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Digital
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Tuesday, 03 January 2012 00:00 |
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Page 1 of 3
I have never played mahjong, have no idea as the the rules of the game or what you're supposed to do in it, and frankly don't have much desire to learn, either. Here we have a series where mahjong is absolutely central to the story - which you think would mean I'd be left high and dry by it. Not so fast...
When Saki first saw Nodoka walking by, it was almost love at first sight. And breast size comparisons were noted. She was never much of a fan of mahjong, but when she was then dragged along to the Mahjong Club by friend Kyou, and found that Nodoka was also a member, destiny decided that she was going to play mahjong. Whether she liked it or not...
Okay, saying that Saki was "never much of a fan of mahjong" isn't quite accurate - she's been playing the game for many years, but thanks to a combination of having an elder sister who was good enough at the game to go pro, and learning that when you're playing casually people don't want to be beaten all the time, Saki developed a rather unique approach to the game: to play in such a way that she always - and we do mean always - finished on a score of +/- zero. It's a habit that she continued with in her first few games at the Kiyosumi High mahjon club - except that club president Hisa and the other members knew enough about the game to realise that, if Saki was able to play the game well enough to control her scoring that well, she had to be bloody good at it - and that if she could be retrained to play to win, she'd be the best player they had. From that point, there was no escape for Saki - and to be fair, when playing with the other club members, she soon rediscovers a love of the game.
Nodoka is a mahjong prodigy of a slightly different sort - scourge of online game-rooms, her Nodochi persona is feared far and wide, but playing face-to-face is a slightly different skill and Nodoka's slowly learning how to deal with live play. Along the way, she forms a strong (read: yuri-fan-bait) friendship with Saki as the pair play through the tournaments that the club enters.
It's not just about them, though. Club president Hisa is in her final year of high-school, but has never played in a competitive tournament before - although with her tactical skills, you can't help but wonder why. Yuuki is the club junior, a bundle of energy who can play a mean game under certain circumstances - but not so good if things aren't set up in just the right way. Mako is Hisa's long-standing friend, with that pair in many ways being an older counterpart to Nodoka and Saki. Kyou is the club's token male and whipping boy. There's a decent range of personalities, although strangely it's Nodoka and Saki who come off worse on that front, despite being nominally the leads, while Hisa and Yuuki in particular feel far more rounded and are more fun to watch as a result. Go figure.
There are also the teams from four other schools to meet, each with their own personality quirks, their own style of play (including superhuman special powers!), and their own internal team conflicts that get an airing when the series is taking a break from the mahjong games themselves. Those games probably account for about three-quarters of the series' air-time, with the character interactions left to fill the rest.
You'd think, then, that if you didn't understand mahjong, you'd have a hard time following most of the show, right? That's true up to a point - richi, kung, river, and all sorts of other mahjong terms that mean absolutely nothing to me fly past at a frightening rate. Scores are rattled off with no explanation as to how they're reached. There's a handy commentary team for most of the matches, but they're not thinking of mahjohn newbs like me. And yet the games are still fun to watched, thanks to the over-the-top way they're played, and the "special abilities" that most of the players seem to have: "Stealth Momo" is so quiet and unobtrusive that she's able to take turns without her opponents noticing what she's done (handy when you're discarding valuable tiles); Mihoko keeps one eye closed, perhaps to hide her noticeable heterochromia, but when things get serious the other eye opens and her game takes on a whole new approach; Koromo literally "drowns" her opponents with her special moves; and more besides. It adds flavour and interest that lets those who don't know what's happening otherwise still get something out of the experience of watching.
Surprisingly enjoyable, then. I only watched this after hearing that a spin-off sidestory will be getting its own series soon, and I'm quite glad I did. It's firmly in the "mindless viewing" category, you'll not get anything deep and meaningful from it, but it's still enjoyable enough to watch to be worth a look.
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