Saki (manga)/Characters

A list of characters appearing in the anime series Saki.

Miyanaga Saki (voiced by Kana Ueda)
Saki is a shy, bookish girl who claims to hate mahjong. In spite of this, she has near-supernatural luck, allowing her to dependably play to a score of +/- 0 (which is harder than winning). After some manipulation by Hisa gets her to win a game, she begins to enjoy playing mahjong, and joins the club.

Her reason for disliking mahjong was that when she used to play with her family, they would always be sore losers and unpleasant winners, so she always had bad memories of the game. Her parents have separated, and she is estranged from her older sister Teru. Ironically enough, Saki resolves to go to the national inter-high mahjong tournament so she can meet (and play against) Teru, in the hope of being able to reunite the family. -
 * Badass Adorable
 * Bookworm
 * Born Lucky: It Runs in The Family.
 * Character Title
 * Dojikko: She manages to trip over nothing near the end of episode 23.
 * In episode six she manages to trip over he own feet immediately after freaking out Ryuumonbuchi with her Battle Aura.
 * Finishing Move: Rinshan Kaihou.
 * Let's Get Dangerous: Whenever she plays seriously. Just try to pull off what she does all the time even once. The most extreme cases are, first by finishing with a four concealed triplets, on a draw after a tsumo, and thinking that would make her score +/-0. The Tournament Arc of course tops this.
 * Her Crowning Moment of Awesome in the prefectural finals is this.
 * For the people wanting the exact combo, it was
 * Meaningful Name: "Saki" means "bloom. " Saki's signature move, Rinshan Kaihou, means "the flower that blooms atop the mountain."
 * No Sense of Direction: During both the regional and national tournaments, she often gets lost in the tournament venues.
 * Parental Abandonment: Saki's parents are separated, and her mother and sister seem to be living in a different prefecture. She lives with her father, who only appear on screen a handful of times.
 * Power Walk: Depicted in Saki Achiga-hen when she was passing by the Achiga team, complete with Battle Aura.
 * Playing Against Type: This is one of the few times you'll see Ueda Kana play such an emotionally subdued character.
 * Pettanko: Especially noticeable since she often appears alongside Nodoka.
 * Red Eyes, Take Warning: Well, she's not evil, but if you're playing against her it's a valuable warning.
 * Romantic Two-Girl Friendship: With Nodoka.
 * Selective Obliviousness: Nodoka's crush on her is quite noticeable to others, but Saki herself seems unaware of it.
 * Shrinking Violet
 * Spirited Competitor: At the regional qualifiers, she is quite excited by the prospect of being able to play against so many other strong players.
 * Wide Eyed Idealist - Saki's idea that she can reunite her family by playing Mahjong sure is a stretch.
 * Willfully Weak: Before she decides to play seriously, she would instead aim for +/-0, which is the mahjong equivalent of ending a game of poker with the same amount of chips you started with.

Haramura Nodoka (Ami Koshimizu)
Nodoka is a quiet, determined first-year member of the mahjong club. She was the champion of the previous year's middle school tournament, and is considered a genius at mahjong. She has a careful, analytical style of play, and is quick to discount any aspect of the game that is not "logical".

In spite of her calm, mature appearance (and a big shelf), she has a somewhat childish side; she cannot sleep comfortably without her penguin plushie, Etopen.

She becomes quite attached to Saki after losing a game to her. -
 * Agent Scully: Because she doesn't believe in so-called mahjong "superstition", she simply doesn't notice when something weird is up. Showcased wonderfully in her match against Eisui's Hatsumi, where by just playing normally she throws a monkey wrench in the plans of the Himematsu and Miyamori players, who did notice Hatsumi's ability and were trying to stop it from triggering.
 * Badass Normal: In a series fulled with hax powers and super luck, her strength is in being very good at calculating odds, and is probably the closest the series has to a normal strong player.
 * Battle Aura: Nodoka is an Angel Guard.
 * Big Breasts, Big Deal: Type 3.
 * Bunny Ears Lawyer: Nodoka hugs her penguin plushie while playing.
 * Cannot Spit It Out: Towards Saki. In Episode 25,.
 * Defeat Means Friendship
 * Everything's Better With Penguins: Etopen, her penguin plushie. It later becomes a plot point, when Hisa suggests that she hold it while playing to improve her confidence.
 * Expy - Of Sigrid Aoyama, the main character of Kobayashi's previous manga, Fatalizer.
 * Fetish Fuel Station Attendant: Pink hair, pigtails, thigh-high stockings and even huge tracts of land.
 * Gag Boobs, and thus almost constant Gainaxing
 * Girlish Pigtails: Turns into a single sidetail during the finals, however.
 * Girls Love Stuffed Animals
 * Security Blanket: Etopen
 * Playing Against Type - Koshimizu Ami hasn't acted in such a quiet role for quite some time now either.
 * Power Gives You Wings
 * Romantic Two-Girl Friendship: With Saki.
 * Rose-Haired Girl
 * Vapor Wear: The shots of her wet uniform scene from the first episode made some fans think that she didn't wear any lingerie.
 * The outfit she wears in the 5th manga volume's extra story certainly doesn't hurt the theory.
 * Zettai Ryouiki: Nodoka is almost Grade S.

Kataoka Yuuki (Rie Kugimiya)
"Tacos rock!"

The energetic, taco-loving Yuuki is a first-year member of the mahjong club. She and Nodoka have been friends since middle school. Her personality is generally childish, in line with her youthful appearance. Her game is extremely strong in the east round, but weakens in the south round. -
 * Badass Cape - In the Nationals
 * Bi the Way - While she seems to want Kyoutaro to check her out, Yuuki's really quite fond of Nodoka's bosom, much to the latter's discomfort.
 * Big Eater
 * Bird Run
 * Book Dumb: A genius at mahjong, but her brain completely burns out after filling in an arithmetic training book with (mostly wrong) answers.
 * Bunny Ears Lawyer: She must eat Tacos to fuel her Mahjong prowess.
 * Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass
 * Cute Little Fangs
 * Does This Remind You of Anything?: Honestly, tacos?
 * Hilarious in Hindsight when you stop and realize that Yuuki's the only character to show interest in a male character.
 * Everybody Hates Mathematics: Yuuki's weakness at maths is a problem when she plays long mahjong games, as she often miscalculates the scores.
 * Expressive Shirt: The cat-belt thingie that's lip-synched to her speech.
 * Genki Girl
 * Girlish Pigtails
 * Ms. Exposition: Lots and lots of Mahjong-specific Techno Babble.
 * Ms. Fanservice: Just watch any of the training camp episodes.
 * Older Than They Look: Appears to be around 10, in spite of being 15 or 16.
 * Power-Up Food - Tacos, or anything that rhymes with it (To a lesser extent)
 * Took a Level In Badass: Happens before her first major match in the Nationals, where she
 * Trademark Favorite Food: Tacos, which she considers to be the source of her Mahjong skills.
 * Fan Nickname: Taco-tan, Tacololi or simply Tacos. Other characters even call her Tacos too.
 * Verbal Tic: She often ends sentences with "da jo" or "da je".
 * Zettai Ryouiki

Takei Hisa (Shizuka Ito)
Hisa is the Student Council Congress President, and the president of the mahjong club. She is a formidable mahjong player, though we don't actually see her play until the regional qualifiers. Her playing style is extremely psychological, deliberately misleading the other players to her advantage. She can play pretty well without using this tactic, but she favors it because it's fun to mess with her opponents and she enjoys flirting with the luck of the draw to win.

Hisa has always wanted to enter the inter-high team mahjong tournament, but in previous years there were never enough club members for a team. Being in her third year, this is her final chance to play in the tournament. -
 * Agent Mulder
 * Ahoge
 * Badass: With a capital B.
 * Club President
 * Cool Big Sis
 * Genre Savvy: She is well aware that some rather unlikely things tend to happen around a lot of players, including herself winning with really bad waits.
 * Guile Hero: Skilled at manipulating other players' thoughts to her advantage.
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: She and Hinagiku have identical voices.
 * Insistent Terminology: Student Congress President.
 * The Last Dance: Since she is in her third year, the current tournament will be her last chance to compete.
 * Ms. Exposition: She shares this role with Yuuki.
 * Rule of Cool: Her Finishing Move when she has a game-winning hand.
 * Slasher Smile - Several times.
 * Spot of Tea
 * Student Council Congress President
 * : In the second to last match of the prefectural individuals, she tries to beat Saki. In the last match, she faces Touka, Yumi and Mihoko.
 * : In the second to last match of the prefectural individuals, she tries to beat Saki. In the last match, she faces Touka, Yumi and Mihoko.

Someya Mako (Ryoko Shiraishi)
The bespectacled Mako is the sole second-year member of the club. She is very close to Hisa, being the only person that the president shows her doubts to. She has a photographic memory, and a pattern-based style of play that relies on comparing the game to others that she has seen in the past.

Her peculiar manner of speech appears to be a result of being raised by her grandfather; she uses the pronoun washi, which is usually used only by old men.


 * Awesomeness By Analysis
 * Dramatic Glasses Removal
 * The Glasses Come Off: She does this when using her Photographic Memory.
 * I Don't Know Mortal Kombat - She often loses to raw or inexperienced players because they play in a method outside of the scope of her ability.
 * This was apparently remedied via Mako
 * Japanese Pronouns: Mako uses the pronoun washi, which is normally the domain of older men. She was raised by her grandfather, so she probably picked up his speech habits.
 * Photographic Memory: Mako has memorized nearly every match she's seen played at her grandpa's mahjong parlor.
 * Madam Not Appearing in this Pinup: In several magazine fanservice pinups where Saki, Nodoka, Yuuki, and Hisa were present, Mako was entirely absent.
 * She suffers the same fate in a lot of doujinshi. Even in a Hakka-ya doujin where Hisa was paired with just about everyone, Mako was nowhere to be seen. Poor girl.

Suga Kyoutaro (Jun Fukuyama)
The One Guy of the Kiyosumi mahjong club serves primarily as comic relief, and as the club's errand-boy. He is a classmate of Saki's from middle school. Between his mediocre mahjong skills, his unrequited crush on Nodoka (and later on Mihoko as well), and Hisa delegating all of the club's heavy lifting to him, Kyoutaro generally has a hard time.

His relative lack of familiarity with mahjong allows him to act as The Watson, giving Hisa and Yuuki the opportunity to explain things for the benefit of the audience. -
 * Butt Monkey: He spends most of his time running errands for the club, and isn't very good at mahjong.
 * Daydream Surprise: The story will occasionally segue into his Fan Service-laden fantasies of Nodoka and/or Mihoko.
 * My Friends and Zoidberg
 * The One Guy
 * The Watson: His relative inexperience at mahjong allows Hisa and Yuuki to play Ms. Exposition.

Ryuumonbuchi Touka (Minori Chihara)
The club president of the Ryuumonbuchi mahjong club. Touka is a rich Ojou whose family owns Ryuumonbuchi High School. She often plays the Alpha Bitch but she has her softer side too. As club president, she used her connections and research to assemble an all-star Mahjong team. - "Touka: Was that a dream?
 * Ahoge
 * Alpha Bitch: She is initially quite an unpleasant person. However, her Pet the Dog moments later on make her somewhat more likeable.
 * Attention Whore
 * Battle Aura: Touka is a Crazy Lance Wielder.
 * Blank White Eyes: She is prone to getting these when shocked.
 * Club President
 * Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Cold Touka.

Hajime: If you're talking about your consecutive victories against

Tomoki: That was not a dream."

"Touka: I'm going to lick you over and over and savor this delectable flavor!"
 * Determinator: She's actually this kind of person, when she means it, such as when she was scouting Tomoki. Tomoki used to be a very high-ranking player in an online RTS (suspiciously Stacraft-like) that 'emphasize quick thinking', and Hagiyoshi suggested her as a candidate for Touka's dream team. Wanting to test Tomoki's skill herself, Touka actually climbed the ladder from zero to top-100 after playing the game for six days straight, seemingly without taking any rest. Jun lampshades that that kind of determination would put a NEET to shame.
 * Expressive Hair: Her Ahoge.
 * It can also conduct lightning.
 * Foe Yay: Her obsession with defeating Nodoka Nodocchi is quite blatantly sexual at times.


 * The above quote was said as the voiceover to her spearwoman mahjong avatar molesting Nodocchi and Touka licking her lips. Even though she probably has no actual romantic or sexual interest in Nodoka, that scene is pretty heavy in the implication.
 * I Just Want to Be Special: This is half her reason for playing mahjong. She doesn't even care when a teammate messes up because it gives her a chance to save the day and be noticed.
 * Although she lacks the special abilities of a Saki or Koromo, or even Momoko, she's said to be a formidable player, which does suggest she's managed to build herself into a Badass Normal.
 * Informed Ability / : As a former winner of the prefectural Mahjong tournament,.
 * Jerkass Facade
 * Large Ham
 * Ojou: Complete with Noblewoman's Laugh.
 * Pet the Dog: Her interactions with Koromo. Her motivation for entering the mahjong tournament?
 * Earlier on, when, even though she's from an opposing school.
 * Playing Against Type - You don't see Chihara Minori play these types of characters often, do you?
 * Promotion to Parent - Even without Hajime's interpretation of how Ryuumonbuchi is one big family, Touka essentially acts as Koromo's mother.
 * Spoiled Sweet
 * Third Person Person: When she is being particularly dramatic.
 * Tsundere: With Hajime being the one who provokes her deredere side.
 * Unknown Rival: Nodoka is entirely oblivious to Touka's obsession with defeating her, to the point that she actually forgets Touka's name during the training camp at the end of the season.
 * Verbal Tic: Fitting her Ojou nature, Touka finishes game-oriented declarations with "desu wa".

Kunihiro Hajime (Ai Shimizu)
A 2nd year high school student and a member of Ryuumonbuchi's Mahjong club. In elementary school, she cheated using sleight of hand and because of that she now wears chains around her wrist to atone as well as make it more difficult for her to cheat. Touka saw some skill within her and recruited her as part of the Mahjong club as well as being Touka's personal maid. Hajime has grown a very strong affection for Touka. -
 * The Atoner:.
 * Bare Your Midriff - Her street clothing
 * Bokukko
 * Clingy Jealous Girl: Towards Touka when Ayumu is around.
 * Fashionable Asymmetry: Zettai Ryouiki on one leg only.
 * Fetish Fuel Station Attendant: A loli in a maid outfit and chains? Holy crap, Touka.
 * That's not even mentioning her casual outfit.
 * Happiness in Slavery / Subordinate Excuse: Her relationship with Touka falls somewhere between these two tropes.
 * Keigo: Subverted: Touka scolds her for using humble, maid-like language and Honorifics when Touka's father isn't around (and presumably she should be more informal among her friends).
 * Moment of Weakness: The reason she wears her handcuffs.
 * Zettai Ryouiki: And that's just for one leg.

Amae Koromo (Kaori Fukuhara)
A girl who is both a small Moe girl fond of going into Super-Deformed mode as well as a feared Mahjong demon. Her Mahjong powers manipulate the probability of her opponents to such a degree that her opponents feel like the world is ending. Koromo is Touka's cousin and lives with Touka.


 * Badass Adorable
 * Battle Aura: Koromo has.
 * Bird Run
 * Bond Villain Stupidity: She passes up several opportunities to win instantly just so she can toy with her opponents.
 * Bunny Ears Lawyer: She actually wears bunny ears (or rather, a hair bow that looks like bunny ears) everywhere.
 * Cute Little Fangs: When angry.
 * Disc One Final Boss
 * Finishing Move:.
 * I Just Want to Have Friends
 * Insistent Terminology: "It's not Kodomo, it's Koromo"!
 * Keigo: Koromo tends to lapse into extremely formal and literary Japanese at moments of extreme emotion, particularly when speaking about.
 * Killer Moon Rabbit
 * Little Miss Badass
 * Loners Are Freaks: Embodied strongly even though it's not her fault. She is actively trying to make friends.
 * Meaningful Name: "Koromo" sounds similar to "kodomo" ("child"), highlighting her childish appearance and (sometimes) personality.
 * Her family name, Amae, actually means Dependent on the kindness of others.. Awwwww.
 * Not So Harmless
 * Older Than They Look: She is in fact the oldest member of the Ryuumonbuchi mahjong club, but like Yuuki, she certainly doesn't look or act the part.
 * She's so small that she can be picked up easily (at least in super-deformed mode).
 * Person of Mass Destruction: Many of the characters demonstrate this; mahjong is serious after all. But Koromo overshadows them all.
 * Pint-Sized Powerhouse
 * Punny Name
 * Put On a Bus: She does not attend the individual tournament so has no bearing on the story anymore.
 * However, both she and Touka show up in Tokyo when the Kiyosumi club is competing in the nationals, and also gave crucial advice to Yuuki at the training camp.
 * Spell My Name With a "The": In the subtitles.
 * Third Person Person
 * Zettai Ryouiki

Inoue Jun (Yuko Kaida)
A fairly masculine girl who plays Mahjong by reading the flow of the game. Despite dressing in masculine attire and using the "Ore" pronoun, she tends to get annoyed when people refer to her as a guy.


 * Bifauxnen: She looks almost exactly like the stereotype of a male teenage delinquent.
 * Ore-onna
 * Combat Clairvoyance: Her ability to read (and control) the "flow" of the game.
 * Embarrassing Nickname: Otou-san and Papa
 * Promotion to Parent - According to Hajime, Jun falls into Ryuumonbuchi's family structure as the father, much to her embarrassment.

Sawamura Tomoki (Ayuru Ohashi)
Tomoki is a quiet and stoic girl. She's very serious except when she's being snarky.


 * Scary Shiny Glasses
 * Tall, Dark and Bishoujo
 * The Stoic (with periodic moments of Little Miss Snarker)

Ayumu (Yoriko Nagata)


Ayumu is Touka's other maid and is never seen in series outside of her Maid garb. She has a strong crush on Touka and feels jealousy towards Hajime.


 * Demoted to Extra: Initially making a handful of appearances as a comic-relief character amongst the Ryuumonbuchi bunch, Ayumu's appearances and lines in both the Anime & Manga have now dwindled down to almost nothing. (Then again, she was an extra to begin with, so...)
 * Expy: Ayumu shares a name and a haircut with Ayumu Nishizawa from Hayate the Combat Butler.
 * Meido
 * Put On a Bus - Hasn't been seen at the Training Camp or the Nationals

Fukuji Mihoko (Yui Horie)
Mihoko is a student in her final year of high school and is the captain of the Kazekoshi Girls' School Mahjong club as well as their best player. She has a very nurturing personality and attracts a lot of affection and adoration from the rest of the club. Because of her self-consciousness regarding her Mismatched Eyes, she gets into the habit of shutting one eye at all times. -
 * A Mother To Her Underclassmen: She's already in her third year when the preliminaries begin.
 * Club President
 * Even the Girls Want Her: Every other member of the Kazekoshi club seems to have a crush on her, and she has some suggestive moments with Hisa.
 * The Last Dance
 * Mama Bear
 * Mismatched Eyes
 * Romantic Two-Girl Friendship: With Kana.
 * Team Mom: Particularly when she protects the underclassmen from their coach's wrath.
 * Unknown Rival: A non-buttmonkey version: she wants to face off against Hisa one more time, but Hisa doesn't remember her.
 * Walking Techbane: For such a skillful mahjong player, Mihoko is helpless when put against electronics.
 * Yamato Nadeshiko: Her teammates are concerned that she is too selfless.
 * Walking Techbane: For such a skillful mahjong player, Mihoko is helpless when put against electronics.
 * Yamato Nadeshiko: Her teammates are concerned that she is too selfless.

Ikeda Kana (Rika Morinaga)
Kana is in her second year and is considered the second best player of of the Kazekoshi Mahjong club. She's very close to Mihoko and Mihoko is often very protective of her. Kana has quite a bit of a Catgirl theme going on with her but it isn't always apparent. -
 * Blush Sticker
 * Catgirl
 * Cat Smile
 * Cute Little Fangs
 * Hyperspace Ears
 * Dull Eyes of Unhappiness:.
 * Hot Blood: Versus Koromo oh yes.
 * Miles Gloriosus
 * Plucky Girl
 * Romantic Two-Girl Friendship: With Mihoko.
 * The Chew Toy

Yoshitome Miharu (Chiro Kanzaki)


The White-Haired Pretty Girl of Kazekoshi's Mahjong club as well their representative in the Meganekko round. Miharu is friends with Kana.


 * Meganekko
 * Pettanko: Played straight in Chapter 58 of the manga, where she finds herself quite inadequate in the bare company of Mako, Tomoki, and Kaori.
 * Pet The Kitty: Miharu is often seen with Kana, and seems to care about her the most out of all the Kazekoshi characters.
 * Nice Girl
 * White-Haired Pretty Girl

Bundou Seika (Ai Matayoshi)


Seika is a first-year student at Kazekoshi Girl's High School who managed to move up into the Mahjong Club's regulars in a mere two months. -
 * Eyes Always Shut
 * Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: But when her eyes open...

Fukabori Sumiyo (Mitsuki Saiga)



 * The Big Girl
 * The Voiceless: She only talks during her mahjong match.

Takako Kubo (Miho Yamada)
"IKEDA!"

Coach of the Kazekoshi Mahjong team. -
 * Drill Sergeant Nasty
 * Heel Face Turn - After the Team Prefecturals, just as she's set up and expected to beat the living hell out of Kana...
 * Kick the Dog: In episode seven, she slaps Mihoko for not playing more seriously, and is just barely prevented from slapping Kana as well. Particularly egregious considering that the team still won the game.
 * Reasonable Authority Figure - In spite of her hard coaching, she keeps up with the team members, and gets a hell of a kick out of Bundou's vow on the phone.

Kajiki Yumi (Yuu Kobayashi)


A third year high school student and captain of the Tsuruga Academy Mahjong club. Yumi is a very strategic player who manages to hold her own against the two demons of luck, Saki and Koromo. She's very close to Momo and is responsible for bringing her into the club. -
 * Badass Normal: Without any supernatural powers of her own, she puts up a fight against two demons of luck.
 * Genre Savvy: She relies on strategy and research about her opponents' likely hands to plan her game accordingly.
 * Graceful Loser: She provides the Kiyosumi team with extensive and detailed research about the playing styles of their likely nationals opponents, all of which she spent months collecting. This gesture even impresses Hisa.
 * The Lancer: Her skill, recruitment tactics, and no-nonsense maturity make her the logical Head Honcho, right? Instead, she's the compliment to Tsuruga's Club President, Satomi.
 * Romantic Two-Girl Friendship: With Momo, bordering on Moe Couplet.

Touyoko Momoko (Momoko Saito)
No one really noticed Momo when she was growing up and because of that she become a Shrinking Violet that developed an Invisibility power (during Mahjong matches, her power kicks in during the South Wind). Momo is fairly good at Mahjong even without her Invisibility powers but she had no inclination to join the school's club. That is until Yumi makes it known that she's wanted. -
 * Clingy Jealous Girl: Momo's reaction whenever Hisa becomes friendly with Yumi is priceless.
 * The Danza
 * Friendless Background
 * The Faceless: Up until episode 14, every scene containing her is shot in such a way that her face is obscured.
 * Invisible Girl: Even more impressive when you notice her chest is rather impressive.
 * Pluralses: How Momoko's verbal tic is subtitled.
 * Romantic Two-Girl Friendship: With Yumi, bordering on Moe Couplet.
 * Shrinking Violet: To the extent that she develops invisibility because of it.
 * Verbal Tic: Momo tends to finish her sentences with "~su".

Tsuyama Mutsuki (Shin Nanasawa)


Second year high school student. Mutsuki is fairly serious but sometimes lacks confidence. She's picked to succeed as Club President of the Mahjong club after the third years graduate. -
 * Butt Monkey: Mutsuki always seems to take the brunt of Satomi's ideas or humor, much to her disillusionment.
 * Club President: She's picked to take on this role.
 * Only Sane Man

Senoo Kaori (Ryoko Shintani)


A friend of Satomi who joined the club so that they could enter the five-person tournament. Kaori barely knows anything about Mahjong before she's thrust into a major tournament. -
 * Adorkable
 * Beginner's Luck: Yumi even forbids her from playing mahjong between the team competition and the individuals to keep her luck.
 * Confusion Fu: Accidentally. Being a complete beginner, her discards are impossible to read, since she has no idea what's she doing.
 * Meganekko
 * Spanner in The Works: Who gloriously throws a monkey wrench into Mako's pattern-based play (and to a lesser extent affects Touka and Tomoki as well).
 * Strategy Schmategy: Kaori proves to be extremely effective against players who rely on patterns and established strategies to calculate their opponent's next move, because they can't really predict what she's going to do next.

Kanbara Satomi (Natsuko Kuwatani)
"Wa-ha-ha!"

President of the Tsuruga Mahjong club. She's often known for her Catch Phrase "Wa-ha-ha!" Satomi is good friends with Kaori. --
 * Authority Equals Asskicking: Subverted; she isn't a particularly good player compared to the other team leaders. Fujita assumes that the job belongs to Yumi.
 * Bunny Ears Lawyer
 * Cloudcuckoolander
 * Club President
 * Drives Like Crazy
 * Evil Laugh: Note that she never actually laughs, but simply says, "Wa-ha-ha."
 * Farm Girl

Shiraitodai High School

 * Meaningful Name: Shiraitodai is referred to as Team Torahime, and speculation has suggested that this involves Teru & Sumire (Teru being the tiger and Sumire being the princess).

Miyanaga Teru (Mai Nakahara)
"I...Have no sister!"

Saki's estranged older sister, and the Third Year Captain of Shiraitodai High School's Mahjong team. Teru is a Mahjong superstar, and is ranked the Number One Player in the World. Since her parent's divorce, she has lived with her mother in Tokyo. -
 * Aloof Big Sister
 * Big Sister Bully
 * Cool Big Sis: How she used to be. Now she doesn't even acknowledge that Saki is her sister.
 * Draco in Leather Pants: Gets this treatment more often than not from fanartists. This often lends itself to a lot of Incest Subtext.
 * This trope also exists in-universe. Saki's flashbacks to Teru are highly idealized (Everything from her appearance to her voice), and even when it's clear that Teru, she still holds out hope that she'll be able to change her through Mahjong.
 * Evil Sounds Deep - One of the many things that has changed about her from how she appeared in Saki's Dreams.
 * I Have No Sister
 * Kick the Dog: Inadvertently, but the reaction Saki has to her saying that she doesn't have a sister is quite...Well, troubling.
 * Light Is Not Good - Comes to fruition once the Real Teru is introduced.
 * Red Eyes, Take Warning
 * Signature Move: It's been hinted that
 * More than that. Look at the foreshadowing in the epilogue. It's probable that her Signature Move is the potential double-yakuman "Nine Gates" (A hand composed of 1-1-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-9-9 of one suit, plus any other tile of the same suit), which is occasionally known as "Nine Lanterns". It's a hand that's considered impossible to obtain conventionally by a lot of players.
 * Slasher Smile: On the cover of the Eighth DVD. And HOW!
 * The Ace
 * Used to Be A Sweet Kid
 * Villain With Good Publicity: Teru is featured in Mahjong magazines, depicted with a smile and a generic ambitious quote. The effects of this are felt in the first part of the Nationals, when, meaning that people seem to have bought into Teru's lie that she didn't have a sister.
 * Well Done Sis Girl

Hirose Sumire (Mitsuki Saiga)
"You could at least try to smile."

A third year at Shiraitodai High School, and a member of the school's Mahjong team. She is the only person known to Teru who seems to have had prior knowledge of Saki's existence.


 * Deadpan Snarker: In her first appearance, Sumire speaks to Teru in a very cold and chiding manner. She doesn't seem to buy Teru's excuse for not smiling, and asks Teru Didn't you have a sister? in an almost interrogative manner.
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair

Shibuya Takami


A second year player for Shiraitodai High School.


 * Meganekko
 * Spot of Tea

Matano Seiko


A second year player for Shiraitodai High School.


 * Butch Lesbian - Out of all the characters in Saki, Seiko probably best fits this trope.

Oohoshi Awai


A first year player for Shiraitodai High School. Serving as the team's Taisho, she has been shown to have substantial power.


 * Big Ol' Eyebrows
 * Expy - Shares some similar features with Tsumugi from K-ON
 * Meaningful Name - Fleeting Supernova
 * Word of God - Awai's brief character synopsis in a DVD booklet confirmed her to be a powerful opponent.

Rinkai All-Girls

 * Multinational Team

Nelly Virsaladze


A first year player for Rinkai from Georgia.


 * Famous-Named Foreigner: Her surname probably comes from Eliso.
 * Nice Hat
 * Phenotype Stereotype: Inverted as she's a tiny brunette.

Megan Davin


A third year player for Rinkai from the United States.


 * Dirty Coward - A year prior to the story, Megan became so terrified when  that she ran away.
 * Phenotype Stereotype - Averted. Megan is black with dark features.

Tsujigaito Satoha


A third year player for Rinkai, and the lone Japanese member of the team.


 * Deadpan Snarker - Satoha doesn't beat around the bush when she mentions that Megan had ran away from her match a year earlier. Megan, however, doesn't deny this.
 * Meganekko

Choi Myenghoa


A second year player for Rinkai. Ranked in European mahjong league. She is French-Korean.

Hao Huiyu


A first year player for Rinkai from Hong Kong.


 * Chinese Girl - Duh

Jindai Komaki


A second year player for Eisui, the team's Captain, and the daughter of the main family of the branches which compile Eisui's players. A year prior to the events of the story, she had achieved fame as the new Monster of the Nationals, but pushed herself too hard, and now has her teammates watching out for her.

Her teammates call her Princess.


 * Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass - Jindai plays at her best when she's  but isn't aware of this.
 * Miko

Iwato Kasumi


A third year player for Eisui, and the team's Taisho.


 * Gag Boobs: Her miko outfit can't hide the fact that her knockers are huge, even compared to Nodoka's.
 * Miko
 * Willing Channeler: Her ability seems to work like this, where she "channels" one of the twelve spirits "possesing" Jindai. This means that any team facing Eisui is technically facing Jindai twice.
 * Willing Channeler: Her ability seems to work like this, where she "channels" one of the twelve spirits "possesing" Jindai. This means that any team facing Eisui is technically facing Jindai twice.

Usuzumi Hatsumi


A third year player for Eisui, playing the lieutenant's position. Similar to Yuuki, Hatsumi's game is extremely powerful during the north round. Her ability, called the "Gates of Evil" by Kumakura, makes it easy for her to gather north and east tiles, and to a lesser extent, south and west tiles as well.


 * Fetish Fuel Station Attendant - Loose clothing that looks like it's barely legal for her to be wearing (which actually slips off her shoulders during her match), white thighhighs, flatter than flat, doesn't wear a bra, and isn't bothered at all that she's shown on national TV essentially topless, and drawn with a tan in her second appearance in the manga...Hajime could be a NUN compared to her!
 * Girlish Pigtails
 * Going Commando: If this page is anything to go by, Hatsumi is NOT wearing any underwear.
 * Mask of Power
 * Miko
 * Pint-Sized Powerhouse
 * Stripperiffic
 * Tan Lines
 * Token Mini-Moe
 * Zettai Ryouiki

Takimi Haru


A first year player for Eisui, she plays in the centerfield position for her team.


 * Big Eater
 * Kuudere
 * Miko
 * The Stoic
 * Trademark Favorite Food: Muscovado chips

Karijuku Tomoe


A third year player for Eisui.


 * Joshikousei: In the anime epilogue.
 * Meganekko
 * Miko: Follows the theme of her teammates for her match in the finals.

Atago Hiroe
"I set a trap, then attack mercilessly...I am the infamous 'Hiroe the Trap Master'!"

The first thing one will likely notice about Hiroe is that she is loud and VERY blunt about her opinions. While with any other person this might have been considered the signs of empty bravado, in her case it is simply an expression of the pride she has in her skills; Hiroe knows she's good, and isn't hesitant in shoving the fact in everyone else's faces, regardless of whether or not they want to.

Despite being considered the ace of her school's team, Hiroe plays the centerfield position. -
 * Badass Boast: See above.
 * Cute Little Fangs
 * Fiery Redhead
 * Incoming Ham - WHY'D NO ONE PICK ME UP AFTER THE MATCH?!
 * Insufferable Genius
 * Jerkass: Hiroe is a plain speaker, and has very little reservations about gloating, calling out her opponents, or calling them names.
 * She's actually rather nice to her teammates, though.
 * Kansai Regional Accent - According to translators, hers is very heavy.
 * Large Ham
 * No Indoor Voice
 * Badass Normal: the only consistently good player (according to Hisa) in a team of normals that is ranked fifth in a competition stuffed to the rafters with magic mahjong monsters, she could epitomise this trope.

Kyouko Suehara
"The hell I care!"

A third year player for Himematsu, and its player for the taisho position. -
 * Badass Normal - Says so herself in Chapter 79.
 * Ms. Exposition - She debriefs the team on each of their opponents.

Ueshige Suzu


A second year player for Himematsu.


 * Butt Monkey
 * Dull Eyes of Unhappiness

Atago Kinue


Hiroe's younger sister, and a second year player for Himematsu.


 * She's Got Legs
 * Incest Subtext: Kinue's motivation for joining the Mahjong team was so that she could play alongside her sister. It is HEAVILY implied that she is a Siscon.
 * Meganekko
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Literally in her case.
 * Zettai Ryouiki: And HOW

Mase Yuuko


A third year player for Himematsu


 * Odango Hair

Ikuno Akasaka


The Interim Coach for Himematsu's Mahjong team. She and Fujita seem to have a history with each other, as Fujita goes out of her way to avoid meeting Akasaka. The former even compared her to Akado, the coach of the team in Saki Achiga-hen, meaning it's likely that they're contemporaries (along with Sukoya).


 * Adult Child
 * Bunny Ears Lawyer

Kosegawa Shiromi
"How dull..."

A third year player for Miyamori, and one of the three original members of the school's mahjong club. A classmate of Aislinn, it was her invitation to watch one of the club's games (against a visiting Toyone) that got her to join the club. Her playing style is fairly orthodox, at least compared to Toyone.


 * Black Eyes - With a white dot in the middle.
 * Conveniently Seated: As a flashback reveals, Shiromi's seat in class fits what one would normally expect a main character in any other series to be positioned in.
 * The Stoic
 * Not So Stoic: It is soon made a point that when Shiromi begins to put together a high-scoring hand, she becomes very visibly nervous. Also, her desperately trying to maintain her stoicism while  is rather cute.
 * Unusual Eyebrows: They look like lightning bolts.
 * White-Haired Pretty Girl: As shown by her cameo in the Achiga-hen anime.

Kakura Kurumi


A third year player for Miyamori. Although fairly competent, her playing style is similar to Momo's in that she favors damaten, meaning that she can win despite not declaring riichi.


 * Big "Shut Up!": Directed at Hiroe in response to her incessant bragging during their match.
 * Little Miss Snarker: Has absolutely zero patience for Hiroe's loudmouthedness.
 * Tall, Dark and Bishoujo - Inverted, compared to the rest of her team.

Anetai Toyone


Miyamori's player for the taisho position, to say that Toyone is tall compared to her other teammates (or anyone else in the championships for that matter) is understating things. Scouted by Kumakura barely half a year prior to the championships, Toyone hails from a mountain village with very few children her age. With only the family TV to keep her company, Toyone had a relatively lonely childhood, something exacerbated by her unusual height. It's no wonder that she treats her transfer to Miyamori, as well as her acceptance into the school's mahjong club, where she can finally share her love for the game with other girls her age, as a big deal.

Toyone is treated as their team's secret weapon, and they went to huge lengths to keep her playing style vague leading up to the finals. In the semifinals match though she has shown both a preference for calling pursuit riichis, as well as single-tile hands.


 * Cry Cute: Toyone starts crying after the first time she plays with the Miyamori mahjong club, since she can't continue for long, or else she won't be able to catch the train and bus home. This is because she wants to stay and play.
 * Foe Yay: Despite wishing to topple her team, Toyone is a HUGE fan of Jindai. She's also shown interest in Nodoka.
 * Gentle Giant
 * I Just Want to Have Friends: Prior to her transfer to Miyamori.
 * Misunderstood Loner With a Heart of Gold
 * The Red Baron: Apparently the nickname she had in her town was "Right-behind-you Toyone" in reference to her playing style.
 * Red Eyes, Take Warning: Given the black-and-white nature of the manga, her eyes seem like Prophet Eyes at first, but chapter 94 reveals that the color of her eyes are actually a bright red. Unlike the usual example though Toyone is actually really nice.
 * Tall, Dark and Bishoujo

Usuzawa Sae


A third year player for Miyamori, playing in the lieutenant's position. Sae's ability is to "seal" an opponent by concentrating her stare at the target. Once she has an opponent marked, it becomes nearly impossible for that player to be able to complete a hand, although playing this way puts a significant drain on her.


 * Butt Monkey - The buttmonkey of Kurumi's jokes
 * Fiery Redhead: Averted. While she has the hair color, Sae doesn't have the personality associated with it.
 * High-Class Glass: She wears Kumakura's monocle during her matches.
 * Kubrick Stare: She has this as a move-sealing ability. Impressive for what amounts to just looking at an opponent really really hard.
 * Tall, Dark and Bishoujo
 * Tall, Dark and Bishoujo

Aislinn Wishart


An exchange student from New Zealand, Aislinn rounds off the Miyamori team. A classmate of Shiromi, she joins the school's mahjong club after being invited to watch them play a game against Toyone, who was visiting the club at the time.

Prior to the finals, she was noted to always get a closed hand tenpai before the 13th turn, ensuring a winning hand. According to Himematsu's Suehara, Aislinn also has the highest percentages in New Zealand's representative matches.


 * Conveniently Seated: Like Shiromi, Aislinn's seat in class -- at the corner close to the window -- is where a main character in any other series might be seated.
 * Cute Mute: While she can talk, she speaks very little Japanese and thus communicates via a drawing pad.
 * Hair Decorations: While they look like hairpins, they're actually the markers she uses for her drawing pad.
 * Informed Ability: Aislinn's ability to draw her "ideal" table, and always get a win.
 * Phenotype Stereotype: Blonde? Blue Eyes? Why yes, she is a foreigner.
 * Phenotype Stereotype: Blonde? Blue Eyes? Why yes, she is a foreigner.

Kumakura Toshi
The faculty adviser to Miyamori's Mahjong club, she was the one that scouted Toyone, which gave the school the chance it needed to qualify for the inter-high finals. She seems to have an eye for talent; aside from Toyone, years before she scouted Akado Harue (the current adviser to the Achiga team) for a corporate-funded professional team. When she encounters the latter again at the Nationals, she tries so again, this time for another company.


 * Cool Old Lady
 * Grandma, What Massive Hotness You Have!: Despite being significantly older than most of the cast, she looks no older than any of her students in a bathtub scene in Chapter 84.

Hagiyoshi (Daisuke Ono)


Touka's teleporting butler.


 * Battle Butler

Yasuko "Pro" Fujita (Masumi Asano)


A pro Mahjong player who's friends with Hisa. She plays against Saki and Nodoka before the big tournament and schools them which ends up teaching Saki and Nodoka to take their practice seriously. Fujita is also the color commentator for the regional tournament.


 * Big Eater: With bowl after bowl of katsudon.
 * Bunny Ears Lawyer: Fujita Pro has a habit of having full dish(es!) of katsudon while playing Mahjong or doing other professional works.
 * Combat Commentator
 * Cuteness Proximity: Koromo has this effect on her.
 * Dirty Old Woman: Acknowledged as such, considering that her interactions with Koromo are a little...Suspicious.
 * Slasher Smile: During her game with Saki and Nodoka before the regional qualifiers, she sports a truly psychotic look.

Fukuyo Kouko


A play-by-play commentator for Inter-High Radio. In High School, she became a fan of Kokaji Sukoya in her championship year, and has since come to work alongside of her.

Kokaji Sukoya


A color commentator for Inter-High Radio and a professional Mahjong player. 10 years prior to the events of the story, she won the National Championship in High School.


 * Shrinking Violet
 * Mythology Gag: With respect to Achiga-hen, Sukoya was the person who defeated Akado Harue, sending her into her Heroic BSOD.
 * Retired Badass: For a while she was (and perhaps still is) the record holder for winning nine tournaments, more than any other pro.

Yumeno Maho (Ai Tokunaga)


One of Nodoka's Kohai from Takatobara Junior High, the school she came from before coming to Kiyosumi. Cheers for Nodoka during the Prefecture finals match.


 * Those Two Guys
 * Those Two Guys
 * Those Two Guys

Murohashi Hiroko


Nodoka's other Kohai from Takatobara Junior Highwho also cheers for Nodoka during the Prefecture finals match.


 * Those Two Guys

Nanpo Kazue (Yuko Sanpei)


A loner who enters only the individual tournament.


 * It's All About Me - Her justification for not entering the team tournament. She rather coldly says how she'd rather not have players who aren't as good as she is drag her and her family name down. Needless to say, the was just a matter of time.
 * Meaningful Name: She excels at the South Wind round, and the "nan" in her surname is the kanji for "south". In addition, her given name sounds like "kaze", meaning "wind".
 * Pride Before a Fall - Nanpo is introduced as, while being reserved, rather self-important and arrogant. Needless to say,
 * Raised By Grandparents: Strongly implied that Kazue was raised by her grandfather, from whom she learned her mahjong tactics.