A case of failure

Here is a sample of failure found on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAqX7V3wXbE

The principle of winning Japanese mahjong is really simple:

make four sets and a pair WITHOUT CHII OR PON

if you are not familiar with Japanese mahjong.

In this case, you will need 1p or 4p, 8p or 6s

and declare 'riichi.'

C'mmonnn! What the hell are you doing?

Just discard 1s or east!

The player has made a fatal error: chow without strategy.

Few chances remain including three mixed chow(sansyoku) of 123,

final draw or final discard

Like the TV episode, Saki wins four concealed triplets,

suuankou...yakuman.

48000 directly hits (datsui mahjong rule) the player.

Trailers for each episode of Anime Saki TV series (introduction)

When Saki was on the air on every midnight Sunday, viewers expected next episode by each trailer shown at the end of the program.
I think less than half of the trailers are fully understood, cited from various mahjong manga and novel.
More explanation will be added later.

http://www19.atwiki.jp/saki-anime/pages/60.html

Ep02: 麻雀放浪記　Mahjong Hourouki by 阿佐田哲也 Asada Tetsuya


Ep03: はっぽうやぶれ　Happouyabure by かわぐちかいじ Kawaguchi Kaiji

Ep04: アイドル雀士スーチーパイ　Suuchiipai by ジャレコ JARECO

Ep05: 少年雀鬼　東 Shonenjanki Higashi　by 中島徹 Nakajima Toru

Ep06: 雀鬼流　Jankiryuu by 桜井章一 Jankiryuu

Ep07: 麻雀激闘録3/4　Yonbun-no san by ほんまりう Honma Riu

Ep08: 哭きの竜　Nakinoryuu by 能條純一 Noujou Jun-ichi

Ep09: 亜空間殺法　Akuukan by 安藤満 Andou Mitsuru

Ep10: スーパーヅガン　Superzugan by 片山まさゆき Katayama Masayuki

Ep11: 北京五輪女子卓球団体敗者復活戦への送る言葉　Phrase by Sakurai Shoichi

Ep12: 恋する麻雀～いつか勝ち組～　Koisuru Mahjong by 宇佐美うみ Usami Umi

Ep13: 天 天和通りの快男児　Ten by 福本伸行 Fukumoto Nobuyuki

Ep14: 哭きの竜　Nakinoryuu by 能條純一 Noujou Jun-ichi

Ep15: 玄人のひとりごと　Kuroutono hitorigoto by 中島徹 Nakajima Toru

Ep16: 伝説の雀鬼　Densetsuno Janki by 神田たけ志・安田潤司・桜井章一

Ep17: 天牌 麻雀飛竜伝説　Tenpai by 来賀友志・嶺岸信明 Kuga Tomoshi & Minegishi Shinmei
Ep18: スーパーヅガン　Superzugan by 片山まさゆき Katayama Masayuki

Ep19: 天 天和通りの快男児　Ten by 福本伸行 Fukumoto Nobuyuki

Ep20: 海雀王　Kaijan-oh by 渡辺みちお・志村裕次 Watanabe Michio & Shimura Yuji

Ep21: 麻雀無限会社39 ZANK　Mahjong Mugengaisya39 ZANK　by 本そういち・安藤満 Moto Souichi & Andou Mitsuru

Ep22: スーパーヅガン　Superzugan by 片山まさゆき Katayama Masayuki 

Ep23: 牌賊！オカルティ　Paizoku! Occulty by 片山まさゆき Katayama Masayuki 

Ep24: むこうぶち　Mukoubuchi by 天獅子悦也・安藤満 Amajishi Etsuya & Andou Mitsuru

Ep25:
（*1）兎 Usagi -野性の闘牌-　by 伊藤誠 Ito Makoto
（*2）バード 砂漠の勝負師　Bird by 青山広美 Aoyama Hiromi or 同人ゲーム「野性の闘牌 鰻」Unagi (a software developed by a fan)
（*3）ぎゅあんぶらぁ自己中心派　Gambler Jikochuushinha by 片山まさゆき Katayama Masayuki  
（*4）天牌 Tenpai 麻雀飛竜伝説　by 来賀友志・嶺岸信明 Kuga Tomoshi & Minegishi Shinmei
（*5）立-Ritz-　by 大和田秀樹 Owada Hideki

Ep.9-1 The captain's vision

Here I will show you what Fukuji Mihoko, "the captain" of Kazekoshi Girls' High School, sees with her beautiful odd blue eye.




Kataoka 'Tacos' Yuuki aims to come from behind by making full flush, a killer hand, composed of one suit only.

Dora indicater is 6 circles: it means that dora is 7 circles.

She dares to discard two of her dora, 7 circles in this hand, a tile which makes the score one more fan up.

Inoue Jun, top runner of this game, of course notices Yuuki's hand because she has placed a precious dora on her bank in front of her.
Then Jun calls riichi, declaring "my hand is ready to go out" to intimidate Yuuki, who plans to discard her another dora.

Judging from the river of Jun, 7 pinzu (7p, 7 circles or 7 dots) may her claiming tile.
I would like to talk more and more with this hand...maybe in another column.


If the player obtains a winning tile within the first turn of calling riichi, another bonus named 'ippatsu' will be added, one fan.

Imazine discarding a dora for the riichi-declaring player immediately.
If the tile reveals to be "bingo!" the score, at least 1 fan riichi hand, will be multplied 1 fan for dora and another 1 fan for ippatsu.
Minimum payment is 5200 for non dealer.



Amazingly Mihoko discards her dora gracefully with confidence, so as to prompt Yuuki to go ahead, clearing her dora, too.

Why could Mihoko put her dora on her own river?





Note: there are four of a kind in each tile; no fifth 6p exists, for example.



Waiting set for claiming 7p may be classified into five cases:



a Waiting either 4p or 7p: Open-Ended (ryannmen)

b Waiting 7p to compose 789 (penchan)

c Waiting 7p to compose 678 (kanchan)

d Waiting 7p or another to compose a triplet (shanpon)

e Waiting 7p to make a pair (tanki)

Then gather information from the river, dora indicater (6p, in this case) and my own hand.

Note:dora indicator indicates the real doras which are NEXT to dora indicator.

The dora is 7p because the dora indicator is 6p.



(i) Jun declares riichi with discarding 8p.

(ii) There are two 6ps on the river.

(iii) I have one 6p(iii-1), two 7ps(iii-2) and three 8ps(iii-3)

(iv) Yuuki discarded one 7p

and

(v) The dora indicater is 6p



...OK, let's deliberate each case listed above.



Case a : Waiting either 4p or 7p :Open-Ended (ryannmen)

(ii) There are two 6ps on the river.

(iii-1) I have one 6p

(v) The dora indicater is 6p

So all 6ps are found.
Deduction: Jun's hand doesn't wait either 4p or 7p: Open-Ended (ryannmen)



Case b : Waiting 7p to compose 789 (penchan)

Case c : Waiting 7p to compose 678 (kanchan)

(i) Jun declares riichi with discarding 8p.

(iii-3) I have three 8ps.

So all 8ps are found.
Deduction: Jun's hand doesn't wait 7p to compose 789 (penchan) or 678 (kanchan)



Case d : Waiting 7p or another to compose a triplet (shanpon)

(iii-2) I have two 7ps.

(iv) Yuuki discarded one 7p.

Deduction: Jun's hand doesn't wait 7p or another to compose a triplet (shanpon)



How about Case e : Waiting 7p to make a pair (tanki)?

Mihoko says "Judging from Yuuki's style of sorting tiles, her tiles are all characters except the leftest"

and "Remaining dora worries her...OK I will fix it up, so follow me!"

Speculation: it is Yuuki , not Jun, who has the fourth 7p.



You're beat? I'm beat. How about Mihoko? She makes such a conclusion within a few seconds.
Beautiful, warm and clever woman...another monster.

Samples of fanzines as well as pictures and drawings by amature

pixiv


http://www.pixiv.net/search.php?s_mode=s_tag&word=saki+%E5%92%B2

If you are interested in this site, I recommend you to register and
you may display larger pictures by clicking thumbnails.
PS: It's TOTALLY FREEEE!

The page for register
http://www.pixiv.net/entry01.php
Type your e-mail address and click the yellow button.
And you will find another screen with two buttons below your address: click the RIGHT button.
You will receive the URL mailed by pixiv to click so as to complete your entry.

Click to submit

Official Site of Anime Saki

Sorry, no English version is available.
Still you can feel the atmosphere of the site.

Original Comics of Saki

Saki comics

Anime Saki is based on comic series of Saki authored by Ritz Kobayashi on the Young GANGAN magazine published by SQUARE-ENIX, famous for the maker of the game soft "Dragon Quest" and "Final Fantasy".

Although TV series is terminated, the story of Saki on the magazine continues.

You can enjoy the comics even if you are not familiar with Japanese or/and mahjong because you have already watched the story on TV.
The latter half of comic #7 may be hard to read becaused the part of the comic is not televised yet.

*DVDs offer what TV series didn't

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm10033970

Here's a link for Amazon:
Saki DVDs

So that still you have enough reason to buy original DVD packages
even if you have watched the series several times to memorize whole story:

CAUTION: these DVDs are released in region 2 so that you might need to watch DVDs with your PC which has already been installed of region-free patch, which is available on the net.

Furthermore, each first-edition package contains a booklet including rough sketches of charcters.

*"Nikodou" or "Nikoniko douga" : YouTube?

"Nikodou" or "Nikoniko douga" is a movie feed service similar to YouTube.
http://www.nicovideo.jp/
The feature of Nikodou is you can directly "comment" on the scene of the film.

I recommend this site not because urging you to comment: Since this site is in Japan, few people understand slang except few, for instance, "wow" or "cool".

The charm of this site is full of MAD(imo:Mashup Anime Douga), some of which will entertain you, I swear.

Before you enjoy watching MAD, you have to register your minimum personal information.

What I introduce here are, really just a few of fun titles, as follows:
Note: You can watch flicks without displaying comments by clicking a baloon icon shown on the rim of the screen.

*with Evangelion
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm8555161

*with NARUTO
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm8359087

*with Railgun
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm8974371


















*with Akagi
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm8699697

*with Godzilla
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm8395951

Again, this list represents just the tip of the iceberg of marvelous MADs!

A tip to find articles related to anime Saki

The word "saki" means "blooming". Since it sounds impressive, Saki as a female name is popular. Also there are variations including Ito Misaki and Shibasaki Kou, both are popular TV actresses in Japan. Even characters in another anime have names related to Saki: for example, Sakuya.

So that if you intend to find articles related to anime Saki with search engine, hiring one word "Saki" is almost useless: too many noises will be accompanied with your results.

Try this:

咲 saki

I'm sorry the results will be written in Japanese, though.

Saki anime mahjong

may helpful for you.

Key words including "Saki" in Kanji for search engine

咲 saki

You can use the words mentioned above by copy and paste on the window of the search engine on the page written in Japanese.

*Preview of Saki(on YouTube)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONdYqyv-i90
Made by Gonzo.
Story: Miyanaga Saki is a Kiyosumi High School's freshman who can play mahjong but doesn't like it. One day her classmate brought her to the school's mahjong club and she happens to play mahjong three rounds with the score of even, plus minus zero. All of the members think Saki's score is just a coincidence except the president of the club who tries to invite Saki again to inspect her hidden power...