Soulsavior42 review:

Saki (咲)
Animation: 8/10
Story: 8/10
Music: 10/10
Action: 10/10
Overall: 9/10
Length: 25 Episodes
Themes: Mahjong, Tournament, Yuri
Highlights:
Awesome Factor – Being able to see the “Tile-Slam” 2 times in one series by the president almost got me off.
Battle Factor  – So imagine Dragonball Z, an all girl cast, no powering up, they don’t sound like they are constipated….and its Mahjong
Insanity Factor – This is only series you’ll ever watch that will get you excited about something as boring and complicated as Mahjong.
Yuri Factor – VERY BLATENT, Its your choice if you like it or not.
Brief Summary
Miyanaga Saki is a first year high school girl whose family would get angry if she won the family mahjong games. But losing would also have its consequences. Because of this she develops a new way of playing that allows her to stay on the thin line between winning and losing, the +/- zero score, an almost impossible score. In a game that relies mainly on luck, the +/- zero score is harder than winning, but Saki can achieve this every time. Having always hated the game, her friend from middle school, Suga Kyotoro, forces her to play in the schools mahjong club. Her developed skill and superhuman luck has made her a worthy mahjong opponent, even to the middle schools national mahjong champion. (AnimeNewsNetwork)
When I first read this summary and looked at some pictures on ANN last year right before Spring Anime season, I laughed, quite hard actually. I mean who honestly would make a series about Mahjong, especially with big series like Full Metal Alchemist, Dragon Ball Kai, Canaan, and a few others to compete with. Well apparently Pony Canyon does. Picking this series  as a complete joke at the beginning of Spring season as “filler” between watching some of the bigger more anticipated series I wasn’t expecting much at all, I mean it’s just loli’s playing Mahjong right? Well I was wrong, very wrong.
After the first episode of Saki I was hooked, no doubt. Not because of the loli’s, or the very blatant laced yuri scenes between Nodoka and Saki, but because of the Mahjong, which mind you I had no knowledge of Japanese style Mahjong before watching episode 1.  Luckily MakiMaki subbers were kind enough to add in basic rules of Mahjong throughout the episode to keep us un-educated viewers in the know.  Now the next few episodes follow the basic structure of promises, crazy “how did Saki pull that off moments” during friendly games between her club members, and mild fan service till around episode 6 where the club has finally gotten to the prefectural qualifiers for the Japan National Mahjong Tournament.  This is where the series kicks it into high gear and leaves you behind in the dust trying to catch up introducing a slew of new characters from each competing school, the main players being Ryuumonbuchi, Kiyosumi, Tsuguru, and Kazekoshi with their respective players. This is about as far as I go story wise since it would ruin the matches and the final outcome of the tournament. On to the technical’s.
Animation
After picking up Saki you’ll notice that the producing company spared no expense in above average animation quality and sleek CG Mahjong tables, tiles and other random “battle” effects. The largest problem throughout the series was the reuse of certain animations towards the end of the series, the biggest being most of just placing tiles on the table and maybe a few facial expressions. Though this may be a fault for most people and a chance to deduct points from the score which I did, but I mean there are only so many angles that you can animate of 4 people playing Mahjong, you’re eventually going to have to reuse something and for the most part Saki did a good job at keeping very recognizable scenes out of the recycle bin.
Story
This is the make or break point for Saki as with most series since without a story I mean, what do you have? well nothing.  Sadly the actual overall story is pretty thin and not really explained that well except that the audience knows that Saki and Nodoka have a promise to go to nationals together which we are reminded of way to many times during the series, followed by the typical embarrassing yuri-esque moment.  Aside from some small hints of Saki having a sister who has disowned herself from the family and Saki’s anterior motive for going to nationals is to make up with her sister by beating her in Mahjong, that’s all you get for a main plot. For everything in-between you get small back stories on the rest of the “main” members of each team in the finals of the tournament. Towards the end of the series I came to find myself rooting for the other schools over Saki and Nodoka, thus being somewhat disappointed when I remembered the series was actually about Saki and not about Momoko the stealth Mahjong player.
The largest problem I found in Saki was the blatant yuri pairings from each competing school, and how much they emphasized it especially in the final few episodes of the series. Now nothing ever “happens” between said pairings, nor is it ever officially confirmed during throughout the series since it could be played off as they are just really good friends, and good friends meaning they want to hop on each other the second they get alone. This aspect of Saki can get very tiring and boring, most of the time I found myself screaming in my head, GIVE ME MORE MAHJONG!!!
Music
Well Aside from the fact that Saki had some of the best OP/ED’s along with a very well put together OST throughout the series, full of energy and awesome themes. Maybe I wish they had the OST cd for sale earlier than Oct 12? Yeah it was that good.
Action
Tile Slam should be all I have to say for those who have seen the series. For those who haven’t well here’s the run down of what you can expect. Awesomeness, topped with a side of Awesome. All sillyness aside, the best way I can begin to explain the action is ask you a question. Have you ever been playing a game, doesn’t matter what type and whenever you laid down that winning card and imagined lighting hitting the table and awing everyone your playing against? Well that’s what happens in almost every match throughout Saki, each player has their own “moves” even though the game stays like it should all the action takes place purely for viewer entertainment and in the players imagination I should say. So when a big wave of wind shoots across the table or water rises from the ground it’s just that imaginary feeling of pressure, or being overwhelmed since a player is doing good in the match.  I love this type of action as it doesn’t lead to long drawn explanations and useless banter and well I think along those lines when I used to play games that are similar like CCG games and what not.
Overall
This series is great, hands down one of the best series of the year and definitely on my top 10 of personal favorites.  Keep in mind that if you have no interest in Mahjong, Loli’s, Yuri, or over the top action scenes then this isn’t the series for you, if you enjoy any one of those pick it up and give it a shot, you won’t be disappointed.

Full series download(torrent batch – English subtitles):
[Underwater-Mahjong] Saki – 01-25 [TV]

Saki – Wikipedia

Thanks to Soul for the review!

V4sh give us the Valkyria Chronicles episodes 9,10 & 11 reviews:

Since Ayako’s translator decided to screw everyone over and stop translating Valkyria chronicles they haven’t released an episode in 3 weeks. I was holding out for a release, but it seems unlikely now, so I went ahead and watched the releases by a group called “gleam” I hadn’t heard of them before, but they seem to be doing quite a number of shows with a reasonable fan base too. All in all they have a smaller file size then Ayako (at the expense of slight video quality, not noticeable unless you are watching on a big full HD monitor), but I don’t like the typesetting as much, but I can’t complain as they are releasing at least.

Well anyway  on with the review. In episode 9 we get to have a look at the Imperial side of the war for a change. Some aides from central office are assigned to Selvaria and the other two generals in order to keep an eye on them, and Maximilian is ordered back to central office for some reason that’s not really explained, but it has something to do with the slow progress he is making with the invasion of Gallia. Selvaria wants to go with him but is ordered not to, and her aide also gets in her way and prevents her from going after him. An ill conceived assassination attempt later and the aide admits that he has been sent to stop Selvaria helping Maximilian, and that his life is in danger. So back at central office cue the generic assassins who come to try and kill Maximillian, the defences hold out for a while but eventually the assassins get to him. Then Selvaria, the aide, and Jaeger show up after taking a shortcut that somehow cut half a day off their travel time, Selvaria activates her GOD MODE hax and pwns all the assassins and gets to Maximilian, who it turns out didn’t need any help at all because he had his own hax turned on. All in all a pretty good episode as it gives a different perspective on the whole thing, and give some insight into the turmoil within the empire.

On to the next episode. Its at this phase in the series when the plot of the anime starts diverting from the plot of the game a little. Remember that god sized tank that destroyed those ruins a few episodes ago? Well guess what, in episode 9 squad 7 don’t fight it like they’re meant too. Instead we get some crap about  Welkin and Alicia getting cut off from the rest of the squad by a random snowstorm (it should be long range mortars damn it!) and taking refuge in a shack, they talk, character development happens and some random Imperial infantryman dies. This is actually rather well done, as they manage to make a whole episode out of a 3 minute skit sequence in game.

Thus we get onto the final episode in this review hat trick. Yet another Welkin and Alicia centred episode I’m afraid. This time Welkin and Faldio are getting a medal from the princess of Gallia for the capturing of the Vasel bridge waaay back in like episode 4, despite the fact that Faldio wasn’t actually even in there… weird how these things work. But anyway Selvaria and Jaeger turn up in “cunning disguises” . So cunning in fact that Alicia recognizes them straight away, but when she tells other people they’re just like, meh what they gonna do? We get a little scene with with Alicia and Faldio, who gives her a blue rock that is obviously key to the plot in some way. Then a few minutes later and bang kidnap happens and Alicia and the princess are taken away. Why Alicia you ask? Well she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and instead of doing the logical thing and killing her the kidnappers decide to take her along too. This will no doubt prove to be a fatal mistake as she DROPPED THE BLUE ROCK! So Faldio will know something has happened and use his pimp powers to rescue them both, but that’s all in next episode, so we’ll wait and see until then.

Hmm this season reminds me somewhat of Pumpkin Scissors (oh god that was bad…). Both promised tank action but then after like 3 tank-centric episodes failed to deliver any tanks whatsoever . Hope that this series doesn’t end up that way. Also I cant actually decide what this series is for, its either a supplement to the game, OR an alternate retelling of the story. But if it was a supplement then it would stick to the plot of the game slightly more (mortars replaced with snowstorm wtf). And if it were a retelling of the story there should be more battles. Seeing as it doesn’t fit into either of these categories, I’m having a hard time figuring out what the purpose of this series actually is.

Gleam Valkyria Chronicles Episode 9:
http://www.nyaatorrents.org/?page=download&tid=69536

Gleam Valkyria Chronicles Episode 10:
http://www.nyaatorrents.org/?page=download&tid=69705

Gleam Valkyria Chronicles Episode 11:
http://www.nyaatorrents.org/?page=download&tid=70471

V4sh give us the Valkyria Chronicles Episode 8 Review:

Once again I apologise for the slight delay, but Im still in the middle of exam period, and will be for the next week also. I was hoping to batch this review together with episode 9, but there appears to be some delay with that so this is all I can do for now.

Here have some Azu-licia. Moe moe moe.

Well back on with the review. Still in the Darcsen ruins Alicia decides to shoot at Lelouch Kaiser Maximilian, but his bodyguard Selvaria has speed hax turned on and cuts the bullet out of the air with her rapier. They then evacuate leaving out hapless trio inside. Oh it looks like the Alliance army totally failed without squad 7 AGAIN and lost the town they were meant to be defending, and their commander got executed. Well bawwww. A short time later the MOTHER OF ALL TANKS appears and by Maximilian’s command reduces the ruins to rubble, leaving Alicia, Faldio trapped together inside and Welkin slightly less trapped alone. All of a sudden Isara appears! OMG WERE ALL SAVED! No. She’s pretty much useless without her tank. But non the less Welkin makes it out, and some minor injuries,  lizards,  and flashbacks to Welkin’s days at university later Alicia and Faldio are rescued also. Yay. This hopefully has put an end to a rather dull trio of episodes that  were given waaay too much time out of a 26 episode series. But it looks like next episode there might be some more tanky action. We can only hope.

Torrent Download (english subbed as always):

Ayako Valkyria Chronicles Episode 8

**The main blog as been a bit innactive this past days, srry for the little vacation. Starting next week I hope I’ll post lots of cool stuff for you guys. Thank you, please keep supporting us.

V4sh brings us the Valkyiria Chronicles Episodes 6&7 reviews:

Valkyria Chronicles Epiodes 6 & 7 Review.

Ok, so I’m a little late on episode 6 review, I apologize but Im in the middle of my exam period, and quantum electro dynamics took precedence over my anime watching ><. But nonetheless I’m back with a double barrelled review of episodes 6 and 7.
So to kick things off lets take a look at episode 6. Oh god why? This episode decides to waste 25 minutes of your life with some stupid assed reporter interviewing squad 7 for her radio show that nobody in their right mind would listen too. Basically Alicia is embarrassed over Welkin as he is not a typical military officer so would make squad 7 look bad if he said something stupid. This waste of an episode sees her running all over trying to stop the reporter speaking to Welkin. Not much else happens Largo rages about his unrelenting love for vegetables, Rosie tries to sing (causing me to try to remove my ears from my head with nothing more then a rusty spoon.) , and a brawl breaks out over some barbeque. Overall this episode was a huge disappointment, which I paid for with 25 minutes of my life I will never get back. Easily the worst episode of this series.

Alicia cannot believe how bad this episode was.

Moving on from the atrocity that was episode 6, will episode 7 drag Valkyria out of the dog house?
Well sadly there are no tank battles, or any battles for a matter of fact this episode. Once again the Military is showing its disdain for the Militia, by not including them in their battle plans, and sending them off to the desert of all places. You’d have thought they’d learned their lesson from last time they did this, but no. Anyway  whilst in the desert  more hate is generated towards Isara because of her Darksen heritage, and squad 7 are breaking protocol by gambling, and where is Welkin in all of this? Off drawing a grasshopper of something with Faldio. They decide to go on a day trip to some ruins to try and learn about the Darksen calamity of 2 millennia past, and how convenient  when they get there Alicia pokes something and discovers a previously unknown inner chamber. OMG archaeology is SO EASY! But who is that FABULOUS figure in the shadows? Why its Lelouch himself the emperor of the Eastern European Alliance shows up and everyone is like arrghhh wtf. This epiode was slightly better then the previous travesty but still fails to live up to the standard set by earlier episodes. Ill be back next week for episode 8

Torrents:

Ayako Valkyria Chronicles Episode 6:
http://a.scarywater.net/ayako/%5BAyako%5D_Valkyria_Chronicles_06_%5Bh264%5D%5BD1169804%5D.mkv.torrent

Ayako Valkyria Chronicles Episode 7:
http://a.scarywater.net/ayako/%5BAyako%5D_Valkyria_Chronicles_07__OP1.5_%5Bh264%5D.torrent

[twrev-Doremi] Valkyria Chronicles 06 avi

PanzerFaust19 give us this review. Click Here To Visit His Profile.

The combined armies of Takeda and Uesugi finally face off against Tokugawa Ieyasu, while Date Masune takes the lead as the Vanguard and faces off against Asai Nagmasa who is forced to battle Date in order to protect his wife from Oda Nobunaga. After a failed last attempt to sway Tokugawa to defect from Oda. The battle between Tokugawa and Takeda/Uesugi force begins with the Takeda and Uesugi gaining the upperhand, however Tokugawa at the final moment unleashes his secret weapon Honda Tadakatsu the strongest warrior who has pretty much the power of a gundam which turns the tide of the battle until a combined effort of Takeda Shingen and Sanada Yukimura manages to stall Tadakatsu for a bit. Meanwhile Date and Nagamasa finally begin a duel and Nagamasa putting up a brilliant fight and Date eventually pulls out all six of his swords to gain the upper hand against Nagamasa. However with a final conclusion of the fight between Nagamas and Masamune shots ring out as every warrior is stunned by the loudness pause the battle as the smoke clears. With Oda Nobunaga staring down from the mountain a warrior falls as an army of Teppo Ashigaru prepare to reload once more.

Overall this episode was pretty solid with a lot of nice action scenes and excellent Voice Acting. However compared to the earlier episodes of Sengoku Basara it would seem the quality of the animation has dipped quite a bit. This is most notable in during the fight between Nagamasa and Date which seems like the animation team got lazy with the quality. Hopefully the quality will pick up again as this episode will leave you wanting more and overall it is a very nice action series with promises of plenty more battles, action, and of course Gundam.

(Direct) Download Links (English subs by gSS)

[gSS]_Sengoku_Basara_-_05_[179A9A9F].mkv

Torrents:
[gSS] Sengoku Basara – 05 [179A9A9F] mkv

Tadashii and Shinsen are also subbing this series, but sadly of today they havent released episode 05. So I didnt included them. But stay tune for them.

Our official Valkyria Chronicles Revier V4sh says:

So it turns out that the army suck, and squad 7 are deployed to do what the army couldn’t. Take an imperial supply base. This time they get some backup from Faldio and squad 1. Whilst formulating a battle plan there is a rustling in some nearby bushes, could it be a spy? No. no its not. Turns out that it’s a winged pig (WTF, yep even this war based anime needs a kawaii mascot…) which Alicia decides to keep it because she likes bacon. This gives Welkin an idea for the up coming battle, and also the opportunity to tease Alicia with some goat droppings. So the moment of the assault comes and Welkin’s battle plan is put into action. Will it succeed? Watch Valkyria Chronicles and find out!

Download Links:

[Ayako] Valkyria Chronicles Episode 5