Nodoka shows us that her style of play can have its advantages against those with weird “powers.” Then, the final round begins, pitting Saki against Yumi, Kana, and Koromo. The war has only begun…
What They Say
Hand 15 – Demon
Finally, it’s the last match of the prefectural team competition. It all depends on these four players. Kiyosumi’s Saki Miyanaga; Kazekoshi’s, Kana Ikeda; Tsuruga’s, Yumi Kajiki; and last year’s MVP Ryumonbuchi’s, Koromo Amae. The game is on!
The Review!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
New opening animation and theme song (“bloooomin’” by Little Non).
Right off the bat, Momo tries to use her stealth powers against Nodoka this time. Except…Nodoka is immune to them. That’s because Nodoka does not play the people at the table. She plays against their hands and discards. In such a situation, Momo’s Stealth Mode is a non-factor. Stealth works on the analogue world. Nodoka is pure digital. So, Nodoka takes a significant point victory against Momo, putting Kiyosumi back into the lead. The round ends with Kiyosumi holding onto a tenuous lead.
And now it’s Saki’s turn. We see a little bit of backstage banter, but then it’s time for the final round to start.
Saki gets off to a good with two wins on tsumo (drawing a winning tile yourself) after a kong (four of a kind), but before she gets a third chance at it, Yumi of Tsuruga, who figured out Saki’s strategy after those two wins, breaks up the third attempt and steals the victory in that hand. Poor Kana of Kazekoshi is completely at sea over the wild play in front of her. This unnerves Saki slightly, and brings us to the end of this episode…
…except for the epilogue after the new ending animation (swimsuits galore) and theme song (another chirpy seiyuu-sung song). Yumi gets an extended internal monologue where she notes how extraordinary her win happened to be, and that if Saki, sitting to her left, is a “monster,” she might be able to use that to her advantage.
Sadly for Yumi’s plans, there is a demon sitting across the table from her.
The handover from Nodoka to Saki is expertly managed, with Nodoka getting in one last hurrah before we move to the Main Event. The opening stage of Saki’s round consists of the usual buildup of the protagonist title character, whose amazing abilities we (and the members of Kiyosumi’s team) know all about. Also aware of Saki’s potential (for that is all that it is right now) is Fujita the professional player providing color commentary during the match. It is for everyone else to play catch up (though Koromo is likely able to sense Saki’s powers somewhat just as Saki breaks out in a cold sweat from Koromo’s presence). Having Yumi Kajiki of Tsuruga be the one to undo Saki’s opening winning streak was a nice calculated move by Kobayashi, diverting the audience’s expectations from the head-on clash to come between Saki and Koromo. It also sets up a classic trap—not for Saki but for Yumi, who may be well aware of Koromo’s abilities (everyone else at the table generally is), but does not seem to realize that for her and Kana, the most befuddled of all at the events of the opening hands, Saki might be their only hope of not being driven screaming in terror from the table, as has been known to happen with Koromo’s opponents in the past. But…that’s for the future. Koromo has been biding her time deliberately (all I will say now is look at the sky, which is shown very prominently towards the middle of the episode).
In Summary:
We get to see just how good Nodoka is, especially how her pure online style of play can even cancel out Momo’s Stealth Mode powers. As we enter the final round of the finals, Saki gets off to a good start with two quick easy victories, but her roll is quickly ended by Yumi Kajiki of Tsuruga Academy, who may not have the extraordinary luck of Saki, but has a very good tactical mind and adapts to the situation well. It’s too bad for her that we know something that she doesn’t seem to know and it’s sitting across the table from her. We are now into it, the most intense, sports drama-like part of show, with the tension and constant changes in momentum and perceived advantage that are the staples of such shows. If you like high stakes competition, this part of the show will be your thing. And it has cute girls too.
Grade: A-
Streamed by: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Apple iMac with 12GB RAM, Mac OS 10.10 Yosemite.
