Shinohayu ch52: Unprecedented

And we arrive at the climax of the team tournament at last.
Shinohayu ch52 (Mega)
Shinohayu ch52 (Mediafire)

Shino looks confident but she has yet to defeat Aina, can she defeat Chihiro? In any case, the individual tournament seems promising.

Shino x Toki drawn by Ritz (because Ritz is not busy at all...)

Saki Achiga-hen (Live-Action) Episode 1 Subs

Akio Translations has collaborated in making subs for the Achiga-hen live-action episode 1. A great part of the work was done by Dong Meu Quy Toc Translator. I helped with translating some lines and with quality check.

This is the subs file:
Achiga-hen live-action 01 (Mega)
The same file has been uploaded on nyaa by Dong Meu Quy Toc. It seems there's some trouble with the seeding though.

 How to watch
1) Put the subs file in the same folder as the raw video file.
2) Rename the files so they both have the same name.
3) Play the raws with VLC and the subs will automatically appear.

Happy watching.

Saki ch183: Open chains

To the captain match. But we still don't know who is last dealer.
Also, Awai 😅
Saki ch183 (Mega)
Saki ch183 (Mediafire)

Achiga wearing the live-action uniforms.

Toki ch17 & Biyori ch72

In page 7 there's something that shouldn't be there. I think it's an internal note someone forgot to erase. It says "poke". Maybe a pocket on Toki's apron?
EDIT: I've just checked and Mekimeki explained it on Twitter. A mystery pocket was drawn there. It was erased but the note remained.

Anyway, sharp Shin-chan is sharp:
Toki ch17 (Mega)
Toki ch17 (Mediafire)

A funny one about Himematsu:
Biyori ch72 (Mega)
Biyori ch72 (Mediafire)

I don't know if you've watched the raws but the reaction to the Achiga-hen dorama has been pretty great (after 2 episodes). Considering live-action adaptations are usually horrible, I'm glad Saki is one of the few that's actually decent, even good. I wasn't too excited about it when the first season was announced but then I watched it and it surprised me. And I'm liking this season too so far. I hope it gets subbed so more people can enjoy it. If not, I'd be willing to help with the translation as long as somebody else does the timing, encoding and everything else, essentially.

Saki ch182: On the brink

It's the end of the vice-captain match. I wonder what will it be next, captain's match right away or some flashback or other.

Attention: straightforward nopan shot on the first page (and big oppai on the second, but you can see that below).

Saki ch182 (Mega) 

Saki ch182 (Mediafire)

The first episode of the Achiga-hen TV drama airs tomorrow in Japan. A full cast for Bansei High School was revealed just a few hours ago. Will Bansei feature more heavily than in the manga/anime?

Shinohayu ch50extra & ch51: A formidable opponent

This month's issue of Big Gangan had 8 additional pages to Shinohayu chapter 50, in addition to chapter 51 of course. They are all in the same file below. The extra pages go first, the story continues right were the last chapter left off, with Hayari's last hand. Then chapter 51 begins with the color pages. For the files of the extra pages, I continued the numbering of the previous chapter to distinguish them from chapter 51 proper. I hope it's all clear.

It's Chihi time!

Shinohayu ch50extra+ch51 (Mega)
Shinohayu ch50extra+ch51 (Mediafire)

By the way, since Chihiro seems to be wearing the Senriyama uniform on the cover of Shinohayu volume 8, I guess that means she'll be a long-term rival for Shino, all the way to the InterHigh even. Nice. I'm looking forward to a confrontation between the two.

To further explain the winning conditions in this tournament: if none of the schools have 3 wins by the end of the captain match, the school with the highest overall score wins the tournament, regardless of how many wins they have obtained. At the end of the vice-captain match, Komosawa has 187400 points and Yumachi has 175000 points, so that's why the 12400 points difference mentioned in this chapter is important. The other two schools are far behind (Himebara 62500 points, Hirefuri 55100 points).

Saki chapter delayed

The Saki chapter that was supposed to be published tomorrow has been delayed until the 1st of December. According to Ritz, due to the coincidence between color pages in the upcoming chapter and the modifications in Saki volume 17 (to be released next week), it was not possible to finish both of them in time. Next up should be Shinohayu, then hopefully Saki.

Toki ch16: Class Visit 2 & Biyori ch71: Shiraitodai 4

Continuing the parent's day at Toki's school:
Toki ch16 (Mega)
Toki ch16 (Mediafire)

A Shiraitodai's story centered on Awai:
Biyori ch71 (Mega)

Biyori ch71 (Mediafire)

Shinohayu ch50 & Ritz's blog update

Shinohayu reaches 50 chapters! as Hayari's vice-captain match continues. Also, Ritz has updated her blog. You'll find a translation below.

Shinohayu ch50 (Mega)
Shinohayu ch50 (Mediafire)

This is a spoiler for the end of the chapter and the beginning of the next, probably.

The match's winner
The chapter doesn't really reveal the winner but it should be Sachiko. In the last panel, Hayari gets her winning tile so she should win the round. She has closed tsumo, riichi, tanyao, pinfu and sanshoku. That's haneman tsumo, 6000/3000 points (Bonkohara is dealer). Enough to stop Komosawa from obtaining a 3rd victory but not enough for Hayari to win the match herself. The final score should be: Agou 36100, Mizuhara 35900, Bonkohara 35500, Aoto 12500 but let's wait on the next chapter for confirmation.

Here's a translation of Ritz's latest blog update. I skipped a few irrelevant bits, it's already long as it is.

Saki ch181: Exchange

Yuki is about to use her left hand...

Links:

Saki ch181 (Mega)

Saki ch181 (Mediafire)

Here is a couple of chapter notes and a comment regarding the end of the chapter. Hidden to avoid spoilers.

Chapter notes
 - Just a reminder, the Kokuma is a Japan-wide tournament that takes place some time after the Interhigh. Middle school 3rd years and high school 1st years compete together in one category while high school 2nd and 3rd years do the same in another category. That's why Yuki is a potential opponent to Izumi (but not to the other Senriyama girls).

- Kinue's "nice pinzu hand" in the semifinal was in chapter 140. A baiman ron on Davin, no less.

- Note that near the end of the chapter, Mairu is dealer and she just won South 4 so she could have stopped the match there if she wanted to, but she decides to extend it for one bonus round. If she wins, that's a sanbaiman on the captain match yes, but only if the round "South 4 Bonus 1" takes place. This can only happen if the last dealer wins South 4 and decides to extend the match too. If it's Himeko and she's losing, she will obviously do just that but if it's any of the others...

An interesting scenario would be if the last dealer is in last place by the end of South 4. Such a player would have nothing to lose by extending the match, so might as well risk it, but by doing so she may be blatantly giving the victory to Shindouji... unless someone blocks the Reservation which, as we know, is supposed to be an unblockable ability. That would make for an interesting end of the game in my opinion but we'll see.

Saki ch180: Interest

The vice-captain match continues:
Saki ch180 (Mega)
Saki ch180 (Mediafire)

 

Saki Biyori ch70: Tsuruga's Story 9

So here's the Biyori chapter, mostly about Stealth Momo.
Links:
Biyori ch70 (Mega)
Biyori ch70 (Mediafire)
EDIT: added missing "me" in page 4.

By the way, the main cast of the Achiga-hen live-action has been revealed. All but Teru, for now.

Check them out on the official site: www.saki-project.jp

Click on the "tiles" to see the other teams.

Shinohayu ch49: Cooperation and Assistance

Short chapter but at least there's no break. I don't think Shinohayu has ever taken a break. Might be that the low number of pages is due to Aguri having extra work before the release of volume 8 in November. Toki IS taking a break this month though. Biyori should be ready in a week or less.

Haya:

Shinohayu ch49 (Mega) 

Shinohayu ch49 (Mediafire)
EDIT: added the missing "all" in page 13.

Saki ch179: Tilting the cover

This chapter's title requires a little explanation. "To tilt the cover" is an old Asian saying roughly meaning "to quickly become close friends with someone you just met". Apparently, its origin lies in an anecdote in the life of Chinese philosopher Confucius, who once met someone by chance on the road and he tilted the cover (read umbrella or some such) of his vehicle so the two of them could talk more intimately as if they were old friends.

As you can already see from the picture below, the first pages of this chapter are quite lewd. Open with care:

Saki ch179 (Mega)
Saki ch179 (Mediafire)

On other news, you may have heard that an Achiga-hen live-action has been announced. Four episodes and a movie to be aired in December/January. From this, it would seem the first season was successful enough, I presume. I think it was done pretty well, given the budget and all, so I'm kinda looking forward to see the live-action version of Teru, Toki and all the rest.

There was a comment from Ritz saying that while she felt grateful that the Nagano-hen adaptation was faithful to the manga in many ways, she also felt sorry for the staff because her "absurd" character designs were a bit of a hindrance to adapt faithfully. So to avoid this sort of mixed feelings again, Ritz asked this time clothing and hairstyles be adapted in a more realistic way as required.

Curiously, Aguri stated that her first thought upon learning of the adaptation was wonder how will they adapt Shizu's jersey and Sakurako Gibbard's face. And then also, Reservation!!

Saki Biyori ch69: Ikeda's Story 9

With 9 Ikeda Stories and 7 Kazekoshi Stories, I think Kana might be the most featured character in the Biyori series.

Links:

Biyori ch69 (Mega)

Biyori ch69 (Mediafire)

 

Toki ch15: Class Visit

After the Izumi arc, the story returns to the school on a very special day for Toki and Ryuuka.
Links:
Toki ch15 (Mega)
Toki ch15 (Mediafire)
EDIT: added a little note at the end about what the "high specs" mean here.

Shinohayu ch48: Vertical Style

Kyouka vs Yui: the vertical battle. Kyouka's victory here is critical. The captain match will almost certainly go to Chihiro so Yumachi's chances depend on both Kyouka and Hayari winning their respective battles. But can Kyouka do it? And how strong is Komosawa's buchou really?

Links:

Shinohayu ch48 (Mega)
Shinohayu ch48 (Mediafire)

 Some random comments about this chapter:

- In page 17 when Mirin says "playing it tile by tile", what this means is Kyouka is playing each turn according to the tile she just drew, prioritizing tile efficiency (and thus speed) instead of having some specific yaku in mind and trying to aim for it.

- Hayari's long thoughts in page 18 is another hint towards her capacity to calculate things on the spot. In the previous chapter Kanna said "I bet Hayari could calculate this in a second by looking at the discards". Well, this is the sort of thing she can calculate in a second. We might see more of it during her match.

 - It seems the reason Kyouka calls riichi in page 20 is she's trying to make everyone fold. The reason probably is that with a 5-man in her discards, her waiting tile (the 2-man) seems like a relatively safe tile using suji, so she might be hoping someone will discard it. When Misaki calls chi, she shifts her draw to Yui (as it happens this draw is the 2-man) so with her call Misaki passes the hot potato to Yui. Yui suspects something's amiss and deduces the 2-man, far from being safe, is actually very dangerous so she holds on to it. A less clever player would have discarded it.

- Oh and I think in the last panel, the key word is "now". "Now" as opposite to "someday". Hopefully someday soon. ;)

Toki ch14: Nostalgia & Biyori ch68

The Izumi story arc arrives at its climax! At 48 pages, this is the longest chapter in the series so far.
Toki ch14 (Mega)
Toki ch14 (Mediafire)

Senriyama's Story 4. Mainly about Sera being self-conscious.
Biyori ch68 (Mega)
Biyori ch68 (Mediafire)

Shinohayu ch47: Back and Front

Prefectural final, sergeant match. Kanna's match. Not much to say without spoiling it so here it is:

Shinohayu ch47 (Mega) v2
Shinohayu ch47 (Mediafire) v2

Saki ch178: Link, Biyori ch67 & Ritz's blog update

There's been two new updates on Ritz's blog recently. The first thing she does is to apologize for Saki's incomplete chapter (she calls it the most "rough draft" chapter ever) and also for the long break until the next chapter but she needs time to work on the tankobon corrections and all the special promotional drawings that go with it.

More on that later, but first here are the Saki and Saki Biyori chapters.

Saki ch178 (Mega)

Saki ch178 (Mediafire) 

 

Saki Biyori: Miyamori's Story 5.

Biyori ch67 (Mega)

Biyori ch67 (Mediafire)

By the way, in this chapter Saya styles herself "Donkatsu Girl". "Donkatsu" is not a real word in Japanese. It comes from the Japanese version of the video game PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS. In the original English version, there's a victory message that reads: WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER!, but in the Japanese translation "chicken" was changed into "donkatsu". It seems the translator considered a dish like tonkatsu (pork cutlet) or katsudon would be more appropriate for the Japanese audience, given that these dishes are generally associated with "winning" since the word katsu also means "to win". But instead of putting the proper name for the dish, they made up the word "donkatsu" (just for fun apparently). In any case, it has recently become a popular buzzword among players of that game. This was too long to put as a TL note so I wrote it here.

Now finally let's get back to Ritz's blog updates.

Toki ch13: Having A Dream

I did Toki before Biyori this time. Biyori might be up next week if everything goes well.

And now, once again, into the depths of time...

Toki ch13 (Mega)
Toki ch13 (Mediafire)

Shinohayu ch46: A Young Hawk Learns To Hunt

Not the longest chapter but intense. I wonder if we'll see Kanna's match in detail next. It's been forever since we saw Kanna play.

Links:

Shinohayu ch46 (Mega)
Shinohayu ch46 (Mediafire)

Take a look at the post before this one for a translation of Ritz's latest blog post if you haven't. :)

Ritz-sensei's blog post 17.06.22

Ritz has made a new blog post answering a few more fan's questions. Nothing radically important but some answers can be interesting or a little funny. Here's a translation if you are curious.

Comments and clarifications have been added in italics when necessary. Chihiro's color drawing and the trio of profile pictures are reproduced from Ritz's blog only to help illustrate the text. I hope that's alright. I also added a few pictures from the manga to illustrate some of the other answers.

Questions and Answers

- Shiraitodai's Yamada
I find it curious that people ask me about Yamada but not about the other four ex-members of Shiraitodai. But she has a nasty look in her eyes with that forehead. 

Yamada is the girl with the headband who was a regular at Shiraitodai before Teru arrived.

Yamada is not amused.

- Youko's birthday is September 19. Her blood type is A.

- The character designs of Terado and Ishihara are mine. 

Two of Shino's current opponents at the Shimane tournament.
Ritz previously revealed that some character's designs in Shinohayu are not hers but Aguri's. Most notably, Kyouka. Also, Rena. All characters in Saki and Achiga-hen were designed by Ritz (except Nanpo Kazue who was created by the anime staff).

- Breasts getting bigger → Preference or done unconsciously out of habit.

Saki ch177: Endgame & Toki ch12: Aim and Shoot

Saki ch177: the lieutenant battle comes to an end we move a little closer to the final stages of the "Match for 5th".

Links:

Saki ch177 (Mega)

Saki ch177 (Mediafire)

Toki ch12: I found this to be a very exciting chapter. An emotional rollercoaster for all the parties involved.

Links:

Toki ch12 (Mega)
Toki ch12 (Mediafire)

Saki ch176: Hard Struggle & Biyori ch66

Just for reference, since Ritz doesn't always show us the scoreboard, at the end of the vanguard match, Senriyama was 1st, Shindouji 2nd, Himematsu 3rd and Usuzan 4th. The positions didn't change in the sergeant match. Then on the first round of the lieutenant match (end of ch174), Hiroe puts Himematsu in 2nd place and that's how things stand at the beginning of this chapter.

Links:
Saki ch176 (Mega)
Saki ch176 (Mediafire)

Saki Biyori: Rinkai's Story 3. Nelly tries to play a musical instrument.
Biyori ch66 (Mega)
Biyori ch66 (Mediafire)

Shinohayu ch45: Learning to Fly

When playing mahjong, each player has his/her own seat wind, right? So if, let's say, the hand of the East wind player is going well, we could say that an easterly wind is blowing. Naturally, the same goes for the West, North and South wind players. So then if the hands of all 4 players were going well, all 4 winds would be blowing at the same time, canceling each other, which would be the same as if the wind had stopped, so to speak. Just a nice little analogy to keep in mind while reading this chapter, maybe.
It's not the main point of the chapter though, obviously. As the title suggests, the main point is about a little bird learning how to use her wings. ^_^

And now, it's time to fly:

Shinohayu ch45 (Mega)

Shinohayu ch45 (Mediafire)
minor change in page 9: one bonus > two bonus (mistake in the original)

Saki ch175: Ice and Charcoal

In Japanese, "ice and charcoal" is a way of saying that two people or two things oppose each other completely. Another way is "like shield and spear". In English, we would say "to be like fire and water".

This chapter is heavy on the mahjong but short on pages sadly (only 12).

Links:
Saki ch175 (Mega)
Saki ch175 (Mediafire)

Toki ch11: Feint

In this new chapter of Toki, the Malefic Star suddenly takes action against Ryuuka, while the identity of one of its members is finally revealed.

Links:
Toki ch11 (Mega)
Toki ch11 (Mediafire)

Weapons ready

Saki ch174: Rivals & Biyori ch65

The fated showdown between the two powerful lieutenants: Yuan vs Hitomi.
(also featuring Sera and Hiroe) ;P

Links:

Saki ch174 (Mega)
Saki ch174 (Mediafire)

For the 30 yen incident, watch the "Kuro's Birthday" anime short released in 2015, if you haven't. There aren't any subs for it though.

And a Biyori chapter about the Achiga girls.
Biyori ch65 (Mega)
Biyori ch65 (Mediafire)

Hey look, it's Chachanon!

Shinohayu ch44 & Toki ch10

It's not very important but on the first page of this Shinohayu chapter, the white text that appears next to the panels in the original version says the first meeting between Chihiro and Yuzuha occurred "3 months earlier, when the air was still cold". This contradicts what Chihiro says later about her being in 5th year of elementary school. The white text must be wrong obviously. Maybe what they meant was "1 year AND 3 months earlier"? We can't know for sure so I simply removed that part of the sentence. I think this sort of text is added by the editors, not the authors, so probably someone at the magazine was confused and messed up the dates.

Now, with that out of the way, here are the links. Enjoy:

Shinohayu ch44 (Mega)

Shinohayu ch44 (Mediafire)

And another chapter of Toki.

Toki ch10 (Mega) v2 

Toki ch10 (Mediafire) v2
v2: changed "mansion" to "condo" in pages 12, 13.

Komosawa MS Mahjong Club

Saki ch173: Recovery & Biyori ch64: Shindouji 3

After Shiraitodai-hen ended last chapter, we now return to the match for 5th. The story jumps to the middle of the sergeant battle which is shorter than ever.

Notice that next chapter, in about a month, will be published on a Tuesday (unusually) due to Golden Week in Japan.

Saki ch173 (Mega)
Saki ch173 (Mediafire)

And a Biyori chapter about Shindouji.
Biyori ch64 (Mega)
Biyori ch64 (Mediafire)

Shinohayu ch43 & Toki ch09

Komosawa Middle are already in the prefectural final as an interesting but nearly unknown event of the past comes to light.

Links:
Shinohayu ch43 (Mega)
Shinohayu ch43 (Mediafire)

This is the Toki chapter from the previous issue. Notice that I added an extra page at the end with a couple of translation notes that were too long to include in the margin of the page.

Links:
Toki ch09 (Mega)
Toki ch09 (Mediafire)

Oh, and just so you know, there wasn't any Biyori chapter in the previous issue so the only Biyori that needs to be translated is the one from this month.

Saki ch172: Champion

As you can see, no problems with the raws this time. I was a little worried last week, but everything seems fine now. Also, starting this issue, there is a digital edition of Young Gangan, which really helps too. Anyway, last time we had a fully-inked, 100% complete chapter (yay!) but two in a row would be too much for us to bear so no luck.

Links:

Saki ch172 (Mega)

Saki ch172 (Mediafire)

Saki ch171: Fairness

You may be wondering why it took so long to translate this chapter. It's because there aren't any proper raws for it. Not yet, at least. Luckily, it was possible to stitch together a translation using various sources. However, keep in mind that this is a special case. If it becomes impossible to find raws, then this translation will have to stop. We'll see how it goes for the next chapter.
 

Links:
Saki ch171 (Mega)
Saki ch171 (Mediafire)

P.S.: It seems like a certain "bird-user" is famous during the Dawn of Teru era.

Shinohayu ch42: Prefectural Tournament

When the end of last chapter (published a month ago) said the Prefectural Tournament was one month away, it was meant to be taken literally!

Links:
Shinohayu ch42 (Mega)
Shinohayu ch42 (Mediafire)

The tournament bracket in this chapter has been fully translated. As usual in Shinohayu, the names for the schools are taken from real life locations (but not real life middle schools) in their corresponding cities or towns. They belong to places like railway stations, shrines, parks, etc. By looking up these names in a map, it's possible to know in which part of Shimane Prefecture each school is located.

Probably, most of these schools won't play any big role in the story but just for completion here's a list of schools and cities if anyone is curious.

Toki ch8: Ryuuka 2

This chapter continues exactly where the last one left off, with Toki knocking on Ryuuka's door.
Links:
Toki ch8 (Mega)
Toki ch8 (Mediafire)

Saki ch170: Sweets & Biyori 63

The Saki live-action movie opened yesterday. Ritz made a short blog post with her early impressions. In short, she liked it, even the movie original scenes and the modified scenes. She only regrets that some parts of the manga had to be left out due to time constraints but she understands. It would be hard to summarize everything here so I'll skip it. No answers to reader's questions or anything like that this time.

OK, so let's move on with the new Saki chapter. Teru's flashback continues, as expected. I must say I'm really liking this flashback so far. Enjoy:

Saki ch170 (Mega)

Saki ch170 (Mediafire) 

and a Saki Biyori chapter: Usuzan's Story 3. The last issue said there would be no chapter next time but there was one anyway (?).

Biyori ch63 (Mega)

Biyori ch63 (Mediafire) 

Shinohayu ch41: Tailing

Chihiro is being hyped a lot lately. I'm looking forward to the Shimane Prefectural Tournament. I hope she doesn't disappoint. Shino vs Chihiro vs Aina vs Hayari would be a great match if it ever happens. Or maybe replace Hayari with Yue, the menhon master. But it's clear Yue will be against Kanna.

Links:
Shinohayu ch41 (Mega)
Shinohayu ch41 (Mediafire)

 

 

Saki ch169: Proof & Toki ch7: Ryuuka

Teru's chosen ones. It seems like this flashback will continue for a while, which is good of course. I'd like to know more about Teru. Enjoy:
Saki ch169 (Mega)
Saki ch169 (Mediafire)

and a new chapter of Toki with average quality scans. No mahjong this time but lots of drama.
Toki ch07 (Mega)
Toki ch07 (Mediafire)
 

Saki ch168: Beginning & Biyori 62

Teru: Origins. A nearly fully drawn chapter, new character and all.
Links:
Saki ch168 (Mega)
Saki ch168 (Mediafire)

and a Biyori chapter about Katsudon-san and Ikedaaaa!!:
Biyori ch62_v2 (Mega)
Biyori ch62_v2 (Mediafire)
v2: fixed a typo in last page.