Impression
I’m glad Hisa managed to finish the second half the way she wanted to – and that she had fun while doing so. As Saki would say, tanoshii mahjong is the best mahjong, and Hisa won’t have any regrets over her play regardless of the overall outcome (although we all know they’ll get through to the semifinals anyway – who they’ll get through with is the bigger question). I was slightly peeved at Miyamori and Eisui for shutting Hisa down with cheap hands whenever she declared riichi, although they didn’t really seem like offensive players to begin with. Hiroe was only all too happy to point that out 😀 While she’s definitely arrogant in (repeatedly) asserting her superiority, her claims aren’t baseless at all. And whether or not she’s using it as an intimidation tactic, she’s got the results to back it up. Anyway, except for the all-last, the rest of the match went by pretty uneventfully – I must confess that I was hoping for Hisa to pull off a rinshan with that open kan, especially as it wasn’t even worth any yaku. In last place, it’s sort of reckless to potentially end up with no yaku like that, even if it did pay off with a bunch of kan dora (though I love it when I go for a quick open toitoi, try a kan and that happens). Hisa probably decided on an ittsu over a honitsu as the latter was too predictable – although Kurumi still saw through her and neatly avoided having to pay the entire haneman.
The “storm” hinted at by not Kouko the announcer is exactly what we’ll see in the vice-captain match, except it’s more likely to come from Usuzumi Hatsumi than from Nodoka. I’m still expecting great things from Nodoka though – it’s her first inter-high appearance since becoming the inter-middle champion! Nodocchi’s awakened almost immediately, and the pressure from both her opponents and the inter-high stage may have contributed to that – which is of course rather ironic given that Nodoka’s a digital player through and through, while at least one of her opponents this time round is on the occult side. The other normal player, Atago Kinue, seems pretty determined, and if she’s related to Hiroe and FunaQ it’s probably best not to underestimate her.
I’m kinda scandalized over Usuzumi Hatsumi’s magically levitating miko outfit. I already know none of them wear any panties (Kinue certainly wasn’t) but this sort of loli fanservice is what you’d expect from someone like Hajime! But yeah, Hatsumi is a heavyweight occult player for sure – if her teleporting abilities weren’t proof enough, she managed to glimpse Nodocchi’s wings emerging as well. The final scene with her scary awakening was seriously intense – we haven’t seen this sort of supernatural offensive power from Eisui since Jindai got possessed, and Hatsumi in North actually feels like more of a national-class monster than Jindai was. Something big will happen next week, and the preview is making it even more ominous. A yakuman is coming… I can feel it!
Come to think of it, wasn’t this the loli who sank someone below zero in the regionals with a daisuushii or something?
Re: Eisui and Miyamori Strategy – Fairly simple. Ideally, Jindai gains a lot of points and her team defends and hurries through the other rounds to prevent other teams’ point gainers from making up the lead. They pull off Shindouji’s trick with sticking a point gainer in the Vice-Captain round. Miyamori is the same but opposite… They want to minimize point loss until their Captain.
Re: Hiroe – I know she rubs some people the wrong way with her arrogance so I’m glad you sort of (?) ended up liking her. Hiroe’s a fun character and a fun player IMO. Good table reader too. She didn’t even hesitate to keep the 5 pin and bail safely against Hisa. Great performance from her.
Re: Kinue – Hiroe’s younger sister who idolizes her. Apparently, adoring imoutos are a thing in this series… Hiroe seems like a nice (if oblivious) big sister though.
Re: Nodoka – I did enjoy the interactions this episode from the teleportation to Air Penguin.
Re: Hatsumi – As someone basically said, this show has so much fanservice that they’re jaded and can’t even bring themselves to care. I’ll just note that for better (or worse?), this is still better than the manga.