Saki 02 & K-ON 01-02; C-C-C-Combo Post

April 14th, 2009 by Shirukii

I know that this has probably been said a plethora of times previously, but…she came.

Oooh, big dilemma, do I blog Saki, do I blog K-ON, both? Neither?! I kinda want to do both, but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to keep up that pace, since…well, I’m lazy. However, these two shows have the potential to drag the blogger out of me once again. They’re a ton of fun to watch and I can see them being a ton of fun to blog.

Anyway, I digress.

Saki 02

This week starts right where episode 1 left off, Saki pulls an insane hand out of a very select few to bring her score back to +/- 0. Another game is set up, but this time the president asks Saki if she might not try to play to win, suggesting she think of the initial scores being altered to her opponents favor so a perceived +/- 0 is really a guaranteed win. Nodo steps her game up and dominates for the majority of the round, but Saki wins the last hand with a, pardon me if I get this wrong, rinshan tsumo, suanko. (For some reason I want to say it’s a chankan tsumo, instead of a rinshan).

The rest of the episode is reserved for Nodoka BAAAAAW. Saki confronts her after the game but Nodo is all pissy because she got beaten by Saki, who doesn’t even like mahjong. Nodo runs home, broods in the shower, her wet hair clinging to her huge breasts, then she broods some more in bed, her huge breasts pushed against the bed. Breasts breasts breasts breasts breasts. I bet GONZO could redesign Nodoka to have no head and not a single person would notice.

Oh, there was also that bit that hinted that Saki’s mom is a mahjong celebrity of sorts.

I really hate Nodoka, not only because of her cow boobs, but because she keeps switching intermittently between creaming her panties over Saki and hating her because she’s a sore loser.

Speaking of panty creaming, dear god the lesbian undertones are strong in this one. All it’s missing is Nodo humping the corner of the mahjong table while moaning Saki’s name.

Just out of curiosity, I’d like to ask those of you who don’t know much about mahjong to comment on how the show is doing in terms of explaining it. Are you guys following along easily or do you find yourselves lost in the terms and scores being thrown around and only know something is epic when the speedlines and lightning kick in?

K-ON 01-02

This anime is a riot to watch. Yui is by far the driving force of the show, the lazy, easily distracted, airheaded lead who stumbles into the light music club in an attempt to bring some measure of excitement into her otherwise mundane life. She sorta reminds me of mai waifu with her general sillyness and some of the cute stuff she does…

Hup hup hup

And the effectiveness of sweets as a calming agent…

There’s more to the show than Yui though, the rest of the cast meshes very well together. You have the rich ojou-sama character, Tsumugi, the off the wall insane character, Ritsu, and her boke sidekick and voice of reason, Mio.

The show is a great mix of school comedy and slice of life, sorta like a Minami-ke/Manabi Straight fusion. The part time job scenes were pretty funny and everyone hanging out in the club room talking about music and fattening Yui up with cakes and pastries is equally hilarious.

A huge reason why I’m partial to this anime is because I’m also an aspiring guitarist, and when I saw Yui’s excitement to start playing, watched her pine over that Sunburst Les Paul Signature, I started to remember how I felt when I first started out, and it led me to pick up my guitar and start messing around again, the first time I had done so in many months. Damn Yui for getting her $2,500 LP in less than a week while I had to wait for close to half a year before I held my Ibanez RG, at less than half that cost retail. Spoiled brat D:

Now that everyone has an instrument, the real fun (ie. SCALES SCALES SCALES) should begin. Although for some reason I think Yui’s going to be some sort of guitar prodigy and have sweep arpeggios and string skipping under her belt before the week is out.

Quick note on technicals, animation is cutesy, but fitting. Music, judging from OP and ED, seems to fit the bill, and not half bad for an animu.

=O Ritsu you bitch!

~ Shirukii ~

11 Comments »


11 Responses to “Saki 02 & K-ON 01-02; C-C-C-Combo Post”

  1. on 14 Apr 2009 at 11:45 pm1 Hey, it is that Linall guy

    So I uh, I have a confession to make. I’ve seen the two episodes of K-ON that are out and I’m really enjoying the show. As setrotyped as the characters are, they’re currently amusing to the point where I can’t hate them for it.

    Ritsu is my favorite character right now, but Yui is p. goddamn funny. I mean, how can you dislike someone who is so much of a space shot that she pulls everyone else into orbit with her?

    Also, the animation doesn’t bug me much in action, but there are some painful screens you can pasue on if you are paying enough attention.

  2. on 15 Apr 2009 at 3:55 am2 panda monium

    K-On FTW! Yui’s great fun even when she’s staring at the clouds, but the real winner has to be Mio. “Yu.. Yui” oh god so moe, even Yui was blown away by it.

    though there is something deeply wrong about a high-schooler having a 2 grand guitar :o i hope yui doesn’t turn out to be an instant prodigy – one thing i like about it is that the band are actually kind of average..

    My problem with Saki, apart from the cheesy drama, is that her crazy mahjong abilities boil down to being able to draw the winning tile when she needs it. Winning by strategy and bluff? cool. Winning by dumb luck? lame.

  3. on 15 Apr 2009 at 5:48 pm3 CupY

    They are so cute when they make funny faces :)

  4. on 17 Apr 2009 at 1:37 am4 Siva

    >>”She sorta reminds me of mai waifu with her general sillyness and some of the cute stuff she does…”
    Can I start imagine now?

  5. on 17 Apr 2009 at 11:59 am5 Shirukii

    @ linny: Glad you like =D Ritsu definitely my fav after Yui, reminiscent of Miu from IchiMashi and Kana from Minami-ke. Mio is after that, and Tsugumi bringing up the rear.

    @ panda: Agreed, there needs to be more strategy in Saki rather than victory by apparent blind luck. The explanation scenes in Akagi are what propelled it to epic levels.

    @ CupY: Quite :3

    @ Siva: DOZO.

  6. on 17 Apr 2009 at 1:08 pm6 Hey, it is that Linall guy

    @Shirukii: Why yes, yes she is. Maiu from Ichidashi and Kani for Menami-key. Yes, I completely comprehend and agree. Quite.

  7. on 18 Apr 2009 at 8:07 pm7 Lumi~

    Nooooooooo I don’t! Only the part about the sweets is true >:

  8. on 20 Apr 2009 at 11:04 am8 Yongho Kim

    > Are you guys following along easily or do you find yourselves lost in the terms and scores being thrown around and only know something is epic when the speedlines and lightning kick in?

    Yes. I never played majjong; saw two episodes and I have no idea what they are talking about during the game. Is there any place on the web that at least explains the basics of how this thing works?

  9. on 20 Apr 2009 at 2:01 pm9 Shirukii

    @ Kim: This is the internets! Of course there is =D

    http://www.delfosse.com/mahjong.html

    @ Lumi: I know :3

  10. on 21 Apr 2009 at 2:26 pm10 Vadigor

    Saki makes no sense at all for someone who doesn’t know the game, since it doesn’t explain anything at all. Fansubs go to some lengths to cram the hand explanation in their notes, which is equally useless to someone who doesn’t know it.

    Apart from the fact that there’s not a lot of actual playing going on, just some random “lol it’s over and I win by chance/luck/demonic aura *comeback*”

    I was looking forward to this series since I really enjoyed Akagi, which is where I learned how to play the game in the first place, but this has just been dissapointing.

    And yes, milk cow indeed.

    EDIT:

    @Yongho Kim: Watch Akagi (make sure you get a good fansub for it that explains the hands somewhat), and gloss over the (Japanese) Mahjong rules on wikipedia and other sites. It’s how I learned it and should be enough to get you by.

  11. on 27 Apr 2009 at 7:42 pm11 AS

    K-On is awesome. I’m a major Mio fanboy. Moe Moe Kyun <3.

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