Category Archives: Anime

Saki: Hisa Takei, the best non-monster-class player

Posted on by fnzna
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いつかの未来【リクエスト】 | けなお [pixiv]

いつかの未来【リクエスト】 | けなお [pixiv]

If there is anyone that I look up to for mahjong playing skills in Saki, Hisa Takei has gotta be at least one of them. Her solid playing skill coupled with her ability to intimate and manipulate people moves makes her one of the strongest players that does not contain monster-class ability (ie the Miyanaga sisters).

One of Hisa’s playing style is waiting for bad tiles, that is, purposely choosing the worse (winning) wait when given the choice to choose to discard different tiles to go to tenpai. As noted by her teammate, Nodoka Haramura, that playing choice is counterintuitive to her wanting to win her hand, giving her a less % of the possible discard to win on, hence a lower chance for her to win, especially ie when Hisa chose to wait on a single wait as opposed as a five sided wait. However, often noted in commentary after Hisa’s victory on bad waits, that her decision tend to be correct in hindsight, ie, with her opponents holding on her tiles if she went for the better waits. While those whole commentary was just placed to put Hisa on a pedestal, it does shows the nature of the mahjong game, especially in Saki universe where character can call on gods to win hands, of how Nodoka is not always correct (something that she get punished for in Nationals). However, her decision to choose bad waits, as seen in the confusion that her style have caused in other, is just one way where she controls her game not using ability but just being really cunning.

As seen in the Prefectural Tournament Finals, her playing style caused confusion to all her opponents, especially Kazekoshi’s Bundou. Furthermore, her cunning plays caused Ryuumonbuchi’s Hajime to question her similarity to Koromo. Yes, Koromo. While Hajime later concluded that Hisa does not have the same monster class ability,  as Koromo, that questioning does show the control that Hisa had in the game, one that is obtained through psychological attacks. With that, I also expect that her bad mahjong manners, with her slamming tiles as she declares self-win, is another method where she pronounce her control of the mahjong game, saying something along the lines of “This is my playing ground, I get to do whatever I want.”

However, what I like about her playing style is how she, like us, do get crappy hands at times that just never seem to connect, getting the same, or related tiles that you just threw out. In those times, her plays are rational, like how she decided to switch strategy (even if it lands her in furiten). And the fact is that, Hisa’s play are logical and rational most of the times, and even in those times, she isn’t weak at all. She was able to give Mihoko difficulties years ago, was able to fully take one of her opponent’s team during Nationals, preventing the vice-president match from happening. In summary, all these just points to how realistic her plays are, of how she does get bad hands and take advantage of it, how she controls the game with moves that are less in power but more in confusion.

If Saki exemplified the people with monster-class abilities and Saki Achiga showed the importance of knowledge of your opponents, then Hisa Takei would just be an ok character in Saki, overshadowed by people like Saki and Koromo, which she is, but would be shown as one of the best players in Saki Achiga. Yes, she does not seem to be in the spotlight as often, but heck, I’d say she is as strong as, or close to, the people that get all the spotlight.

Talking about mahjong, I have created a new site: Aniblog Tenhou, and will hold the first Aniblog Tenhou Tourney on that website latter this year. Currently, I’m asking for both participants and staff for the Tourney.

For participants, you just need to be an writer or ex-writer for an anime/manga blog: Instructions and sign up are here.

And there are no restrictions for staff. Instructions are here.

Finally, I’m going to Anime North next weekend (May 24 -26), so hit me up on Twitter if you want to listen to my adventures for this year and/or want to meet up.

Spring 2013 First Impressions

Posted on by fnzna
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Crabs and shrimps – Aiura OP

After almost a season of inactivity (I was trying to devote the blog to shorts for the past season but quickly ran out of stuff to say) and brunt out from having watched too many mediocre shows last season, lets hope this season will be a season of new encounters and new endeavors, hoping that the new shows that I pick up this season will be decent until the end.

So far, from the stuff that I have watched so far, most of them were decent enough for me to optimistic of this season in whole. Without further ado, here are the shows that I have watched so far, from worst to best:

7. Sparrow Hotel

I went in to the show knowing that it was bad, and geez, it was bad. The character design and animation looked like something from the late 90′s, and hence looks horribly dated already. Maybe that style will appeal to people who watched stuff like Saber Marionette (actually Saber Marionette looked better than it). The jokes aren’t even funny. I really don’t see why this show even exist.

6. To Aru Kagaku no Railgun S

While it is good to see the Railgun cast return, this episode was just one big disappointment. The episode just mostly introduced and reminded us of how powerful Misaka was, something that is already known to everyone that had watched the first season already. So was this episode for people that skipped season one? Maybe, but then they would have missed the detail that the beginning of season 2 just continues from the end of season 1. I guess the fact that I liked Railgun was because of the character interaction played against my enjoyment in this episode, as it was rather random (highly unrelated to the main plot) battle heavy. I guess we will have to wait for episode 2 before we character interaction involving Saten-san and Kuroko.

5. Kakumeiki Valvrave

The first episode of Valvrave was as Gundam as you can get without putting the name Gundam to the title. Enemy sneaking into a ‘safe’ area to steal important mecha? Check. The main antagonists is a bunch of kids? Check (Gundam Seed). You get the idea. On top of that, most likely because of the large cast, the episode took quite a while to lightly introduce the cast and create enough plot so that MC will get into the mecha when the invasion happens, hence, making the whole first half rather boring. However, in  the second half, Sunrise shows their expertise in mecha fights by showing us a fairly decent battle. Topped off with a opening by Nana Mizuki and T.M Revolution, I can almost forgive the show by being so unoriginal and boring for most of episode 1.

And then….something expected happens: the MC became a vampire. lol Valvrave, just lol.

4. Yuyushiki

Similar to Valvrave, Yuyushiki was rather mediocre until a turning point. While there were some cute and/or funny parts earlier, Yuyushiki didn’t get interesting until main cast of 3 entered into the Data Processing Club room, where they turned on computers and started searching and talking about random things. Hey, that’s almost like my browsing habit at times, just going on Wikipedia and Google to find and read up on random knowledge that will not be applicable in both my work and life aside from it being stuff that I can bring up when I talk to my friends. If the show does go on like this, I might actually quite enjoy it.

Though I still don’t like their character design at times

3. Aiura

While not much is known about the show thanks to the show’s limited length of 4 min including opening and ending, I already like what I was shown. I was shown this high energy, catchy crabby opening and this calming school hymn like ending. I was shown this colorful, yet calming, background with elevator music as the girl walk around town. However, this show, like Yama no Susume, would have greatly benefited from a longer episode time.

Heck, I’m liking this more some of KyoAni’s recent shows.

2. Shingeki no Kyojin

Shingeki isn’t my cup of tea, but I do agree that it has a good and tight plot. The show doesn’t waste time to construct the world and to establish the protagonist’s anger against the giants, even if at times events seemed a bit too coincidental (The giants started advancing right after one of the character voiced how foolish it was to be fully dependent on the walls). The show also does a decent job in portraying the despair the humans had went the giants went through the wall.

1. Hataraku Maou-sama!

Maou-sama, while having a seemingly mediocre premise (demon king in came to our world and must live as normal human beings), the execution was excellent. The show made good use of the contrast between the demon king original living habits to his current lifestyle, ie how he quickly degraded to a normal part-timer who gets overjoyed when he became a permanent staff. Similarly, for Yusa, the one who lead and defeated the demon king’s rule, is now living as a customer service, and hence is living a similar mundane lifestyle. The show shines when the character try to uphold their roles by using their everyday lifestyle (and failing it) [demon king using his part-time to show how he will take over the world, Yusa using a 100 yen knife as her sword etc]. However, since the end of episode 2, there are hints that the show might become plot heavy later, meaning that the show might tune down the comedy a bit. My only hope is that the show will continue to be fresh and filler free, just like how I like my burger patty to be.

I’m not watching Aku no Hana and Suisei no Gargantia despite the heavy discussion of the former and the acclaim of the latter. (Might pick Suisei no Gargantia up later, just seeing if Urobuchi Gen decided to suddenly turn the whole story dark)

On the fence: Aniblog Tenhou Tourney

Posted on by fnzna
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Okay, you win Twitter.

I posted yesterday, on April Fool’s Day, that I’m going to start an Aniblog Tenhou Tourney as a semi-joke post: I like the idea but feel that I’m too inexperienced to take on such project, and hence I saw it as a April Fool’s Day post, dreaming about how cool such a event would exist on one hand and see how viable this project is with the help of others. Load and behold, Twitter responses have been fairly positive, and  2 people actually helped me to see that the project can be possible. Hence, I will declare that the post that I have posted yesterday to not be a joke post but a potential event happening in the near future. Obviously, as the title have stated, I’m still on the fence on this, but that is dependent on if I can find enough help to and create a working platform to initiate the tourney.

Also, I want to thank the people who help me get interested in following up with the project:

For now, I think I need to recruit additional help (maybe start a group?), get an test game rolling to see how will the stream work, iron out issues, and then finally inviting commentators and players. Email me at [email protected] if you want to help out.

Aniblog Tenhou Tourney

Posted on by fnzna
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Temporary Logo

Temporary Logo

As some of you might know already, I like to play mahjong a lot, despite the fact that I’m still pretty noob in riichi mahjong. This hobby in riichi mahjong is evident in my few posts about the players in the latter chapters of Saki Achiga. Again, I would like to combine both aniblogging and mahjong by introducing the first Anime Tenhou Tourney.

Remember when Anime Tourney happened last year, where aniblogs were placed against each other, with visitors voting for their favorite aniblog, and how during the tourney there were issues with people submitting multiple ballots. So let’s remove all the possibility for blogs to take advantage of the system, and to clear the idea that the tourney is just some ‘circle-jerk’ event by putting the writers against each other, using only their own (mahjong) ability to prove that they are better than the rest.

Obviously, everything is in preliminary stage, but so far I know that the matches themselves will be held over tenhou. Issues that I have to figure out over (and you can help also) are as follows:

  • It will most likely consist of just individual players, since tenhou was constructed for single player, as opposed to team games, as seen in Saki. So how do we deal with aniblogs with multiple writers? (Most likely they will just play as individual representing their site, like the individual matches in Saki anime).
  • How will audience view the match? There is a one or more round delay in the viewing mode in tenhou, meaning that the audience won’t be getting the live match if we just use what tenhou provides us with.
  • If we get live stream of the match, what can we do to prevent the players themselves from watching the stream and seeing what his opponents has? (Tenhou did the stream delay because of this issue.)
  • How do we make sure that it is the proper 4 players that got into the game and not just some random guy that decided to ruin the fun.
  • Will there be commentary? And if there is commentary, who will be commentary?
  • The number of rounds? Currently I’m thinking 2 games of 喰アリ赤東南戦, with the person of the highest sum of scores in the two games progressing to the next stage (or we can do what Saki Achiga did and allowed the highest two scoring player progress).
  • Will we include some kind of loser bracket where the losers can have a chance to go back to the tournament? (Seen in ISML before)
  • I have no experience with doing stream so much help is needed
  • And other issues that comes up…

Yes we have a long way infront of us, but for now, I want to gauge how many bloggers are actually interested in joining the first Aniblog Tenhou Tourney. Just email me the blog you write for, your name on the blog, your tenhou name and other identifications that I can contact you with (ie Twitter acct) to [email protected] if you are interested.

And why I want to do this? Because mahjong is tanoshii.

 

Why I love Boku no Imouto wa Osaka Okan

Posted on by fnzna
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And why most of you won’t share my taste

While Senyuu continues to be my favorite short for the winter 2013 season, Boku no Imouto wa Osaka Okan continues to have this special place in my heart. I know most people might not understand the appeal of the show, and the show was boring to me even to me at times, but it is as if the staff behind this show took some of what I liked and made an anime short out of it.

You would think that I play out as any other imouto themed show, especially when you read the description that the siblings have been living apart for 10 years, but nope, it plays out anything but like those other shows about imouto’s.

I always have this distaste for the whole IMOUTO popularity since OreImo, which I actually watched and dropped at around episode 8 because it was way too boring. Since OreImo, I have basically avoided most if not all shows that glorified the lust for one’s little sister. Hence this is why I celebrated when in most episode, very first thing that Namika, the protagonist and the imouto of Kyousuke, said (with a smirk on her face) something that implies that Kyousuke was going to some naughty stuff using Namika after the camera pans a body view of Namika (assuming that the camera was Kyousuke’s vision). This, for me, was a reference to how most imouto shows portray the main character’s little sister being in love with the main character, usually using background like they are not born of the same parent to get around the fact that they glorifying incest. In addition, the posture that Namika is in during that sequence also makes fun of the whole imouto lust. For example, in episode 5, while showing a bit of a butt-crack (oooooo fanservice), she was trying to shave her back hair! (think of that, your favorite character with back hair and leg hair). That, along with her how she usually just slouches on the couch and from the main sequences in the whole show, IMO, paints a more realistic picture of having a sister: just another family member that have their own quirks, is not in love with you romantically, can be a bit of a pain at times, and someone, that despite living together, you don’t fully understand. [The author does not have a little sister but an older brother]

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Obviously, that alone is not going to make me like this show so much. Hence another reason is that one of Namika’s personality pretty much mirrors my personality, therefore, making me relate and like Namika really much. For anyone that have known me in real life long enough will know that I love deals and love to talk about how cheap I purchased something for; a trait that Namika also possesses. Hence, whenever I see sections that shows that side of Namika, I get really excited because it is something that I can so, SO relate to, especially since this trait is rarely seen so predominately in an anime character.

Finally, I also liked the ending song, not because of the blunt fanservice, but because of how Namika sings off key, summarizing the episode (hence her lyrics are different every episode). Similar to how I also like the ED for Sasami-san@Ganbaranai, the voice actors/actresses singing off key or them just chatting and having fun during the ED makes the connection between the ED and the whole series even clearer, and convince me that the VAs are having fun being a part of this anime.

O and Asumi, Kana speaking in Kansai-ben is also very enjoyable. Actually, anyone talking in Kansai-ben is quite enjoyable, including Ayumu Kasuga (Osaka) and Yagami Hayate.