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Mar 7, 2013 3:13 AM
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THIS IS A MANGA ONLY DISCUSSION POST. DO NOT DISCUSS ANYTHING BEYOND THIS CHAPTER.
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So, it's finished!



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Mar 7, 2013 3:56 AM
#2

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Poor Awai-chan :(

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Mar 7, 2013 6:10 AM
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Heavy spoilers, beware.
Mar 7, 2013 6:13 AM
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Awai lost the most points? Wasn't she supposed to be the 'final' boss of the finals?

Well, atleast I hope the monsters of Rinkai and Rinkai itself(unlike Awai and all the players on her team except for Teru) do life up to their hype.


But it seems one of the problem with the spin-off is that their is more focus put on the occult abilities and they are more important. Not to mention the huge points gains/losses, just compare it to the quarters of side B
Who advanced is not the problem, the problem is how it happened, achiga in first, Teru being the only note-able player from the 'strongest' interhigh team, Seiko losing a lot of points, Awai being the only monster who has ever lost points, even none of the batman or pseudo-monsters lost points.

(Yuuki's status as a pseudo-monster is debatable, and she only has only been one since the quarters at best).


Mahjong-wise, that was the far more interesting match.

Side B quarters = Regional finals(main manga) > Side A semi's > Side A quarters.


But I suppose that's just the downside of it being published in a shonen magazine.
rederoinMar 7, 2013 6:48 AM

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Mar 7, 2013 6:18 AM
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Mar 7, 2013 6:36 AM
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rederoin, I think you wanted to put Side A quarters in dead last place.
Such a shame, Toki vs Teru was Saki vs Koromo tier but rest of semis reeks of bullshit, especially captain match which is one of the worst I have ever seen (and I'm not talking about mahjong here but fights in general).
Mar 7, 2013 6:37 AM
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At this point, Awai seems to be weaker than all of kiyosumi. atleast Yuuki can stand against monsters and top batman players in the east-wind round.

Progeusz said:
rederoin, I think you wanted to put Side A quarters in dead last place.

Oops, diden't notice I made a mistake. Its still early.
rederoinMar 7, 2013 6:50 AM

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Mar 7, 2013 7:32 AM
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In case anyone missed what Shiraitodai really is:

Mar 7, 2013 7:34 AM
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Progeusz said:
In case anyone missed what Shiraitodai really is:


Teru, the last hope against the demon-godness and the Sucky Mcsuck family?
rederoinMar 7, 2013 7:37 AM

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Mar 7, 2013 7:38 AM

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It makes me want to cry...
Mar 7, 2013 8:22 AM

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This is the greatest chapter of Saki ever
Mar 7, 2013 9:04 AM

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Progeusz said:
It makes me want to cry...

Achiga winning the semi's by 10k points is the worst decision ever made for the saki series.

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Mar 7, 2013 12:08 PM
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Achiga winning the semi's by 10k points is the worst decision ever made for the saki series.

Yes, of course. Making the main characters win was horrible idea. Sigh...

Hate to break it to you, but it probably is going to happen again. In the main manga, Saki and her friends are going to win the finals.

You see, authors have this tendency to make their main characters win. If that is something you don't like, then you are in for a lifetime of disappointment...
cedec0Mar 7, 2013 12:31 PM
Mar 7, 2013 12:15 PM
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A TRUE bullshit powerup = taking off your socks and magically getting stronger
Mar 7, 2013 12:53 PM

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cedec0 said:

Yes, of course. Making the main characters win was horrible idea. Sigh...

It was a spin-off that ruined Teru's school, thats the point.

This entire shitty spin-off somehow managed to ruin the school that has been hyped up for years upon years. Not to mention the other faults it has.
The main manga is just far superior to this.


Hate to break it to you, but it probably is going to happen again. In the main manga, Saki and her friends are going to win the finals.

You see, authors have this tendency to make their main characters win. If that is something you don't like, then you are in for a lifetime of disappointment...

Irrelevant to the point I tried to make.
They would still have advancement if they ended up in 2nd, just like what happened in the quarters(which they also didn't win, by the way).

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Mar 7, 2013 1:24 PM

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cedec0 said:
Yes, of course. Making the main characters win was horrible idea. Sigh...
Are you serious? Whole point of Achiga-hen was showing Side-A of the tournament. To be more precise, hyping Shiraitodai and introducing second school which advences with Shiraitodai. Now we know Shiraitodai is terrible except for Teru and the other school instead of skilled players can only offer plot armor and hax. How am I supposed to be intersted in final match now? Achiga as a school is shit and what's more, this spin off destroyed image of Shiraitodai which was supposed to be final boss since original manga started. Now Shiraitodai looks like amateurs compared to, let's say, Ryuumonbuchi.
Achiga didn't have to win, their only goal is meeting Nodoka and I explained point of the manga. It would be much better if Shiraitodai dominated semis and other three schools were desperately fighting for second place.
The worst thing about chapter 20 is HOW Shizu won, not the fact she did. She simply developed some hax powers in a day with not a single hint before (Koromo's warning was already during semifinals). That's terrible writing. I have never seen such badly executed fight. I could stomach all the irrational hax in previous rounds but captain match is whole different level.

cedec0 said:
Hate to break it to you, but it probably is going to happen again. In the main manga, Saki and her friends are going to win the finals.
You don't understand a single thing. Saki will win because she's great player, there's nothing wrong with that. She was established to be monster, top-tier since first chapter. Shizu on the other hand was portrayed as average player for majority of the series and suddenly became stronger than supposedly monster class player, Awai, even though we saw her being raped by Koromo at roughly 40% of her power. That's why people are mad at this conclusion.

Not to mention Awai turned out to be disappointing player of low skill and her power, while sounding good in paper is nothing compared to what Teru, Saki or Koromo are capable of. That's not what I would expect from Saki's final rival in captain match and "successor of Teru".

cedec0 said:
You see, authors have this tendency to make their main characters win. If that is something you don't like, then you are in for a lifetime of disappointment...
You're saying I should eat up everything, no matter how ridiculous and defying logic just because Achigas are main characters of the spin-off? No. It could have been done much better and that's why I'm complaining.

cedec0 said:
A TRUE bullshit powerup = taking off your socks and magically getting stronger
It actually makes some sense, just like Nodoka playing better while holding Etopen. Psychical condition is extremely important in this game. Shizu on the other hand... it came out of nowhere, she got those powers only because she had plot armor, it wasn't hinted in any way. What;s more, there were many hints she is nothing impressive (for example not being able to sense Saki's power when they passed by each other. Harue was paralyzed, while Kuro almost pissed herself of fear. Shizu didn't know what's going on proving she has no special powers/connection to flow/awareness/skill. Many other strong players were able to sense Saki is someone exceptional but Shizu was left in the dark, like audience and random weak players. That's the most apparent but there are other instances - Shizu was never said to be strongest Achiga and we already saw Kuro, Yuu and Ako aren't really anything special - Shizu should be weaker than them. I can go on and on, there's nothing sensible excusing her sudden power up, just like with rest of her hax team. Okay, Arata's power up is the only one that makes any sense. Yes, Yuu vs Sumire makes no sense. If you look at it carefully, you'll notice it's impossible for Yuu to see Sumire's fingers. Both in manga and anime.
Mar 7, 2013 2:07 PM
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it came out of nowhere, she got those powers only because she had plot armor, it wasn't hinted in any way.

Shizuno was the main character of Achiga-hen! Her shadow on the logo of the series is the author telling you "this girl is a monster mahjong player".

Chapter 20 finally gives us some info on what kind of monster Shizu is, but the fact that she would turn out to be a monster should not have been a surprise to anyone with a little genre savy.
cedec0Mar 7, 2013 5:08 PM
Mar 7, 2013 4:13 PM
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Progeusz said:
Shizu on the other hand... it came out of nowhere, she got those powers only because she had plot armor, it wasn't hinted in any way. What;s more, there were many hints she is nothing impressive (for example not being able to sense Saki's power when they passed by each other. Harue was paralyzed, while Kuro almost pissed herself of fear. Shizu didn't know what's going on proving she has no special powers/connection to flow/awareness/skill. Many other strong players were able to sense Saki is someone exceptional but Shizu was left in the dark, like audience and random weak players. That's the most apparent but there are other instances - Shizu was never said to be strongest Achiga and we already saw Kuro, Yuu and Ako aren't really anything special - Shizu should be weaker than them. I can go on and on, there's nothing sensible excusing her sudden power up, just like with rest of her hax team. Okay, Arata's power up is the only one that makes any sense. Yes, Yuu vs Sumire makes no sense. If you look at it carefully, you'll notice it's impossible for Yuu to see Sumire's fingers. Both in manga and anime.


Shizu's ability is shown to be to stop other players from winning with abilities. So no it isn't bullshit that she supposedly suddenly developed it in the semi-finals, where all 3 of her opponents had abilities and in all her other matches she played normal players. Yuu seeing Sumire's hand is logical in the anime and manga, Yuu can see Sumire's hand on the arm of the chair in the manga, and just has to lean over a little bit on the table to see her hand on the chair. And Shizu did sense Saki's arua, she so far is the only player who's walked by her who hasn't shat their pants or be shocked. People really do forget that Haure came back to Achiga in winter, meaning more then 3 months for her to train them.

Also I really wouldn't call Shiraitodai weak, or bad players. Teru dominated her match, SUmire only looks bad, because guess what Yosiko played with cheap hands, meaning that Sunire who's ability requires time, got sealed up. Takami was also unable to play properly because Ako is better speed player then her, look back at Ako's match in the semi-finals, Ako is able to find out Takami's play style is fast hands. While with Awau, she dominated most of the match and she was dealing with 2 hackers. While Shizu only got one over on her because Awai didn't pay attention to her.
Mar 10, 2013 8:10 AM

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Wasn't the whole point of Achiga Hen showing us a monster on par with Saki ? We got one. Shizuno, the main character of Achiga Hen. The one with the ability to nullify other ability. This match showed us that Shizuno will likely be Saki worst nightmare. Awai used kan too, and we got the result.
Mar 10, 2013 11:34 AM

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I'm so envious of all of you who can read Japanese >.< You already get to read the last chapter of Achiga-hen while I have to wait for translations ( ;_;)

Mar 11, 2013 2:20 PM

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Well, this could have ended worse. Like it having another chapter with Harue defeating the grandmaster, now that would really ruin things.
A shame Kirame would not end up playing in the same round as Yuuki(They know eachother, aterall)


But Awai just played dumb, their is no reason for her to double riichi when its obvious it won't work.
Awai is proof that you being skilled at mahjong is important, no matter what your powers are.

Arlia said:
Wasn't the whole point of Achiga Hen showing us a monster on par with Saki ? We got one. Shizuno, the main character of Achiga Hen. The one with the ability to nullify other ability. This match showed us that Shizuno will likely be Saki worst nightmare. Awai used kan too, and we got the result.

Yes, that was Teru.


I doubt Saki will have trouble with Shizu if her mental problems don't get in the way, which did happen in her match against Koromo, but that was solved before 4th east round of the last hanchan. Saki's rinshans are like Koromo's Haitei, they just prefer to use them because of what those yaku mean(Saki's name has the same meaning, and Koromo gets her 'power' from the moon).
Saki can +/-0 at will, against very strong players, she even did in the quarter-finals.




Gamer40000 said:

Also I really wouldn't call Shiraitodai weak, or bad players. Teru dominated her match, SUmire only looks bad, because guess what Yosiko played with cheap hands, meaning that Sunire who's ability requires time, got sealed up. Takami was also unable to play properly because Ako is better speed player then her, look back at Ako's match in the semi-finals, Ako is able to find out Takami's play style is fast hands. While with Awau, she dominated most of the match and she was dealing with 2 hackers. While Shizu only got one over on her because Awai didn't pay attention to her.

Shiraitodai is very weak outside of Teru.
Sumire is the 2nd best player on it, she's decent.
Takami would have lost 42k points if it wasn't for her yakuman. But she still managed to lose 10k points even with that yakuman.
Seiko lost 59k points, she has to be one of the worst players shown in the nationals of both side A and side B.
Awai lost 18k points, and was hyped up to be the 'mid-boss', something went horribly wrong here.
Even Jindai using her weakest god was stronger than this, she doesn't deserve to be called a 'monster' at this point. 18.000 points is a huge loss, especially for somebody with her powers.
rederoinMar 12, 2013 6:32 AM

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Mar 12, 2013 7:12 AM

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Rederoin and Progeusz have been dismissing Shizu for ages, and blindly ignoring any and all evidence to the contrary. You don't seriously expect them to suddenly start accepting her as soon as we are presented with evidence that can't be ignored, do you?

That said, though, Rederoin does have a point, in that Awai was a bit of a let-down.

And Shiraitodai seems to get weaker as it goes along.
Teru is undeniably strong.
If Sumire uncovers and eliminates her tell then she will be strong again, although Mako will likely be able to overcome it anyway.
Takami is weak without her yakuman, but if the hinted dealer repeats come about then she could cause havoc, making her strong by default.
Seiko is below Kuro in strength - at least Kuro's ability, while making it harder to win, makes her hand stronger when she does, whereas Seiko's makes it harder to win and makes her hand weaker when she does.
If Shizu's stealing of Awai's ability carries over to the next match then Awai, far from being the dangerous player that she has been (justifiably) hyped up to be, will find herself as a weakling in the finals, alongside Saki, Shizu and either Rinkai or Usuzan as three powerhouses. While I am guessing that she will either regain her powers or acquire new ones (I don't want a repeat of Kana, please...) she will almost certainly remain far from being the deadly threat that she seemed when she first appeared.

Which is a little bit disappointing.
There is no such thing as shit taste. Only idiots who think everyone should have the same taste as they do.
Mar 12, 2013 7:53 AM

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kuuderes_shadow said:
Rederoin and Progeusz have been dismissing Shizu for ages, and blindly ignoring any and all evidence to the contrary. You don't seriously expect them to suddenly start accepting her as soon as we are presented with evidence that can't be ignored, do you?


Acteally, I perfectly understand that Shizu is stronger than she was implied to be.
The main problem here is Shiraitodai ending in 2nd with just 300 points.

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Mar 13, 2013 2:43 AM

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Oh boy.
Why is MAL quote system so shit? You can't even discuss here easily.

cedec0 said:
Chapter 20 finally gives us some info on what kind of monster Shizu is, but the fact that she would turn out to be a monster should not have been a surprise to anyone with a little genre savy.
Genre is not a proper argument for explaining source of powers.

Gamer40000 said:
Shizu's ability is shown to be to stop other players from winning with abilities.
No, it's not. She's not Sae. Her power is manipulating the wall but I'm arguing about her developing powers at all which [edit]shouldn't[/edit] happen.

Gamer40000 said:
Shizu's ability is shown to be to stop other players from winning with abilities. So no it isn't bullshit that she supposedly suddenly developed it in the semi-finals, where all 3 of her opponents had abilities and in all her other matches she played normal players.
No, it is total bullshit. Remember flashback at the beginning of Achiga? Kuro was referred to as much stronger than Ako and Shizu and she's great example of player with special power. What's more, her power is reliant on wall. Shizu didn't do anything to her.

Gamer40000 said:
Yuu seeing Sumire's hand is logical in the anime and manga, Yuu can see Sumire's hand on the arm of the chair in the manga, and just has to lean over a little bit on the table to see her hand on the chair.
No, it is impossible to see it. She basically gained x-ray vision because Harue said so. http://i.minus.com/ibmGzKDpP6kNbl.png POV is above Yuu's head and you still can't see Sumire's fingers. Eventually chair magically shapeshifted when Achiga's plot armor was about to break. That's not mentioning how ridiculous this tell is. Just noticing it is completely unbelievable and they couldn't even fight it properly.

Gamer40000 said:
And Shizu did sense Saki's arua, she so far is the only player who's walked by her who hasn't shat their pants or be shocked.
No, she didn't. http://i.minus.com/ibubTCslAA4fET.jpg

Gamer40000 said:
People really do forget that Haure came back to Achiga in winter, meaning more then 3 months for her to train them.
1) You can't become great just because you have good coach for three months
2) We haven't seen any results of training before semifinals. They barely gotten second place in quarters and suddenly won semis which were MUCH more difficult. It makes no sense, Harue wasn't even training them at this point. Actually, the only point of the series when Achiga made any noticable progress were mere few days when they went around losing to people who aren't even in nationals.

Gamer40000 said:
Also I really wouldn't call Shiraitodai weak, or bad players. Teru dominated her match, SUmire only looks bad, because guess what Yosiko played with cheap hands, meaning that Sunire who's ability requires time, got sealed up. Takami was also unable to play properly because Ako is better speed player then her, look back at Ako's match in the semi-finals, Ako is able to find out Takami's play style is fast hands. While with Awau, she dominated most of the match and she was dealing with 2 hackers. While Shizu only got one over on her because Awai didn't pay attention to her.
Sumire didn't lose all those points because of cheap hands. She got defeated by Harue hax. Now that she said
Sumire: I will get rid of my tell in 2 days and take advantage of that in reverse.
in chapter 20, I honestly won't be surprised if I see
Legend: Yuu, by now Sumire will know what her tell is and try to fool you. Here's this second tell no one else noticed. She moves her feet, so be sure to notice that shit when you play her.
as counter.

This just means Takami is worse than Ako. Not what I would expect from member of final boss team. Hisa should crush her.

Awai dominated most of the match? By losing most of her daburiis? By being 4th worst scorer of semis excluding Teru's victims? By being terrible player who daburiis against Himeko even though she knows perfectly it won't help her? Awai was plain scared of Shizu in last hands, she was panicking, she was desperately grasping at straws to somehow end up second. She was blind, lost all control over the table at the end and didn't even notice it for which she got ridiculed by Shizu. Not very monster-like. How am I supposed to look forward to her match with Saki?

Shizu only got one over on her because Awai didn't pay attention to her? No. Shizu suddenly showed greater influence than Teru, even though barely managing to get 2nd place in qt was peak of her ability just three days earlier.
http://i.minus.com/ibeI8ecEaLKr1R.jpg + translation:
Awai: Riichi.
Awai: In reverse?
Awai: Looks like that the orders have been affected with Achiga's control of the mountain depths.
Awai: Not even Teru managed to do that when she chose me.
Awai: Just what's going on...!!

What's more, Mairu x Himeko connection was almost broken by Shizu's influence even though we got info that even pros aren't capable of stopping it in last chapters. Why? Because. Magical powers don't need any explanation in Achiga-hen.

Don't forget Mairu x Himeko didn't even get the flashback because of Achiga's retarded pace. Thaere's also fact that Ritz/Igarashi were too lazy to think of any play style for Ryuuka so she got some stupid power last second and proved to be useless the moment she can't use it. How did she become best scorer in Kansai and captain of strong team like Senriyama then? Fairy Toki wasn't a thing before. It's not just Shizu and Awai. Everything about semis (except for awesome Vanguard match) is horrible.

Arlia said:
Wasn't the whole point of Achiga Hen showing us a monster on par with Saki ? We got one. Shizuno, the main character of Achiga Hen. The one with the ability to nullify other ability. This match showed us that Shizuno will likely be Saki worst nightmare. Awai used kan too, and we got the result.
Whole point of Achiga was showing other side of finals, especially introducing two schools which advanced. One of them was random new school never mentioned in main series and other one was last boss hyped for seven years. Only Teru delivered. Shizu can't do anything to Saki. Saki isn't limited to Kans, she uses them only because she likes the meaning [edit] of Rinshan Kaihou[/edit]. Not to mention she watched captain match with Koromo. Saki can Rinshan, Saki can Tsumo, Saki can Ron, Saki can Kokushi Musou... Saki's ability isn't Rinshan Kaihou. Her ability is control over the table and points of all players.
Awai was supposed to be the monster. She was referred to as Teru's successor and strongest first yer together with Saki (and we know how big of a monster Saki is).
Shizu was never even referred to as strongest Achiga.

rederoin said:
Well, this could have ended worse. Like it having another chapter with Harue defeating the grandmaster, now that would really ruin things.
That's the reason why I don't want pro spin-off even though I'd love to see more Hayarin, Risa, Kokaji and other pros.


kuuderes_shadow, there's no "evidence to the contrary". Feel free to provide a single page. I'll give you this handicap even though it should be dozen of pages if we were talking about decent build-up. Just to make things clear - no, Koromo's warning doesn't count because it happened already during semis (and only said Shizu might be troublesome, not that she has any special powers, not to mention being monster at that). Show me something even hinting Shizu's strength before semis. There's nothing at all. On the contrary, there's abundance of stuff telling us she's mediocre.
ProgeuszMar 13, 2013 3:50 AM
Mar 13, 2013 7:37 AM

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Could someone please explain why Shiraitodai's last move didn't go through? Why did Shizu tell her to check those two tiles? I don't fully understand the rules yet so insight on that would be nice.
Mar 13, 2013 9:26 AM
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Gamer40000 said:
People really do forget that Haure came back to Achiga in winter, meaning more then 3 months for her to train them.

progeusz) You can't become great just because you have good coach for three months[/quote said:

2) We haven't seen any results of training before semifinals. They barely gotten second place in quarters and suddenly won semis which were MUCH more difficult. It makes no sense, Harue wasn't even training them at this point. Actually, the only point of the series when Achiga made any noticable progress were mere few days when they went around losing to people who aren't even in nationals.

clarification some of them are participating in the nationals but in individuals only like Arakawa Kei.

well koromo also said that she planned to do 5 haiteis but he only use it twice or thrice and cannot do any haiteis after that.
Viletomb2010Mar 13, 2013 9:29 AM
Mar 13, 2013 9:46 AM
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Progeusz said:
Oh boy.
Why is MAL quote system so shit? You can't even discuss here easily.

cedec0 said:
Chapter 20 finally gives us some info on what kind of monster Shizu is, but the fact that she would turn out to be a monster should not have been a surprise to anyone with a little genre savy.
Genre is not a proper argument for explaining source of powers.

Gamer40000 said:
Shizu's ability is shown to be to stop other players from winning with abilities.
No, it's not. She's not Sae. Her power is manipulating the wall but I'm arguing about her developing powers at all which [edit]shouldn't[/edit] happen.

Gamer40000 said:
Shizu's ability is shown to be to stop other players from winning with abilities. So no it isn't bullshit that she supposedly suddenly developed it in the semi-finals, where all 3 of her opponents had abilities and in all her other matches she played normal players.
No, it is total bullshit. Remember flashback at the beginning of Achiga? Kuro was referred to as much stronger than Ako and Shizu and she's great example of player with special power. What's more, her power is reliant on wall. Shizu didn't do anything to her.

Gamer40000 said:
Yuu seeing Sumire's hand is logical in the anime and manga, Yuu can see Sumire's hand on the arm of the chair in the manga, and just has to lean over a little bit on the table to see her hand on the chair.
No, it is impossible to see it. She basically gained x-ray vision because Harue said so. http://i.minus.com/ibmGzKDpP6kNbl.png POV is above Yuu's head and you still can't see Sumire's fingers. Eventually chair magically shapeshifted when Achiga's plot armor was about to break. That's not mentioning how ridiculous this tell is. Just noticing it is completely unbelievable and they couldn't even fight it properly.

Gamer40000 said:
And Shizu did sense Saki's arua, she so far is the only player who's walked by her who hasn't shat their pants or be shocked.
No, she didn't. http://i.minus.com/ibubTCslAA4fET.jpg

Gamer40000 said:
People really do forget that Haure came back to Achiga in winter, meaning more then 3 months for her to train them.
1) You can't become great just because you have good coach for three months
2) We haven't seen any results of training before semifinals. They barely gotten second place in quarters and suddenly won semis which were MUCH more difficult. It makes no sense, Harue wasn't even training them at this point. Actually, the only point of the series when Achiga made any noticable progress were mere few days when they went around losing to people who aren't even in nationals.

Gamer40000 said:
Also I really wouldn't call Shiraitodai weak, or bad players. Teru dominated her match, SUmire only looks bad, because guess what Yosiko played with cheap hands, meaning that Sunire who's ability requires time, got sealed up. Takami was also unable to play properly because Ako is better speed player then her, look back at Ako's match in the semi-finals, Ako is able to find out Takami's play style is fast hands. While with Awau, she dominated most of the match and she was dealing with 2 hackers. While Shizu only got one over on her because Awai didn't pay attention to her.
Sumire didn't lose all those points because of cheap hands. She got defeated by Harue hax. Now that she said
Sumire: I will get rid of my tell in 2 days and take advantage of that in reverse.
in chapter 20, I honestly won't be surprised if I see
Legend: Yuu, by now Sumire will know what her tell is and try to fool you. Here's this second tell no one else noticed. She moves her feet, so be sure to notice that shit when you play her.
as counter.

This just means Takami is worse than Ako. Not what I would expect from member of final boss team. Hisa should crush her.

Awai dominated most of the match? By losing most of her daburiis? By being 4th worst scorer of semis excluding Teru's victims? By being terrible player who daburiis against Himeko even though she knows perfectly it won't help her? Awai was plain scared of Shizu in last hands, she was panicking, she was desperately grasping at straws to somehow end up second. She was blind, lost all control over the table at the end and didn't even notice it for which she got ridiculed by Shizu. Not very monster-like. How am I supposed to look forward to her match with Saki?

Shizu only got one over on her because Awai didn't pay attention to her? No. Shizu suddenly showed greater influence than Teru, even though barely managing to get 2nd place in qt was peak of her ability just three days earlier.
http://i.minus.com/ibeI8ecEaLKr1R.jpg + translation:
Awai: Riichi.
Awai: In reverse?
Awai: Looks like that the orders have been affected with Achiga's control of the mountain depths.
Awai: Not even Teru managed to do that when she chose me.
Awai: Just what's going on...!!

What's more, Mairu x Himeko connection was almost broken by Shizu's influence even though we got info that even pros aren't capable of stopping it in last chapters. Why? Because. Magical powers don't need any explanation in Achiga-hen.

Don't forget Mairu x Himeko didn't even get the flashback because of Achiga's retarded pace. Thaere's also fact that Ritz/Igarashi were too lazy to think of any play style for Ryuuka so she got some stupid power last second and proved to be useless the moment she can't use it. How did she become best scorer in Kansai and captain of strong team like Senriyama then? Fairy Toki wasn't a thing before. It's not just Shizu and Awai. Everything about semis (except for awesome Vanguard match) is horrible.

Arlia said:
Wasn't the whole point of Achiga Hen showing us a monster on par with Saki ? We got one. Shizuno, the main character of Achiga Hen. The one with the ability to nullify other ability. This match showed us that Shizuno will likely be Saki worst nightmare. Awai used kan too, and we got the result.
Whole point of Achiga was showing other side of finals, especially introducing two schools which advanced. One of them was random new school never mentioned in main series and other one was last boss hyped for seven years. Only Teru delivered. Shizu can't do anything to Saki. Saki isn't limited to Kans, she uses them only because she likes the meaning [edit] of Rinshan Kaihou[/edit]. Not to mention she watched captain match with Koromo. Saki can Rinshan, Saki can Tsumo, Saki can Ron, Saki can Kokushi Musou... Saki's ability isn't Rinshan Kaihou. Her ability is control over the table and points of all players.
Awai was supposed to be the monster. She was referred to as Teru's successor and strongest first yer together with Saki (and we know how big of a monster Saki is).
Shizu was never even referred to as strongest Achiga.

rederoin said:
Well, this could have ended worse. Like it having another chapter with Harue defeating the grandmaster, now that would really ruin things.
That's the reason why I don't want pro spin-off even though I'd love to see more Hayarin, Risa, Kokaji and other pros.


kuuderes_shadow, there's no "evidence to the contrary". Feel free to provide a single page. I'll give you this handicap even though it should be dozen of pages if we were talking about decent build-up. Just to make things clear - no, Koromo's warning doesn't count because it happened already during semis (and only said Shizu might be troublesome, not that she has any special powers, not to mention being monster at that). Show me something even hinting Shizu's strength before semis. There's nothing at all. On the contrary, there's abundance of stuff telling us she's mediocre.


If you hate it, you may not see it.

It seems you too love saki lack overview. Saki at the beginning of the story she has special abilities but no one noticed, thanks to the chairman of the club's new found ability to saki, so I think Shizu well as and also harue found out special abilities.

Saki mahjong from small and Shizu too. Both of them were not involved in any Mahjong tournament until now opposed to the unusual monster participate in the annual tournament. Saki can be on par with the other monsters why Shizu not?

Saki's sister Teru not mean strong Teru, saki also strong.In some anime character also more main characters.So Shizu if possible stronger saki is not bad.As I see the author exclusive achiga that the individual tournament certainly intention, can achiga will win the tournament teams , saki will win the individual tournament.I think this is perfect for the two main characters, Shizu and saki ...
shizunoMar 13, 2013 9:53 AM
Mar 13, 2013 10:31 AM

Offline
Oct 2007
1187
sarroush said:
Could someone please explain why Shiraitodai's last move didn't go through? Why did Shizu tell her to check those two tiles? I don't fully understand the rules yet so insight on that would be nice.
Awai assumed ura-dora is tile she needed so she went ahead and started announcing the win. Shizu corrected her and it really turned out Awai was wrong, ura-dora didn't increase value of her hand.
You know, there were instances when players in Saki declared wins without looking at the tile they drew, Saki does this most often, almost every strong occult player does it when they tsumo. They know what the tile is thanks to flow, they feel it.
I think you could explain Awai's mistake with her desperation to win, she panicked, she was blinded by fear and denial. It just proves she isn't as much of a moster as we thought, she can't even recognize when flow stops favoring her. Hell, lone fact that flow stopped favoring her proves she isn't monster of Saki/Koromo/Teru level and that Shizu is better than Awai.


@Viletomb2010, I know MAL quote system sucks but try to make your replies easy to spot.
Yeah, Kei and Kyaputen are in individuals, I didn't mention that.


@shizuno, I'd love to reply thoroughly but I can't do it when your post barely resembles English. I'll try to deduce something.
It's true Saki's power wasn't noticed at the very beginning of manga by Hisa (really, the only one who could do it) but that's the reason - Ritz was more concerned about keeping manga alive, she didn't even know if she'll get to draw 10th chapter, not everything was thought out perfectly. However sensing power of other players was established very early, in 4th chapter, when Saki sensed Fujita pro upon her entering mahjong cafe.

Yes, Saki wasn't playing mahjong in past years just like Shizu. BUT. Saki was ALWAYS top-tier player. She used to rape her whole family at the table when she was child, to the point they were so angry that they took back her New Year's money. Remember that she was regularly outplaying Teru. Later she developed the style to +/-0 them which is MUCH harder than winning (keep in mind winning just 30% of the games is great average in mahjong). She was on completely different level than rest of her family at that point. Her power is absolute control over the table and it was like that since the beginning.
It's completely different with Shizu, in elementary school she was significantly worse than Kuro (vide flashback with Nodoka), played mahjong less than Kuro during middle school and we never got any info that she actually became stronger than Kuro in high school. Meanwhile first thing Saki does after returning to the sport is easily taking out middle school champion (Nodoka).
Can you see the astonishing difference?
Mar 13, 2013 1:57 PM
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@Progeusz
As you said, there isn't time when Shizu was said to be the strongest, actually at one point (if memory serves right, too lazy to check) they actually say that Ako is Achiga's best player.
Mar 13, 2013 4:07 PM
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Jun 2011
22
Progeusz said:

Gamer40000 said:
Shizu's ability is shown to be to stop other players from winning with abilities.
No, it's not. She's not Sae. Her power is manipulating the wall but I'm arguing about her developing powers at all which [edit]shouldn't[/edit] happen.

Gamer40000 said:
Shizu's ability is shown to be to stop other players from winning with abilities. So no it isn't bullshit that she supposedly suddenly developed it in the semi-finals, where all 3 of her opponents had abilities and in all her other matches she played normal players.
No, it is total bullshit. Remember flashback at the beginning of Achiga? Kuro was referred to as much stronger than Ako and Shizu and she's great example of player with special power. What's more, her power is reliant on wall. Shizu didn't do anything to her.


Sae's ability is to SEAL hands, which she can only do one at a time, while it also effects normal players as well. That flashback was back at the start of the manga so it is no longer accurate after Shizu and Ako were given more training by Harue. So no it isn't bullshit. Also you should check the date of my post, it was before the translations were out, which was before how we knew Shizu's ability works.

Progeusz said:
Gamer40000 said:
Yuu seeing Sumire's hand is logical in the anime and manga, Yuu can see Sumire's hand on the arm of the chair in the manga, and just has to lean over a little bit on the table to see her hand on the chair.
No, it is impossible to see it. She basically gained x-ray vision because Harue said so. http://i.minus.com/ibmGzKDpP6kNbl.png POV is above Yuu's head and you still can't see Sumire's fingers. Eventually chair magically shapeshifted when Achiga's plot armor was about to break. That's not mentioning how ridiculous this tell is. Just noticing it is completely unbelievable and they couldn't even fight it properly.


Look at the page again Yuu can clearly see the armrests, and again she just has to lean over slightly to see Sumire's hand. By using the tell Yuu knew that she would need to play defensively, which guess what, is one of the ways to counter Sumire. Its not unbelievable when you remember that mostly everyone just looks at records, while Harue actually bothered to watch the tapes, especially when its said she bothers with watching tapes thoroughly, which again most people don't seem to do. The chair looked exactly the same as the ones in the vanguard match, or maybe your referring to part about the chairs being different in the semi-finals then the quarter finals, well guess what its not unusual to change the chairs to something more visually appealing, which makes the girls sitting at the table feel more like they are part of a epic showdown.

Progeusz said:
Gamer40000 said:
And Shizu did sense Saki's arua, she so far is the only player who's walked by her who hasn't shat their pants or be shocked.
No, she didn't. http://i.minus.com/ibubTCslAA4fET.jpg


Look at the next page, Shizu clearly felt Saki's aura.

Progeusz said:
Gamer40000 said:
People really do forget that Haure came back to Achiga in winter, meaning more then 3 months for her to train them.
1) You can't become great just because you have good coach for three months
2) We haven't seen any results of training before semifinals. They barely gotten second place in quarters and suddenly won semis which were MUCH more difficult. It makes no sense, Harue wasn't even training them at this point. Actually, the only point of the series when Achiga made any noticable progress were mere few days when they went around losing to people who aren't even in nationals.


Harue was training them, off screen, its exactly the same with Kiyosumi and Hisa training Saki, Nodoka and Yuuki to bring out their full potential, we don't need to see their every training session, because it would bog down the story that already is slow, and it would make people not want to read it.
Something you should know is that without Toki, Senriyama would not have had the easy win they had in the quarter finals. Because if you bother to remember Toki specifically targeted Kuro, and she was unable to win, while in the semi-finals Toki was dealing with Teru not basically busting someone.

Progeusz said:
Gamer40000 said:
Also I really wouldn't call Shiraitodai weak, or bad players. Teru dominated her match, SUmire only looks bad, because guess what Yosiko played with cheap hands, meaning that Sunire who's ability requires time, got sealed up. Takami was also unable to play properly because Ako is better speed player then her, look back at Ako's match in the semi-finals, Ako is able to find out Takami's play style is fast hands. While with Awau, she dominated most of the match and she was dealing with 2 hackers. While Shizu only got one over on her because Awai didn't pay attention to her.
Sumire didn't lose all those points because of cheap hands. She got defeated by Harue hax. Now that she said
Sumire: I will get rid of my tell in 2 days and take advantage of that in reverse.
in chapter 20, I honestly won't be surprised if I see
Legend: Yuu, by now Sumire will know what her tell is and try to fool you. Here's this second tell no one else noticed. She moves her feet, so be sure to notice that shit when you play her.
as counter.


No, pay attention in the first round Yosiko won moat of the rounds, and it was cheap hands, which means Sumire wasn't able to utilize her style properly. And your not funny.

Progeusz said:
This just means Takami is worse than Ako. Not what I would expect from member of final boss team. Hisa should crush her.


Guess what Takami took damage from? Oh right Tsumo damage, so no she isn't worse then Ako. She had a case of dealing with Sera, who gets the 3rd year tenpai speed bonus, and Ako who just goes for cheap hands. Also all Takami would necessarily do is aim her yakuman at Ako, and Ako would lose alot of the points she made

Progeusz said:
Awaii dominated most of the match? By losing most of her daburiis? By being 4th worst scorer of semis excluding Teru's victims? By being terrible player who daburiis against Himeko even though she knows perfectly it won't help her? Awai was plain scared of Shizu in last hands, she was panicking, she was desperately grasping at straws to somehow end up second. She was blind, lost all control over the table at the end and didn't even notice it for which she got ridiculed by Shizu. Not very monster-like. How am I supposed to look forward to her match with Saki?


Look again, Awai only didn't come in first was because Ryuuka and Himeko basically got instant wins for abilities, and Awai didn't know if her double riichi wouldn't work against Himeko's keys, it was just her trying to challenge herself. And we take all this into account, and she was on the top for most of the match. So she did effectively dominate the match, by basically forcing Ryuuka to awaken hers and for Himeko to only stand a chance because of her keys.

Progeusz said:
Shizu only got one over on her because Awai didn't pay attention to her? No. Shizu suddenly showed greater influence than Teru, even though barely managing to get 2nd place in qt was peak of her ability just three days earlier.
http://i.minus.com/ibeI8ecEaLKr1R.jpg + translation:
Awai: Riichi.
Awai: In reverse?
Awai: Looks like that the orders have been affected with Achiga's control of the mountain depths.
Awai: Not even Teru managed to do that when she chose me.
Awai: Just what's going on...!!


First half of the match Awaii didn't take any notice of Shizu, so she wasn't expecting Shizu to suddenly start beating her down in the second half. Shizu played into a stealth hand by accident, which guess what, is something Teru and Saki could possibly do. And people do have good games and bad games.

Progeusz said:
What's more, Mairu x Himeko connection was almost broken by Shizu's influence even though we got info that even pros aren't capable of stopping it in last chapters. Why? Because. Magical powers don't need any explanation in Achiga-hen.


It was explained though, so your point is invalid. Um no its been said that maybe even pros will be unable to beat it. Remember that in Kirame's flashback that a pro was said to have bust every player in Shindouji during their 2 day practice, except for Kirame.

Progeusz said:
Don't forget Mairu x Himeko didn't even get the flashback because of Achiga's retarded pace. Thaere's also fact that Ritz/Igarashi were too lazy to think of any play style for Ryuuka so she got some stupid power last second and proved to be useless the moment she can't use it. How did she become best scorer in Kansai and captain of strong team like Senriyama then? Fairy Toki wasn't a thing before. It's not just Shizu and Awai. Everything about semis (except for awesome Vanguard match) is horrible.


You can blame Shindouji not getting a flashback on Senriyama, for basically having way to much time spent on their backstory, and them getting multile flashbacks, while also having ones that were not needed, e.g. seeing Seriyama's training camp. Ryuuka's playing style is easy to guess , in that its pretty much the same as Sera's, which is what most of the normal players in Saki's style is.

Progeusz said:
Arlia said:
Wasn't the whole point of Achiga Hen showing us a monster on par with Saki ? We got one. Shizuno, the main character of Achiga Hen. The one with the ability to nullify other ability. This match showed us that Shizuno will likely be Saki worst nightmare. Awai used kan too, and we got the result.
Whole point of Achiga was showing other side of finals, especially introducing two schools which advanced. One of them was random new school never mentioned in main series and other one was last boss hyped for seven years. Only Teru delivered. Shizu can't do anything to Saki. Saki isn't limited to Kans, she uses them only because she likes the meaning [edit] of Rinshan Kaihou[/edit]. Not to mention she watched captain match with Koromo. Saki can Rinshan, Saki can Tsumo, Saki can Ron, Saki can Kokushi Musou... Saki's ability isn't Rinshan Kaihou. Her ability is control over the table and points of all players.
Awai was supposed to be the monster. She was referred to as Teru's successor and strongest first yer together with Saki (and we know how big of a monster Saki is).
Shizu was never even referred to as strongest Achiga.


Achiga was mentioned in the main manga, it was during the interval where Kokaji and Fujita talk about Haure teaching at Achiga agin. Actually it seems Saki ability does have something to with manipulating the dead wall, which is how she pulls of her comeback hands, while using kan seems to always get her a possible rinshan kaihou, whether she chooses to use it or not is entirely up to her. Awai only lost because of Ryuuka and Himeko's abilities, because if they weren't using them, Awai would've run away with the match.

Progeusz said:
rederoin said:
Well, this could have ended worse. Like it having another chapter with Harue defeating the grandmaster, now that would really ruin things.
That's the reason why I don't want pro spin-off even though I'd love to see more Hayarin, Risa, Kokaji and other pros.


Yes because heaven forbid Kokaji actually lost a match.

Progeusz said:
kuuderes_shadow, there's no "evidence to the contrary". Feel free to provide a single page. I'll give you this handicap even though it should be dozen of pages if we were talking about decent build-up. Just to make things clear - no, Koromo's warning doesn't count because it happened already during semis (and only said Shizu might be troublesome, not that she has any special powers, not to mention being monster at that). Show me something even hinting Shizu's strength before semis. There's nothing at all. On the contrary, there's abundance of stuff telling us she's mediocre.


Koromo said Shizu stop 2 of her planned 5 haitai ryouais, something very troublesome, which effectively means your being cut out of your comfort zone. Shizu's ability only effects other ability users, so that would mean she's dangerous only to people like Saki, Hisa, Teru and Koromo, while people like Kyouko, Nodoka and Yumi, would just have a good game against her. The only thing we have to go off of for Shizu besides the semi-finals match is the single quarter-finals match, where she accidentally played into a stealth hand, which every single character could do without meaning to.

Progeusz said:
sarroush said:
Could someone please explain why Shiraitodai's last move didn't go through? Why did Shizu tell her to check those two tiles? I don't fully understand the rules yet so insight on that would be nice.
Awai assumed ura-dora is tile she needed so she went ahead and started announcing the win. Shizu corrected her and it really turned out Awai was wrong, ura-dora didn't increase value of her hand.
You know, there were instances when players in Saki declared wins without looking at the tile they drew, Saki does this most often, almost every strong occult player does it when they tsumo. They know what the tile is thanks to flow, they feel it.
I think you could explain Awai's mistake with her desperation to win, she panicked, she was blinded by fear and denial. It just proves she isn't as much of a moster as we thought, she can't even recognize when flow stops favoring her. Hell, lone fact that flow stopped favoring her proves she isn't monster of Saki/Koromo/Teru level and that Shizu is better than Awai.


Samething happened to Koromo, so Awaii can still be classed as monster, and don't forget awaii is facing people stronger then Yumi, Saki and Kana pre-combined training arc.


Progeusz said:
@shizuno, I'd love to reply thoroughly but I can't do it when your post barely resembles English. I'll try to deduce something.
It's true Saki's power wasn't noticed at the very beginning of manga by Hisa (really, the only one who could do it) but that's the reason - Ritz was more concerned about keeping manga alive, she didn't even know if she'll get to draw 10th chapter, not everything was thought out perfectly. However sensing power of other players was established very early, in 4th chapter, when Saki sensed Fujita pro upon her entering mahjong cafe.


Hisa saw potential in Saki for being able to consistantly =/-0 a game, meaning she wanted sharpen Saki's skill to be used in the upcoming tournament

Progeusz said:
Yes, Saki wasn't playing mahjong in past years just like Shizu. BUT. Saki was ALWAYS top-tier player. She used to rape her whole family at the table when she was child, to the point they were so angry that they took back her New Year's money. Remember that she was regularly outplaying Teru. Later she developed the style to +/-0 them which is MUCH harder than winning (keep in mind winning just 30% of the games is great average in mahjong). She was on completely different level than rest of her family at that point. Her power is absolute control over the table and it was like that since the beginning.
It's completely different with Shizu, in elementary school she was significantly worse than Kuro (vide flashback with Nodoka), played mahjong less than Kuro during middle school and we never got any info that she actually became stronger than Kuro in high school. Meanwhile first thing Saki does after returning to the sport is easily taking out middle school champion (Nodoka).
Can you see the astonishing difference?


Saki wasn't always a top-tier player. And her and Teru are equals, after all Teru had to have beaten Saki enough times for her to actually be scared of her. Another thing most people who play mahjong would not notice their abilities, also I don't think they start to come through and develop until late primary school. Shizu was placed third in the club, while Kuro was only placed first, because she was well playing children and they would not have had their preferred styles and strategies developed yet. So yet again another case of using the Achiga's children mahjing club, will not yeild you Shizuno's actual power level.

Dolitza said:
@Progeusz
As you said, there isn't time when Shizu was said to be the strongest, actually at one point (if memory serves right, too lazy to check) they actually say that Ako is Achiga's best player.


They said Ako was the most skilled player on Achiga, the best player from the looks of things is Yuu, who is the only one who has positive scores in all her matches.
Mar 13, 2013 4:13 PM

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Dolitza said:
@Progeusz
As you said, there isn't time when Shizu was said to be the strongest, actually at one point (if memory serves right, too lazy to check) they actually say that Ako is Achiga's best player.
Yes, Mihirogi Uta (Wakanne~ pro) said so during her match. She also mentioned that people forget about Ako being most skilled because of senpais with special powers - Matsumi Kuro and Matsumi Yuu. It suggests that Shizu is actually #4 or #5 in Achiga.

Oh, I found the page: http://i.minus.com/i3MJMbYscdCyo.png
Mar 13, 2013 5:30 PM

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254
I don't mind it. I expected Shizu to have some sort of ability and was waiting to see what it was. I don't think this cheapens Awai, but it does show how Saki will have a hard time with those two.
[/center]
Mar 13, 2013 10:12 PM

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Arlia said:
Wasn't the whole point of Achiga Hen showing us a monster on par with Saki ? We got one. Shizuno, the main character of Achiga Hen. The one with the ability to nullify other ability. This match showed us that Shizuno will likely be Saki worst nightmare. Awai used kan too, and we got the result.


There you go.
Mar 14, 2013 10:42 AM

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3194
Achiga will not the only one that will improve in semi final, finally we will see Kiyosumi in the next chapter.
Hopefully we can get an anime when they finish semi finals.

Shizu is strong didn't expect much but they do improve a lot.
Mountain huh? She conquering all the territory, she is indeed strong, but believe me Teru is dangerous.
She will be ever stronger at final.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained (Girls und Panzer der Film ) / from Nishizumi Miho

Mar 14, 2013 12:01 PM

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124
Rinshan Kaihou literally means "A flower that blooms on the ridge (of a mountain)". I expect Saki to destroy Shizu.
I work in VNs. Sometimes, they have h-scenes and I go "waai~". I also like to not write at Oppai is Justice, a blog with great urls.
Mar 14, 2013 12:12 PM

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8945
Progeusz said:
Dolitza said:
@Progeusz
As you said, there isn't time when Shizu was said to be the strongest, actually at one point (if memory serves right, too lazy to check) they actually say that Ako is Achiga's best player.
Yes, Mihirogi Uta (Wakanne~ pro) said so during her match. She also mentioned that people forget about Ako being most skilled because of senpais with special powers - Matsumi Kuro and Matsumi Yuu. It suggests that Shizu is actually #4 or #5 in Achiga.

Oh, I found the page: http://i.minus.com/i3MJMbYscdCyo.png


Playing skilfully is actually rather irrelevant at this stage of the tournament.

Mahjong demons and characters with special powers will often play badly - unskilled play that they nevertheless do either due to emotional attachment or because of foresight or feel for the flow of the hand. This is NOT skill - in fact it is the opposite. Calling reckless kans all over the place? Staying damaten for several rounds until the penultimate round and then declaring riichi without changing the shape of your hand whatsoever, collecting and hoarding certain tile types - these things aren't a mark of skill. They aren't even the mark of an amateur. They're the mark of someone who's just messing about and being an idiot.

Thus the most skilful player in Kiyosumi is probably either Mako or Nodoka. And in the final round of the Nagano finals, the most skilful player was probably Kana. And look what happened to her.

Thus, as far as this manga is concerned, most skilled does NOT equal best player.
There is no such thing as shit taste. Only idiots who think everyone should have the same taste as they do.
Mar 14, 2013 12:22 PM

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Yukariki said:
Rinshan Kaihou literally means "A flower that blooms on the ridge (of a mountain)". I expect Saki to destroy Shizu.


Interesting... I hadn't thought of that.
There is no such thing as shit taste. Only idiots who think everyone should have the same taste as they do.
Mar 14, 2013 9:36 PM

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1649
Well that was fun. Shizu ended up on top and Awai could only get up the second.

Expected both of them to be the ones to go on, but my favorite was Shindouji

Mar 15, 2013 11:43 AM

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335
Okey, here I will post my long article about Shizuno... (sorry for any grammar mistake)

Purpose of this article

Trying Prove that Shizu doesn’t suddenly become hax in the semi-final by using the evidences presented in Achiga manga.

IMPORTANT: this article is based on my personal understanding about Shizu character that:

1. While Shizu may not good at gaining score, she’s very good at defensive play (Evidence: Look at score in quarter final and semi final, she almost never dealt into someone hand and she didn’t win often)

2. She has power to cancel other abilities, but this power is unreliable or unusable when play with normal people.

Now with that in mind, let’s go by point to point.


Why people in story never say Shizu is Achiga #1

It is not hard to notice that people usually say who is better by how much point that player gained. That’s why Shizu , who is good at defend, is not considered the best player in Achiga. She is under the shadow of teammates. She’s also only shine when the table is full of monster.

Shizu vs Koromo (This part is not really related to the topic but I will just put it here)

Considering that Shizu is good at defensive play, it is possible that Shizu can avoided most of direct hit [Ron] by Koromo but lost most point to Koromo’s Haitei raoyue [Tsumo] since her power didn’t work at first.

In chapter 19, Koromo said that after one point in the game with Shizu, she can’t do Haitei raoyue at all. Let’s consider that Shizu’s power was working at that time.

Now the question is: “Did Shizu beat Koromo?”

No one knows but here are something fun to think about:

- A Round that Koromo tried to win with Haitei raoyue but failed will end with no one win in that round.
- Shizu ability can cancel [Haitei raoyue] but we don’t know whether it can cancel [no tempai zone] or not
- Koromo may be able to only rely on normal Tsumo since [Haitei raoyue] is blocked and Shizu is hard to get Ron.
- From those points present above, what can you guess about the result???


Shizu in Tournament

Start of Tournament – quarter-final

In all matches before quarter-final, Kuro , Yuu, Ako and Arata managed to gain a lot of point.
When captain round start, Achiga was probably in the 1st place all the time. Shizu only need to defend, defend and defend until the end. Of course, she probably got many points too. Her power is useless during this part of series because there was no ability-user player.

Quarter-final

I went back to check the score:

At the end of vice-captain match, 4 teams score are

Senriyama: 171,700
Kantani: 95,400
Achiga: 91,800
Koshiyaga: 41,100

and then time skipped to the last round of captain round

Senriyama: 180,400 (+8,700) from the end of vice-captain round)
Kantani: 93,600 (-1,800) from the end of vice-captain round)
Achiga: 81,700 (-10,100) from the end of vice-captain round)
Koshiyaga: 44,300 (+3200) from the end of vice-captain round)

What we learned from this?

1.) Quarter-final was the first time that Achiga fell far behind the first place (Senriyama) when captain round start. Kuro takes all responsible for this.

2) The score is almost no different from the end of vice captain round - which means the skill level of players in this round are pretty equal or all of them played defensively. In other word, Shizu skill is on the same level as Ryuuka and other player.

3) It is possible that Shizu realized that she won’t be able to take the 1st place (or very hard to do) and just tried to get into second spot, which she did it BUT she made a mistake and dealt into Haneman hand.

4) It is possible that the Haneman hand that Shizu dealt in is the only time that she dealt in someone hand in captain round because if we plus back the score of Haneman (12000/18000 (dealer) ) Shizu score will be 93,700 or 99,700 which is enough to take second spot. Also, please consider that one of other teams will have 12000/18000 points lower before Shizu dealt in. This is another evidence to prove that Shizu’s defensive play is very good.

5) Shizu power is quite useless here. However, shizu managed to gain some points. Without getting hit by Haneman, Shizu gained at least 1900-7900 points + unknown amount of point gained during the round.
Shizu doesn't "suddenly" get better in semi-final. It has been hinting by Ritz since the beginning


Semi-final

Just as what you saw in ch.18-20.

Shizu had advantage in this round because all other players are ability user/monsters. Therefore, Shizu power is very useful here. Therefore, Shizu power is very useful here.

Achiga started the captain round with sufficient amount of point. Shizu played defensively, then found a chance to abuse her ability, win just a few times and get into #1. After that, Shizu did what she can do the best: Defend, defend, and defend….until the end.

Conclusion

1. Shizu mahjong skill is consistent though out entire series. Her main Strength is defense not attack.
2. While Shizu's ability is intentionally hidden from viewers ,there are enough hint to show that the ability existed all the time but Shizu just don't have a chance to show it.

In the end, what important for Achiga team is like what Akado said in chapter 3: The Combine power

If Kuro, Yuu, Ako and Arata can gain sufficient amount of point for Shizu before the captain round, then Achiga will have a high chance to win.

If they failed, then Achiga will probably lose too.


END
.................................................. ...................................
Mar 16, 2013 2:16 AM

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Sep 2012
3613
And now a round of applause for Marina.
Mar 16, 2013 4:52 AM

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Jan 2011
620
noticed Shirotodai is the only team that remained emoltionless after the match, except Awai of coz :)

the 2 schools that advanced seem to be already predicted by most readers, but still Senriyama shall be missed

now think back about Shizu's promise that they will meet Nodoka in the finals, she is really that confident

now just waiting for the anime
Mar 16, 2013 12:04 PM

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Apr 2010
9752
Shame to see this is over but we will get to see the girls again in the original Saki which means we will get longer chapters in the original Saki again as well.
And i am already looking forward of the match between Saki, Awai and Shizu that will be a awesome match if Saki wins the semifinals of course.

It has been fun reading about the A side of the tournament and Achiga is pretty interesting school with there mahjong club.
The matches where also pretty interesting.
Mar 16, 2013 2:26 PM

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Sep 2010
152
Ewww they completely ruined Shiraitodai image, if it wasn't because of Teru they would have been destroyed, all are in reds.
I can't say I didn't enjoy it but still... even Shindouji felt stronger, Mairu is such a monster.

Not even shitty hax mountains can win against love power, but where's the yuri flashback between Mairu and Himeko?
Mar 16, 2013 11:02 PM

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Jan 2009
289
Damn, Shizuno completely destroyed Awai. Definitely didn't expected that.
Though Saki will still kick her ass with whatever new tech she'll show us on the main manga.

Overall Achiga was an enjoyable ride with awesome characters and a breathtaking semifinal match. Wonder what Ritz and Igarashi have in store for us now.
Mar 17, 2013 2:06 PM

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Jun 2010
1218
Don't care if their powers are hax or explainable - but that match and also the manga as a whole was really unsatisfying. Am not even sure anymore that I want to see the finals.

Now a school of plain, uninteresting characters advances which haven't gotten any emotional investment partly due to the rushed nature of the manga. Hell - if one cares more about any other char besides them then the mangaka messed up somewhere.

Not only that but they also succeeded in undermining one of the main motivational points/goals of the original series in showing how much Shiratodai sucked. - You can reason and analyze all you want about how they theoretically can do better - they sure sucked. That's the image one gets after reading the manga.

Sorry ... but no ... if that's the direction that Saki goes. You can keep it! Don't want it.

No sign of the quirkiness of the original cast. Some vague goals without any other layer of story or motivation behind it. Plain chars playing plain matches.

That can maybe interest the mahjong cracks. But the enjoyment of the original is nowhere to be found.
Mar 18, 2013 2:52 AM
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114
I believe the most unsatisfying part was how Achiga suddenly powered up and beat down Shiraitodai. Since it was the semifinals, I can understand Achiga being on top to prepare to get stomped on in the finals BUT in the process, they made it seem like Shiraitodai couldn't fight back.

The only real gripe I had was with Yuu: Wtf? u telling me that finger twitch is noticeable? at that angle across the table? And almost disregarding her own ability, ok.

Also, Ryuuka from Senriyama just got called too normal and had to rely on Toki powers.

tl;dr: I guess the main reason Side A doesn't seem as good is because we didn't really see much of hax vs hax, the players aren't trying hard enough against each other. There wasn't enough struggle to accomplish their own powers other than in Teru's match.
Mar 21, 2013 12:36 PM

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KJacket said:
And almost disregarding her own ability, ok.


Yuu's "ability" is actually just a skew in the tiles she draws in favour of ones with red on them. She can choose to keep whatever tiles she likes from those she draws (which still includes plenty of tiles without red) with no repercussions. It isn't like Kuro.
There is no such thing as shit taste. Only idiots who think everyone should have the same taste as they do.
Mar 24, 2013 3:20 PM

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Oct 2012
1649
KJacket said:

The only real gripe I had was with Yuu: Wtf? u telling me that finger twitch is noticeable? at that angle across the table? And almost disregarding her own ability, ok.

lol. let me remind you of something here. this is a manga. We've already established that the girls in here have supernatural mahjong powers and you're questioning how she can see the finger twitch? I'm pretty sure that are plenty of things that seem out of this world in this manga (and probably many more to come!).

Apr 3, 2013 3:32 AM
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114
Takei_Hisa said:
KJacket said:

The only real gripe I had was with Yuu: Wtf? u telling me that finger twitch is noticeable? at that angle across the table? And almost disregarding her own ability, ok.

lol. let me remind you of something here. this is a manga. We've already established that the girls in here have supernatural mahjong powers and you're questioning how she can see the finger twitch? I'm pretty sure that are plenty of things that seem out of this world in this manga (and probably many more to come!).

I know, but supernatural is completely out there, while finding a tell is actually plausible. Something like it's easier to not disbelieve a lie than be wary of a half-truth. Or don't make it seem real if you can't - at least make it an eye twitch.

Nothing major.
Apr 10, 2013 9:51 AM
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Jun 2011
22
This is something I just posted on animesuki's forums.

I know we've gone through this already, but I feel I really need to point somethings out.

Shiraitodai was never once built as a dangerous unstoppable team. Only Teru was foreshadowed to be a ungodly dangerous player, while the rest were hinted to be just really good players.

Also calling them Teru and a team of point losers, is really stupid. As we know in Sumire's match forgetting about her tell, in the match Yoshiko used cheap hands to effectively stop Sumire, meaning she didn't get as many arrows off as she normally would. And we all know that Yoshiko kept winning with cheap hands, in the first half Yoshiko won 4 rounds, so I'm guessing she won 4 again in the 2nd half. And these cheap hands and Yuu exploiting her tell would effectively mean Sumire got sealed completely, meaning that if Yoshiko hadn't been present Sumire could have proceeded to bust Izumi if she wished.

For Takami let me state something, there are supposed to beat least 8 rounds in every match, while in Saki we know they use a 2 game system. So effectively Takami has the chance of at least TWO yakuman hands. But as established apparently Ako stopped Takami from getting her Yakuman in the first half, I have to say it would've been nice if we saw Ako stop Takami's first harvest time, if you wondering where its said Ako stopped Takami's 1st harvest time, it was on page 6 ch 15, Awai told us, 'newbie first year' clearly this was referring to Ako seeing as she was the only 1st year at the table in the lieutenant match. Also if Takami had gotten 2 yakumans she would of gotten herself positive points and possibly be the highest point earner. So with Takami she also got sealed just like Sumire, but only partially because Ako managed to stop her first yakuman but not the second. Also as stated Ako's better speed play and Sera's tenapi bonus also kept Takami sealed.
Just 2 go over the above Takami has the chance of at least TWO Yakuman, which is pretty darn scary, then add on her chance of dealer repeats with continuous yakumans, I can honestly see why she was chosen by Teru.

As for Seiko we all know that what mainly happened for her was a poor match up, with Hiroko exploiting her discard habits, Mairu being a more experienced player and Arata tricking her with her play style. What also didn't help, because she was in the lead, everyone aimed for her

Also on Awai, she was only ever hinted to be monster player, not a player on the level of Teru. And again you all seem to forget, Awai only had so much trouble because Himeko's and Ryuuka's abilities were ones that are guaranteed wins. While Shizu is pretty much the bane of any occult player, and Shizu only really started to dominate in the second half of the match. So to reiterate Awai is still a monster its just a case of she was matched up against people who have faced monsters before, Shizu who has faced Koromo AND Kei (and chances are Kei is stronger then Awai), Ryuuka and Himeko who have played at a national level before.

And I really have to point this out Shizu's ability is not an ass pull, her ability seems to come from her love of mountains, and it has been shown that Shizu loves mountains, the special chapter does do a pretty good job of establishing her love for mountains, also the manga is constantly referencing this when Shizu is in Nara, with the backgrounds. Also when we first see Shizu she seems to run down a steep hill, which does help to establish she enjoys hiking up mountains. And I came up with this by looking at Yuu and Kuro's ability, which come from their love of certain things, Yuu because of her love of warmth gets warm tiles all the time, Kuro's comes from her cherishing dora. Also looking at Arata's play style which involves bowling its entirely possible that some abilities are developed through people's hobbies and part-time jobs. And this isn't all that implausible, when you remember that Momo is able to use her stealth mode due to her low presence.
Also if you look over the final quarter-final round, you'll see the dice is a six, and when Shizu won they were pretty far into the mountain, also something else to note was she that she was able to constantly change her hand to winning one. So its just like with how Saki is scared of Kyouko, if you go back and look you'll find the hints that were laid out for us to find.
Another thing with Shizu's ability is it seems the longer a match goes on the more control over the mountain she has, so I'd say Shizu's ability comes into play in the south round.
Something else that should you remember is that the semi-finals round is our proper introduction to Shizu's as a player.
Also if people really are going to try and bring out that it was a ass pull, then that effectively means every power from now on and previously established, besides Yuuki's, Saki's and Teru's, should be regarded as ass pulls.
I do hope you all remember that Hisa's ability wasn't foreshadowed once.

Something I find quite annoying with some members in the Saki fandom, they want to have Shiraitodai dominate, but they also want to have a match where all players are relevant in the match. Also Shiraitodai struggling nearer the end of the nationals is perfectly plausible, because the teams in the semi-finals are the teams that would actually make Shiraitodai have to play seriously.

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It’s time to ditch the text file.
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