Nodoka Haramura

Nodoka Haramura (原村 和, Haramura Nodoka) is the daughter of Kei Haramura and Kaho Haramura and a first-year at Kiyosumi High School who was the previous year's National Middle School Individual Champion.

Appearance
Nodoka has waist-length pink hair that is two pigtails tied by red ribbons on her hair where she she later switches to having one ribbon on her left side, blue eyes and her most defining and talked about feature is her very large breasts and great figure that Ritz recently drew her like she had grown from J-cups to K-cups.

She wears the standard Kiyosumi uniform and thigh-high socks.

Personality
Nodoka's personality is a "proper lady" as noted by Mako Someya where she is very logical but can be a bit childish as she cannot sleep without her penguin doll. She is distant with Saki at first but over time becomes extremely close to her. Nodoka is also very stubborn and despite being logical rushes into things without thinking. She is sensitive when talking about her breasts with others.

Playing Style / Abilities
Nodoka plays a strictly digital style game. On her first turn, she will hesitate for a bit, considering the tiles in her hand and the tiles previously discarded (if available), then between her first discard and second draw she evaluates her opponent's discards and calculates the pattern of tiles that she will draw and what she should discard. Not only does she think about winning percentages, she factors in expected values for her winning hands.

According to Ako Atarashi, Nodoka plays differently when in a team tournament, playing online, or in first place. In the East-wind games of the individual tournament, Nodoka faced her opponents head-on, sometimes ignoring their riichi to continue pursuing tenpai and a win. During the individual tournament, she portrayed close to what Ako calls her ideal play-style: the fastest, most efficient way to gather up as many points as possible, disallowing your opponents to win.

However, during the team tournament, when playing online, or if Nodoka was safely in first place, she would utilise the style we normally see: safe but efficient. As soon as someone else declares riichi, she will bail.

When holding Etopen, her stuffed penguin, and playing mahjong, Nodoka can go into her "Nodocchi mode" after a set period of time; at the time of the Nagano team tournament, it was a few hands, during the National quarter-finals she went into her Nodocchi mode almost instantly. In her Nodocchi mode she views the current game as a digital game, regardless of whether or not it actually is; this allows her to completely ignore the presence of her opponents, for better or worse. She begins making decisions very quickly and can confuse players who sense their opponent's tenpai, as she seems to play like a robot, not a person.

Nodoka does not believe in the occult abilities that many characters in Saki have. When playing against these players, she can very easily play into their hands, or help them along, as she doesn't recognise that they have specific playing styles that can be defended against. When these characters win, she calls it a coincidence. However, when facing against Hatsumi Uzusumi, she recognised that maybe it was just too much of a coincidence for Hisa to point out to be weary of a shosuushii and Uzusumi being in tenpai for a shosuushi several times, and changed her play accordingly.

Introduction Arc (Saki: Achiga-Hen Episode of Side-A)
Nodoka appears as a sixth grade transfer student and quickly makes friends with Shizuno Takakamo and Ako Atarashi. When they discover that she likes mahjong, they take her to Achiga Girls' Academy to play at the mahjong club for kids. There she meets the instructor, Harue Akado, and together with Shizuno and Ako they have a match. When Nodoka wins (but says she doesn't think one hanchan can determine a player's true skill) they call in the club's best player, Kuro Matsumi. After a bit of sexual harassment by Kuro, she joins in the match with her friends. Nodoka soon wonders if the red dora tiles were removed, and it's revealed that all the dora tiles gather to Kuro, but Nodoka doesn't believe it. After a few more games, she walks home with her friends where they all express their desire to join the same club and have lots of fun together. Some time later, Nodoka asks Shizuno about Harue and is given a summary of why she is instructing. Nodoka then suggests that Harue will leave one day, which upsets Shizuno. Soon, Harue is scouted to be a professional so Nodoka and the others throw her a goodbye celebration.

After Harue left, Ako tells Nodoka and Shizuno that she plans on going to Adamine instead of Achiga for their mahjong club. All three agree that it's best for Ako, but want to skill get together and play mahjong sometimes.

Nodoka and Shizuno both attent Achiga but get placed into different classes and as a result don't hang out often. They ran into each other once, and talk about not seeing Ako after the mahjong club was disbanded despite intending on it. Nodoka tells Shizuno that, because of her mother's work, she will also be leaving Nara, and hence Achiga.

When Nodoka is in Nara, she tries to write a letter to Shizuno, but after Yuuki, her new Takatoobara Middle School friend, calls her to play mahjong, but she gives up.

Introduction Arc (Saki)
We first see Nodoka as she walks by Saki sitting and reading a book by the river. We then see her again when Saki is dragged to the club by Kyoutarou Suga. It is then revealed that she was the middle school mahjong champion last year and than she, Kyou, Saki and Yuuki Kataoka begin playing. After a few matches with Nodoka winning, a storm wakes the club president who decides to watch their match. After she wins again, Saki takes her leave. Yuuki and Kyou comment on how strong Nodoka is but Hisa Takei says that they're naive and that Saki was breaking even on purpose. With that she rushes out to meet Saki and after confirming that her scores were on purpose; wants another match but Saki declines stating she doesn't like mahjong.

During the night she is shown trying to get a +/-0 on her computer but cannot. The next day Hisa arranges for her to play against Saki again (with Yuuki Kataoka and Mako Someya). Throughout the first match she tries to beat Saki or prevent her from breaking even but fails due to the girl's extreme luck. During the second match with Saki playing under certain conditions, Nodoka goes all out to try and win once again, however Saki wins handily (while thinking that she was breaking even). This upsets her to the point where she runs away crying. When Saki goes after her, she explains that she is irritated that she lost to someone who doesn't like mahjong, and walks away. The next day she is present when Saki announces she will join the club. A week later, on her way to school Nodoka is stopped for an interview and is asked if there was anyone she was keeping an eye on and she thought of Saki. However, she denied it and went about her business. We next see her in the club room as the others are walking in, trying to get a +/-0 by herself but cannot and they end up playing a game. During the first match we see her do well but again ends up being defeated by Saki. During the next match she notices that Saki passed up a yakuman win off of Kyoutarou and then played a risky tile allowing Yuuki to win the match. Furious, Nodoka storms out yet again. Saki follows her and after a conversation she asks Saki to quit the club. After she explains how she feels, Saki agrees not to go easy anymore and tells Nodoka of her family troubles. They then promise each other to go to the nationals together.

Training Camp Arc
We first see Nodoka with Saki walking to school together and later having lunch together with Yuuki and Kyou. In the club room Hisa is seen preparing her club for the upcoming prefectural tournament and explaining Ryuumonbuchi's strength. She then asks Nodoka and Saki to help Mako by filling in for the part-timers who called in sick at the mahjong parlor, stating that she's too busy and it will be a great experience for them. When they arrive they are greeted by Mako and put into embarrassing maid costumes (though Nodoka likes them). After serving a few customers, they join a table to play. After they win a few games a strange woman enters the parlor. As the woman joins them, she notices that Saki is trembling but doesn't know why. The woman starts off slowly but then decimates her opponents. It's then revealed that she is Yasuko Fujita, a pro mahjong player. When Saki feels relieved thinking that no high schooler could beat a pro, it upsets her. Fujita-pro then tells them that she was beaten by Koromo Amae from Ryuumonbuchi at a pro am tournament and that they have no chance against her. Afterwards, Saki feels down and gets cheered up by Nodoka as both of them resolve to improve themselves. Expecting this, Hisa stayed late in the club room and when Saki and Nodoka burst in saying that they want a training camp, Hisa smiles and walks over to the eraseboard and flips it to reveal the already planned training program.

Before the camp we see Nodoka and her dad having a conversation about her leaving for a better school but she convinces her dad that if they win the nationals she can stay at Kiyosumi. At the camp, Hisa explains that Nodoka while a goddess at net mahjong, in person she doesn't get the information she needs and gives out clues as to what she's doing. To remedy this Hisa makes her practice real mahjong and real discards to get better. We are then shown flashes of the training camp up until the day of the preliminaries. In the anime, Saki, Nodoka, and Yuuki travel to a nearby waterfall and discuss how they want to continue being together. They also appear together in the hot spring and Saki sees a shooting star causing her and Yuuki to go back into the bath to see if they can see one too. An hour later they are forced to come out due to nearly fainting.

Prefectural Tournament Arc
Nodoka arrived with everyone else from Kiyosumi before the start of the tournament and was immediately interviewed. When the reporter asks her what her goals where; she stated that it is to win that nationals and that she is not the only player for her team. After Hisa announces the position line-ups everyone heads toward the tournament board and Nodoka and Saki overhear their opponents make fun of her but she brushes it off before going to watch the matches. As soon as the lieutenant battle started Hisa asked Nodoka and Saki to get something to eat and when they leave they are approached by Ryuumonbuchi. After a few questions they leave because the president had finished and it was her turn next. Before entering her match we get a flash back to the training camp showing that she can't sleep without her penguin and Hisa intructing her to use it to strengthen her play. She starts off the match slowly but then begins playing her style and crushes the others. At lunch time Kiyosumi is greeted by Fujita pro,much to the chagrin of Nodoka, and complements them. Kiyosumi later wins their next match and a spot in the finals the next day. She is then shown along with everyone else from the club getting treated to ramen, which was the first time she had eaten it. Later in the night she is seen in the bath thinking about the upcoming day.

When the finals begin Nodoka is present watching and making brief commentary about Yuuki's match. When a defeated Yuuki comes back, she leaves with Saki to the nap room so Yuuki can be comforted by the upperclassmen. Shortly before sleeping the two reminisce about their troubles before promising once again to win and go to the nationals. At the start of the lieutenant battle we see a flashback when she first learned about Hisa's playing style and criticizes her logic before getting her explanation on why she plays the way she does. She wakes shortly after and realizing that the president is playing decides to sleep a little longer. She then awakens once again when she notices that etopen is missing and starts looking for him. While doing so she is confronted by the people who took her penguin and they apologize. Later she finally finds etopen when Koromo Amae brings it to her but has to leave shortly after. She then returns and gets an explanation of what happened while she was alseep before leaving for her match.

Before entering the playing hall she is greeted by reporters but says "no comment" and walks away while wishing Saki could see her. Saki Miyanaga then awakens right before Nodoka's match and rushes just in time to wish her good luck, giving Nodoka some excitement. The match begins slowly with several exhaustive draws and Nodoka winning a few cheap hands. Soon, she enters her Nodocchi mode and wins more hands in quick succession. Before the beginning of the last hand of the first hanchan, everyone realises that Nodoka has been the only player to actually win any hands during the entire match: she almost has a perfect game. Touka Ryuumonbuchi is especially aggravated by this and, going into her cold mode, wins with a dealer baiman, placing Ryuumonbuchi in first place, above Kiyosumi.

After the intermission, Tsuruga's Momoko Touyoko gets going on a win streak but is eventually stopped by Nodoka thanks to her digital style and not believing in superstition. When the match ends she has gained the second most points, but kept Kiyosumi in first place.

Then she make comments with everyone else during the final round before intermission where she chases after Saki. When she found Saki, she gives her a pep talk then guides her back to the playing hall. She is then seen the rest of the way commentating on the match and believing in Saki until her improbable victory.

Individual Tournament *Anime Only Arc*
She is seen making her way to the club room until she is stopped by Saki. They both reaffirm they're desire to win at the nationals and are curious as to why the president wanted them to bring swimsuits. At the club they find out they're heading to Sports Land for "special training at the pool", and when she asks why Hisa replies " because i want to see how you look in a swimsuit. Will that do?" with Nodoka disagreeing. When Kiyosumi gets to the pool it is revealed that Saki cannot swim. She then suggests that she go into the shallow end and also use the inflatable etopen. When she gets into the pool Saki is so excited that she hugs Nodoka causing her a bit of embarrassment. Later minus the upperclassmen Kiyosumi wonders the hall looking for the VIP room and run into Ryuumonbuchi. After a bit of an exchange they go back to the pool and continue playing. As the tournament kicks off all of Kiyosumi dominate the competition the first day and she is revealed to have made it into the top 20 and advance to the next day. On the second day some of her matches are shown and it is revealed that she is near the top of the leader board. At lunch time she notices Saki's scores and deduces that she's not playing seriously. She then catches up with her and scolds her. Afterward Nodoka's last match is slightly shown against Kana Ikeda and Ryuumonbuchi's Hajime Kunihiro, and Jun Inoue. While only bits of the game were seen, it was noted that their style of play didn't work against Nodoka and that she had won the match getting second place and being able to go to the nationals with Saki ( 3rd place).

A bit after the tournament we see her doing an interview with Sparkling Club Girl and afterward she over hears Yuuki talking about her breasts. While reminding her that they're going to study all day Yuuki runs off causing Nodoka to give chase. In the club room we then learn that Yuuki has failed her math test and Nodoka along with Saki agree to help her study for make-ups. After they learn they are banned from the club room they try various different study places but get nowhere. They decide to head to the public library and due to the storm is soaked on the way. Here we learn that Nodoka is afraid of lightning but still gave chase to Saki when they first met even when it was doing so. While drying Saki explains how she always felt that during the rain the room she's in is its own world and Nodoka understands her, before Yuuki interrupts and they go back to studying. She is then shown with everyone except Hisa waiting for Yuuki to finish her test, when she does they all head to the festival that is taking place that night. While there, she falls and Saki catches her, they have a moment, then get back up holding hands and joins the rest to watch the fireworks.

Combined Training Camp Arc
We first see her at the start of the camp with Saki and Koromo Amae getting ready to play together. Later the next day, in Kiyosumi's room, she looks on at the excited Saki until Maho Yumeno and Hiroko Murohashi enter their room. Hisa then suggests that they play a match against her and Saki. During the match, Maho is scolded by Nodoka saying that all she does is copy and doesn't seem to want to strengthen herself. Murohashi then tells her that Maho has been training hard and Nodoka says that she had said too much. After the match she is pounced by Yuuki.

National Tournament Arc
In August Kiyosumi arrives at their hotel in Tokyo for the nationals and during their free time the first year girls decided to take a bath and is greeted by Kazekoshi's Kana. After hearing her explain why she's there Koromo and Touka appear as well. And on the day of the tournament draw Nodoka asks Saki if its okay not to see her sister yet and Saki then tells her that would be pointless. She arrives with eveyone else noting that Saki got lost again and during the draft how rare it was to see the president nervous. During Kiyosumi's free time we see her appearing to be Touka's maid for the day. The next day at the tournament hall Kiyosumi is greeted by their rivals in the prefecturals with Touka threatening to make her her maid if she doesn't win. She is present before the first round to view the video sent to the president from fans back home. She is then shown along with everyone else (minus Saki) on the 5th day of the tournament watching the matches on tv, with Nodoka wondering if its okay if Saki misses her sisters match. Nodoka shows up along with everyone else at the tournament hall the next day waiting for the matches to kick off. Throughout the first two matches we see her cheer on her teammates. During Hisa's match Nodoka was feeling relieved that she wasn't going for any bad waits like usual and scolds Saki for thinking the opposite. After Hisa's match, Saki notices that she isn't coming back so Nodoka decides to head out and has much publicity before entering the arena. Upon entering she greets Hisa and is immediately frightened by Hatsumi Usuzumi and her mask. While holding Hisa, she is scolded gently for not knowing her opponents. When she realizes Etopen has been dropped, she sees Kinue Atago kick it far away. Running over to Etopen, she sees that he is surprisingly not hurt. Kinue then apologizes and she accepts. Hisa then apologized for losing the match, Nodoka then says that even the best players will lose sometimes and not to worry about it. When the match starts she worries about losing but she quickly regains her composure and starts to awaken very early on. During this round everyone seems to notice that Nodoka seems a bit funny before she wins a haneman tsumo. She remains quiet throughout the first half, continuing her regular style of play, which puts Sae Usuzawa and Kinue in a pinch as Hatsumi continues to build her yakuman off of Nodoka's discards. In the second half of the match Nodoka notices Hatsumi's pons and thinks back to Hisa's warning about this leading to a yakuman win. Afterward Nodoka immediately wins a hand as dealer. After a draw Nodoka again notices that Hatsumi did exactly what Hisa had told her calling it a big coincidence. A bit later she agains discards tiles that Hatsumi collects but instead of blocking her Sae lets Hatsumi win with her yakuman. Since Nodoka was the dealer she loses 16,000 and one hand later the match is over. She thanks her opponents for the match then leaves.

After the captains match, she and the rest of the team greet Saki when she returns. Saki then gives her a paperboard and asks her to give her autograph for Toyone Anetai. She tells her that she doesn't have an autograph but Mako informs her that she can just write her name.

Final Eight Arc
Nodoka is first shown waking from her dream about her friends from Nara. When she looks at the time she wakes Yuuki saying they need to watch Kirame Hanada's match. She then tries to wake Saki but was not able to, so they get dressed and head toward a tv. When they arrive they greet Hisa, Mihoko, and Mako, asking the upperclassman why they didn't wake them. She then notices Kuro playing on TV and admits that she had no idea they were playing in the tournament. After recieving permission, she, Yuuki and Saki head out for the playing hall but along the way they notice that Saki stops. After Saki tells them to go on ahead, they reluctantly do so.

At the playing hall they notice that the vanguard match has ended and should have stayed at the dorm. Yuuki then says that Nodoka loses her calm when she gets excited and that it is her one flaw. She responds by saying that she has many flaws, not just one. They are then overheard by Junko Nishida who recognizes them. After not being able to get in to watch the matches, Junko offers them a seat in the press box. On their way to the press room, they meet Nodoka's old teammates from Nara. After a brief conversation, Shizuno tells her that they are going to the finals and wants her to promise to be there too. Nodoka tells her that she can't promise it but will do her best to be there. They then go their separate ways.

At the press room they are fed lunch by Junko and her friend. During the meal she calls Saki to invite her in but is denied. She then tells Saki that she would join her but needs to repay Junko because of the lunches. Later she is asked to tell about her relationship with Achiga and then agrees talk about it. After a brief explaination, she directs Junko to a blog page from 4yrs ago. The page has a picture of her group together and Nodoka continues to explain her relation to Achiga. Finally Junko says it would be nice if she could meet Achiga in the finals and Nodoka agrees. Before the start of the semi-finals Kiyosumi gathers and heads to the tournament hall. When they arrive the camera immediately focuses on Nodoka and no one else for Kiyosumi. In the waiting room, Nodoka and the rest of Kiyosumi send off Yuuki. She is later seen watching Yuuki's match. She is present to welcome Mako back to the team room and is impressed with the lunch Mihoko Fukuji has made for the team. In the lieutant match, She says that Hisa is playing as dangerously as ever.

Before the start of her match, Nodoka runs into Yukiko Maya causing Etopen to shoot above them, only to be caught by Kinue. When they sit down, Nodoka already starts her transformation into Nodocchi. While building her hand she declares riichi only to have Megan Davin also declare riichi. Megan won the duel with a ron of 12,000 pts on Nodoka (13,000 with riichi included). The next round ends in tenpai for everyone. The very next round Nodoka once again declares riichi and this time wins with a ron of 12,900 against Megan. She then wins again with a ron of 3,900. In the South's first round, Nodoka hits Kinue with a ron of 2,000 and hits Megan next thanks to her dealer repeat with a ron of 6,400. The next round ends with her in noten and the round after she is hit by Kinue with a ron of 8,300. In the South's third round she is hit by Megan with a ron of 2,000 and the fourth with Megan's tsumo. At halftime, Nodoka asks Yukiko why she hasn't gone back yet. She says that if there are instructions that someone will give it to them and Nodoka agrees with her. They then begin talking about Etopen and the storybook from wince he originated. Nodoka then notices that Yukiko is trembling and wonders if their conversation made her nervous or if she's scared of the point differential.

When the second half begins, she quickly pons Kinue, chiis Megan, and then rons Kinue for 3,900. However, after everyone is hit with Yukiko's tsumo, Megan hits Nodoka with a ron of 3,900 and then tsumos everyone. Yukiko then hits everyone with a massive tsumo, costing Nodoka 8,000 pts. The next round, Nodoka calls riichi but everyone is once again hit by a Yukiko tsumo. Yukiko then calls riichi and then Nodoka calls a pursuit riichi and end up running Yukiko for 8,300. Kinue and Megan win the last few rounds to end the match.

After the match, Nodoka apologizes for losing points, but Hisa is pleased with the result; Usuzan is less likely to go bust, and the difference between Kiyosumi and Himematsu has decreased. After wishing Saki luck, Nodoka ponders how it's acceptable to use her left hand, and Hisa says that while it was frowned upon in the past, with the cameras in the Inter-High, it has become acceptable. Nodoka comments that someone who taught her mahjong discouraged her from using her left hand. At halftime of the captain's match, she meets up with Saki. She notices Saki looking dejected at tries to light a fire under her by reminding her of the determination to win. She then relays Hisa's advice for dealing with her opponents.

National Championship Arc
That night as Hisa mentions Achiga, Nodoka grow quiet. Later in the bath she notices something with Saki and asks her what is wrong but Saki says she is just tired and lays her head on Nodoka's shoulder. After the bath she dry's her hair elsewhere as to not disturb the others. During the meeting, Nodoka gets a phone call from her father which she takes outside. He wants her to come over and have dinner with him but she wants to stay and eat with her friends until Hisa tells her to go to him.

Her mother arrives late and they all converse about Nodoka wanting to stay in Nagano. Nodoka then says that she lost friends the last time she moved and didn't want that to happen again. Her father says that if they didn't keep in touch then maybe they weren't friends after all. Her mother then tries to smooth things over between them. She later returns to the hotel where Kiyosumi stays.

While by herself, Nodoka gets an email from the people who taught her how to play mahjong and Yuuki appears to tell her that many people are rooting for her. She then gets a call from Kirame and puts it on speaker phone so Yuuki can talk to her as well. During the call, Nodoka remembers back to middle school and asks Kirame about speaking so politely. The call is soon ended because Himeko Tsuruta tells Kirame there is a meeting. The next morning she wakes up Yuuki to watch Kirame's match. They get dresses and greet Mihoko and Kana before sitting down to watch the match. They then view the match to the end and leave to prepare for theirs.

Walking into the arena she notices Yuuki's change of hairstyle. When Saki goes to the Kiyosumi player room after went to the toilet, Nodoka notices that something is off with Saki, but Saki denies that anything happened. After the vanguard match, Touka calls and informs Kiyosumi that Etopen is damaged. Nodoka says she left the sewing kit in hotel but Hisa leaves to go get one from Mihoko.

Hisa contacts her to retrieve her purse. Nodoka finds the bathroom she's in and throws the purse over the stall. She asks Hisa if everything is alright and she says it is. Later, Nodoka feels that something isn't right and tries to find her again but runs into Yukiko Maya and Yuan Iwadate. They ask for her autograph but were interrupted by Mihoko. She mentions something seems amiss with Hisa and they all try to find her only to be stopped by a guard. Nodoka goes to look in the bathroom she was previously in but Hisa wasn't there.

Nodoka is very excited to see Mako win the first hand and then gets even more excited to see Saki had fixed Etopen. Yuuki warns her against squeezing him too hard and she agrees to let him rest until her match. She once again expresses her concern for Hisa then focuses on Mako's match.

She appears at halftime and scolds Mako for acting out. She then hands her the phone so Hisa can discuss strategy with her.

Career highlights

 * National Middle School Individual Champion
 * Nagano Prefectural High School Individual Tournament Runner-Up

Etymology

 * The name Nodoka means "harmony, peace" (和).
 * Nodoka's surname Haramura means "field, plain" (原) (hara) and "town, village" (村) (mura).

Trivia

 * Nodoka reached the semi-finals of the Saimoe 2009, 2010 and 2012 moe popularity tournaments.
 * While Nodoka was hospitalized, Nodoka learned to play mahjong in fourth grade.
 * Nodoka's play style is quickly and efficiently racking up points as fast as possible.
 * Nodoka is left-handed, although she was taught to play mahjong with her right hand.
 * Nodoka always carries her penguin doll due to Hisa Takei's recommendation in their first training camp, affectionately named Etopen, to give her a sense of calmness when playing mahjong.
 * Nodoka's nickname is "Nodocchi" (のどっち) (which is the same as her screen name in online mahjong).
 * Nodoka is very close to Saki Miyanaga to the point they hold hands and blush towards each other.