Dear Internet,
There,
I have finished "Saki." I am
done with t and have no desire to go back to it. A majority of the things that I talked about
in my last post continued into this episode.
About the only difference was that some of the gender dynamics were rescinded,
but not by much. There was an elder male
character that was introduced as the grandfather as one of the side female
mahjong players, who had taught her how to play. The farthest his character got was admitting
regret that he was unable to finance the possibility of allowing his
granddaughter to enter a prestigious high school with other high skilled
players. This was about where his
character ended. I am not sure what I
was hoping for, maybe some sort of soliloquy about an older generation placing
its hopes and dreams upon its children or the value of mahjong as a means of
creating friendships. None of that, and
just another male character glossed over.
One step forward and two steps back, however.
The
only male member of the mahjong club continues to be seen as the butt monkey of
the show. He enters a singles tournament
and loses in the first match. Later on,
he is shown to be playing an online match and his score is so horribly bad that
it defies logic. How in the world can a
player be that bad when he plays in the same club with lightning wielding mahjong
prodigies? Surely, some of that static electricity
would rub off onto him. Is he so busy
being the club gofer and buying them tacos that he has no time to actually play
the game? And why does he even play at
all if he is so bad? No one has that
kind of patience or could receive any kind of joy by playing a game that they
never win at all. Is it because of the
friends he has made in the club? It
would have to be because there is no other reason. Sadly, they treat him more as a servant than
anything else. In the last episodes,
when all the characters from four different schools get together to play
mahjong to get better as a sort of "training camp," he gets left
behind to play online mahjong. Why? The show gives no explanation. One would think that playing against a wide
range of highly skilled players would benefit him, but it is more likely that
they figured that playing against him would be a waste of their own time. This is made even worse when one realizes
that there is a player at the "training camp" who is apparently even
newer to the game than he is.
 |
| Pot and kettle, folks. |
Perhaps,
I am stressing the male gender dynamic on this show too much. The show is supposed to center around the
female characters and their relationships, but even that feels awkward and
forced to pander to an audience that asks for nothing but brain candy. For example, there is no conflict on this
show that stems from interpersonal relationships. Everyone gets along with one another to the
point that nobody can possibly be considered an antagonist or threat. When one of the main characters gets her
stuffed penguin stolen from her, the thieves admit to their crime and are
instantly forgiven. When the same
penguin rips apart, it is instantly fixed like new. When it is finally returned, there are no
misunderstandings or hard feelings anywhere to be found. Where is the conflict? Where are the misunderstandings or lack of
trust in strangers? It does not exist. Problems are barely squeaked out from the plot
and are resolved in minutes. When I saw
the penguin stolen and ripped apart, I was hoping to see that it might lead to
some sort of ill will and rivalry.
Instead the tension is dissipated before it is even allowed to be made. This is not the only time that tension falls
apart like this. Numerous times,
characters are introduced and given some sort of back story where they had to
overcome obstacles. The problem with
this is that all their problems are in the past and have no bearing on the
current situation. Their obstacles have
already been cleared. They are no longer
battling the demons of their past. All
it does is add pointless filler in an attempt to create a menagerie of
characters that the audience can fawn over.
It does nothing to actually affect the story, but only hopes to account
for the play style of the next random character.
Another
thing that shows how pandering this show is the way characters betray their personalities. The rich girl who is either composed all the
time or a comical wreck blushes beat red when given a compliment. The strategic calculating girl falls all to
pieces when her friend praises her. This
continues so on, and I can understand that there are certain times when one
looses composure, but "Saki" does this to nearly every character to the
point where it undermines the character traits placed upon those
characters. It is like saying that under
every single female's outer coating is a gooey center that is just waiting to
be gush. Every female gets this
treatment, even the single one that I thought would actually be a point of
conflict. One of the other mahjong clubs
in the show has a female coach to lead the group. When one of the members of this group does
not perform satisfactory to the coach's expectations, the coach slaps the
student across the face. Think about
that for a moment, the adult coach slaps the student across the face, not for
losing but not playing as well as she should have. Bells and sirens should have been going off,
and the show admits to this drama and creates tension in later scenes. However, when the team eventually falls out
of the tournament, the coach is rather ennui and gives a little praise to one
student who tried her hardest to turn the game around. Not only is there no explanation given as to
why the coach has a turn of heart, but it also is a return to the lack of
conflict that the show centers around.
No one can be the bad guy, and no one can create over arching
problems. The show could have played up
the tension even more by having the coach get caught physically abusing her
students or having the players create a united front against the coach to make
her back down. There was something like
the latter that occurred at the slapping scene, but it was a single character
the stood up against her. It all just
feels so anticlimactic since there is no crescendo outside of the matches.
The
matches is what is apparently the big draw of this show, but it is to the point
where all the audience does is sit back and wait until the big hands are
played. I can understand that the show
wants to skip through all of the pointless interlude during play in the same
way that a baseball show would gloss over the time in between innings. It would be boring to watch if that extra
time was still there. However, when the
good hands are being played, it goes by so fast that I do not even have time to
see what is going on. Perhaps this has
more to do with the fact that I am unfamiliar with the game, but making the
game speed by to the point where it is a blur does not help it in the least. On top of that is the fact that the game
feels so much like it is based on luck rather than skill that I cannot help but
this that I am being had. Give me a
chess board or maybe "Clue."
Those are pure skill games. I do
not have to worry about some sort of "heart of cards" or
"feeling the flow" of the game.
 |
| So, it boils down to random draws? |
Do I
need to point out again the fan service that this show deals out left and right
or would one recognize how silly and out of place it all feels? You do not have to answer that,
Internet. Even the show ponders this question.
 |
| The tiles float as well as this plot. |
"Saki"
is a bad show. It is painfully boring
and nonsensical to watch. Even
nonsensical shows like "Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo" are at least comical with
its nonsense. "Saki" can
either fall into two categories of audience.
Either it is for those who play mahjong, who I imagine would question
the purpose of framing mahjong games with such an abysmal plot, or it is
supposed to be for those who want to watch high school girls interacting with
one another and swoon over the notion that they are doing cute things,
sometimes to each other. As someone who
knows nothing about the game and finds the notion of another high school drama
that adds nothing new, I would rather spend the time learning the game from an
angry elderly Chinese man who chain smokes and yells profanity in a language
that I do not understand whenever I screw up.
That would at least be more entertaining if not more educational.
Yours in digital,
BeepBoop
P.S. Tomorrow is the 1963 "Lord of the Flies" movie.
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