Mahjong Diva Obaka Miiko Chapter 9

It's been nearly half a year, but we're finally back with the last chapter of Volume 1 of Miiko!! It's taken us longer than I would've liked to get through this volume, but there's been a lot of real-life issues I've had to face and I've been more concerned about them than scanlating as of late. But it's finally here, and we've got a good chapter that expands upon a character introduced earlier on in the series!!

Thanks so much to Jawsh for typesetting this right away despite being busy with official typesetting work!! What an unbelievable talent he is!

Obaka 9

"The first time I met Umasugi Neika was the summer of 2 years ago."

Well this chapter was certainly interesting. Neika seems to be a prodigy of otherworldly talent by the way she plays, that hand in the last round of the chapter was unfathomable and would be scoffed at by Mahjong Pros, but she seems to have an almost Akagi-like ability to read the flow of the game and tell what's coming next. It should be interesting to see how Miiko and Namidame deal with her in the coming chapters.

The "sleeping with producers and directors" part was something I had to double, triple, and quadruple check because it seemed like it was written that way but I really wasn't sure and I was kind of surprised Katayama would just drop something so... well, wrong, in the middle of his chapter as if it was common practice. But yes, apparently sleeping with your producers is a common way to get ahead as a pop idol in the Obaka Miiko universe. I will say that I have found RUMORS of such things occurring on Japanese sites but it definitely doesn't seem like it would be common practice, though I suppose such things wouldn't be stated out in the open even if they were true, anyway.

Miiko is so pure and honest, I love her. Even though she knows she can win with the Pei single wait, she can't do it because she knows it's only because she broke her teacher's lesson that she's able to win. She really does carry this series on her shoulders, her antics are what really set this series apart from a lot of other series out there.

Oh, and Katayama is being very humble saying that he can't answer if he knows how to play mahjong well or not, lol. He has consulted with some of the greatest minds in Japanese Mahjong in order to write his stories, and is able to stand toe to toe with mahjong pros at Kindai Mahjong's tournaments. He knows exactly what he's talking about and we all have a lot to learn from what he himself has learned about mahjong.

See you next time!