Ace of Diamond

Ace of Diamond is not a new series whether for the manga or the anime and I know that the manga runs for quite a lot of volumes. I only started to pay attention to this seriously after Elex Media Komputindo released the manga in Indonesia sometime last year. Honestly the first few volumes did not really hype me up as the characters were somewhat lacklustre. I only picked up the anime after I felt so down after my project epic failed and I just wanted to find something to kill my time and to distract me.

Surprisingly the anime gave me a completely different experience from the manga. Within the first 2 episodes, I already cried seeing Eijun have to leave his friends to join Seidou T_T How the characters behave and interact in the anime is also more relatable and likeable than their manga counterparts.

Sports titles usually follow the tropes of a weak main character who suddenly becomes very good in a sport in a weak school and then magically transform the team into a strong one. Ace of Diamond is refreshing as it does not go this way. The characters are very humane: no matter how good or strong they are, they have their weaknesses. The main character, Eijun Sawamura, has a unique pitching form but is lacking the control or knowledge in other aspects of baseball. His rival, Satoru Furuya, can throw great fast balls but lacks the stamina. Other geniuses whether from Seidou or from other schools also do not always succeed in critical moments. All these make the matches more exciting as all the characters seem to be equal and both teams have chance to win. The characters' personalities are as imperfect as real humans can be that I find it difficult to like anybody.

With 75 episodes, I had my reservations that this would be quite a draggy show. There are episodes which I find draggy but overall, I feel that the matches are exciting enough even if 1 match can run for few episodes. For an impatient person like me, I always read spoilers first and I already know that Seidou will fail to qualify for Koushien. Yet I was still very excited to watch the match despite knowing the outcome. That shows how well written the matches are.

Usually a sports anime will end after 1 tournament and after the third years member retire. Ace of Diamond is the first anime that continues on and that is refreshing.

With so many characters and limited screen time, one main weakness of the anime is the character and team development. I cannot get invested in the characters or the team to like or root for them. The bonding and camaraderie are also not really there. When the seniors retire, suddenly we see so many unknown faces from the second-string team to be featured more although previously we don't know how good or bad they are.

Although Eijun is supposedly the main character, I do not feel that it is the case during the tournament. He can strike out or not giving any runs as any other pitchers but he is often underrated because his success is depicted simply because of his pitching form (batter is unable to see his throwing arm) rather than his skills. And when he is in a slump, the attention shifts to the rest of the team that it gets confusing if he is really the main character.

There are plenty of emotional moments at the beginning which is sadly missing towards the later episodes. I find that there are a lot of anticlimatic moments such as the ending of the final match and the farewell match of Seidou team. I was expecting touching moments to make me cry but none of that sort.

The OP and ED songs are worth mentioning too. They are pretty catchy and capture the atmosphere of the anime well. It is quite a feat not to skip the OP and ED songs for a series that runs for 75 episodes. In addition, at the end of each episode, there is always an illustration drawn by other mangakas so it is always exciting to see.

I have also watched the 3 OVA which are the back stories for Miyuki, Kominato brothers, and Kuramochi. I shall watch the season 2 after my new year holidays. It is quite funny that I am actually quite excited to watch the next season although I am not really invested in any of the characters and usually what makes very excited for a series is having characters that I like.