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Final Fantasy XIV Game Gets Saki Mahjong Collaboration Manga

Square Enix announced on Thursday that its Final Fantasy XIV MMORPG is getting a collaboration manga with Ritz Kobayashi's Saki manga franchise titled Saki to Final Fantasy XIV (Saki and Final Fantasy XIV). The first two chapters will debut on Friday on Square Enix's Manga UP! app, and a new chapter will launch on the fourth Friday of every month. Saya Kiyoshi (Saki Biyori spinoff manga of Saki) is drawing the manga.

The manga follows members of Saki's Kiyosumi High School as they play the Doman Mahjong minigame within the Final Fantasy XIV game.

The Saki manga franchise is commemorating its 15th anniversary of serialization with an exhibition event in Ikebukuro Marui in Tokyo from January 22-February 7. The exhibition will feature color illustrations and new original goods.

Yen Press is publishing the original Saki manga in North America digitally, and it describes the series:

Saki's never been a big fan of mahjong. A lifetime of being forced to play with family at holidays (and losing her money as a consequence...) has left a foul taste for the game in her mouth. When she's convinced, though, to play a game with her classmates, she discovers that not only has fending off her family left her with an uncanny ability for the game but, more surprisingly, that it can even be fun!

Is this revelation enough to cleanse Saki's distaste for the game? Can her classmates convince her to join their club, or is there just too much baggage to make it worth her while?

If you're looking for the number one mahjong manga out there, you've found it!

Kobayashi launched the manga in the Young Gangan magazine in 2006, and Square Enix published the 21st compiled volume on Friday. The manga has inspired five spinoff manga series. The franchise, including its various spinoff manga, has 10 million copies in circulation.

Kiyoshi's Saki Biyori manga is a spinoff of Kobayashi's Saki manga. Kiyoshi serialized the four-panel manga in Square Enix's Young Gangan (and later Monthly Big Gangan) magazine beginning in 2011, and ended it with the seventh volume in March 2018.

The original manga inspired a 25-episode television series in 2009, and another television anime project titled Saki - The Nationals premiered in 2014. The Saki Achiga-hen episode of side-A spinoff manga also inspired a television anime in 2012. The four-panel spinoff manga Saki Biyori inspired an anime DVD in 2015. A live-action television adaptation of the manga debuted in December 2016, followed by a live-action film in February 2017. Live-action television and film adaptations of the Saki Achiga-hen episode of side-A spinoff manga premiered in December 2017 and January 2018, respectively.

Square Enix released Final Fantasy XIV Online for personal computers in September 2010. After criticism from fans, the company revealed an updated version of the game titled Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn that added a new world and story. Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn launched on Windows PC and PS3 in August 2013, and then on PS4 in April 2014. The game's companion app for iOS and Android launched in August 2019.

Square Enix released the first expansion for Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, titled Heavensward, in June 2015. The second expansion, Stormblood, launched in June 2017. The third expansion, Shadowbringers, launched in July 2019. The game has surpassed 16 million registered users worldwide.

Sources: Square Enix, Comic Natalie