Saki Achiga-hen: Episode of Side-A

If you're a fan of mahjong and superpower sports/game anime, THIS is the real Saki.

This is Saki without the meandering backstories, the boring yuri-bait that never gets anywhere, and the gratuitous fanservice shots of every loli character in the show (mostly). Side-A cuts out most of Saki's original grievances while being even better at what Saki did best: Intense, chaotic, and ridiculous mahjong battles.

In fact, since 95% of this anime doesn't rely on the original Saki, it's completely watchable as a standalone. Just make sure that you know the rules of mahjong, because there isn't as much time to explain everything like in Saki. ... If anything I said about the original Saki worries you about that series (I wrote a review on it if you want more detail), I recommend giving Side-A a try instead.

If you watched Saki or any sports anime, Side-A has a lot of what you'd expect: A simple school-tournament plot structure, games full of twists and turns, and fun/exciting/beautiful animation flourishes to emphasize the characters' emotions after pulling off a daring play or a nail-biting victory.

The difference for me is mostly in the characters. Saki leans too hard into making every character gimmicky with lots of unfunny running gags to make sure that you remember everyone, even if you also hate them in the process. Meanwhile, Side-A immediately introduces compelling reasons for all of the main girls to want to win the mahjong inter-high. With maybe one exception, they are more believable and more characterized than much of Saki's main cast, so it's much easier to get invested in their journey right from the start. It's almost jarring how much more respectful Side-A treats its characters compared to Saki, like an actual sports/game anime.

And by the end, the mahjong tournament battles DO deliver--in spades. Mahjong being a 4-player game, like in Saki, allows for complex yet emotionally charged battles of wits that leave you on the edge of your seat. Any player can be a relevant threat, and sometimes you never know who will take over the narrative in the end. And this aspect of chaos and unpredictability is even stronger than it is in Saki, which was what made that series refreshing to me as a sports/game anime in the first place.

This is also where the Saki series turns up its superpower tag to 11.
*MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD*
Side-A starts with one character with an incredibly impossible mahjong "talent" in episode one, and then continues to introduce some of the most ridiculous "totally-not-superpowers" I've ever seen in sports/game anime. And it's great, because every one of them has clear strengths and weaknesses and can be played around within the rules of the game, and they'll also have some crazy interaction with another character's almost-equally ridiculous superpower. And even with all this craziness, the superpowers never manage to truly overshadow the actual game of mahjong, so it just adds another layer of excitement and intrigue.
*MINOR SPOILERS END*

The biggest storytelling obstacle in these matches is the need to establish every character's background, personality, and playstyle during the match, and it's really difficult to do this without bogging down the pacing with constant flashbacks. However, Side-A manages to avoid this problem well enough by the end. There aren't excessive flashbacks to bog down the final matches' pacing, the characters are given just enough characterization to establish entertaining dynamics, and the buildup to the climax is just superb.

Now for the elephant in the room, while I do like the characters and characterization in Side-A better than in Saki overall, they are still quite weak, especially in the middle portion of the anime. Saki will at least drip feed interesting mahjong plays before moving onto the tournament, but Side-A isn't interested in showing the main girls' intermediate steps toward the mahjong inter-high. There might be a training montage but without delving into what they learned or improved on, which hurts the overall emotional payoff when they actually do win over a tough-looking opponent. I think the final matches succeed in spite of that, but it does hurt that a third of the anime feels like a slog to get through.

But none of those dull moments were painful like in Saki. I can at least excuse Side-A for rushing to the main event when it knew it didn't have much time to do so. The result is still that Side-A accomplishes more in SIXTEEN episodes than Saki does in 25. (The "Specials" episodes are just the last four episodes of the anime. They are a direct continuation and you should watch them after finishing the first 12.)

With maybe more effort put into the characters and drama in the middle episodes of the anime, Side-A could have easily been an 8 for me, regardless of its dressing as a mere side story to Saki. It's kind of depressing to me that Side-A will just be in the shadow of Saki forever because of that. Despite its flaws, Side-A manages to simultaneously be the more entertaining and the more well-rounded experience, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who knows or is willing to learn the rules of mahjong--and isn't afraid of a little zaniness in their battle-of-wits.

First things first. My "reviews" system is explained on a blog entry. Which can be found through my profile.
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✦Story
About Saki side-characters and their adventure through tournaments. I'll be honest, It's been a while since I watched Saki and I cannot really remember most of it let alone side-characters. But nevertheless I found this series fairly enjoyable and cute. It had fair flair of drama and also impact packing mahjong games as always. Not really much else to comment. A fair enough moe show about mahjong.

✦Art & Sound
Not impressive, not bad. Fitting enough, bright and enjoyable. Gotta love the "no pan" style. It's always a mystery ... whenever they wear anything or not.

Also, Nodoka confuses me as always. She feels so out of place with her giant melons. And her large/loose and light shirt with tie inbetween of her breast does not help. Funny to say, but she feels immersion breaking. Obviously not in a serious manner, but her way too giant melons bother me in this specific franchise.

As for OST and music. Some were memorable and okay, rest really didn't notice. So good enough.

✦Character
3 things.
1. Sakurako Gibbard adorable. (the side-side character. The cheerful minigirl with adorable facial expressions.)
2. Toki, love her soothing voice (She looks like warai neko character and has same VA)
3. Arai Satomi (VA). Love her voice anywhere.

Aside that, cute enough characters, some adorable stereotypes. For example the always cold/shaking girl. And ones I mentioned previously. (excluding Arai Satomi voice acted character. I simply love the voice actor). Can't say there was much development, aside the "battle hardening" and some flashbacks regarding their past. So once again, overall good enough.

✦Enjoyment & Overall
Wasn't sure whenever to "review" or not, but eh, screw it. Quite a solid 6 Anime, not bad, nor good. Not too interesting nor boring. I don't care about mahjong nor really sure of how game works. But it was presented in an enjoyable moeblob way with some impactful battles and a bit drama.

I said "Achiga-hen Side-A Episode is too hardcore for my taste." But I went and watched it anyway since it wouldn't hurt.

It's more of the same: CGDCT ("Cute Girls Doing Cute Things)". The dreaded "moe" animu; and said cute thing is mahjong.

The lot of them have weird powers to help them win. And IMMHO, this BULL$#!7 needs to stop. Else, they need to use their powers on something a bit more fruitful than playing games. (I heard "taking over the world" is pretty popular. :P )

And, as with the lot of CGDCT animu, there are TOO many cute girls herein. I stand by my opinion ... that Koihime Musou is created only because the reality-challenged slobbering otaku-base would rather masturbate to cartoon girls instead of actually learn history. But this takes the same amount of teeth-rotting cake.

Not to say that guys shouldn't run behind the skirts of animu chicks in order to escape the harshness of reality. But watching animu like this reminds me of visiting a mosque (that one day, long time ago) where the opposite sexes aren't allowed to intermingle. It all felt pointless and it's something I should never invest my time and money into.

It would be nice if animu wasn't created by and for grass-eating herbivores...