Recent interview with series director Ono reveals that the Saki Achiga-hen special episodes will continue until episode 16, one episode longer than previously revealed.
Well, the more the better. The more detailed the portrayal of a Saki match, the more impressive it is, so more time can never hurt. If only they had done Achiga in a two cour format to begin with…
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I can dig a one last hurrah episode of the Team Achiga Saga in the “National Super Powered Mahjong Wrestling Lesbians Federation”. Like you, in my own review, I asked the question of “Why couldn’t the matches have been longer in the main show?” So far, the OVA matches have been leagues better than most of the original 12 episode ones.
Indeed. Achiga rarely has time to stop and show us what a character is really thinking as they make a move, which was one of the major things that made the original tick.
Also, the show gave fans a reason to care for every character. It did not matter which team they were in, the viewers could care for every individual wrestler and empathize with them. Basically, for me anyway, it didn’t matter who won the match because every wrestler deserved to win.
That was not the case in the initial 12 episodes of Achiga. Heck, before the bonus episodes, there was hardly anything about Achiga to empathize with…except for Yuu, she rules the wrestling ring.
I was on the Senriyama train most of the time, though :D.
Because Senriyama, besides blessing us with Toki X Ryuuka, had the most flashbacks, the most touching moments, the most epic comebacks, the most screen time during matches and looked to be wrestling for the most important reasons.
I think that’s why Senriyama was the most popular team in Achiga-hen.
Basically yes on all points. Truth be told, Senriyama, despite being a school where students compete with each other for a place in the team, title of ace etc. often showed more unity than Achiga, which was something of an ad hoc team (they kind of grabbed Yuu and Arata mid-run).
I would like to see a singles match between Achiga and Senriyama’s coaches. Two veterans duking it out is always a special attraction.
And we are all thankful Achiga grabbed Arata and especially Yuu.
Well, a PRO-hen in general would be interesting. We’re still not 100% sure whether the pro league is all dragons or wizardry, or whether all the “abnormal” stuff just started happening with this mahjong generation.