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Jan 3, 2026
This season is much worse than its predecessor. It doubles down on all of the original's flaws. The pacing is a perfect example. In season 1, many major events are kind of glossed over; we don't really explore his mom's or dad's death all that much. Now we get a time-skip where he moved away, quit baseball for a while, destroyed his shoulder, Momoko gets remarried and has a kid, etc. So many potential sources of drama like Momoko's second pregnancy, the middle school tournament, and the high-school boot camp are really just sped past. One of the most
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egregious examples is how Toshi's parents apparently just abandoned him one day. Why? Because. Why is a school supposedly obsessed with player safety doing Spartan drills where pitchers crawl with their elbows for miles? Why is overtraining encouraged and then immediately discouraged? Because we needed a shounen training arc at the time, and now the plot's moved on.
Kaido's motivations make zero sense. The whole obvious problem was having their ace pitcher pitch every single game. Why didn't they have a relief pitcher? How can breaking your shoulder girdle result in instant death? Because we needed a sympathetic tragedy. Why does "safe" baseball need to involve zero fun and force complete obedience? Because we need Goro to fight against something. Why is the head family suddenly powerless against a greedy board of directors looking for a celebrity? Because the original bad guys need to be good guys now, duh. It doesn't even really make sense how his power would supercede the general director's, or why creating a highschool sports star would require injurious play. They could easily just have multiple big names drawing attention. Why was Kaido completely unaware that they attempted to scout Goro and Toshi? Because they needed to get hazed, I guess.
The entire purpose of this season feels like it's paralleling season 1 but worse. Goro finds a friend who loves baseball. He stops Komori from getting bullied, and Komori forgives and befriends his bullies. Goro has to learn how to pitch and build a ragtag baseball team. He has to beat a seemingly unwinnable game but ultimately loses the tournament. Toshi alternates between friend and enemy. Tragic backstory of another player. Goro leaves. The difference is that Goro and the dolphins needed each other. He left without saying goodbye because his family was moving, and he couldn't bear to leave his friends. He pledged to return one day. This time he doesn't need Mifune or Kaido's second string, but they definitely need him. He basically tells them to go screw themselves, so he can become the ultimate baseball player. And he has no intention of returning to support his "friends."
One of the best components in the initial season was that every character ended up contributing in the baseball games. Sure there was a focus on Shimizu, Sawamura, and Komori, but it still felt like a team. Season 2 is just the Goro show. You get a few echoes of teamwork, but it is basically Goro doing everything himself. The show goes out of its way to ensure that every other character is meaningless. It just throws its supporting cast away over and over. Why on earth would I care about new people, when the elementary school team AND the middle school team are just gone forever? Ryoko only gets a cameo despite the clear setup as Shimizu's romantic rival. We get a cameo from the fat power hitter but not cyborg boy or the Black Triangle. It's even just Maehara's little brother, not any of his old teammates. We get zero development with his parents. Reuniting with a cute older Shimizu should be interesting, but she's immediately hostile, and he just doesn't care. They're immediately separated again because reasons, and they never interact for the rest of the season (unless that was her at the shrine visit in the winter break montage but that hardly counts). And yes it makes more sense for her to prioritize softball over Goro (especially when he's going to change his mind 3 times), but it's still deeply unsatisfying. EVERYTHING is deeply unsatisfying. Even Toshi's new love interest is completely pointless; she adds nothing to the plot whatsoever.
Apparently this series is supposed to follow Goro's entire baseball career up until his retirement. Sure, it's realistic that your little league teammates would stop playing baseball, that you'd never talk to your old coach again, that you'd lose players as you switched schools and advanced grades... but none of those things are narratively satisfying. It doesn't really feel like other people are influencing Goro's life anymore, as much as he just bends life to his whim. He's not learning new techniques or strategies or relying on teammates much anymore, as much as he's just leveling up anyway regardless. And this really does make Goro feel like an incredible asshole. Before he was principled and valued his friends above all else. Now he's chewing people out, getting into fights, dragging people into his schemes, and then ditching them when he decides to do something else. It's very hard to get invested in anything or anyone, when everything feels up in the air.
I really wish we'd taken a slower pace and watched the Dolphins play together again this season. I was just bored and frustrated the whole time. The writing was so horrendously sloppy.
7/10 for season 1.
4/10 for season 2.
P.S. Are we really just supposed to ignore that Goro would have to stay at Kaido if he gave up any runs? He gave up multiple points to the main team, and he's just leaving anyway...
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Nov 11, 2025
See episode 9's thread for more.
Season 2 is significantly better than the first. The story is still plagued by the same thematic problems: the moral dilemmas being closer to kill-or-not-kill, the lack of mercy, the hell pact making the world better in many cases, etc. You can see my review of season 1 for more on that, although the finale does address some of those concerns.
Not having to interrupt each vignette with Tsugumi and Hajime is a major boon to the writing. Each story can fully capitalize on the entire runtime, and the larger narrative elements are more easily utilized within the
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primary plot itself. This means more characterization and slower but tighter pacing. Some of the early episodes could have still benefited from extra length, but the vast majority feel complete and concise. I didn't feel like I was slogging through rushed episodes waiting for something to finally happen this time. Even though in many ways it's still the same core plot loop, it didn't bother me. I was painfully aware of how repetitive and monotonous so much of the original was, and yet there was always something to keep me interested this time around.
A massive reason for that is we finally get character development for the supporting cast. We see their pasts, their perspectives, and which stories resonate with them. We also get the lovable hellion Kikuri, ready to make everything worse with her chaotic antics. The episodes are more experimental, exploring different time periods, telling the plot in different ways, and bringing up intriguing ideas. The variety keeps the show feeling fresher, picking up around episode 10 and staying relatively strong thereafter, minus a few hiccups. I mean one episode is basically Wanyuudo talking to a truck driver and remembering when he drove carriages for his princess.
The final arc is where the show really shines though. It's telling how the entire major-narrative of the first season is easily condensed into about 5 minutes. I appreciated the teenage Tsugumi cameo, but I'm glad they weren't actually involved. This arc really hammers home the idea that "Vengeance begets vengeance." Once people have a scapegoat to blame and a convenient method of disposing others, many people will immediately do so. If left unchecked, it becomes an oroboros, consuming the entire community. It was thrilling watching them pick each other off one by one.
I'm sure a lot of people hate Hotaru for sending Takuma to hell, and their execution was admittedly terrible. Takuma echoed the point himself much better by burning his own house down. By attempting to destroy the scapegoat for their crimes, they hoped the townspeople would return to fearing retribution. Of course there's no reason why they would choose to stop when they could easily claim the devil child kidnapped people from hell, but I get what they were going for. The situation paralleled Ai's own past, giving her the option to write her wrongs.
This is where another major theme comes in. The correct option was for Ai to accept her suffering and death. I already detailed how much I hate this idea before. I will say that it was quite clever watching The Spider orchestrate events to not only fulfill her soul quota, but to also serve as her final test. She and her parents were released from hell, finally able to reincarnate once again. It's a shame that Ai is gone, but it's a nice ending.
Takuma was probably the best character in the show. He is its conscience after all. He resists the temptation to hurt and hate and urges others to do the same. It makes him an easy target, but it also exemplifies his character. It contrasts just how vile his community is in comparison with a sweet kid. Even as others scorn him, he chooses to be the better person and offer others compassion. The poor boy was certainly smitten with Seri, and it's a shame he had his heart broken so fast. Normally he'd have to visit in 5-8 years to find out she has a boyfriend. He does have Hotaru when she finally wakes up. They do share a trauma bond, so he might have a chance when he's older.
Hotaru, herself, didn't really feel like a character. Seri definitely felt like one: an angsty teenager from a bad home recognizing a traumatized kid, and committing crime to escape her life. Had she succeeded, there's a good chance she would have justified further crimes. She had a chance to come clean, back down, and stay with Takuma; but she didn't. Hotaru was her replacement and a second pseudo-detective, but more than anything she was a witness. The show finally wanted to explain parts of Ai's pocket dimension, so someone had to go exploring. It also needed a way to dial up the tension on Takuma and expedite her brother's investigation. For all that screentime, Hotaru was just a generic older sister type and a plot device. And attempting to sacrifice Takuma as opposed to one of their captors, or even better choosing to try and flee on foot at that point, really solidified that sentiment. It just doesn't seem like a decision she would organically make when she's been his protector for this long. Then I tried to think about what she thinks and feels, and beyond fear and onii-chan, I realized there really isn't anything else. She's just whatever the show needs it to be. It feels out of character because it's an illogical conclusion, but she doesn't really have a character to be out of. And either way she shouldn't hate Takuma enough to enact the contract, but they'd already committed to that plothole when they pressured the guy into disappearing her brother.
I really did enjoy Kikuri's character the most. So adorable yet so evil. You just can't hate her in that froggy onesie. It's a shame she's actually an ancient demon guy, but I'll hold out hope that there's still an actual Kikuri. It doesn't erase all the big sister moments Ai got either way.
7.5/10. Kind of confused where the story will go without Hell Girl. I'm wondering if they'll replace her, or do something else.
KIKURI WIENER!
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Nov 6, 2025
Visit the threads for episodes 4, 7, 12, 14, and 17 for more breakdowns.
I finally finished this show; it really became a slog at times. The atmosphere of the show is decent. At times it's very creepy and foreboding, almost hauntingly whimsical. At other times it feels far too preachy, bombastic, and boring. The animation and graphic style are nice, but you can tell how stretched the budget got in the later half when characters' mouths stop moving. The scenes with dark lighting were very difficult to see.
Most of the vignettes were mediocre. The formula gets stale early
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on. Many of the villains are so over-the-top and cartoonishly evil, and while that certainly fits the mold of a person you'd send to hell, they lose their luster halfway through. The episodes where they tried something different like the spirit doll, Hell Boy, and the nice nurse were certainly more interesting. The doll episode felt like it didn't belong in the same universe and introduced so many questions to the show's internal world-building, and the Hell Boy episode resolved far too quickly, leaving them feeling detached from the broader show.
Being formulaic, especially to reinforce a theme, isn't necessarily a bad thing. What really strangled these stories was trying to cram them into single episodes. It would have been far more impactful to take a less is more approach, and stretch some of them over multiple episodes. Then we could get a better feel for the characters instead of watching brunette clone #5 inevitably decide to send the antagonist to hell anyway at the last second.
The way the narrative portrays its theme is also flawed. The show wants to say that vengeance is always wrong, but the vast majority of its tragedies are structured antithetical to justice. The audience sees people in impossible situations where the protagonist has literally no recourse, in many cases about to literally or figuratively die. Their actions read as self-defense more than anything, revealing the malicious conspiracies to the world and genuinely making it a better a place in the process. Many characters go on to live happy and healthy lives. So the show is telling you that they were wrong for taking the one singular action available to them to preserve their own lives or evade a lifetime of sadistic torture, and that the noble thing is to let nature run its course. To die or to endure that suffering as a martyr to save your eternal soul, and the idea that their is no proposed mercy or nuance for given circumstances will be off-putting to many people. Defending yourself is natural, and only the most pure pacifists would insist killing in self-defense and killing in cold blood are the same transgression. They feel like forced errors.
This brings us to our next thematic problem. Many of the stories are structured in a way where the moral dilemma should be to kill or not to kill, and the characters talk about it that way. But in fact the hell pact banishes BOTH the client's and perpetrator's souls to hell for eternity, which obviously changes the calculus. There is no ambiguity as to their fate after death, they witness visions of the centuries they'll spend in hell, and they are certain to go there. This change makes many of the character's decisions feel foolish, stupid, and generally unsatisfying. The obvious response is to suggest the heroes just murder or commit suicide instead and roll the dice on their judgment when the time comes, rather than negate any chance to repent or redeem yourself for the rest of your life. Why commit the ULTIMATE sin, when you could commit a lesser one? This could easily be fixed if Ai just didn't tell her clients they would also be doomed to hell, which would honestly make the show more interesting.
The show finally manages to really hammer its message home in the final episodes. I'd been waiting all season for a wicked character to doom a nice one, and they completely glossed over his psyche. It finally culminates with Hajime repenting on his actions leading to his wife's death. It's a touching scene, but it also ignores the wife's agency for some reason. Like she just had to drive her car into a wall instead of filing for custody in family court in a messy divorce. Enma does the opposite, denying that her own actions figuratively killed the boy she loved and destroyed his home and family, while refusing to forgive him for not dying to the angry mob with her. Everything feels very lopsided. The message is sweet. I liked watching Tsugumi hug her father, but again there is no sense of fairness, justice, or forgiveness beyond their reconciliation. [s]Enma murdered a priest and goes back to her old job somehow, despite that being forbidden an episode prior.[/s] And did Hajime and Tsugumi come back to life or not?
Hajime's character is great in the final arc. His beginning motivations make absolutely no sense though. What does he even initially hope to accomplish writing his Hell Girl article? Once he confirms he's dealing with a supernatural entity and not a serial killer, how would his article change anything? Most people wouldn't believe it either way, so why not just publish something random? His investigations make no sense either. He doesn't really gain any new information until Enma, Tsugumi, or other characters outright tell him. When he does grasp the full existential weight of the hell pacts, he rarely chooses to actually express it to Enma's clients in those terms. When his investigations switch to preventing the pacts, he is completely useless. He fails to convince anyone to change their minds because when they start to do so the situation degrades, the clients give up, or they lash out in anger. His suggestions are so laughably naive and unworkable (just talk it out with your murderous abusive family), they almost feel insulting sometimes. This lets Tsugumi cheer Hell Girl on, leaving you wondering why he's dragging around his 7-year-old daughter around so many traumatic situations, watching her essentially have absent seizures every couple hours.
It feels like Hajime should be working with the police on missing persons cases instead of being a freelance reporter. It would give some of the stories an opportunity for closure. It would also solve the problem of characters almost NEVER even trying to go to the police or pursue other methods like blackmail. Why hasn't anyone paid the Yakuza for a hit or pushed their abuser down the stairs? Sure alternative methods would essentially be impossible or were already compromised in a significant number of these scenarios, but it feels like these things only exist to be weaponized by the baddies. It's artificially claustrophobic storytelling.
Enma's repetitive scenes really started to feel like unnecessary padding after the fourth episode. I get she NEEDS to explain the contract every time, but WE don't need to hear it every time. Every time I thought they'd finally skip it, it came up in a flashback anyway. Her familiars didn't get much time at all, and I'm hoping we'll learn more about them in future seasons.
4/10. The last arc hard-carries this rating. Enma and Tsugumi might be really cute, but it just felt so boring for the bulk of the season. I'm definitely biased since I don't believe in the afterlife, and I don't agree with the theme. I don't think there's anything noble about suffering in silence, and I think there are levels of transgressions. That's why we have so many distinctions for crimes and so many variables to modify sentencing. Even so, I don't think they made a very strong case for it, and many stories felt unsatisfying or disappointing. I hope things change in the next season.
P.S. Tsugumi would go to hell too, you idiot.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Oct 29, 2025
A good horror anime. Usually good "horror" anime are really just creepy here and there and are mostly supported by another genre like romance. These stories aren't necessarily scary, but they feel more like chiller movies in the best kind of way. Everything is so distorted and disturbing. Everything is supernatural and yet there's always a realistic explanation. Is it all just illusions or did Momosuke befriend a trio of lost souls? Who knows.
I absolutely adored the art style. The cgi effect looked a little rough in a few places, particularly the raging water in episode 10, while
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also looking amazing on the willow tree in episode 2. The designs are all so unique and full of character. It's as if Momosuke is already on a pilgrimage in a Buddhist hell walking alongside tons of yokai villagers. The violence and gore are depicted exceedingly well. The fanservice is as exquisite, as the body horror is revolting.
Each vignette is pretty satisfying to watch, although the first handful of episodes are stronger in narrative, partially because you immediately know the villain and what's going on in later episodes. I think episode 4 was the best of the bunch. Definitely one of the most demented stories I've ever heard (A daughter convinces her father to kill her mother so she can take her place. Then she has her father slaughter her enemies. She kills her little sister because she peeps at them having sex, and then she lives with the "blind" corpse. It's nuts).
Each episodic character is definitely engaging. It's fun to pick their addled brains. The main cast is whimsical, terrifying, and mysterious. Momosuke is your typical brave scaredy-cat hero, and I think he works fine considering he's a writer up against serial-killing samurai and yokai. I do wish he played a bigger role in the final episode though.
The ending is definitely the show's weakest point. It's not even an open-ending, so much as an unresolved one. I was hoping he'd choose to follow Ogin to the spirit realm after publishing his book. Instead the trio just vanishes, and he goes back to his old life. It's quite unsatisfying.
9.5/10. I would definitely follow Ogin into hell. Holy hell is she one hot mamma jamma!
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Oct 26, 2025
Man, they really sidestepped all the character pitfalls I was worried about. Pretty great anime.
The fight scenes were awesome, but the character development is what really clinched it for me. So many solid and genuine conversations and lessons about friendship, acceptance, leadership, and forgiveness. I was quite impressed. Normally shows end up sounding super cliche. But a big part of why Furin works is because it's full of misfits and miscreants. They were accepted flaws and all and were taught to grow and accept others. It's pretty freaking beautiful.
I was also impressed at how they handled Tsukabe's character.
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That could also easily come off very preachy. But they did it correctly completely sidestepping the gender identity bit and "what's gender appropriate," in favor of the more universal ideal of staying true to yourself. It doesn't really matter what he calls himself or what others call him because he's still the same person at the end of the day. That's certainly something a lot of activist types forget, ultimately ending up trying to pigeon-hole people in their own way. Again I'm very impressed.
And I must admit I was wrong in my season 1 comment: the writer actually did think about having "girls" at the school quite deeply. Nirei didn't end up whiny; he's growing on his own journey. Sakura was so relatable I wanted to cry at times. Like damn, why didn't I have friends like that back in the day. I'm sure normies hated the repetitive nature of his arc, but I thought it was paced perfectly. A lot quicker than I was expecting at the very least. You don't just change something that deep overnight, especially when it manifests in so many different ways. All of my fears abated for once. Glad to see it.
I do have to knock a point for the pole-dancing though. I've certainly seen a lot of yaoi-bait and fujoshi fanservice in sports anime and such. It's definitely not my cup of tea, so I normally try to ignore it or laugh at the idea of girls squealing over it. I did feel like Nirei gushing over it pushed it firmly into cringe territory. Even more than that, I don't think it really fits the story. Even if Tsukabe is 18, why are they letting a highschooler strip in their bar? Especially if they're supposed to be stand-up types ensuring safe sex work in their red light district? I really doubt they'd let teenagers perform in that capacity. It kind of kills their entire moral argument when you think about it, and it would just end up encouraging the seedier types they beat up every day. But heaven knows girls could easily say similar things about the fanservice I typically enjoy in shows, so I can't knock it too much.
9/10. I'm really looking forward to season 3.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Oct 26, 2025
My standard with delinquent gang stories is generally Crows, and most are quite different. The premise is certainly interesting what with the school being vigilante heroes of justice. A lot of guys will certainly relate to wanting to be a hero and have comrades.
A lot of the show's time was spent on some pretty cool fights, but it also leaves me wanting to know the characters more. Aside from Sakura and Hiragi, we really didn't get to see much of the other guys' fighting styles at all. I'm particularly concerned that Sugishite might only get to do OHK palm slams.
Sakura's tsundere
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tendencies are kind of adorable, but I can see them becoming potentially annoying later. Nirei could also end up being a crybaby, but he's fine for now. The school aspect is absent from the show completely, but it's always glossed over in this genre anyways. It seems like this is a boy's only school, so I don't really understand why there are a few girls there or how one is among the Four Kings. If it's really co-ed, I'd imagine a lot of highschool girls would be drawn to it for safety and potential boyfriends. I imagine much thought didn't go into that though.
A part of me wants to see some sort of relationship development with Kotoha, but a part of me also feels like it's way too easy. She seems way too mature for her age, and it also seems like she doesn't even go to school so she can run her cafe. She's always there and doesn't seem to have any employees after all. I certainly wouldn't turn it down since she's pretty hot, but I also think the relationship development would be ENTIRELY one-sided and kind of boring after a while. They could easily still make it interesting, but I highly doubt they'd delve deep enough into Sakura's psyche that it wouldn't feel a little shallow.
All in all, there isn't really a whole lot of information to go on. We don't have a great sense of any characters aside from Sakura and the two villains. It's just too early for me to tell how everything will shake out.
6/10. Looking forward to season 2, which might bump it up to a 7.
EDIT: Check the season 2 review for my updated feelings. 7/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Oct 25, 2025
I thought that after the last four episodes, we'd continue in a better direction. And while we were finally playing mahjong with 4 (3 in one case) people again, the matches still felt completely inconsequential.
Shiraitodai has interesting powers, as do the final pair, but everyone else's are vague bullshit. It doesn't feel like the main characters are doing much at all. It certainly doesn't feel like Shizuna won the final round. Just because Awai's 'heart of the cards' was delayed a few turns? Because she played in the mountains. How does Shizuna still have zero characterization? It felt
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more like 5 girls from the other schools collectively chipped at that lead until Shizuna could finally make a play or two. Notice that they completely stopped tracking the score after the first round.
They beat out Toki's school, and the other school Nodoka had history with. Far more interesting schools. Now we won't see her face Hanada. Defeating Shiraitodai should have been narratively impossible too. That really kills the impact for the final round. I know we already beat the final boss, but I swear he has a second form this time! >_>
It really strikes me how mahjong was played in this spin-off. It was almost entirely quick, cheap hands. Girls in Saki had powers that involved manipulating tile spawns for themselves or others, and achieving a certain winning hand. Many things involved feeling the flow, being difficult to notice, counter-attacks, etc. Soft manipulation that can still be strategized around by manipulating the turn order or ending rounds quickly. But aside from Shiraitodai, the powers here involve hard manipulation. Kuro holding onto bonus tiles is an obvious disadvantage for high-level play. But now other girls are literally seeing the future or just manifesting winning hands. It just feels lazy.
The girl who could be possessed by mahjong demons is a good example. Her powers essentially locked her into a single suit, which is a double-edged sword. She can get very expensive winning hands, but once other players realize what's happening, it becomes very difficult fot her to win if she doesn't draw the exact tiles she needs. In contrast, Shizuna blocks other people's abilities entirely until she magically wins. There's no real-life strategy parallel. This skill would be better suited for a later super-boss rather than a main character. Mind you, WE STILL ONLY HAVE TWO CHARACTERS!
I'm glad I'm finally done with this series. I'm quite disappointed in the spin-off, and I'll probably never watch it again. 3/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Oct 25, 2025
Normally I would reserve a lot of my feelings and judgment until finishing the story, but I actually feel it's very important to share them for this "complete package" now. I already mentioned a lot of this in the first three episode threads, but it bears repeating.
For starters the best part of Saki is its characters. I hyped up just how great their dynamics were, how natural their relationships feel, how they don't rely on drama, how even the side characters all feel like part of the world. That is essentially absent here. This spin-off only has TWO characters. We
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have a small 'c' character in the coach Akado. We know her backstory and motivations (a former Nationals and later pro player continuously haunted by her past trauma), her goals (to use the Akagi team as a way to confront and move past that trauma), and a bit of her personality (a coward who makes excuses to spite her own success that routinely sacrifices to help others). But she's essentially a minor character because there's not really any depth or development beyond that.
We also have one big 'C' Character in Toki. Despite being a late stage opponent, she actually has the majority of the show's focus. Her backstory starts out as minimal and shallow as the rest as a 'sickly girl.' Her power isn't very interesting, but it is flashy. And we only get flashes of something more here and there until episode 9. Then we have the bulk of 4 episodes discussing her thoughts and feelings as well as her friendship with Ryuuka and Sera. It gets to the point that she may as well be called the main character of the show.
Every other character here is a video game NPC. They have a few lines of dialogue, their unique and distinct character designs are immediately thrown away, they don't really contribute anything to the larger narrative, etc. Everything about them is DIRECTLY told to us instead of shown, in contrast to its predecessor. Apparently Kuro's mom is dead, and she clings to the past. Her play-style comes from her mother telling her to cherish bonus tiles. I would have never known that from watching the character had they not explicitly said this multiple times, and it basically has nothing to do with anything. They spend probably two minutes on how much it apparently means to her to discard a Dora even though her power has caused her to consistently lose BIG up until this point. This does not feel like a season finale dilemma as much as an episode 3 dilemma.
The other characters suffer even more. What do we know about Yuu? She's Kuro's big sister, Kuro defended her from bullies once, and she gets cold easily. That's all we know about a member of the main cast. She's apparently shy, but it's never actually hampered her in the show, which means she isn't really. They just said she was. Shizuna and Ako had two extra episodes, but those episodes really revolved around Nodoka. We don't even really get insight into their powers (although can you top something as 'interesting' as attracting warm 'red' tiles? :p).
Now we're really getting to the crux of the problem. It's the legacy cast that people want to watch, so they get forced into the show as cameos. But this is a double-edged sword because that only steals even more time away from this cast. Fanservice, yuri-bait, and shipping are a huge part of Saki and its sequel. And 90% of this is relegated to the legacy cast, minus a few panels here and there. The other 10% obviously being Toki and Ryuuka, our one Character and her love-interest we know LITERALLY nothing about. Even the majority of the humor comes from the legacy cast, even counting the jokes that didn't land. The legacy cast (including Teru) is literally strangling the cast of this show. It's keeping the narrative on life support, while also sucking its blood like a vampire.
The reason why is because of their absolutely HORRIFIC decisions in pacing the story. We have one episode all about Nodoka leaving her old friends; we have one episode focused on getting the team together. Then we have an episode where that team goes through a training camp, defeats their hyped up rival (complete with unique character designs) in the regional qualifiers, win the qualifiers, go through a second training camp facing the best schools in the country, and start nationals. The whole point of competitive anime isn't the competition itself, but the characters and their journey to get there. And here they basically snuffed out their baby in the crib. They denied themselves any opportunities to develop their characters (let alone even just let us spend time with them) or foster any sense of team-building or connection.
This blistering pace continues all the way until episode 9. We go through rounds in the national tournament instantly. We don't even really play mahjong. We get 3 maybe 5 winning hands and it's on to the next character or even the next round. We link up with legacy characters again to train and blitz through that too. We finally get to see them actually train, and it's barely a two-day time-lapse. Compared to the montages in the original, it's honestly laughable. It never feels like four people are playing together. There are only two real players in any match. None of their powers are particularly interesting, most teams and players don't even have powers (I mean science girl is probably analytical, I guess), and they aren't portrayed well anyway. Two of the teams in the quarter-finals even have pretty generic designs in comparison. Bansei had significantly more personality than them, and they lost after a few hands in episode 3!
This pace continues all the way up until episode 9 when the show ACTUALLY starts. It makes you ask the question, 'If you were planning on speedrunning here anyway, why did you even bother with the first 8 episodes). The show would be considerably tighter and more well-received if it did. It was all flashes of backstory we could have easily shown in flashbacks anyway. The show robbed itself of its own time in every way, and only begins CHARACTERIZING its core protagonists at the very end. And they didn't even finish the storyline either. It's not about nationals; it's really just about the semi-final match. So save all that time and just drop us in right there.
It was such a bizarre and baffling decision for them to construct the show this way, especially when they persistent these choices after episode 3. It genuinely made me dislike the Akagi girls. It made 8 episodes of the show feel like POINTLESS filler. Despite moving so quickly through consecutive events, the entire show felt like it was padding itself out.
The only really conflict in the show is pointless melodrama. The Akagi girls feel like Akado is using them to get ahead in life. But they already know this isn't true. They know her predicament and her convictions. Even if she accepted the offer to go pro again, she wouldn't have started until after the competition anyway. So the characters feel betrayed because they mistakenly believe they might get two fewer with their coach, when she's probably leaving the school after this anyway. I think that even the writer forgot who her paper-thin characters were.
2/10 for episodes 1-8. 5/10 for episodes 9-12. 3/10 overall. The Saki sequel anime blew this out of the water. I'm glad I stopped at episode 3 to watch that show first. It wouldn't surprise me if we never got a third because side-A killed people's interest. It certainly feels like a shameless cash grab. No fanservice, no yuri-bait, no shipping, no lolis, no characters, plus melodrama. It's Saki in name only.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Oct 20, 2025
The spin-off definitely seems kind of like it's own thing, so I guess I'll elaborate here instead of waiting to see Nationals.
I absolutely adored this anime. The main cast has so much chemistry, really every team does. Lots of sports anime like Prince of Tennis and Kuroko's Basketball really make the team dynamics come alive as well, but they often rely heavily on drama. While each character has their own struggles, the teams in Saki are much more grounded, sweet, and wholesome [and horny ;)]. Of course I'm going to appreciate yuri a lot more than yaoi shipping, but all of the relationships are handled
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quite well. They feel very innocent and organic. I rooted for every pairing.
I had absolutely no experience with mahjong, and even after looking up the rules to help watch this, I still don't understand it at all. It seems very complicated and convoluted in regards to newcomers, so I doubt I'd really start to get it without playing for a few hours with knowledgeable people. Even so I thoroughly enjoyed watching the girls play. I gave up on even trying to understand the scoring halfway through, but it was still fun to see them unleash their signature moves for big points. Fanservice aside, this reminded me heavily of Hikaru no Go without the learning how to play arc. Each person's specialty is more about a winning move or a strategic skill as opposed to a shounen superpower. The closest thing are people who manipulate tile draws like Yugioh.
Again the cast is amazing. Yuuki my crazy lovable Taco loli. Ditch Kyoutarou and come to me sweetheart. I'll appreciate your feminine charms. Always cute; always hilarious. Saki and Nodoka are such a wonderful couple. Watching their love slowly bloom is heartwarming. Mako and Hisa make a great duo as well. A consummate leader and her sidekick. It's entertaining to watch Touko the ojou-sama have her pride crushed again and again. And dear lord, Koromo is adorable. The Kazekoshi girls were really fun to watch (we even got a cute chubby girl who had no screentime), and it's really a shame Kana's siblings were only in the specials. You've gotta love Stealth Momo and her squeeze too (although I don't know why Momo's episode repeated scenes 3 or 4 times).
I drowned in sexy waifus and steamy fanservice, watching cute girls and barely-clothed lolis hold hands and pledge to be together forever, laughing as I went along. By the end, I didn't want any of the major girls to lose, so they could come back into the story again later.
This show definitely warmed my cold, dead heart a little bit. And the routine close-ups of sweaty thighs definitely warmed something else. :p Seriously top-tier fanservice on display (without going full 'Chivalry of a Failed Knight').
The soundtrack, the character designs, pacing, the character development, all executed so well. Poor Kyoutarou will never get his girl, and he doesn't appreciate Yuuki's advances. Yuuki should get with the other girls in their love octahedrons instead.
10/10. Pure cinema.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Oct 19, 2025
This anime is almost perfect. My TV is a 10-year-old pseudo-smart off-model and does not handle blacks well. The majority of the time I could barely make out a lot of what was on the screen. Now normally I would find this quite frustrating, but in this case it added to the atmosphere. The graphic design is already intentionally blurry, grainy, filtered, compressed, muddy, and indistinct in many scene compositions. The settings and background are SUPPOSED to bleed into this kind of stifling amorphous fog that visually chokes the relatively bright and colorful characters on the screen. It was simply a wonderful use of the
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medium, and I honestly can't believe more artistic types haven't tried this since. It evokes so much atmosphere, symbolism, and meaning in every scene you watch.
I intentionally didn't read many thread comments while I was watching to avoid commenters spoiling with light novel knowledge, and I'm glad I did. The mystique retained throughout, and I was able to slowly come to realizations and have them confirmed later rather than be told the answer outright. Even as confusing as the plot can get, mostly due to the timeline jumping around and the vast cast of characters looking so similar to each other, I generally came away from an episode with a decent understanding of what they were trying to convey. I'm not going to pretend I'm some galaxy-brained guy who instantly figured everything out, rather I mean despite the vagueness and lacking of context and exposition in many scenes I never felt frustrated watching. I did rewatch the first three episodes again due to character overload because I kept confusing who was who, but after that I never felt like it was a punishing or obtuse experience. In comparison I recently watched "The Garden of Sinners," and movie 5 especially felt intentionally convoluted as it told its narrative in a repeating spiral, which was exasperating as a viewer. I kept feeling like I get the gist of what's going on, why are you dragging everything out 10 times longer and being so unnecessarily cryptic. I absolutely never felt that way watching this show, and I looked forward to each subsequent episode.
I would say the major flaw in this adaptation is the fact that the "main cast" really doesn't get much focus at all. I felt this the most in the final episode where we're watching the culmination of each character, and I can barely remember how they're all connected. So I was left with feelings of ambivalence and incompleteness. I'm sure the light novel fleshes out everything more including the recurring cast, so it would feel like a much more satisfying conclusion as opposed to the next episode in the sequence.
This seems like one of those series that you could spend all day analyzing and theory-crafting. Normally I would do just that and offer a deep character analysis, but I really don't feel super confident in my memories of the cast. I will say that the primary themes definitely include regret, loss, growing up, trauma, etc. but those are obviously directly telegraphed to the viewer. Even so each scenario was quite well portrayed. If you'll forgive the certainty of me getting a number of things wrong here...
We had the first girl disgusted by her friend's exploitation of men through her budding sexuality, including the boy she liked. The tension between the two felt palpable, as the more popular girl insisted on dragging her out to mixers, even as the shy girls' anxiety and shame over not confessing to or protecting her crush left her with crippling OCD.
Then we had Jounichi getting high off of eating people's regret and remorse in bug-form. The psychiatrist cruelly labeling him a coward to fuel his descent into madness by denying him the ability to properly grieve the loss of his dream. Instead he voraciously fed off the negativity of others, providing them temporary comfort but leaving them worse off without growth, and ultimately stagnating himself in the process.
We had the boy getting high off aromatherapy oil. The constant pressure of his parents and the unfairness and isolation in his life slowly broke him down making him feel more and more like a loser. His father finally lowering his standards only felt like a further betrayal, and even still he struggled. The eroge he took refuge in and wanted to go to school to create slowly eroded his distinction between fantasy and reality. Finally he's so lost in the sauce he's trying to manipulate a real younger girl into being his perfect dating sim character. If he's destined to be a loser, then he feels like he just has to FORCIBLY take control of his life by eroding his inhibitions with substance use. Very relatable and very sad.
We had the onii-chan and his imouto. I certainly had a soft spot for these two, but the brother really did not get enough justification for his depression. While certainly impactful, even a child wouldn't see one absence from a performance as world-ending. "I am the useless one" juxtaposed with a brocon (as it should be) helping her brother even as his actions harm others. It really gives murder couple vibes. I already talked about it in the episode 6 thread. But Manaka's powers also spawned Poom Poom from his inner child, the pied piper who steals the inner children of others. He hollows out the the already empty teenagers by robbing the last vestiges of hope and innocence from them, leaving them with nothing but regret and despair. A liberating experience at first as their suspicions are affirmed, but an ultimately lethal one in the end.
I just remembered Misuzu, the toxic positivity girl. After her optimistic best friend Panuru died, she decided to radically accept everything in the world. Even things that should obviously be changed, shamed, or avoided. By the end she was actively assisting in murder because by sending enough people to heaven she might eventually convince herself it was okay for Panuru to die so soon.
Manaka was definitely an interesting character. Forcefully evolved from a still-born capable of time-based memory powers that gave her mother anterograde amnesia. She could actually steal the memories and personalities of others, unfortunately stealing Echoes' and becoming incapable of advanced thought and speech. Quite a frought tale where both mother and child were obsessed with a past they could never have, to the point where the daughter became a predator feeding off the youth of (inner) children to vicariously co-opt the childhood she never had.
I already talked about Shizue in the episode 7 thread.
I definitely know I missed a lot of side characters, but I think I'll stop there. Certainly not a deep analysis, but again I'm not confident trying to probe deeper on one watch. I get that Toka is Boogiepop, but I really didn't understand all the alter-egos and different monikers. I only watched it once after all. Sometimes characters seemed like allies and other times like enemies. I didn't really understand the goal of the organization either. All things to look forward to in the future on rewatches/rereads.
9.5/10. I'm off to watch the other version.
P.S. Love your onii-chans like good imoutos ;)
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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