An interview with the director of Saki’s “episode of side A” revealed that he’s considering the possibility of splitting the story into two separate seasons – and given the current pacing, that actually seems logical.
Saki’s second season, entitled “episode of side A”, is currently flying by – the story does have much to it, however the animation team has been trying their best to compress it into the minuscule time frame they have available. They’ve been succeeding, the series has been splendid all around – albeit, it remains noticeable to seasoned veterans of the nopan mahjong affairs that events which would have lasted several episodes within season one are simply rocketing to a completion within episode of side A, such as each of the tournament matches thus far.
Within Saki’s first season, mahjong battles received extended focus – the four total directional rounds of a single game may have taken two episodes or more as the players would each deeply consider their moves, realizing with every play, years of effort and unforgettable memories were being set down with each tile as well. And all the while, the series would also venture off into their backgrounds – how they managed to make it as far as we see, and how the other characters, currently not engaging in the bout, are reacting to the game.
Episode of side A has a fun-sized variant of that – everything is shoved within one short chapter of animation till blasting off to the next. In fact, a few episodes of “episode of side A” have even had multiple tournament games being played within – that’s absolute madness, and any familiar with the first season of Saki should have indeed felt a pain.
If episode of side A is ultimately split into two portions, that would be excellent assuming the series will then be able to transpire without limits and to its fullest – just as originally intended.
May 30, 2012 @ 16:17 CDT
Anyone that wouldn’t receive more NoPan Loli Mahjong is just a terrible dresser, ill of manner, probably kicks puppies, and is an all around bad person. And we don’t like them.
May 30, 2012 @ 16:19 CDT
They should be exiled.
May 30, 2012 @ 17:30 CDT
That would be too good for them, we need to keep them and surround them with our derision, scorn, and no pan. I’m sure we can kill them with kindness….
May 30, 2012 @ 16:36 CDT
Thank you Based Seven for giving me such awesome news on my favorite series.
May 30, 2012 @ 16:44 CDT
The anime actually follows the manga almost from page to page, the studio even added some scenes or made them longer and they didn’t compressed anything. So far the story didn’t really concentrated on the mahjong part like how it is in the main manga/anime. So the pace has nothing to do with the episode count, it’s just that the manga is similarly fast-paced.
On another note, I wouldn’t call Achiga-hen the real ‘second season’, it’s just a side-story.
May 30, 2012 @ 17:07 CDT
You’re certainly correct – yet there’s more to it.
Perhaps he’s straying from the manga a bit, however the director mentions that nearing the semi-finals, he would like to further draw out the characters as at this rate, he’s practically going to pass up the manga.
May 31, 2012 @ 18:39 CDT
This article is wrong on so many levels, let me explain:
“aki’s second season, entitled “episode of side A”, is currently flying by – the story does have much to it, however the animation team has been trying their best to compress it into the minuscule time frame they have available. They’ve been succeeding, the series has been splendid all around – albeit, it remains noticeable to seasoned veterans of the nopan mahjong affairs that events which would have lasted several episodes within season one are simply rocketing to a completion within episode of side A, such as each of the tournament matches thus far.”
While events that would have taken severals episodes in the first season are being rushed in this season, this is not because of the allocated time this season has.
The animation team are not “compressing” the manga material into this season, rather they are streching it out the most they can without adding filler.
The manga has a very fast pace and the anime is doing a very good adaptation of it, now wether adding filler to slow the pace a bit would be better or not is an entirely different matter.
They are not cutting hand, gameplay time or anything you think is the reason why the pace is fast.
“Within Saki’s first season, mahjong battles received extended focus – the four total directional rounds of a single game may have taken two episodes or more as the players would each deeply consider their moves, realizing with every play, years of effort and unforgettable memories were being set down with each tile as well. And all the while, the series would also venture off into their backgrounds – how they managed to make it as far as we see, and how the other characters, currently not engaging in the bout, are reacting to the game.”
Yet again, Saki’s manga is much slower paced than Achiga is. In Saki’s manga matches are much more developed than Achiga so comparing the both is kind of meaningless as both animes follow the manga they are adapting pretty decently.
“Episode of side A has a fun-sized variant of that – everything is shoved within one short chapter of animation till blasting off to the next. In fact, a few episodes of “episode of side A” have even had multiple tournament games being played within – that’s absolute madness, and any familiar with the first season of Saki should have indeed felt a pain.”
Yes I agree, blame the mangaka for that.
“If episode of side A is ultimately split into two portions, that would be excellent assuming the series will then be able to transpire without limits and to its fullest – just as originally intended.”
I kind of disagree.
I beleive that Achiga’s reason to exist is to complement the original manga. I do not think that we will see the final of the national in the Achiga manga since it would be very spoilerish for the main manga.
Achiga’s manga is here to show us the fourth team that’ll make it to the final (Achiga themselve) and show us what Shiraitodai is able to do before Teru’s team face Kiyosumi (Since Teru is the last boss figure of Saki manga)
Kiyosumi will met Rinkai in the semi-final which will probably make it to the final round as well (They are too much hyped not to make it). Shiraitodai is Saki’s goal since the start and is the last boss figure so if Achiga’s manga didn’t exist we would have a fourth team nobody care about on the final round which wouldn’t make it as much climatic as now.
In that aspect I beleive the best course of action would be to finish this season with Achiga getting ready for the final match, wait a few years and do a second season of Saki (Achiga is not Saki second season, it’s a spin of) following the manga closely.
May 31, 2012 @ 18:50 CDT
More like your opinion differs on so many levels – though in any case, I’m giving impressions based on how the situation appears.
“They are not cutting hand, gameplay time or anything you think is the reason why the pace is fast.”
I never said anyone cut anything – I said episode of side A is fast paced, now whatever the reason for this, perhaps it’s like you said, although if a manga is adapted to an animation, the anime should be able to stand alone. I’d assume that’s the purpose of an adaptation – to adapt it so it can become a functional animation.
Also multiple people have been saying “Achiga is not Saki second season” so I’ll go ahead and mention something – it’s generally regarded as “Saki’s second season”, whether it technically is or isn’t, that’s ultimately up to the studio behind the work decide, whatever they say, I’ll go with that. Yet either way, I don’t find this detail significant enough to debate technicalities over.
Jun 1, 2012 @ 5:29 CDT
And I already mentioned most of this anon’s problems in short, so writing a looong comment like this was kinda unnecessary :D
Jun 1, 2012 @ 5:36 CDT
I was thinking the exact same thing – oh well, at least this anon probably didn’t intend to return after writing such a comment.