| “ | It's not because I look down on you. It's because I'm wary. | ” |
—Sumire Hirose, to Izumi Nijou | ||
| Sumire Hirose | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Personal info | |
| Japanese name: | 弘世 菫 |
| Nickname: | The Sharpshooter |
| Birthday: | April 25 |
| School: | Shiraitodai High School |
| Grade: | Third-year high school |
| Media | |
| Debut: | Saki, round 56 |
| Voiced by: | Mitsuki Saiga |
| Live-action actor: | Mikoto Hibi |
| Mahjong | |
| Position: | Sergeant |
| Style: | - |
| Main skill/ability: | Getting a direct hit on targeted person |
Sumire Hirose (弘世 菫, Hirose Sumire) is a third year at Shiraitodai High and the president of the mahjong club who is a friend of Teru Miyanaga and the only person known to Teru who seems to have had prior knowledge of Saki's existence.
Appearance[]
Sumire has long Hime cut purplish-blue hair and indigo-blue eyes.
Like others of her team mates, she is constantly seen wearing her school seifuku (school uniform) usually with black tights.
Personality[]
Like Sumire's nickname "the Sharpshooter", she is calm and polite to her friends and opponents who never rushes to make her decision and always calmly thinks about it thoroughly. Sumire shown worry about Teru Miyanaga's behavior regarding Saki Miyanaga (Teru's younger sister), although Teru never wants to pursue the subject. She is also quite altruistic, as she helped Teru find the gym in their first year at Shiraitodai and she was willing to continue to play with Teru even after a crushing defeat and watching her defeat everyone else in the club.
History[]
In Sumire's first year at Shiraitodai, she ran into Teru reading a book on the day of the opening ceremony and helped Teru find the gym. Later, she sees Teru reading again and approached her to make small talk. They are then approached by the director of the mahjong club, Reika Kaise, who asks Sumire if she had picked a team yet. Their differing views on the team structure within Shiraitodai's mahjong club sparked Teru's interest, who asks if she can put together a team.
Sumire shows Teru to the mahjong club and around the members; Teru seemingly picked weaker members within the club, but also includes Sumire in the team. Sumire is surprised that Teru doesn't want to play, but goes along with it anyways. After the improvised team wins the match, Teru turns to leave, causing Sumire to chase after her.
Teru divulges that although she knows about mahjong and how to play, if she had the choice she would rather not due to poor memories of the game from her family. Sumire eventually convinces Teru to play one game with her. Some of the other club members also join in, however, Teru completely wipes the floor with them. Afterwards, Teru turned to leave, and Sumire extended her hand to Teru, asking her to come back to club the next day, and that if no one else, at least Sumire and Teru could play together. Teru says she'll try her best to come.
Plot[]
Combined Training Camp Arc[]
Sumire is shown after Awai Oohoshi advanced her team to the national tournament. She suggest that Teru should look at least a bit happy after her team won. Sumire presses Teru on the issue of the Nagano qualifier won by Saki Miyanaga, but receives only denial.
Final Eight Arc[]
Sumire taking aim
Sumire appears along with Teru Miyanaga at a press conference. After letting Teru answer a question to end the conference, Sumire says that her salesman smile is cruel and too different from how she usually is. She is later shown with the rest of her teammates entering the playing hall before the final eight competition begins.
After the match begins, Shindouji's Yoshiko Yasukouchi's wins the initial rounds. Sumire then wonders about the change in her playstyle. She then starts using her arrow shots, targeting the second-place Senriyama. Sumire explains that Shiraitodai would rather gather intel on all their opponents than end the match prematurely. Her next target is Achiga's Yuu Matsumi. However, Yuu knows the tell to Sumire's ability, and is able to dodge both attempts, hitting Sumire with a large hand. After Yoshiko wins another weak hand, Sumire thinks that her play is much better even without abilities and that she is getting upset, and goes on to win the next hand.
After the match, Sumire tells Izumi Nijou that they have already thanked each other for the match and she repeated it. She also was quite confused when Izumi told her it was a joke. In the lieutenants battle she tells Awai that she is in fact a "newbie first year" when she insulted them and called her an idiot when she retorted.
During the vice-captains match she and Teru explain Mairu Shirouzu and Himeko Tsuruta's conjoining ability. After Seiko deals into a hand, Sumire tells the others that she relies too much on suji and honors while playing safe. Usually its enough to win but she notes that she's up against some strong competition. During Awai's match, she explains her ability and says that only Takami Shibuya's special last round abiltiy can beat it although Himeko beat it during the second round. Sumire also mentions she thinks Shindouji's wins in the second round against her were coincidence. She is then shocked to see Himeko beat it again and says that Mairu and Himeko's ability surpasses Awai's and that they will have a problem during the east third round.
Later when Awai finally gets serious, she says it was a pity that she couldn't save it for the finals. She then wonders if this was the first time during an official game but Teru and Takami tell her that it wasn't. Sumire then says that not many people will make that connection and Awai wouldn't lose anyway. After Himeko defeat Awai's double riichi, Sumire says its very surprising to find a high schooler besides Teru who could do that. When Seiko explains how she defeated Awai's double riichi, Sumire calls her despicable. When Awai burts into the waiting room and apologizes for getting second place, Sumire says that she also has work cut out for her and will fix her tell.
Sitting with most of her team watching the semi's, she asks Takimi if she can take the lieutenants and then tells Seiko that Awai went to get Teru.
National Championship Arc[]
While Sumire is in her team's dressing room, she sees Teru Miyanaga looking distressed and stumbling into the room. Sumire asks her what is wrong and Teru tells her that she met her sister but couldn't think of anything to say. Sumire thinks back to how they met, and then wonders if Saki has finally come to save Teru after 2 years of waiting or if something else will happen instead.
Sumire is surprised when she sees Teru's face clouded over after she used her mirror ability. She then begins to analyze Yuuki Kataoka's hands and Awai Oohoshi tells her about Teru's thinking before the match. Sumire says she hadn't heard anything about that. She then calls Kuro a monster because even the three at the table cannot break her dora control.
When the second half starts, Awai begins to dismiss Rinkai and their chances to advance, Sumire tells her to remember the semi-finals. She then explains that Satoha Tsujigaito can measure how much firepower and speed an opponent has and can sense the path to a winning hand.
During the first hand of her match, Mako Someya calls the first riichi of the match on the 7th turn and in response Sumire decides to play it safe as the first place school by a large margin and folds, breaking her tenpai. On her next draw, Sumire laments drawing her winning tile had she not folded, thinking if she had called a pursuit riichi she would've won with an ippatsu tsumo, but continues to fold nonetheless. Mako goes on to win the next three hands.
In Mako's 2nd dealer repeat, Sumire breaks her 5-6 man two-sided wait by changing her wait to 3-5 man, and then changes again to a 1-3 man inside wait, getting a direct mangan hit on second place Hao Huiyu with her arrow shot. Sumire beings to start a winning streak going but Mako manages to dodge her attack and sneak in a cheap win. Hao wins the next one and Sumire says that she hasn't seen a tenpai so difficult to read in a long time. Yuu Matsumi starts to heat up and win big the next two hands. Sumire starts to focus on Yuu to try and pin her down. She thinks back to the semi's and how Yuu figured out her tell but with her team's help, overcame it. She says earlier she let her tell show when focusing on Hao Huiyu as a trick. When she aims for Yuu, the girl dodges Sumire's attack. This confuses her and she decides to try and take her down normally. However, Yuu hits them for another win. Sumire thinks back to when she was trying to be a monster like Teru but decided to leave that for someone else and moves forward. She then hits eveyone for a tsumo win. Hao beings a win streak. Sumire ends Hao's streak and wins two in a row before halftime.
At the start of the second half, she begins strong by declaring riichi and winning off of Mako's hand.
Playing Style/Abilities[]
Sumire's ability is called "Piercing arrow shots" where it allows her to get a direct hit on a player of her choice by changing her hand to target a certain discard. It targets what would digitally be considered the best offensive play, and can be dodged unknowingly by making defensive or bad plays. Sumire can also set up additional shots if her first one is missed, but this takes time and leaves her vulnerable to counterattacks.
Unfortunately, the ability has a tell: when she's about to use it, Sumire's right fingers moves a bit back and she looks at the player she is aiming at. However, the hand movement is so slight (only moving a few millimetres back) that her own team mates didn't know about it until Yuu Matsumi seemingly effortlessly dodges her piercing shots.
Etymology[]
- The name Sumire means "violet" (菫).
- Sumire's surname Hirose means "vast, broad" (弘) (hiro) and "world" (世) (se).
Trivia[]
- According to Ritz's blog, Sumire is good at archery.
- The reason that Sumire's tell is her fingers moving back is because it looks like she's drawing back an arrow (but without the rest of the arm movement).