If you're a fan of mahjong and superpower sports/game anime, THIS is the real Saki.
This is Saki without the meandering backstories, the boring yuri-bait that never gets anywhere, and the gratuitous fanservice shots of every loli character in the show (mostly). Side-A cuts out most of Saki's original grievances while being even better at what Saki did best: Intense, chaotic, and ridiculous mahjong battles.
In fact, since 95% of this anime doesn't rely on the original Saki, it's completely watchable as a standalone. Just make sure that you know the rules of mahjong, because there isn't as much time to explain everything like in Saki. ... If anything I said about the original Saki worries you about that series (I wrote a review on it if you want more detail), I recommend giving Side-A a try instead.
If you watched Saki or any sports anime, Side-A has a lot of what you'd expect: A simple school-tournament plot structure, games full of twists and turns, and fun/exciting/beautiful animation flourishes to emphasize the characters' emotions after pulling off a daring play or a nail-biting victory.
The difference for me is mostly in the characters. Saki leans too hard into making every character gimmicky with lots of unfunny running gags to make sure that you remember everyone, even if you also hate them in the process. Meanwhile, Side-A immediately introduces compelling reasons for all of the main girls to want to win the mahjong inter-high. With maybe one exception, they are more believable and more characterized than much of Saki's main cast, so it's much easier to get invested in their journey right from the start. It's almost jarring how much more respectful Side-A treats its characters compared to Saki, like an actual sports/game anime.
And by the end, the mahjong tournament battles DO deliver--in spades. Mahjong being a 4-player game, like in Saki, allows for complex yet emotionally charged battles of wits that leave you on the edge of your seat. Any player can be a relevant threat, and sometimes you never know who will take over the narrative in the end. And this aspect of chaos and unpredictability is even stronger than it is in Saki, which was what made that series refreshing to me as a sports/game anime in the first place.
This is also where the Saki series turns up its superpower tag to 11.
*MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD*
Side-A starts with one character with an incredibly impossible mahjong "talent" in episode one, and then continues to introduce some of the most ridiculous "totally-not-superpowers" I've ever seen in sports/game anime. And it's great, because every one of them has clear strengths and weaknesses and can be played around within the rules of the game, and they'll also have some crazy interaction with another character's almost-equally ridiculous superpower. And even with all this craziness, the superpowers never manage to truly overshadow the actual game of mahjong, so it just adds another layer of excitement and intrigue.
*MINOR SPOILERS END*
The biggest storytelling obstacle in these matches is the need to establish every character's background, personality, and playstyle during the match, and it's really difficult to do this without bogging down the pacing with constant flashbacks. However, Side-A manages to avoid this problem well enough by the end. There aren't excessive flashbacks to bog down the final matches' pacing, the characters are given just enough characterization to establish entertaining dynamics, and the buildup to the climax is just superb.
Now for the elephant in the room, while I do like the characters and characterization in Side-A better than in Saki overall, they are still quite weak, especially in the middle portion of the anime. Saki will at least drip feed interesting mahjong plays before moving onto the tournament, but Side-A isn't interested in showing the main girls' intermediate steps toward the mahjong inter-high. There might be a training montage but without delving into what they learned or improved on, which hurts the overall emotional payoff when they actually do win over a tough-looking opponent. I think the final matches succeed in spite of that, but it does hurt that a third of the anime feels like a slog to get through.
But none of those dull moments were painful like in Saki. I can at least excuse Side-A for rushing to the main event when it knew it didn't have much time to do so. The result is still that Side-A accomplishes more in SIXTEEN episodes than Saki does in 25. (The "Specials" episodes are just the last four episodes of the anime. They are a direct continuation and you should watch them after finishing the first 12.)
With maybe more effort put into the characters and drama in the middle episodes of the anime, Side-A could have easily been an 8 for me, regardless of its dressing as a mere side story to Saki. It's kind of depressing to me that Side-A will just be in the shadow of Saki forever because of that. Despite its flaws, Side-A manages to simultaneously be the more entertaining and the more well-rounded experience, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who knows or is willing to learn the rules of mahjong--and isn't afraid of a little zaniness in their battle-of-wits.
Alternative Titles Synonyms: Saki Achiga-hen: Episode of Side-A Japanese: 咲-Saki-阿知賀編 episode of side-A Information Type: TV Episodes: 12 Status: Finished Airing Aired: Apr 9, 2012 to Jul 2, 2012 Premiered: Spring 2012 Broadcast: Mondays at 01:05 (JST) Licensors: None found, add some Studios: Studio Gokumi Source: Manga Genre: Slice of Life Duration: 24 min. per ep. Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older Statistics Score: 7.351 (scored by 16,220 users) 1 indicates a . Ranked: #25202 2 based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded. Popularity: #3653 Members: 37,432 Favorites: 135 Available AtResources |
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