Achiga-hen is fifteen episodes, apparently
Also; I just read through the main Saki manga. ...A lot of the things that people are complaining about in Achiga-hen are also evident in it. Since the end of the prefecturals, the only Kiyosumi characters to get any real focus are Hisa and Yuuki, and even that wasn't terribly much. Also pacing problems; to a large extent it has the opposite problem (how many chapters between the prefecturals and the nationals?), but the fights that didn't involve Saki or Nodoka were also over pretty fast, Mako's insultingly so
The 3 additional episodes are unplanned extras, as even Studio Gokumi was surprised that they were greenlit. No word on how they'll be aired, but it's either online as OA Ds, or bundled with each subsequent manga chapter (remember, each chapter is released montly).
I'm fine with Senriyama hijacking the match. Hell, I want them to hijack the whole show. From the first episode, preferably.
So, when will we ever get Saki vs Teru? If nothing else, this round has whetted my appetite for the unstoppable force versus the immovable object. It really is a shame that we're getting like four straight episodes of Kuro getting flattened just to show that off, though.
edited 25th Jun '12 2:36:10 AM by Savoie
The Saki manga is still at the Kiyosumi match against Eisui, which means that they're still one match behind the Achiga girls. Given the release schedule, I expect that we'll see Teru and Saki face each other in the Individuals in, oh, 2020. :P
Also there's technically one seat left at the Finals table as far as narrative conventions go. It's likely that it would go to Rinkai (as long as Eisui kicks the bucket, I'll be happy), since it's the only major school left mentioned from the first season that hasn't made an appearance on the table yet.
edited 25th Jun '12 2:40:52 AM by MyssaRei
It's ending, but pacing in Saki is weird enough that we could have anywhere from one to three chapters left in the match
We don't really know much about the other schools. But's it's unlikely that the semifinals will be blitzed though, as having a short match between too long ones would be weird, and another school from the semifinals will be moving on as well
Oh, something weird: Team structure is inconsistent between Saki and Achiga-hen. The monsters all being the first is a major plot point in Side A, but they hang out at the end in the main series. And none of the teams are set up so the counterparts can meet
Indeed, but something from the manga didn't quite get to the adaptation: the mention that the trend of putting the ace as a Vanguard (with the likely intent of building a lead and running away with it) is apparently a very recent thing. The closest example given to how things used to be was actually Himematsu's positioning, where their ace Hiroe is positioned as the Lieutenant or midfield player. I think it make sense, as it's a perfect place where an Ace can either step in when their teammates are faltering, or build up on an already existing lead.
You know I just came to the rather worrying realisation. The current team configuration is means that Yuki's going to have to go against Teru. I don't think there are enough taco's in the world to make up for that.
Though it does set up some interesting drama potential with having Teru set up a monster lead at the beginning and then Kiyosumi struggling to claw back that monster lead. It gives Hisa, Mako and Nodoka a chance to shine while still leaving Saki in a position to gain the actual win as the protagonist, ramping the drama up for when she and Teru can face each other directly in the finals of the individual tournament.
edited 25th Jun '12 10:22:48 PM by KnightofLsama
That was pretty much a given, seeing how the epilogue of S1 actually SHOWS Yuuki getting hit by Teru's devil mirror. Tacos is a dead woman walking, at least as far as many manga readers are concerned.
And it's not really possible for Saki and Teru to meet at the table, given their different positions in the team (and it's not possible to change positions, since tournament rules seem to specify that the positions a team registers with stays for the duration of the competition). This means that either Saki will have to confront her sister outside of the game room (which she's actually avoiding), or get her point across during the Individuals.
edited 25th Jun '12 6:22:06 PM by MyssaRei
Yeah, the girl who only dominates in the east first wind versus the girl who crushes everyone else after that. Kuro will probably continue to be useless, so how much damage Teru does will likely be determined by the fourth school
Also: Sae from Miyamori would be the perfect counter to Teru; while she can't use her ability to stop people from putting together winning hands constantly, just keeping Teru from going on a streak would be enough to greatly minimize the damage. Except that even if Miyamori makes it to the finals, Sae is in the fourth round
I don't think many schools plan their team positioning on the chance that they might run into the National champion during the semis. In hindsight, that makes Shindouji's decision really weird, especially after the explanation in the manga about groupings (traditional vs. non-traditional), unless they were considering other schools (like Eisui) as well.
edited 25th Jun '12 7:01:07 PM by MyssaRei
That's the thing: the decision for groupings has to be done at the sign-up, after which it's impossible to change for the rest of the competition season. This means that Shindouji's decision carried a huge risk, as there's no real way to predict that they'd even qualify for the Nationals, much less be at the same table with a team whose vanguard happens to be a monster, where Kirame's ability could really be useful.
That's an extreme level of foresight there.
In the case of Miyamori, it's reasonably likely that they just didn't know the details of how Teru's abilities work when they signed up. And even if they did, Sae is apparently a fairly mediocre player aside from her ability, so putting her in a slot where she's not likely to have to deal with an entire table of monsters would be the best bet for actually reaching the finals
edited 25th Jun '12 9:59:02 PM by Hylarn
Non-related to mahjong directly, but I noticed how Achiga-hen sounds suspiciously similar to acchi ga hen... Which (if I'm remember right) means (without going into complex kanji combinations) "the story there", which is fitting for a sidestory.
It can ALSO mean "it's weird over there", but that's a different matter entirely. ^^;
Someone at Asuki noted the discrepancy of how, if Teru was perfectly capable of destroying any of Shiraitodai's competitors in the Vanguard phase, then why on earth was that one qualifier shown in S2 advance to Awai. The observation that came as a response to it made sense though: if Teru can be likened to the gatesman of a castle, and if she keeps on defeating any invaders, there's no way for the rest of the defenders (the other Shiraitodai players) in the fort to gain actual experience.
The latter is important, as both Teru and Sumire are going to retire after the summer season (they are seniors after all), so if they're going to leave behind a legacy for their school, those left behind HAVE to get as much experience as possible (to supplement their likely formidable skill) to be able to eventually defend the school's title.
Personally, I liked the explanation that Sumire was threatening to lock Teru out of their shared room better, so Teru had to cave in to the demands of the "princess". :P
edited 25th Jun '12 10:33:06 PM by MyssaRei
On another note, people are theorizing this character [1]
◊ shown in the preview to episode 12 to be Mrs. Atago, the mother of Kinue and Hiroe from Himematsu. The thing is, the image seems to be paired with a middle-school flashback of Toki and Ryuuka.
Ack, forgot about that. Let me see if I can upload it to my journal instead.
Better
◊?
While I'm seeing the resemblance (Hiroe's face + Kinue's hair), I think she looks more like Hiroko myself.
edited 26th Jun '12 7:58:19 PM by MyssaRei
I can't help but wonder about what move Kuro will pull.
There has been some foreshadowing that Teru's hands need to follow some kind of score pattern. Kuro could make her furiten if Teru has gone riichi and she discards a tile that would let Teru win, but leads to a hand with a 'wrong' value. Playing into a iipatsu with a dora could easily do that, if Teru's hand are not only always growing, but also not growing too quickly. This still would not prevent Teru from just drawing a tsumo ....
Another thing that's been bugging me is the explanation for Kuro's power. Her mother said she should value her dora more. Not much later, her mother died. So probably to honor her, Kuro started keeping her dora, no matter what. And they kind of started sticking to her. But how did she play before that ?
On the one hand, if Kuro had another distinctive style before, that one might even be stronger, or at least more suited to fighting Teru. On the other hand, she does not really need that. She looks pretty close to the despair event horizon right now. If crossing it makes her go far enough off her game to throw off Teru's insight, Teru would be back in a situation like the very first turn, where Toki easily scored a hand. And any hand won by someone else would end that slaughter ...
By the way, but am I alone with thinking that Kuro's ability is one of the most absolute we've been shown so far ? Teru beats Toki's without effort, Koromo beats most by denying them tenpai, Saki's kans beat everything so far ... but nobody, not even Teru has drawn a single dora when Kuro was on the table. This even seems to extend to kan dora, which is pretty scary in my opinion. Sure she can be beaten, fairly easily even, but I wonder if anyone can draw any dora when playing her. Since she is beatable even if she is absolutely the only one to draw any, I don't see much reason for her not to be.
In any case, what I'd really like to see is Shiraitodai falling to third or fourth place in the semifinals. Given the character development so far, I'd prefer Achiga and Senriyama in the finals. Not only would Toki get more time onscreen; I think Teru not making it to the finals would throw some very nice ripples.

Had Achiga-hen been given twice the amount of episodes, it might not seem that Senriyama had highjacked the spotlight. I mean, 4 episodes in a 25-episode series isn't a big thing, but in a 12-episode anime it's huge.
Of course then the problem would be that the staff would have to pad things a bit, as the manga followed the same brisk pace...
Also the manga actually makes it clear that the semis still use the same format as the prefectural team preliminaries. It's just since things are breezed through very quickly, especially in the anime.
By the way, a friend gave a counterpoint to the dislike that Kuro's been getting the past few episodes; it's easy to forget, but Kuro pretty much spent two years cleaning the room of a defunct club in the vain hope that she would be able to play with her friends there again. That kind of dedication has to be admired, especially when one remembers that one member moved out (Nodoka) and one actually went to a different school (Ako).
P.S. Really need someone more familiar with the game to help update both the Achiga and main Saki pages. I added the characters of the Achiga side to the character sheet too, but barring descriptions they need character trope entries too.
P.P.S. I'll add updated pictures from Achiga-hen to Sukoya and her stalker, I mean, co-commentator when I get some rest.
edited 25th Jun '12 2:19:37 AM by MyssaRei