My first taste of Saki didn't exactly get me hooked...
When this series was first announced, my gut reaction was to skip it. I hadn't seen Saki, though it was on my to-watch list, and I figured I could wait to watch this one. I changed my mind when I saw that this show would be adapted from a spinoff manga covering the other side of the tournament bracket. It featured completely new characters, and by all appearances someone who hadn't watched Saki could watch this show with little trouble. But twelve episodes later, I have to be honest... I don't get the obsession. I probably would've been better off going with my gut feeling.
However, I do think that my apathy has to do with the starting point I picked. This isn't a good show for first impressions. Despite being adapted from a spin-off, the show isn't beginner-friendly. Like I mentioned in my post on the first episode, there's an overriding feeling throughout the show that the audience is already completely captivated with it, so it thinks it can do basically whatever it feels like with no repercussions. The main group gets little to no character development, so it's impossible to root for them, let alone care about them. Side characters show up for an episode (or two, if they're lucky), get hyped to hell and back, and then disappear, never to be mentioned again. The majority of the cast is identified solely by a majong power, speech quirk, or weird hair. Personality? Character arc? What's that?
That's not to say that it doesn't try, but for the most part the show mistakes forced drama for character growth. Spoilers follow after this point. Why does it matter that one character was disappointed in the teacher for leaving? That plotline goes nowhere, and we never see either of them play anyway! For that matter, why did they cancel the majong club at the beginning of the show in the first place? Clearly the interest was still there. I could understand not being able to hold it at the school anymore, but it seemed strange to shut the whole thing down. I could go on with examples like this, but one thing that bothered me the most was that the alleged main character doesn't change at all. Her silhouette is in the title, but I can't think of anything she does that merits it. From start to finish, she doesn't change. Her sole motivation is to meet someone, and while there's nothing wrong with that, the question of "why" is answered with "because!"
I would be willing to overlook this if the actual point of the show--crazy majong battles--got its due, but for roughly the first five episodes of the show (and even a few after) they fall victim to poor pacing. This ties in to what I've mentioned above, with the forced drama. Instead of using the first half of the show to let the audience develop an affinity for them and show how these girls play, we get the majority of the forced drama and an after-the-fact summary once the matches are decided. A big deal was made out of how long it had been since their school had been to the national tournament, and the local qualifying round was hyped accordingly, especially their opponents. However, that match is completely glossed over yet the show treats it like the end of a shounen tournament arc. What is there to celebrate when we don't see the characters overcome anything?
You might be wondering why I didn't drop the show if I found so many flaws with it, and I was intending to. However, there was one part of the show that gave me everything that I had expected going in. The Senriyama girl's team was what the main girls should have been, especially Toki. This group was everything that the "main characters" weren't but should have been. We get enough backstory to understand their position and care about them. Toki falls victim to the same overdone drama that plagues the entire show, but I cared about her character far more from the few flashbacks we get than I ever did about the group the anime is supposed to be following. Also, she provided most of the insane power trips that I'd been told to expect from this show.
I suppose the show wasn't a complete bust, since it got me interested in the characters from Saki. Even the show that supposed to be about the opposite bracket in the tournament can't help but hype the title character, which says a lot about how the material for this show just isn't all that interesting. It's also a problem of expectations and perspective on my end too, since I went in with a set of factors I was told by fans to expect and then didn't get any of it. Maybe this show is really good in the context of Saki; I wouldn't know. I will say that despite this being a spin-off with new characters, if you haven't seen Saki don't watch this show. It offers little in terms of hooking in new viewers, and I still don't get the hype surrounding this franchise. Maybe I'll try again after watching the original.
Images from Crunchyroll.com.
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