I'm a sucker for mahjong manga and will gobble up anything to satisfy my passion for it, but this manga is just unreadable.
For starters, the characters:
the titular character, Saki, is extremely boring and there is very little to like about her. She has near no personality, and is either frustrating to watch when she decides not to win on purpose, or very boring when she just wins by virtue of being the main character. Everyone acts like she's a genius for scoring big wins but we never get much insight into her strategy or logic. She's not built up as a particularly lucky person either so her wins really have no impact.
As for the rest of the main cast, well, they're all boring (often bordering on irritating) one-dimensional, one-note characters. You've got the busty girl, the taco-eating girl (not a joke), the cheerful girl, the big sister character, etc.
At the beginning of the manga there seemed to be some big family drama stuff brewing but 100 chapters later literally nothing has happened and the characters are still as boring. The story could have gone somewhere but not only is nothing really moving, but also the art is ruining any kind of tension the story could have.
Now, onto said art. The artist here has undeniable talent- a very good grasp on perspective and composition, clean lines, etc. But by god, the "fanservice" (if you can even call it that) is out of god damn control. The main cast is mostly 11 year old girls, who are either drawn with 1. three-inch long miniskirts 2. humongous triple G breasts 3. "juicy" thighs & no panties, or all of those combined. And that's not even talking about the numerous half-naked characters and ass/tit shots punctuating the entire manga, which make the whole thing an absolute horrendous piece of fiction to read through.
I'd like to take a short pause here to remind everyone that this is a manga about 11 year olds playing mahjong. Neither of those main two components warrant the manga's overwhelming saturation with creepy shots, nudity and bad anatomy. I just want some tiles, bro.
All in all, unless you're a creep into half-naked little girls (in which case I advise therapy) or you are a masochist (therapy needed there also) there are no good reasons for you to read this manga.
