Shinohayu 85: Middle School National Tournament & Achiga 28: Pictures

Shinohayu. Despite the title, there's very little National Tournament in this chapter but we are getting there. It's more of a fun chapter with Kanna.

Shinohayu ch85 (Mega)

Shinohayu ch85 (Mediafire)

 

Achiga. You may remember that Harue played for a corporate team in Fukuoka for a while before coming back to Achiga. She worked for that same company too. For the most part, this chapter takes place right after she came back but before the Kuro's Birthday Special.

Achiga ch28 (Mega) 

Achiga ch28 (Mediafire)

 

 

Toki's translation should be out in a few days and Saki returns on February 5th.

New Spinoff: Saki & Final Fantasy XIV

There is a new Saki spinoff manga (how many is that now? 8?) called Saki & Final Fantasy XIV. As the title indicates, it's a collaboration project with the FFXIV game. Main story seems to be Saki, Nodoka and Tacos travel to the world of FFXIV (as their game avatars) to play mahjong.

The author is none other than Kiyoshi Saya, author of Saki Biyori, and it's released through the MangaUP! phone app (not the same app as Saki re but a different one). First two chapters were released this month and from now on it will be one chapter each month. Both Saki and Final Fantasy are owned by Square Enix and there was some mahjong in FFXIV already so it's a natural collaboration.

Currently, there are no plans for a translation but who knows, if Saki takes another long break or something, I might do it someday. Or maybe someone else will.

Ritz's blog post January 18th, 2021

There was a new post on Ritz's site. The first since March of last year so it's been a while. It's pretty long and covers a wide range of topics. I'll write a translation summary here.

 

New Volumes

First, a reminder that new volumes for all 6 series and Ritz's book of Illustrations are going to be released on January 22nd.

 (Covers for some of the new volumes)

Commemoration exhibit for the 15th anniversary of the Saki series

Ritz made some drawings specially for the exhibit, but then worried that the legs of the 8 appearing characters were a little too long. When submitting the pictures, Ritz asked the editor about making some changes but the editor said "no, you're too slow, there's no time, this is fine".

 

(See the promo picture for the exhibit a few posts back. Back then, someone already commented the legs were too long. Ritz agrees lol...) 

 

Continues after the break...

Saki 225: Stray Arrow

Last time, in Saki... Sergeant match. Mako was in the middle of a dealer repeat. In a flashback, we saw her memorize several of her opponents' "unusual discard situations" from photographs taken by the Kiyosumi students. Chapter continues from there. But first, have some Shindouji...

 

Saki ch225 (Mega)

Saki ch225 (Mediafire)

 

Toki 46: Three Different Styles

There must be a connection between Nacchan and Nanami but they can't be the same person, can they?

Anyway, Toki troubles and that character finally makes an appearance!

Toki ch46 (Mega) 

Toki ch46 (Mediafire)

 

Shinohayu 84: Faith & Achiga 27: Smile

The 15th anniversary of the Saki series is coming up early next year and the publisher is preparing to commemorate the event in a few ways. For example, there will be a Saki-related exhibition in Tokyo for several days in January and February. New volumes for all series will also be released in January, including the first volumes for MakoMeshi and Saki:re. There's also the book with Ritz's illustrations mentioned in an earlier post. Anyway, probably nothing too interesting for most of you but just to let you know this is a thing. Also, the reason the spinoffs are skipping an issue next month. On the other hand, Saki returns December 18th. Toki should be up in a few days.

Shinohayu ch84 (Mega)

Shinohayu ch84 (Mediafire)

Achiga ch27 (Mega) 

Achiga ch27 (Mediafire)

 

The picture below is the promo art for the 15th anniversary commemoration exhibit. Neither chapter has a proper cover so let's use this. Besides, school-age Hayari drawn by Ritz is super rare.

 

Saki Achiga-hen 26: Mother

Saki Achiga-hen returns with mostly original content this time. Not just a retelling of the main story but some background on a minor character that only rarely appeared before.

Also, chibi Kuro...

Achiga ch26 (Mega)

Achiga ch26 (Mediafire)