Saki: Zenkoku-hen

First review on MAL, apologies for the quality or lack thereof.

I heard of Saki through a friend I've met on here, and decided to check out the series.
I know absolutely nothing about the game of mahjong, but that didn't detract me from giving this series a shot.

I watched all components of the series in release order and while some were quite good, others faltered in certain areas.

Story: 7
Saki Zenkoku-hen focuses on the main cast's ascension towards the highly coveted high school national mahjong championship. The premise is solid. A high school club team's wish to succeed in a popular game. If you've watched the main ... season of Saki (which you definitely should before touching this), then you'd be well versed in the main cast's characters. While I really enjoyed the main season, however, this season took the focus away from our beloved main cast and spread the attention around to all the competing high schools on this side of the bracket pretty much evenly, leaving the Kiyosumi high school team little to no room for any sort of growth.
While I did find enjoyment in watching the intensity of some of the mahjong rounds, the series detracted from what made the first season so fun for me, and that was the in-between shenanigans the team were up to (including the loud-mouthed but adorable Yuuki the taco loving girl). Overall, I thought some of the other teams had relatively interesting characters as well but I sure would've liked more attention on the main girls than was given here. Towards the very end we get some more of that nostalgia from the first season back but it's pretty short lived.

Art: 8
The art features nice vivid colors and pretty realistic environments and backgrounds. The arenas they compete in are well lit and believable. The characters are portrayed very cute of course and everything is pretty run of the mill CGDCT/ moe style with an emphasis on certain aspects more than others. Some of the hair styles are wacky and always fun in this series, so I enjoyed seeing more of those. I will say I sort of preferred the art style of the first season when it came to the main girls, especially the eyes. Switching studios from Gonzo to Gokumi might have affected that. The emphasis on so-called supernatural powers used in the mahjong games by some of these girls is still ridiculous but nevertheless enjoyable and features pretty decent animation.

Sound: 7
The sound effects for the battle-type moments in the series were good in the previous iteration, but fell a bit short here. The soundtrack was also not as memorable to me. You do get a moment of the previous season's OP at one point used for an ED, which was the highlight of the good vibes from the series for me. As a whole, the series doesn't feature the greatest tracks ever made in an anime, but they do well enough to capture the essence of the show. The intro/outro videos are usually pretty fun though, especially the EDs, featuring chibi versions of some of the characters doing random goofy things. Voice acting in the series is very solid as well.

Characters: 6
The main characters were the shining beacon of the first season. It felt further emphasized after watching the side story of Achiga high school, where the cast was simply not compelling enough to the point it was harder to care about their success. Sadly, the main cast of Saki does not get much screen time in this season no more than any of the other supporting cast save for a few moments, giving them not much of any room for character growth. While some of the other schools' teams were alright, I didn't feel like any of them really stole the show, with the possible exception of the eccentric shrine priestess school cast.

Enjoyment: 7
With all things above considered, it is fair to say that I did find a decent amount of enjoyment from binging this season a bit more than Achiga-hen and possibly around the same amount as the middle of the first season. The focus here was definitely more on the mahjong and giving a bit of screen time to each school to flesh them out a bit, but due to the lack of focus on the main cast, detracted from the essence of what made the first season much more memorable to me. I mean, the show is named Saki after all, yet she barely gets screen time here and what I'm sure many people wanted to know is more backstory about her. You won't find much, just a smidge here.

Overall: 7
I covered most of the wrapping up of this review in the Enjoyment section, but I'll just say in closing that if you enjoyed the main Saki series for the mahjong, you'll at least get more of that here, but the soul of the series lies in the first season. The side story of Achiga school is probably worth checking out beforehand to see what you're missing out on when away from the main Saki cast, because you won't get too much of them here either. However, when all is said and done, this season gets us closer to the final goal. Now let's hope that even though 7 years have passed, maybe there's still a semblance of hope that we'll get another season, but don't hold your breath.

I will start by saying that this season is way better than season 1. They managed to focus more on the characters and display their passion and love for Mahjong during these 13 episodes in a beautiful and brilliant concept. The usual fanservice and generic plot that wasted a lot of time in season 1 is no longer present and the characters manage to shine in a good way during the Mahjong games.

The story as for those who have seen the first season moves on to the big stage The Mahjong High School Nationals were our 5 girls from Kyousumi must face new challanges ... and stronger opponents. The Mahjong games are better and more creative and the outcome is unpredictable. The tension is built up in each match and released at the perfect moment and the enjoyment is guaranteed from the first episode until the end.

The characters are more interesting and have better playing strategies in this season. Their stories are fleshed out during the Mahjong matches and their unique personality traits as players are evidentiated with the use of the visuals. The visuals also play an important role in depicting the tensed atmosphere and the players mindset during the Mahjong matches and connecting its audience to how they feel by playing on that big stage. The characters reasons and why they ended up in the Mahjong world are more interesting and more impactful on a emotional level for the viewer in this season.

What I didn't like was that Saki and Nodoka had no progress and their development and play style remained the same. What I liked was the focus on the opponents play style , their stories and why they love Mahjong. It was beautiful, emotional and brilliant done. It proves that you can do a lot more in 13 episodes than 26 episodes if you don't waste any time on generic crap and focus on the important stuff. Well done!

If you liked the first season you will sure adore and enjoy each minute from season 2 so be sure to watch it so you won't miss out some brilliant stuff that this anime offers.

Hmm, I am particularly vexed at what I saw at Saki: Nationals. However, I'd be best to practice prudence and avoid spilling some spoilers. As usual, I'll start in my usual review format.

Story is somewhat mouthwatering. It's the nationals, folks! As a direct sequel to the 2009 prequel. There's a lot of directive-ness and I was so glad that even after a long wait, a seemingly closure is somewhat reasonable to expect. Though, that is with regards to the adaptation reference. I am not particularly a fan of Saki manga and I only saw some chapters whenever I whimsically browse for randoms and this is ... the case why I ignorantly set a high expectation from the very first episode which is personally aggravating. I had no idea that was it all can offer.

Well, but in regards to the content, I am fascinated. I am not really a seasoned mahjong player but as far as I can remember, I have played over a thousand games as well. Not as a profession but just a pastime. My grandma who lives in the boonies often gathers her friends on a weekly basis and they played like 5-8 hours mahjong party and as I child, I often sneaked in and watched them play until I became a part of the mahjong table one day. Well one thing is, I do find the wonders Saki brought in the story. They're particularly occult and not feasible but of course, this is fiction so why not let a little imagination mess up with you, right?

Content-wise, Saki 2014's have upgraded what they offered in their prequel. Newly high-level adversaries, newly tile effects, newly twists, it has all the factors to draw the fans from the original and I must say, they've succeeded and set themselves as a proper sequel. The pacing was still the same as ever, a day-by-day coverage which is I think a lot better than using a time-skip.

However, one point I don't find reasonable was to include a lot of flashbacks which could've added more mahjong footage instead. But well, this is still a minor and a personal rant. Don't get too much on this.

Art wise, a significant upgrade is visible. They're cuter, much more detailed, the tile effects was more awesome and the boobs, I mean, the character design upgrade is visibly better than the prequel. Why, of course, it's 2014's digital drawing. I have nothing to note here except they've done a really outstanding feature.

Sound wise, the bgms were pretty much retained. It's all about listening to the each character's bgm and their tile effects and I must say, bravo. However, I am not particularly drawn by the OP and ED but again, this is just another personal taste based comment.

I have enjoyed Saki 2014 until I learned of the sad closure. This is a bit of a problem since telling the very fact might seem to be spoiling so I'll refrain from this. But at the very least, like I said, I enjoyed Saki 2014 like a 7 out of a 10 and still, it's a good verdict in my opinion.

Closing, Saki 2014 is all about the opening days of the Nationals where the Kiyosumi gang are threading their path to the finals. With enough twist to knock off one to his/her seat, Saki 2014 offers good story, nice background of characters(old and new), easily understandable mahjong terms, good pacing and a solid potential overall however[This part will be hard to maintain a spoiler-free run and I apologize for it, this is my limit]... I am somewhat betrayed. Almost 5 years after it's prequel, I thought they are offering a taste of what is going to be the sister's feud conclusion but instead, they did it again. Inserting another teaser preview in hopes they will get another continuation.

Personally, I still want more of a conclusive closure or rather, I hope there's still more to come in the future but as we all know, most of the titles who ends up getting cut at their highest peak of hype often gets the short end of the stick. I am diligently praying Saki won't be one of them.