Random (Halfway Point) Review: Ace of Diamond

This is a spoiler-free look at the first 56 episodes of Ace of Diamond.

General Information 

 Title: Ace of Diamond (TV)

Animation Company: MADHOUSE & Production I.G.

Genres: Shounen, Sports, Drama

Aired: Fall 2013 — (the original runtime was 52 episodes, but it has since been extended)

Number of episodes: 56 (as of this post)

Summary: Eijun Sawamura, a pitcher at a no-name school is scouted to join the prestigious Seido Academy and fights to improve himself to stand on the mound so that he may one day be the ace of the famous, talented team of elites.

I think most people know I’m a big fan of sports anime in general, regardless of the target demographic. I’d delve a bit more into why I love the genre so much, but it’s something you probably would be able to infer based off my Haikyuu!! review and Baby Steps episodic posts. One thing I adore about the genre is just how much diversity there is – there have been a huge variety of sports anime to be coming out as of late with the big popularity boom of the genre in recent years, and even within individual sports themselves there are so many unique ways series can explore them. This is especially true for baseball, Japan’s national sport. Ookiku Furikabutte was adorable as hell, and focused on the importance of genuine trust over complete dependence, as well as more personal issues like dealing with self-esteem and moving on from your past. Cross Game used baseball as an easel of sorts to paint a story about romance and dealing with loss. Meanwhile, instead of a more traditional underdog story, Ace of Diamond brings the focus to an already established, elite team in the nation and pits its protagonist, Eijun, into a very intimidating field with other talented players all vying for a chance to play for their team.

Unlike the more warm, inviting sports series out there, Ace of Diamond tries to appeal to viewers with a much more old-school approach to the genre a la Hajime No Ippo – it’s all about the blood, sweat, tears, coaches hurling insults at you and people constantly proving themselves to be better than one another. The team of Seido can be rather unforgiving and harsh for the unprepared. The pressure to perform and protect the school’s already declining reputation is immense, and our protagonist Eijun has to prove himself to be capable of stepping up to the mound during crunch time.

Yet, it isn’t entirely hell at the field either. Ace of Diamond has a very solid cast of characters, (most) of which are likable and memorable in their own right, bringing up many unique dynamics to an already large team (for example, sibling rivalry?). From the disciplined (yet also rowdy!) third year fielders that both support the team and continue to require support, to the drama between the two catchers Miyuki and Chris to the rough around the edges first years….Seido is a very happening team. What the team as a whole has that I simply adore and respect is their harsh expectations on each other to perform, yet they remain supportive of one another. The reminder of being replaced is also always etched deeply into each player’s minds, yet the ones on the bench will always support those on the field. It really portrays the level of professionalism the team has, fitting of their position as an established high school team.

I want to bring special attention to Eijun, our protagonist, and Miyuki, the team’s catcher. There are many other interesting characters in the series but these two really take the cake for me. For starters, Eijun is a real handful. He’s not the most likable member of the cast – he is ridiculously stubborn, often clouded by his own pride, and lacks ANY self-consciousness. Yet it is because of his rough beginnings that his growth becomes truly astounding. He never truly changes (at his core, he’ll always be Eijun), but he slowly becomes a solid emotional support for the team, and he understands that taking up the mound and pitching is never just about pitching HIS best, but pitching FOR THE TEAM. He is never the best player on the team, but it really does not matter, because he also becomes an ace in his own right. His personality always brings the team the boost of confidence they never knew they needed, and his refreshing honesty and fearlessness always changes up the game, for better or worse.

Another character I’d like to mention is the second protagonist of the series, Miyuki, the second year catcher and the team’s respected strategist. I think he represents Seido as a whole very well – he can kind of be a huge jerk, but definitely knows his stuff and can be trusted to bring the results. He’s a little mean-spirited (much like the rest of the team), but at the end of the day he understands his responsibilities and almost selflessly does his best for the team – especially when it comes to bringing out the very best in the team’s pitchers.

Which brings me to a problem I kind of have with the series as a whole. Its cast is diverse, and sometimes the focus is just on the wrong characters. Some of them have plot armor so thick, it kind of goes against the rest of the principles set by the team in the other games.

Ace of Diamond can be quite an inconsistent series – the quality of the entire series is always heavily dependent on who stands on the mound. The team’s less colorful personalities often made a game near-infuriating for me – it would feel as if the entire narrative is just at a stop and is not progressing because some characters just keep screwing themselves over and the series simply refuses to get them to step off the mound. It pains me to say this because in almost every other game the coach Kataoka makes sensible decisions regarding player changes, but when it comes to, say, Tanba (the team’s ace), he puts an irrational amount of trust in him even when Tanba simply cannot rise to the occasion. It also brings to light the problem of how the portrayals of the game can be quite unbalanced in my opinion- they place so much attention on the position of the pitchers (a pitcher game is OK, but not if every game is a pitcher game) and sometimes just leave the rest of the players in the dust.

The merit of certain wins in games are sometimes also quite questionable because the series generally consists of fair games with logical plays, leaving certain games that rely heavily on stupid cop outs and luck to really stick out. There is also the occasional issue of pacing, which mostly comes in during the late 40s episode mark because the series got extended and they had to pad things out quite a bit to keep the pacing consistent and smoothly continue the story. This is a much smaller issue than the other issue I brought up though, and is a really small blemish that can only be faulted to a changing production schedule.

Regarding the technical aspects of the series it is largely an above average production, especially considering its length. I am especially fond of its soundtrack (with the exception of the godawful second OP theme) and it has very solid sound direction as well, something I’ve come to expect from most sports anime in general. The directing is a decent job of adapting solid source material, but its been 56 episodes now, and I find that they REALLY need to mix things up with regards to its visual language. It uses the exact same cues and visual characterizations so many times, it’s just sorely lacking in variation and comes off quite heavy-handed sometimes. They always use the same blue/red to characterize Seido and their opponents, the more intense moments are always either shot in extreme close-ups or in medium-long shots with a completely white background to /emphasize intensity/. Using these cues occasionally is okay, but for them to be present in every single episode is almost lazy, really.

I may sound quite negative in my post, but make no mistake. I am still a pretty big fan of the series. The quality is very varied, pacing can get a little inconsistent, some characters just get too much screen time, and the directing is solid if a little lazy, but aside from that I find everything else about this series very refreshing. It has this hot-blooded, youthful exuberance to it that I really love (there is a lot of pep talk and shouting, btw), the team dynamics are inspiring and filled with so much sincerity. The good characters are really, really good (bringing Eijun to the mound always vastly improves the series to a point where its frankly a completely different show) and the games are mostly very exhilarating to watch and well-paced.

Up till episode 56 at least, Ace of Diamond is a solid recommendation from me. It’s definitely not for everyone (this series is as sports shounen as it can get!) but if you enjoy sports anime in general you definitely should give this series a spin. It’s frankly been quite overlooked and that’s a real shame.

Alternate Recommendations

Hajime No Ippo – it’s about boxing, but I find that it has a similar old-school vibe that Ace of Diamond has

Ookiku Furikabutte – same sport, totally different approach