Saki 279: Under the Stars & Toki 79: Good Opportunity

Saki. The original title for this chapter (星行 seikou) is one of those poetic words with a very specific meaning that are never used in normal conversation. Ritz often uses these kind of words for chapter titles. In this case, it means something like "to leave the house very early in the morning when it's still dark and the stars shine overhead". The only thing that matters here is the word "star" since, in case you didn't know, Oohoshi means "big star" and Ritz usually uses star-related words for anything Awai-related.

Also, Ritz pointed out a scoring mistake which was corrected in the translation.

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Toki. Mekimeki did their best coloring Toki's eye in page 4 (it's an important eye...). On the other hand, you'll notice that in Saki's color pages, the coloring is too plain (Ritz admitted to that and promised to fix it for the volume release).

 

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Shinohayu 120: Like a Sparrow that Turned into a Clam

The Saki characters poll has ended. The final results are not out yet but halfway through the voting, Toki (not Saki) was leading. The halfway results were like this: 1st Toki, 2nd Saki, 3rd Nodoka, 4th Hisa, 5th Teru, 6th Hiroe, 7th Ako, 8th Koromo, 9th Shino, 10th Kasumi.

There was also a blog post by Ritz saying she's not too fond of popularity rankings but could not refuse a request from SquareEnix. And if it helps with sales and publicity and such then one can only be grateful. Ritz asked that ALL characters be included, which is why there were as many as 300 different characters to vote for. Ritz apologizes to the staff for the trouble it must have been to set this up with so many characters. Still, Ritz notes that about 50 characters or so were left out including, most notably, the mysterious Hikari-chan. Ritz will also strive to make special illustrations, not just for the top 9, but for any character in the top 50, to be distributed for free with the volume releases.

P.S.: Mekimeki refrained from voting for any Toki-related characters and voted for Yoshiko Kainou and the MaiHime combo (Mairu & Himeko).

Shinohayu. The chapter's title is an expression used when talking about something or someone that experienced a significant change. It comes from an ancient believe that said when the cold arrives and sparrows are less numerous is because they jump into the sea and become clams.

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Saki 278: Killer Move

A "killer move" indeed...

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Toki 78: Pair Wait

I hadn't listened to it in years but as the chapter ends, Futuristic Player begins to play...

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Toki ch78 (Mediafire)

 

Shinohayu 119: Strengthening

This month, we have both Shinohayu and Toki. As usual, Shino comes first and Toki will be ready some time next week.

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Saki 277: Counterattack

The first direct confrontation of this captains match: Saki vs Awai!

But don't miss the even greater struggle in page 11: those tiles sure are strong... (Ritz had some fun).

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Shinohayu 118: Trap

As expected, the "character contest" that was recently announced will be a popularity poll to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Young Gangan magazine where Saki is published. Additionally, the 9 most voted characters will enter some kind of lottery to receive special art drawn by Ritz. Nine characters is because of the Nine Gates yakuman. Voting is in September so the results won't be known until at least October.

Also, no Toki chapter this month. Mekimeki might be busy with Comiket or something...

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