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Saki, Final Fantasy XIV Collaboration Manga Gets English Release

Square Enix's Manga UP! Global manga site and app launched in English the collaboration manga of the Final Fantasy XIV MMORPG and Ritz Kobayashi's Saki manga franchise titled SAKI & FINAL FANTASY XIV (Saki to Final Fantasy XIV) on Friday. Saya Kiyoshi (Saki Biyori spinoff manga of Saki) is drawing the manga.

Manga UP! describes the manga:

In the 8th Saki spin-off project, Saki and the other first year members of the Kiyosumi High School Mahjong Club are recommended a new way to enjoy Mahjong—through the video game, FINAL FANTASY XIV!

The collaboration manga launched in Japan on the Manga UP! app in January 2021. Square Enix published the manga's first compiled book volume in November 2021.

Kobayashi launched the Saki manga in the Young Gangan magazine in 2006, and Square Enix published the 23rd compiled book volume in September 2022.

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!

The manga has inspired several spinoff manga series. Kiyoshi serialized the Saki Biyori 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, on PS4 in April 2014, and on PS5 in May 2020. Square Enix has since released four expansions: "Heavensward" in June 2015, "Stormblood" in June 2017, "Shadowbringers" in July 2019, and "Endwalker" in December 2021. The game recorded 27 million registered accounts worldwide in October 2022.

Sources: Email correspondence, Manga UP!