Both anime never risked being great, but while K-on borders on generic, Saki is plain empty. I mean, it took 2 episodes before the protagonist decided to play majong, while most anime do it in one, with comedy on the side, and more character developpement.

Now that’s a bitch slap. I feel sorry for Kaioshin.

Not sure about Xiangqi, but vs Shogi, Go, Chess, etc MJ is totally different in that there is luck. A supposed super computer that mapped out every single possibility will not be able to win 100% or draw 100% if given the chance to. That’s the big difference.

The second difference is that MJ has a bajillion variants. If you thought Go or Shogi had it’s amazing set of rule sets, you have not seen MJ. It’s worse than the amount of options you get to screw around with in Super Smash Brothers Brawl when setting up a game. Personally I don’t like Japanese style MJ, as it’s too damn complicated for new people or non-MJers to appreciate. No way in hell is it as easy to pick up or as popular as the anime series or manga series depicts regardless if it’s Akagi, Saki, etc. Of course this is total bias, as where I live we all just play no doras, no riichi, and most of those shit hands that magically add up doras do not exist. And lastly the minimum hand has to equate a certain amount of points to be valid, so you can’t just zerg the shit out of the games. Doesn’t sound as flavorful, but it allows you to play with newbies and older people who don’t have the memory to remember all 56300359 fucking hands based on how fucking high and clear the moon is. Okay the last one was a joke, but you get what I mean.

But it’s definitely fun to a point, just like any other game you and 3 other friends kind of understand and can play together is.

oh, and for the record, K-ON is sooooooo much better when watched after Cross Game ep1. i needed something to pick me back up.

MJ is definitely boring if you aren’t a patient person or someone who takes initiative in the little things when it’s waiting aka the majority of average people. It also contains the flaw known as luck and while that takes it away from something as monotonous as chess, it has the exact opposite fatal flaw.

Then you couple it up with the fact that games these days offer awesome graphics and audios and what not and it’s just plain obvious that a game made over thousands of years ago is out of date.

Still =] there are nerds who love even the dumbest things in life. MJ certainly has a bigger player base than most of those dumb things, including chess and checkers combined.

It doesn’t help that for those of us who play at a level higher than the ladders of North America (You would know if you tried Yahoo MJ! Terrrriibbleee)know how to play Saki’s style against bad players. While Saki does do it enough that even I can’t ignore, the “concept” itself of aiming for a specific score is not exactly Akagi level.

moe blobs >>>> everything

Also, how awesome was that ED!

The typified answer is “it’s not a question of better”, and I wasn’t paying much attention to Saki’s music except the first little bit. Music also relates to how it’s used, so there’s a dynamic between scene/sound. I would not rate K-ON’s music very highly though.

I’ve decided to watch both.

KyoAni’s moe and loli characters, to me, get better and better with even more unrealistic and hysterical twists. I like light music anyways, so why not? XD

Saki reminded me of the less serious, less trap and less Kawasumi Ayako version of Shion no Ou, in which I enjoyed watching. Saki is the safer and funnier version.

Really, in the first place, I don’t see why people give a fuck what other people watch.

KyoAni’s moe and loli characters, to me, get better and better with even more unrealistic and hysterical twists. I like light music anyways, so why not? XD

Saki reminded me of the less serious, less trap and less Kawasumi Ayako version of Shion no Ou, in which I enjoyed watching. Saki is the safer and funnier version.