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Saki Mahjong Manga Gets Live-Action Show in December, Film in 2017

This year's 18th issue of Square Enix's Young Gangan magazine is revealing on Friday that Ritz Kobayashi's Saki manga will get a live-action television series adaptation and a film adaptation. The live-action series will have four episodes and will premiere in late night television in December, while the film will open in the beginning of 2017.

The magazine had previously hinted at an "important announcement" for the manga in the last issue.

Yen Press is publishing the original Saki manga in North America digitally, and it will release the fifth volume on August 30. Yen Press 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 Square Enix's Young Gangan magazine in 2006, and Square Enix published the 15th compiled volume on March 25. The manga has since inspired five spinoff manga series.

The original manga was adapted into a 25-episode television series in 2009, and a new television anime project titled Saki - The Nationals launched 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 also inspired an anime DVD last year.