Ace of Diamond – Anime Review

Japanese Title: Diamond no Ace

Related: Ace of Diamond: Season 2

Similar: Major

Cross Game

Big Windup

Watched in: Japanese

Genre: Sports

Length: 75 episodes

Positives:

Looks better than most baseball anime
The baseball is quite good

Negatives:

I’m ACTING!
One note protagonist
Single. Play. Is. Amazing!
Much flashback, little pace

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Of the baseball anime quartet I’ll be reviewing over the next few days, Ace of Diamond was the first I watched (more than a year ago at this point, having waited to complete all four for comparison). I started here, as it seemed the most “shounen” of the baseball anime. I was right.

Eijun is your typical high-energy protagonist with arrogance as his defining characteristic. We join him at the end of middle school, where his pitch is the final fault in the last baseball game of the year. A scout sees something in him and recruits him to an elite high school’s baseball team, one filled with players of a higher calibre.

Let me be straight with you right away. I don’t like Ace of Diamond. Eijun is so bloody obnoxious. He’s an annoying arse who trash talks and hits others but can’t take it himself, claims not to watch baseball (how did he learn?), and would turn down a prestigious school to play with his weak teammates while still trumpeting his seriousness towards the championship. He personifies “keeping the cake and eating it too”. He’s a walking series of contradictions, and not the good kind that add character depth. There’s a lack of consequences for this guy. When he dishes it out and can’t take it, nothing happens. Obnoxious to everyone around him? Eh. No one cares. In fact, now that I think about it, the inter-character drama is weak. Everyone does their personality “trait” and…we move on. The most common interaction is people yelling at one another.

Don’t get me started on the yelling! Have you seen Drifters with its constant interjections of random humour? It’s like that but with yelling. I take it the audience is to guffaw every time – and humour is subjective, I know – but man does it grow tiring quickly.

Let’s not talk of the yelling in serious scenes. They communicate with overdramatic, try hard shouting, which would be fine in moderation. This is all the time. Everything is overdramatic, then repeated in the instant flashback, with overdone effort sounds of course. Early on, a guy hits a difficult shot once and everyone’s heads explode. One instance isn’t an indication of skill. A total amateur could get lucky. I don’t doubt he has skill, but would you mind proving it too us before you wet yourselves with delight? Greatness comes from consistency and reliability. One good hit should give management pause. “Huh, not bad.” Twice in row – “Okay, twice lucky.” The third time – “Now I’m interested.” If one hit blows everyone away, you can’t escalate from there.

I cannot emphasise enough just how much they dramatise. Remember the words of the mighty Syndrome. “When everything is super dramatic, nothing is.” (Or something to that effect.) Moments that should be impactful feel the same as normal events because they all have the same hype.

It’s a shame because the baseball itself isn’t half bad, drawing much inspiration from real plays and real games. Looks great too. Excessive dramatisation and flashbacks for the gigantic cast keep obscuring the good qualities, unfortunately. And they kill the pace. This reminds me of when Naruto Shippuden would stall in canon episodes by flashing back to a scene from five minutes ago. These 75 episodes are equal to three standard seasons yet have two seasons of content, made obvious when we get to Cross Game and Major later. Now, if it were dramatics of the JoJo variety accompanied by crazy characters to match, I would be singing a different tune (you know, that sounds like a great anime. Someone make it, please).

If you love baseball and live for the non-stop hyper shounen energy, you will have a great time with Ace of Diamond. It works as a “turn your brain off” sports anime.

Art – High

Considering baseball’s popularity in Japan, it’s surprising how many of its anime have low budgets. Ace of Diamond is the exception with its clean art and more than two colour tones for the full runtime. It’s only real visual flaw – more a fault of the manga – is the standard character designs that don’t match the hyperactive shounen energy. They’re too normal. With helmets on, half of the team looks the same. Not a big deal though.

Sound – Low

SHOUTING = ACTING best summarises major character performances. Everything is overdramatic, yet nothing is ever serious thanks to truly delightful random acts of yelling. Music is better.

Story – Low

An unconventional player joins an elite high school with a baseball program. The matches are okay, but the characters are below average.