I must be the only person happy that Saki gets a break this week, lol. If only because I need to catch up on my blogging. ^^
We begin this episode with a small sneak peak on Himematsu’s strategy session. They were discussing their strategy for the vanguard match and to our surprise their strategist were wary of Yuuki!
That’s a surprise. To both the team and the watchers of the anime. Sometimes, it is quite easy to dismiss Yuuki as the comic relief but this match reminds us that she’s an awesome player on her own right.
The individuals day 1 of the first season gives us enough proof that at East round Yuuki is unmatched by other players in Nagano on point gain. Though, this of course is probably barring Saki who wasn’t trying on this tournament and Koromo who isn’t in the tournament. And I suppose, I should add Cold! Touka on the list as well.
Still, I feel even with those three out of the way. What Yuuki did was a tremendous accomplishment and I’m glad she’s getting acknowledged for it. Just look at the score difference.
1. Kataoka Yuuki – 436 points
2. Mihoko Fukuji – 298 points
Quite a big gap isn’t it? A full 138 points from the Individual Champion of Nagano.
Though, the anime also helpfully reminds us that Yuuki even with the boost on East rounds isn’t invincible. She won 14 out of 20 matches.Meaning she lost 6 matches.
Still, I must reiterate, the fact that she got a whooping 400 points even with those losses, highlights her ridiculous point gathering abilities.
And now is the time to display those abilities!
Dealer Riichi on the third turn!
Yikes!
Yuuki is scary when she’s on a roll. lol
The response of her opponents to this is very interesting.
Jindai discarded the eight of characters. If you guys noticed Yuuki also has that same tile on her discard pool. Thus, the conclusion that Suzu has drawn was Jindai is in the process of bailing. Which truthfully is the proper course of action when faced with a dealer’s richii.
Still a bit of letdown for the much hyped National Class Monster. Until, you look closely at Suzu’s hand.
Quite curious. Especially in regards to Jindai’s discard and purpose.
Take note. Suzu has the two 8 of characters. She also have the 6,7 and 9.
Suzu could easily call a pon and chi on Jindai’s 8 of characters.
Lol. I think Suzu missed the call there. No wonder Shiro sighed. ^^
Also explains Shiro’s lines, when her turn came. “I’m tired. How about this?” [Translation: Sigh. The other player missed the call. Now I have to do something] And proceeded to discard the five of bamboo to help Jindai change the drawing order.
Suzu finally got a clue when she got the two of circles. that was supposed to belong to Yuuki without the change in order. And Yuuki’s winning hand…
A mangan (4,000 all ) for a total of 12,000 points total. But, as Suzu has surmised without the call, Yuuki should rightfully have a baiman (8,000 all).
Its also worth noting the reaction before Yuuki even drew her tile.
Jindai closed her eyes as if admitting defeat for this hand.And Shiro slouched more on her chair.
Yeah. The anime is subtly telling us that this two have some supernatural sense. ^^
Suzu on the other hand is feeling a bit overwhelmed. Already imagining, her forehead getting branded by the “shame” kanji. After all, its her job to keep the gap between the top place and them to 30,000 points and it looked like it is going to be more than difficult ^^.
Himematsu’s strategy for the vanguard is interesting to say the least. Considering that the vanguard’s job is to bank points for the team, expecting an automatic point deficit is very counterproductive.
But, as revealed in Episode 5 it is not without some thought. Suzu has an ability. She has some sort of “explosion streak” wherein it is not rare for her to have 60,000 points and above. <whistles>
And this has a higher chance of triggering the stronger the opponent is.
And guess what the vanguard match is? Where most teams put their aces guaranteeing strong players which would of course increases the probability of Suzu triggering.
Of course, Himematsu and Kyouko, who I’m assuming is the strategist of the team do know that there is also a chance wherein it won’t trigger hence the ballpark of points that they’re prepared to lose. ^^
Anyway, while Suzu is inwardly panicking. Yuuki is reflecting on her improvement from the training camp. Normally, all it took to distract and disrupt her is for someone to call tiles. Now, even calling won’t disrupt her.
… Okay, won’t disrupt her completely. She still wins and that’s what counts. ^^
Koromo’s advice is a lol.
Just end the match on East round.
Good advice. Even if lacking in perspective. Not everyone is a National Class Monster, you cute kodomo! ^^
East Hand 1 Bonus Round 1
Good starting hand.
And normally, I won’t fault Suzu for trying to get a fast win to stop Yuuki’s dealer streak. But, really. She should have not relied on data that much especially when Yuuki is being very obvious and telegraphing to anyone that can read a little of body language that she is in tenpai.
See here:
Yuuki really need to work on hiding her facial expressions. ^^
Though she might have not noticed since “Yuuki always calls riichi whenever she can according to records“. Fortunately, Yuuki got cured of that. ^^
Back on Kiyosumi’s restroom….
Nodoka is surprisingly tsundere about Yuuki. But, then again, Nodoka seemed to be quite the stern type toward her friends. (See: Maho, Achiga girls, etc).
East 1 Bonus Round 3
We get a bit of info about Shiro next turn.
“Whenever she hesitates, her hand becomes expensive.”
Pretty simplified. But, quite an apt description of her power if a tad incomplete
Unfortunately, before we can explore Shiro’s ability. Jindai decided to wake up.
The sequence here is quite funny.
Jindai said that she was sorry that she fell asleep, she will try her best from now on. lol
Her opponents understandably have %?! reaction to that. As noted earlier, Jindai is being too quiet. Her opponents probably interpreted that they’re going to see Jindai moving soon.
But, spectators with highly tuned senses like Kainou-pro and heck Saki here feels that something is off. It feels that a power is fading away than growing stronger.
And speaking of things to work on, Saki needs to work on communicating what she feels to her friends.Not only in the personal sense but what she observes in the game. Even if it sounds like illogical meaningless babbles, it would be really helpful.
…. Remembers upcoming game.
… Ok. Maybe not…. ^^
Back in the game, everyone is apprehensive.
I did take note of Yuuki’s comment here. On the normal manga run, I was also trolled into thinking that Jindai was about to unleash her powers. And after I got the explanation on why, I thought that this was the competitors also reading too much on Jindai’s statement and getting the wrong conclusion.
Yuuki’s sensing statements sounds odd though.
… Until you guys realized that out of the monsters, she’s comparing Jindai to Saki, and not Koromo. Saki who’s presence is out of whack with what she could do at the table. Yeah, I can believe that Saki gets more dangerous if her presence seems to disaapear <winks> ^^
Anyway back to the game:
Yuuki’s hand.
A probable mangan waiting for four of bamboo, seven of bamboo and eight of bamboo.
Shiro on the other hand is waiting for the three of bamboo, six of bamboo and the nine of bamboo.
At this point, your probably wondering. Wow that’s a lot of bamboo.
Guess who is hoarding them?
Damn that sucks.
Yuuki’s only wait that isn’t on her opponent’s hand is the eight of bamboo. And there is only copy that is unaccounted for.
Shiro is marginally better with the nine of bamboo, I believe there are two copies unaccounted for.
This will be a bad situation to be stuck into for those two. If Jindai was playing with her God mode that is. ^^
(Though truthfully its still bad, since Jindai is unlikely to discard anything that is a set which her bamboos are; unless she’s a really bad player when not possessed.)
Luckily for Suzu, luck seemed to be on her side. She got the only non-bamboo wait. A two of circles, a five of circles and eight of circles. I suppose this is a way of reminding us that if one player is stopped it doesn’t mean it will benefit the strongest.
And speaking of confidence. Eisui has it in spades. Hopefully they can back it up. Saying that they’ll be okay even with 90,000 point difference.
And Miyamori isn’t lacking on it either. lol
And now, we move on to East Hand 2. Dealer streaks really makes a match long, doesn’t it?
Now this is interesting. Shiro’s ability is connected to the legend of “Mayoiga”. Which is a nice treat since it isn’t on the manga. In fact, I was so interested, I researched it a bit. ^^
Here is a copy of the legend.
(Not made or translated by me – All credits go to this blog which seemed to be a collection of japanese folk tales) ^^
Anyway here it is “Legend of the House of the Lost”
Mr. Miura of Oguni is the richest man in the village.
小国(をぐに)の三浦某といふは村一番の金持なり。
Two or three generations earlier, the household was poor and the master’s wife rather stupid.
今より二、三代前の主人、未だ家は貧しくして、妻は少しく魯鈍(ろどん)なりき。
One day the wife went gathering butterbur along the small stream that flowed in front of the gate.
この妻ある日門の前を流るる小さき川に沿ひて蕗(ふき)を採りに入りしに、
Because there were not many good plants there, she gradually went back deeper into the valley.
よき物少なければしだいに谷奥深く登りたり。
All of a sudden she looked up, and there was a house with a fine black gate.
さてふと見れば立派なる黒き門の家あり。
She entered the gate hesitantly.
いぶかしけれど門の中に入りて見るに、
She saw a large garden with red and white flowers blooming and many hens running about.
大なる庭にて紅白の花一面に咲き鶏多く遊べり。
In the back of the garden there was a shed with many cows and a stable with many horses. There were no people anywhere.
牛小屋ありて牛多くをり、馬舎ありて馬多くをれども、いつかうに人はをらず。
Finally she entered the house through the main entrance.
つひに玄関より上りたるに、
In the adjoining room she found many red and black serving trays and bowls.
その次の間には朱と黒との膳椀をあまた取り出したり。
A charcoal brazier and a tea kettle, with the water boiling briskly, could be seen in the inner room. Nevertheless, there was not a trace of anyone.
奥の座敷には火鉢ありて鉄瓶(てつびん)の湯のたぎれるを見たり。されどつひに人影はなければ、
Suddenly she became frightened. Thinking that this might be the home of a mountain man she ran off and returned home. もしや山男の家ではないかと急に恐ろしくなり、掛けだして家に帰りたり。
She told people about what she had seen, but no one would believe it.
この事を人に語れども実(まこと)と思ふ者もなかりしが、
Again, another day while she was washing things at the bank of the stream in front of the gate, a red bowl came floating down from up-stream.
またある日わが家のカドに出でて物を洗ひてありしに、川上より赤き椀一つ流れて来たり。
Because it was so beautiful she lifted it out of the water.
あまり美しければ拾ひ上げたれど、
Since she thought she would be scolded if she used this unclean bowl as tableware she put into the grain box and used it to measure rice.
これを食器に用ゐたらば汚しと人に叱られんかと思ひ、ケセネギツの中に置きてケセネを量る器となしたり。
As soon as she began to measure grain with this bowl, the grain never decrease in volume.
しかるにこの器にて量り始めてより、いつまで経ちてもケセネ尽きず。
The family thought this phenomenon strange, and when they asked her the reason, she told them for the first time how she picked the bowl out of the stream.
家の者もこれを怪しみて女に問ひたるとき、始めて川より拾い上げし由をば語りぬ。
From then on the household had good fortune and it became the Miura household of today.
この家はこれより幸福に向かひ、つひに今の三浦家となれり。
In Tono a strange house in the mountain is called a mayoi-ga (a house hound when one loses his way). 遠野にては山中の不思議なる家をマヨヒガといふ。
Anyone who finds a mayoi-ga is to take anything he likes from among the household objects and domestic animals.
マヨヒガに行き当たりたる者は、必ずその家の内の什器家畜何にてもあれ持ち出でて来るべきものなり。
The house is shown to the person only in order to give him fortune.
その人に授けんがためにかかる家をば見するなり。
It is believe that because the woman was not greedy and did not steal anything from the house, the bowl came floating to her of its own accord.
女が無欲にて何物をも盗み来ざりしがゆゑに、この椀みづから流れ来たりしなるべしといへり。
Tale #63, from “Tono Monogatari (The Legends of Tono)”.
Nice huh? Anyway, tune in for next episode review. Where we are going to watch the Mako smackdown!
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