Ace of Diamond is The Best Sports Anime Ever

With a stray pitch that completely missed the batter, Eijun Sawamura loses his final middle school baseball game. Frustrated by this defeat, Eijun and his teammates vow to reach the national tournament once they are in high school. But everything changes when a scout unexpectedly invites him to Tokyo’s prestigious Seidou High School after seeing the potential in his unusual pitching style. Encouraged by his teammates, Eijun accepts the offer, ready to improve his skills and play at a much more competitive level of baseball.

However, now surrounded by a large number of skilled players, Eijun struggles to find his place on the team. He declares that he will one day become the team’s ace, but that’s only if fellow first year Satoru Furuya doesn’t take the title first, with his breakneck fastballs that earn him a coveted spot on the starting roster. With the addition of these talented new players to an already powerful lineup, the Seidou baseball team aims to become the best in Japan, facing off against a number of formidable foes that stand in their way.

from MAL

Directed by	Mitsuyuki Masuhara
Written by	Takeshi Konuta
Music by	Frying-Pan
Studio	Madhouse, Production I.G
Episodes	126 + 5 OVA

If you don’t agree, come fight me!

/shots fired at everyone

Just kidding xP

This is one of hardest posts I can tackle. I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again, I find it the hardest to write about something I ABSOLUTELY adore, love and cherish. It’s so close to my heart I can’t even articulate, I can’t even, tbh.

I’m just going to elaborate why I love it, and why it’s my fave sports anime ever.

First would be that this is an underdog story, and I love underdogs. There’s just something that makes me really root for them to achieve it, I get SO invested, I want them to be able to do it so BAD. This is why I feel so elated or cry when things go bad, or they’re able to pull back up to fight it out again, I’m just like YEAH DO IT BB, I BELIEVE IN YOU, I SUPPORT YOU NOW AND FOREVER MORE /SOBS GROSSLY AT EVERYONE THAT PASSES BY

/coughs

Okay, so maybe I get too emotional…But fuck that, cause stories and characters ARE supposed to make us feel, if they don’t then they have FAILED.

^This is a good lead-in to my next point. It makes me super emotional, I go through happiness, frustration (as my Rant post about it can demonstrate here), crying and hopelessness, and devastation, but I thrive on this. It means I AM invested, and nothing like a good sports anime to make you so invested from the get go. If they cry, I cry; if they smile, I smile; if they laugh, I laugh. I am their puppet, take me away! 🙏

It is no joke that I cry starting from Episode 1, Eijun + friends all crying together?, with drama and angst to spice it up? RIP me and my feels, I bawl always. Especially when the friends confess some feelings, I’m just DONE. Don’t watch anime with me, I just cry and screech okay lmao 😹😹

Along these paragraphs I forgot what point I was at, but I don’t care, I’ll just continue listing them.

Eijun gets nothing handed to him, nothing is easy, if he doesn’t half-kill himself he gets zero chances, and it makes me both scream at everyone about the injustice, but also respect and admire the fuck out of my boy. He is everything I wished I could be: determined, motivated, passionate, fiery, optimist, never gives up, sunshine personified, and unparalleled. From the first moment he gets on Seido he does not even enter the MAIN team, he has to duke it out to even get accepted, and then on the second string. He busts his ass to get all achievements, and I love it. This does also mean I get super frustrated because nothing is ever easy, I just want to see him succeed so bad 😭😭😭😭

It’s realistic, from the characters strengths and weaknesses, to their ability on the sports itself, aside some magical canon’s ( /looks at Furuya) that happened once, this is strictly 100% true and realistic, which I give it lots of props. This doesn’t mean that the show doesn’t have any spark, or doesn’t hook you. Man, the animation, the shots, the way the camera moves, the FUCKING AMAZING SOUNDTRACK, they all cause a super tense, anxious and AMAZING scene after scene. I’m always sweating when watching my boy pitch, and the rest of the team batting and stealing houses. There are no guaranteed wins here, who you root for to win does not mean it’ll happen. Just be prepared with tons of kleenex, because you’ll need them just like I did /pats poor soggy pillow

There is no throwaway secondary or tertiary characters here, everyone has their own distinctive looks, personalities and their limelight. Don’t be surprised to see characters you think are background fodder to turn out important to Seido, and to other teams, because it’ll be.

The art is so so good, I love that 90% of the characters are distinguishable by features alone, tho some do look like they’re in their 30’s and not in their 16’s 😹😹

^This leads me to Miyuki and Chris-senpai, the two hotties and bishounen from the series, bless their presence and existence in this show. Plus their voices are hot, mama mia /fans self

You can ship all the characters, it’s okay and fine, enjoy it. They’re all so tight and close, but at the same time have that divide that a good fuck would just clear up /coughs and clears throat

I unabashedly ship Miyuki with Eijun, RIP me, and their interactions make me live, as you might have noticed from me gushing about an amazing fanfic, The Trajectory of Laughter. Prepare kleenex if you decide to read it, RIP U and me /sobs silently.

The soundtrack hypes me up, just listening to it as I’m writing is both making me want to rewatch the show, hyping me and also reminding me of so many great scenes, sobs grossly. Just go listen to it, it’s even better in context of the anime. If you don’t get hyped and ready to fight all that comes in your way as you listen to it, then your blood is dead smh.

The sheer size of it, there’s so much to watch, yet it never feels enough, plus all the episodes are so short, or maybe they only feel like that because they’re so good /softly cries

The animation, direction, art are just super stellar. Every shot has impact, does its job when it has to be comedic or softer, yet when the scenes have to be about raw tension or vulnerability they’re fricking amazing. I’m super whore for good camera work, it’s everything in a show, it’ll determine how you feel and how much impact a scene will have, and Daiya has it in fucking spades, it could sell some and still be king of them. Definitely super A+++++ work from the studio and director, coupled with the composer and voice actors, it’s just unrivalled. Or maybe that’s just me as a huge fan xPP

Now does this show have flaws? Of course, it has. One of them is, there isn’t a third season out yet, or announced, so I’m frigging dying in my pants for it to be announced. That’s it. 😈😈

Nah, one flaw is… if you aren’t a sports anime fan then look elsewhere, this is 100% pure fiber sports anime, just like how I love and eat with a spoon for breakfast. The character growth, the story, everything, they all revolve around baseball, but let me tell you the character growth IS SUPER STRONG in this show, so if you LOVE characters, then still check this out, for realsies ❤

There’s not much else I can say cause I just don’t have enough skills, words or praise to throw at this. Maybe beware that there is a heavy dose of drama and angst, but just in the right quantities to really hit you in the gut, it never becomes melodramatic or turn into a soap opera, worry not!

And these are all the reasons why to me Daiya is the best sports anime ever, for me, and nothing has been able to rival it 😻😻

I challenge you all to watch this, give it 3 episodes, if you don’t get hooked, interested or curious, then I guess we can’t be friends anymore.

Kidding xD

Or am I? 😈😈😈😈🔪🔪🔪🔪💣💣💣

You can find where to watch this on Because Moe.

Have you seen this anime yet? Did you love it as much as me? Or did you not like it and want to fight me now? Come on, I’m curious so tell me all!