noyori's answers prove too short and too vague, prompting Eri to note that Misaki is being too harsh on Noyori."I wasn't asking for a polite or unoffensive answer like that, but a particular point to focus on."
Uta Mihirogi
A color commentator for Inter-High Radio, professional player from Yokohama, and current Vanguard for the All-Japan Team in global tournaments. Known for giving quick insights on a player's play style, before quickly taking back what she said and claiming that she's really got no idea what's happening.
She, like Hayari, has also been playing since childhood, representing Kanagawa Prefecture, and has already beaten the latter during a Nationals tournament.
- All There in the Manual: Like Fujita, many details on Uta are only made known through the Saki Pro collectible card series, like the professional team she plays in (the Yokohama Lodestars) and other personal information.
- Born Lucky: Her apparent power is her immense luck, which she claims helped her beat Hayari back in a grade-school Nationals tournament.
- Catchphrase"I don't know!"
- Combat Commentator: For the radio show covering the tournaments.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: She certainly doesn't look like it, but Uta is actually the Vanguard for the All-Japan Team, and apparently has a reputation of playing with overwhelming power (as Hayari can attest).
- Informed Ability: Her supposedly game-breaking "Golden Hands", again only mentioned in the collectible cards.
- Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Gives this impression through her habit of taking back any Info Dump she lets out. It's seemingly subverted, though, as at certain points, Uta does, in fact, become decisive with her commentary, and in Saki Biyori, actually gives some insights while discussing players with Eri, who points out "So you really do know what's going on."
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Sometimes, at critical points during the matches, she will completely drop the "I don't know" catchphrase, such as when she says that Shizuno is not necessarily out of the game, shortly before Shizuno manages to secure second place in the last hand of the quarter-finals.
- Pintsized Powerhouse: Standing at a mere 145cm and weighing 37kg, Uta is very petite. She's also apparently a powerhouse with a game-breaking ability. It's not always apparent due to her often being shown seated, but one panel in Chapter 106, while sitting in a chair, her feet don't seem to reach the ground.
- Red Baron: "Cat Chamber". Seems to be a reference to Schrödinger's Cat, due to her propensity to both know and not know what's happening during a match she's commenting on.
Eri Hariu
A play-by-play commentator for Inter-High Radio. She alternates with Fukuyo Kouko.
- Combat Commentator: Like Kouko, Sukoya and Uta.
- Cross-Popping Veins: Gets them once when Uta says that she doesn't know.
- Gilligan Cut: In Saki Biyori...Eri: "(Uta's) someone who never changes... No... I'm sure she'll prove through for me during the match..."
(Cut to the match)
Narration: "She didn't."
Uta: "I really don't know." - Straight Woman: To Uta, even when its not their turn doing commentary (as shown in the main series). Seems to be common among commentator combinations.
Takatobara Junior High School
Takatobara is Nodoka and Yuuki's last school before Kiyosumi, and is the defending champion of the National Inter-Middle High tournament. Without Nodoka, now playing for Kiyosumi, Team Takatobara relies on eighth-grader Maho to advance further.Maho Yumeno
Voiced by: Kotori Koiwai
An old underclassman of Nodoka, Yuuki and Kirame, as well as a player for Team Takatobara. Together with Hiroko (not the Funakubo), she is first seen cheering for Nodoka during the Nagano finals. As a player, her special ability is to mimic others' abilities in one turn. But because she is just a beginner, she also commits a lot of mistakes. Nevertheless, Koromo comments that, given proper training, Maho could one day become a "mahjong monster".
- Chekhov's Gunman: Introduced as a seemingly random and very minor comic relief Satellite Character of Nodoka's. Later revealed to be a player herself with the potential to join the likes of Koromo and Saki.
- The Ditz: Tends to make at least one major mistake per day, such as picking up the wrong tile.
- Hard Work Hardly Works: In more of an individual case, she still has many bad habits in spite of playing for over a year and, according to Hiroko, practicing quite hard.
- Lethal Chef: Unfortunately, proves to be this in her attempts to make a taco that she, like Yuuki, can use as a Power-Up Food.
- Mega Manning: Maho's ability. Works on any skill, but only one per round per day for each ability. Hilarity Ensues in Saki Biyori when she tries to imitate other people's abilities, such as hiding behind a blanket to replicate Momo's Invisibility.
- The Password Is Always "Swordfish": Apparently has her own username as a password, as revealed in Saki Biyori.
- Saying Too Much
- Third-Person Person: Uses these a lot, reflecting her preteen personality.
- Those Two Girls: With Hiroko Murohashi.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: She seems to want to impress Nodoka, and takes it quite hard when Nodoka reprimands her.
Hiroko Murohashi
- One Head Taller: To Maho; when the vice president sends Hisa a close-up of Maho, Hiroko's head is cut off.
- One-Steve Limit: Shares her name with Funakubo, although only the latter's aunt and cousins seem to call her by her first name.
- Stating the Simple SolutionHiroko: "You should learn all the basics, Maho..."
Maho: That sounds like a difficult ability..." - Those Two Girls: With Maho Yumeno.
Other Players at the National Individuals
Kei Arakawa
Voiced by: Marie Miyake
Kei is the second-strongest individuals player after Team Shiraitodai's Teru, and hails from Sangamaki High School, which placed second in the South Osaka tournament (losing its Nationals slot to Himematsu). She was brought in to play against Achiga in a practice match, and like Ryuumonbuchi earlier, schools them into taking the tournament seriously.
She later appears again in Tokyo, this time with a few other individual players, to help further train Team Achiga for the National semifinals against Team Shiraitodai. She is the one who foreshadows just how terrifying Teru's skill really is, by describing the elder Miyanaga as "not human".
- All There in the Manual: Her ability, which was only revealed in the Achiga-hen PSP game. She gets an exponential chance to get good-scoring hands if she doesn't win for a few turns. In hindsight this synchronizes very well with Teru's snowballing win streak ability.
- Cosplay Otaku Girl: Certainly gives the impression, especially when the Achiga girls meet her again in Tokyo, dressed up as a nurse. Doubly so when all the other players she brought with her — some of whom are competing in the individuals — also happened to be dressed... uniquely, to say the least.
- One-Steve Limit: It's not very well known, but Nodoka's father (interestingly enough, someone who doesn't even like mahjong) is also called Kei.
Rise Fujiwara
- "I don't want Komaki Jindai to lose to anyone but myself."
One of Kei's friends in the individual tournament, who played against Team Eisui's Komaki once in the past.
- Kimono Is Traditional: Her outfit while practicing with Team Achiga.
- The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Expresses this sentiment regarding Komaki.
- Worthy Opponent: Considers Komaki to be this.
Miscellaneous Characters
Kazue Nanpo
A lone wolf from Hirataki High School in Nagano Prefecture, who enters only in the individual tournament.
- Family Honor: One of her main motivations.
- Foil: To Hisa — both are talented players who ended up in schools with less-than-stellar teams. While Hisa forgoes going to the individuals for her first two years, wanting to go to the nationals with her team, Kazue sees the individuals as a place she can shine without being held back by "weak" teammates.
- It's All About Me: Her justification for not entering the team tournament. She rather coldly says how she'd rather not have players who aren't as good as she is drag her and her family name down. Needless to say, it's but a matter of time until Saki forces her to eat her words.
- Meaningful Name: She excels at the South Wind round, and the "nan" in her surname is the kanji for "south". In addition, her given name sounds like "kaze", meaning "wind".
- Pride Before a Fall: Nanpo is introduced as, while being reserved, rather self-important and arrogant. Saki makes sure she learns the importance of teamwork — the hard way.
- Raised by Grandparents: Strongly implied that Kazue was raised by her grandfather, from whom she learned her mahjong tactics.
- "Well Done, Granddaughter" Gal: She gives off this impression to an extent, given her Family Honor related motivation.
Hagiyoshi
Portrayed by: Yuki Tamaki
Touka's personal butler, always on hand to do what she or her friends request perfectly (despite himself saying otherwise). His comings and goings while doing said requests can only be described as teleportation, and is constantly a surprise for Team Ryuumonbuchi.
- Battle Butler: While no actual combat takes place, it's indicated that he's fairly good at mahjong.
- Flash Step: Appears and disappears suddenly, which even surprises some of Ryuumonbuchi's team.
- Jack of All Stats: Seriously, is there anything this guy can't do? His skill at practically everything is lampshaded when Kyoutaro mentions how he encountered him and got him to teach him how to make tacos.
Junko Nishida
A reporter from Weekly Mahjong Today who often writes about Nodoka.
- "Be Quiet!" Nudge: Gives one to her cameraman when he says people are interested in Nodoka because of her large breasts, and says that it's because she's beautiful.
- Big "NO!": Gives one in the last chapter of Achiga-hen, after trying to find Nodoka only to learn that she already left.
- The Ditz: Apparently has a bad habit of forgetting to turn her tape recorder on.
- Wham Line: Chapter 128 ends with Junko over the phone, having finished collecting her research on Achiga and Kiyosumi... and the last lines heard from her was that she has found a clue to Saki's past.
Hatsuse Okahashi
Voiced by: Minami Tsuda
Ako's friend and middle-school classmate, who unlike Ako enrolls in Bansei in the hopes of joining their prestigious team. She is surprised that Ako would go to Achiga on what seemed to be a whim, let alone dare to make waves at the Nationals with an untested team. Naturally, when Team Achiga goes on to defeat Bansei, she's stunned.
Despite this she throws her support behind her friend's team, and can be seen later watching Achiga's matches at Kuro's home later on, along with all the kids from the old Children's mahjong club.
- Can't Catch Up: She and Ako were about the same level when they went to high school, and reasons that as she can't even get a spot on Team Bansei's bench, Ako and Team Achiga has no chance of defeating them. Thus Team Achiga's surprise victory at the first round of the Nara tournament alone can be seen as an indication that Ako has already surpassed Hatsuse.
- Dramatic Drop: After Bansei is eliminated, she drops her megaphone.
- Graceful Loser: In spite of Team Bansei's shocking loss at this year's Nara tourney, this doesn't affect Hatsuse much, and was eventually seen leading the home viewers of Team Achiga's efforts.
Nazuna, Shirona and Hina Ikeda
Kana's younger sisters and triplets.
- Always Identical Triplets: They're apparently identical triplets, and they look almost exactly alike.
- Ascended Extra: Despite only appearing in a side chapter, they appear fairly regularly in Saki Biyori, and have entire chapters dedicated to the time they spend with Kana.
- Cheerful Child: They're perhaps the youngest characters in the series, as pre-schoolers, and are good-natured and cheerful.
Hikari
A girl who appears in a montage of images in Chapter 102, and in a flashback in Chapter 104. It is strongly implied that she is somehow related to the Miyanaga family, and that whatever happened to her — which may have included hospitalization and/or death — caused Saki and Teru to break apart.
- Hidden Eyes: Her eyes are often hidden in the flashbacks, somewhat similar to Teru.
- Last Episode, New Character: She appears in a flashback in the last episode of the Zenkoku-hen anime.
- The Pollyanna: In spite of believing that she will never swim again, enjoys watching the fish do it for her, and hopes to own an aquarium one day.
- Walking Spoiler: Shaping up to be one.
Kei Haramura
- Voiced by: Joji Nakata
Nodoka Haramura's father. He works as an attorney and reluctantly tolerates his daughter's interest in mahjong because he believes it is only a game based on luck.
- Education Mama: Gender inverted. He disapproves of Nodoka choosing to forgo going to a prep school in Tokyo to stay at Kiyosumi, and has contempt for mahjong and the town she lives in.
- Fantasy-Forbidding Father: He doesn't think much of Mahjong, saying that it's purely a game of luck, that training camps are a waste of time and that the friends Nodoka makes through it won't be of any use in a "hick town" like where she lives. He seems to tolerate her playing mahjong to the extent that it doesn't interfere with anything more important, and reluctantly decides to "consider" letting her stay where she is if she wins the Nationals, though.
Kaho Haramura
Nodoka Haramura's mother.
- Open-Minded Parent: In contrast to her husband, she's fairly laid-back and supportive of Nodoka.
- What the Hell, Hero?: She gives a restrained one to her husband, and doesn't think Nodoka should have to essentially make a bet with him to stay at her current school.
Ai Miyanaga
Mother of Saki and Teru. Although she still has to make an actual appearance, it was mentioned that she currently resides with Teru in Tokyo. It's later revealed that she's a former professional mahjong player named Ai Actander/Actandar, and her mother was a foreigner, making her daughters have mixed ancestry- Chekhov's Gunman: Seems being set up as one.
- Retired Badass: Was a former world-level professional player.
- Spell My Name With An S: Her maiden name is either spelled "Actander" or "Actandar." Lampshaded in-universe as one of the Miyanaga family's acquaintances that Junko interviewed noted the difference between both spellings.
